Knoppix OR Slackware on USB thumb drive

I am trying to install various distribution of Linux (experimenting) on
to the USB thumb drive. None of them have been completely successful yet.

Knoppix was the closest to the perfect install. However, the install in
not persistant and Knoppix is not finding/connecting to my Wifi network.

The USB installs do not prompt for different user accounts. They seem
to take you to a default account fedora, knoppix etc. which do not have
the root privileges.

How can I install a persistant image of Knoppix to a USB thumb drive?

Thank you.

NJ

PS - Also, Please let me know if you have instructions to install a
persistant Slackware on USB. I have tried Pendrive Linux site but have
not found the persistant solution yet for Knoppix and none for Slackware.

On Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:30:47 -0400, Neil Jones <castellan2004-atnews@yahoo.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> I am trying to install various distribution of Linux (experimenting) on
> to the USB thumb drive. None of them have been completely successful yet.[/color]

Try [url]http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/02/08/make-your-own-portable-mandriva-flash/[/url]
[color=blue]
> The USB installs do not prompt for different user accounts. They seem
> to take you to a default account fedora, knoppix etc. which do not have
> the root privileges.[/color]

In Knoppix, you enter the command "su" (no password required), to get root
access.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--
Change nomail.afraid.org to ody.ca to reply by email.
(nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for
use in usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.)

On Sun, 7 Sep 2008, Neil Jones wrote:
[color=blue]
>[/color]
I am trying to install various distribution of Linux (experimenting) on[color=blue]
> to the USB thumb drive. None of them have been completely successful yet.
>
> Knoppix was the closest to the perfect install. However, the install in
> not persistant and Knoppix is not finding/connecting to my Wifi network.
>
> The USB installs do not prompt for different user accounts. They seem
> to take you to a default account fedora, knoppix etc. which do not have
> the root privileges.
>
> How can I install a persistant image of Knoppix to a USB thumb drive?
>[/color]
But isn't this because Knoppix is a live distribution, intending
to be run from the CDROM?

There'd be little point in having multiple accounts in that case,
since they'd disappear after each boot.

I gather you can install Knoppix, and surely you want to read
about that before installing it to a USB drive.

Also, do distributions actually prompt for new accounts? I can't
remember whether mine does or not. It's irrelevant because you can
always add a user at any time, with a program like adduser. I imagine
the fancy newfangled distributions may have some gui based program
that does it, too.
[color=blue]
> Thank you.
>
> NJ
>
> PS - Also, Please let me know if you have instructions to install a
> persistant Slackware on USB. I have tried Pendrive Linux site but have
> not found the persistant solution yet for Knoppix and none for Slackware.
>[/color]
Slackware has never been a live distribution. You have to install it,
and then it's "persistent". So long as you have a USB flash drive
that's big enough, or you can live with a selective install, then
you install to the flash drive, and set things up to boot from it.

Michael

On Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:30:47 -0400, Neil Jones wrote:
[color=blue]
>
> I am trying to install various distribution of Linux (experimenting) on
> to the USB thumb drive. None of them have been completely successful yet.
>
> Knoppix was the closest to the perfect install. However, the install in
> not persistant and Knoppix is not finding/connecting to my Wifi network.
>
> The USB installs do not prompt for different user accounts. They seem
> to take you to a default account fedora, knoppix etc. which do not have
> the root privileges.
>
> How can I install a persistant image of Knoppix to a USB thumb drive?
>
> Thank you.
>
> NJ
>
> PS - Also, Please let me know if you have instructions to install a
> persistant Slackware on USB. I have tried Pendrive Linux site but have
> not found the persistant solution yet for Knoppix and none for Slackware.
>[/color]
You can setup Slackware to boot from a USB disk. The specific hardware
which is deployed at the USB disk is not that relevent- it can be magnetic
or flash technology. The USB interface controller and speed is relevent
to how you will proceed to bootstrap and how much performance you can
expect. I get very good performance over USB 2.0, and acceptable
performance for USB 1.1 (for rescue environments).

This is the official documentation from the Slackware Linux Project:
..../slackware/slackware-12.1/usb-and-pxe-installers/README_USB.TXT

Choose any slackware mirror and check it out!

If you want to "do it for yourself," then that is certainly a valid
option. The prerequisite is that you need to understand a bit about what
you are doing first. Experience with the bootloader, kernel, kernel
modules and initrd, is a required prerequisite. If you are an "old hand"
at setting up Slackware, then I'm sure you can figure it out. I have
written about this before. Some of the fine points have changed slightly
with the release of 12.x, though.

In short, I use the grub loader. Setup for the loader is typical, and uses
and initrd.

The initrd must include the usb modules: uhci_hcd, ohci_hcd, ehci_hcd,
usb_storage. Also, any filesystems used (ext2, xfs, etc). man mkinitrd
(slackware specific).

The root filesystem can be setup in advance on the target device. That's
actually the easy part, the trick is getting the loader other parts in
place.

--
Douglas Mayne

In comp.os.linux.admin Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> wrote:[color=blue]
> On Sun, 7 Sep 2008, Neil Jones wrote:
>[color=green]
>>[/color]
> I am trying to install various distribution of Linux (experimenting) on[color=green]
>> to the USB thumb drive. None of them have been completely successful yet.
>>
>> Knoppix was the closest to the perfect install. However, the install in
>> not persistant and Knoppix is not finding/connecting to my Wifi network.
>>
>> The USB installs do not prompt for different user accounts. They seem
>> to take you to a default account fedora, knoppix etc. which do not have
>> the root privileges.
>>
>> How can I install a persistant image of Knoppix to a USB thumb drive?
>>[/color]
> But isn't this because Knoppix is a live distribution, intending
> to be run from the CDROM?
>
> There'd be little point in having multiple accounts in that case,
> since they'd disappear after each boot.
>
> I gather you can install Knoppix, and surely you want to read
> about that before installing it to a USB drive.
>
> Also, do distributions actually prompt for new accounts? I can't
> remember whether mine does or not. It's irrelevant because you can
> always add a user at any time, with a program like adduser. I imagine
> the fancy newfangled distributions may have some gui based program
> that does it, too.
>[color=green]
>> Thank you.
>>
>> NJ
>>
>> PS - Also, Please let me know if you have instructions to install a
>> persistant Slackware on USB. I have tried Pendrive Linux site but have
>> not found the persistant solution yet for Knoppix and none for Slackware.
>>[/color]
> Slackware has never been a live distribution. You have to install it,
> and then it's "persistent". So long as you have a USB flash drive
> that's big enough, or you can live with a selective install, then
> you install to the flash drive, and set things up to boot from it.
>
> Michael
>[/color]
RIP-Linux, which is designed to be used for recovery, is built on
Slackware. There are instructions and IIRC a shell script to make it
bootable from a USB device. It's also easily customizable, if you're
familiar with Slackware.

Jerry