[SMS]

jmdlcar · Junior Member Joined: 27 Aug 2007 Posts: 8

I have an usb 2gb memory stick and my computer can boot from it. Can I do a full install to it?

baboo · Senior Member Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 676

Hi,

If you click on faq tab you will find how to install to usb stick.

regards

jmdlcar · Junior Member Joined: 27 Aug 2007 Posts: 8

Thanks

baboo · Senior Member Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 676

I wasn't clear about which faq. Not the faq tab on forum but the one on the sms main home page.

sorry about that

roarinpenguin · Junior Member Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 9

Hi all.

I tried running boot/bootinst.sh from USB disk and it works fine, but it does a LiveCD install of SMS on USB Flash.
My goal was more to make a permanent install on my 2Gb Kingston so that password change to root and configuration changes survive reboots...
Is it doable? Should I use "sms-text-installer" for this purpose, once system is booted from my USB key?

Thanks in advance.
Marco Wink

gerasimos_h · Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 12:40 pm Post subject:

As far as I know usb flash disks have a certain thousands of read/write, so using it for operating system it may be not such a good idea, as it will shorten your flash disk's life a lot.
There are a few ways to make a bootable usb, but I'll show linux-live-scripts way...
Download savedat.zip
You will find inside 4 zip files
128MB.zip
256MB.zip
512MB.zip
1024MB.zip
Each one of them has compressed image of empty loop XFS filesystem (save.dat).
Unzipping 1024MB will result a "save.dat" of 1GB size.
Place it on folder sms on your flash disk, and edit the file /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg and add at sms label after "splash=verbose quiet"
changes=/sms/save.dat
That way all your changes will be stored in save.dat automatically.
The good part is if you place the save.dat in a partition and boot SMS.Live.CD with the parameter changes=/dev/yourdisk/save.dat you will have an exact copy of your flash disk OS and if done testing it you can install it on your disk Wink

You can edit the contents of save.dat by booting without the changes=/sms/save.dat parameter and mount it with
mount -o loop save.dat /mnt/dat
and umount it with
umount /mnt/dat
If /mnt/dat create it with
mkdir /mnt/dat
or use another mount point.

If your 512 or 1024 dat file is full you can boot with e.g. chexpand=[yoursizeinMB] and increase you dat file as much as you want.

I hope that was helpfull
gerasimos_h

roarinpenguin · Junior Member Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 9

suppose I want to install VMWare or whatever other sotfware I could compile... this will not work with this method you described, since it would require that executables placed in /bin/ or in /etc/ would survive to reboot, thus having write access to whole filesystem not only to mounted directory...

Maybe one of the other methods you know to install over USB would solve this?

What if, after booting with Live USB, I run sms-text-installer?

Thanks in advance...

Marco

gerasimos_h · Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 9:18 pm Post subject:

You will have no problem, with the save.dat
You can install anything and anywhere...
I haven't try sms-text-installer on a usb might work, might don't ...
I'll check on that, but try if you like save.dat you will not have any problem.

gerasimos_h

roarinpenguin · Junior Member Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 9

This is great news.

I'll make a test and will keep this forum posted about my findings...

Not only you have made an EXCELLENT distro, but you're sooooo reactive on forum providing very good level of information.

Kalispera! (hopt it's correct)

Marco Wink

roarinpenguin · Junior Member Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 9

I've downloaded 1024.zip, unzippped it and copied save.dat (about 1Gb on my USB Pendrive).
Then I modified my syslinux.cfg to read as follows:
LABEL sms with save.dat
MENU LABEL Run Slackware Mini Server [SMS]
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND vga=791 max_loop=255 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw splash=verbose quiet changes=/sms/save.dat

When I boot from USB it mounts /dev/sdb1/sms/save.dat, althogh I do not see it mounted if I type "mount" command once system is booted.

I tried creating a folder under /root/ folder and changing root password, but such changes do not survive to system reboot as they should with save.dat.

Did I do anything wrong?

TIA,
Marco

gerasimos_h · Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 7:21 am Post subject:

Well I don't have a usb to test it,but I use it a lot the save.dat with SMS.Live.CD and it works quite well...
Try to move save.dat usb root ( /dev/sdb1) outside sms folder..
You can't mount it if system has mount it for changes, that's normal...
Try to boot manually with this parameter, on boot prompt press [tab] and see if changes=/dev/sdb1/save.dat exist, if not type it your self...
I'll check later today for native usb install method...

gerasimos_h

roarinpenguin · Junior Member Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 9

I've tried also moving it from /sms to / but nothing changes.

Boot parameter is there... strange...

J3rry · Junior Member Joined: 31 Oct 2008 Posts: 4

hey, im also intrested of installing sms to my usb that it saves all settings and changes

but so far ive tried the save.dat method, it boots but doesnt save changes

i tried the instal method with the installer but then after the install it cannot write the mbr to the usb

ill post the errors later