Trouble making USB Install

Hi!

I wanted to give Knoppix a go as a portable OS. But so far no luck! A pity, really, as it looks so cool from the live USB I made.

What I was trying to do was use a persistent install of Knoppix on a USB flash drive. I was using a live install USB that I made with UNebootin. Everything seemed okay at first. However, when I made the live install on a 16GB USB drive and then tried to make the available space on the flash drive available for data change (persistence) and encrypted (can't be too careful, eh?), not only did it take a long time, it didn't boot up properly after that. And when I tried to install Knoppix on a flash drive from one of the menus, when I tried booting from that flash drive, I got the sound-only version.

I'm sure I must be missing something that's almost obvious.

Anyway, since I can't seem to figure it out on my own :( I thought I better see if anyone here can help me with this. And I'm sure someone here can! :cool:

Anyway, what I would like to do is this: I would like to have Knoppix running as the OS from a 16GB flash drive. With /home/ encrypted in case I lose the flash drive and any personal information on it.

I would also like to know if it's possible to have Knoppix as a portable OS on a USD-HDD. I am thinking of a 320GB USB-HDD, with a partition (80GB for OS, and 240 for data storage). Can anyone tell me how I might go about any of this.

Thanks in advance, eh?

If your 16 GB USB drive was formatted with the FAT32 file system then your persistent store may not be larger than 4 GB because there exists a limitation of the size of a single file. If you really need a larger persistent store then you have to use a file system like ext2 or Reiserfs. Don't use an NTFS formatted drive because there are people reporting that they got file system errors after having written on their drives from a Linux OS.

I think that the main difficulty in using a file system other than FAT or FAT32 is that you have to install the bootloader yourself instead of using the Knoppix Flash drive installer from the menu. You will need a bootloader like Grub(4dos) or extlinux.

I think that if you get the ADRIANE version after install then you can edit the file syslinux.cfg as described in post #10 of the thread http://www.knoppix.net/forum/threads...-Default-Login

I hope that helps although you didn't tell us what Knoppix version you are using.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by klaus2008

If your 16 GB USB drive was formatted with the FAT32 file system then your persistent store may not be larger than 4 GB because there exists a limitation of the size of a single file. If you really need a larger persistent store then you have to use a file system like ext2 or Reiserfs. Don't use an NTFS formatted drive because there are people reporting that they got file system errors after having written on their drives from a Linux OS.

I think that the main difficulty in using a file system other than FAT or FAT32 is that you have to install the bootloader yourself instead of using the Knoppix Flash drive installer from the menu. You will need a bootloader like Grub(4dos) or extlinux.

I think that if you get the ADRIANE version after install then you can edit the file syslinux.cfg as described in post #10 of the thread http://www.knoppix.net/forum/threads...-Default-Login

I hope that helps although you didn't tell us what Knoppix version you are using.

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I was not aware the target USB drive should be in something other than FAT. I just assumed that standard practice was to have target drives in FAT format and a Linux OS installer would format it for you. Oh well, I don't always pay attention! :???:

I will make note of that post about default logins if I have an more problems getting only ADRIANE.

I think I used the ISO file KNOPPIX_V6.4.4CD-2011-01-30-EN.iso . I can't remember for sure, as I have the ISO stored on a computer other than the one I'm using now.

And do you know if it's possible to install Knoppix on the partition of a USB-HDD so a computer can boot off that device? Apart from making sure it's not a FAT nor NTFS formatted drive?

Thanks for the information!

Okay!

I think I got my act together! I made a live install CD rather than just a UNebootin derived live USB. Then I installed it on a 16 GB USB formatted in ext4. Now it seems to be working as I'd like it too.

As far as booting up into ADRIANE or regular Knoppix; I missed the bit about typing in "Knoppix" at the start sort of thing. Oh well, I never claimed to be the brightest spark!

But it's progress! I more or less seem to have it working! I hope...

I not sure if I've understood your problem correctly but my simple understanding goes like this.

The install to USB will, by default, reformat your USB (stick, drive whatever) as a single FAT partition. This allows the syslinux boot loader to boot Knoppix but restricts you to only a 4 Gb overlay file.

There are options that don't involve installing a boot loader, such as grub.

1. I started with a 16 Gb USB stick which I divided into two 8Gb partitions - the first one vfat and the second one ext3. The install to USB noticed this as asked if I wanted it to just copy the files and not reformat the USB stick. I said yes. This arrangement gave me effectively a FAT partition with a little over 4 Gb free for a large persistent store and a second 8 Gb partition I can used as a mounted file system. I dare say I could encrypt both if I wanted.

2. Under older versions of Knoppix, you could put your persistent store (overlay file) on a different device/partition from the one you booted Knoppix from. You can't with Knoppix 6 :mad: but you can cheat. For example, you could put a copy of the (large) KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX file on the linux partition and use the fromhd= cheat code to 'boot' Knoppix from there. Knoppix will look for your overlay file on the Llinux partition so you've got round the 4 Gb limit.

By doing a USB install of the CD (and not the DVD) you could get away with a FAT partition of only 1 Gb leaving you lots of room for the linux partition and the overlay. With a little more work you can get the FAT partition down to a tiny 8 Mb (yes Mb) but you may not want to go that far.

I thought there might be problems with FAT partitions larger the 4Gb.
Is this NOT a problem afer all?

There is definitely a problem with files larger than 4GB under FAT32 (earlier/lower versions of FAT should be avoided at all costs if not absolutely necessary.) I believe the partition size can go higher, at least to 8GB, but check if you plan to do that. It is possible (and sometimes desirable) to have second partition on a flash drive, especially if it's a larger one - consider making it an extended partition, if another is needed, and using ext2/3/4 on a partition within that...

Cheers!
Krishna :mrgreen:
Note: Non-M$oft filesystems can be problematical with Windows, though, so proceed with caution.