Hi! This page might interest you ..

http://rz-obrian.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/knoppix-usb/

"roN" wrote in message
news:452enpF4iki4U1@individual.net...
> Hi,
>
> I'm able to boot my PC from a USB device and I bought recently a 2GB
> USB-stick and now I thought it would be interesting to put a linux on
> there. Am I i.e. able to put a knoppix-iso-image on this stick and then to
> boot from it, how would I do it?
> Thank You!
> --
> chEErs roN
>
> I'm root, I'm allowed to do this!
> keep on rockin'

On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 19:14:01 -0800, roN wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I'm able to boot my PC from a USB device and I bought recently a 2GB
>USB-stick and now I thought it would be interesting to put a linux on
>there. Am I i.e. able to put a knoppix-iso-image on this stick and then to
>boot from it, how would I do it?
>Thank You!

(warning - this is a little long, and from memory)

I just did this yesterday. It was actually quite easy. The hardest
part was shrinking Knoppix to fit, but your USB fob is big enough that
you won't have to do that.

Basically I just booted the live CD and copied it to the stick.
Everything from /cdrom went directly to the FAT filesystem on the
stick. Then created /boot/grub on the stick and copied the grub
files to it. (I don't have my notes just now so I don't remember
where the grub files are located). I also did:
#touch /the stick mount point/boot/grub/fob_flag to put a marker
on the stick's grub install. Then

#grub
#find /boot/grub/fob_flag
(hd1,0) in my case
#root (hd1,0)
#setup (hd1) DON'T get this wrong or you will hose some other drive!
#quit

I edited /the stick/boot/grub/menu.lst to add entries as listed here:
http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Knoppix_...ages_with_GRUB
and added appropriate startup flags based on what was in
/stick/boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg The above reference will also help
in general w/knoppix remastering issues. It is very complete.

And after that it boots to grub on several machines - but not all.
It seems that grub doesn't set some flag that many BIOSs require
to recognize a drive as bootable (particularly Intel MBs). If I
ran this tool in Windows BEFORE any knoppix install I could later
boot it in all my machines
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/fi...oad/20306.html
I haven't figured out how to do this in Linux yet.

This is obviously quick-and-dirty. I will do a better writeup and
post it on www.beezmo.com in the next few days.

It worked for me but YMMV.

HTH,
Bill
--
William D Waddington
william.waddington@beezmo.com
"Even bugs...are unexpected signposts on
the long road of creativity..." - Ken Burtch

roN wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm able to boot my PC from a USB device and I bought recently a 2GB
> USB-stick and now I thought it would be interesting to put a linux on
> there. Am I i.e. able to put a knoppix-iso-image on this stick and then to
> boot from it, how would I do it?
> Thank You!

step 1: create bootable partition on flash drive*
step 2: boot Knoppix
step 3: install Knoppix on flash drive (DO NOT ERASE BOOTABLE PARTITION!)
step 4: install bootloader onto bootable partition
step 5: restart system

jobbed.

*For a flash drive to be bootable you need to run MS-DOS FDISK.EXE from
a boot floppy (having disconnected all your hard disks); this will put
your USB flash drive FIRST in the drive letter sequence. Having booted
with the flashdrive inserted, run FDISK and create the primary
partition. This only need be 5MB. Set the partition type to ACTIVE, then
commit and reboot.
Format the c: drive using: FORMAT /S C: - this copies the system files
onto the drive.
Again with FDISK, type: FDISK /MBR - this writes the master boot record.
Your flash drive is now bootable.

Boot Knoppix...


HTH

Jim

On Thu, 16 Feb 2006 07:34:02 -0800, Bill Waddington
wrote:

>On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 19:14:01 -0800, roN wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I'm able to boot my PC from a USB device and I bought recently a 2GB
>>USB-stick and now I thought it would be interesting to put a linux on
>>there. Am I i.e. able to put a knoppix-iso-image on this stick and then to
>>boot from it, how would I do it?
>>Thank You!
>
>(warning - this is a little long, and from memory)
>
>I just did this yesterday. It was actually quite easy. The hardest
>part was shrinking Knoppix to fit, but your USB fob is big enough that
>you won't have to do that.
>
>Basically I just booted the live CD and copied it to the stick.
>Everything from /cdrom went directly to the FAT filesystem on the
>stick. Then created /boot/grub on the stick and copied the grub
>files to it. (I don't have my notes just now so I don't remember
>where the grub files are located). I also did:
>#touch /the stick mount point/boot/grub/fob_flag to put a marker
>on the stick's grub install. Then
>
>#grub
>#find /boot/grub/fob_flag
> (hd1,0) in my case
>#root (hd1,0)
>#setup (hd1) DON'T get this wrong or you will hose some other drive!
>#quit
>
>I edited /the stick/boot/grub/menu.lst to add entries as listed here:
>http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Knoppix_...ages_with_GRUB
>and added appropriate startup flags based on what was in
>/stick/boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg The above reference will also help
>in general w/knoppix remastering issues. It is very complete.
>
>And after that it boots to grub on several machines - but not all.
>It seems that grub doesn't set some flag that many BIOSs require
>to recognize a drive as bootable (particularly Intel MBs). If I
>ran this tool in Windows BEFORE any knoppix install I could later
>boot it in all my machines
>http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/fi...oad/20306.html
>I haven't figured out how to do this in Linux yet.
>
>This is obviously quick-and-dirty. I will do a better writeup and
>post it on www.beezmo.com in the next few days.
>
>It worked for me but YMMV.


Revisiting this, to make a USB fob bootable:

With a fresh out-of-the box SanDisk Cruzer Micro 1G, all that was
necessary was to mark its single partition active using fdisk and then
do a grub install. Then install Knoppix or whatever and point grub
at it. It was that simple w/a new fob.

I'm still digging into the varying bootability on different BIOSs.
The Intel Mobo I'm testing on is VERY picky about the exact FAT and
filesystem. If I use the HP utility (above) to format the stick (it
isn't necessary to install DOS boot files) I can install grub and boot
it on the Intel and my other systems. If I format with Linux mkdosfs
or with XP's format utility before installing grub, the stick becomes
unbootable on the Intel BIOS but still boots fine on my other test
machines. ????

I stuck a write-up at http://www.beezmo.com/FloobyDust.htm -> knoppix
on flash. It works for me but I don't think this is the whole story.

Corrections and additions appreciated.

Bill
--
William D Waddington
william.waddington@beezmo.com
"Even bugs...are unexpected signposts on
the long road of creativity..." - Ken Burtch