Re: Portable Debian?
On Thu, 05 Apr 2007 09:33:24 -0400, Michael Pobega wrote:
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> On Thu, Apr 05, 2007 at 10:30:34AM +0200, Joe Hart wrote:
>> Mirco Piccin wrote:
>> > Hi!
>> > Well, for xmas i do something like that as gift for my customers.
>> > I prepare a usb with many tiny linux distro bootable via usb and with
>> > grub (to choice the preferred distro).
>> >
>> > There are a lot of minimal linux distro, and many are debian based
>> > (DamnSmallLinux, Knoppix, for example).
>> > I think that for your aim you must use a live distro.
>> >
>> > It's quite easy to use a live distro in a usb device.
>> > You can :
>> > - format usb devices as fat:
>> > # mkfs.vfat -n <volumename> -F 16 <usbdevice_partition (/dev/sda1, for
>> > example)>
>> >
>> > - mount the live cd iso and usb device:
>> > # mount -o loop <iso> <mount point>
>> > # mount -t vfat <usbdevice_partition> <usbdevice_partition_mountpoint>
>> >
>> > - copy all content to usb device.
>> > # cp -a <iso mount point>/* <usbdevice_partition_mountpoint>
>> >
>> > -if it's a livecd, probably use syslinux/isolinux to boot, so find
>> > syslinux.bin and syslinux.cfg (in root directory) OR isolinux.bin and
>> > isolinux.cfg (in /boot directory);
>> > if you find isolinux.* in /boot directory, copy those files in root
>> > directory, renaming those in syslinux.*:
>> > # cd <usbdevice_partition_mountpoint>
>> > # cp boot/isolinux.bin syslinux.bin
>> > # cp boot/isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg
>> >
>> > (you can modifiy syslinux.cfg to change default boot delay, background,
>> > font or to add another distro)
>> >
>> > - umount usb device:
>> > # cd
>> > # umount <usbdevice_partition>
>> >
>> > - and make it bootable with syslinux:
>> > # syslinux <usbdevice_partition, /dev/sda1 for example>
>> >
>> > ...
>>
>
> I may be wrong, but I remember there was a LiveCD that if you put .deb
> files in the /deb folder it would automatically install them at boot
> time (And there was a certain way to handle dependencies, too).
>
> Perhaps I'm thinking of DSL or Knoppix?
YES, all the steps you described are for DSL. and yes, DSL allows you to
automatically install .dsl (not .deb) files the way you described.
DSL has already come with X windows, email/browser/word processing/slide
presentations, etc. What's amazing is that it is ONLY 50M. Feel free to put
more packages onto CD/USB if you have space, and there is a huge list of
tools to choose from.
It's an amazing distro that saved my day...
--
Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply)
http://xpt.sf.net/techdocs/
http://xpt.sf.net/tools/
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