Linux on a stick

[Andrew Cowie]

On Tue, 2007-10-16 at 18:22 -0400, James Knott wrote:
> http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-on-usb-bar

This summer I found myself using a USB key to bootstrap a new laptop
intended to run Gentoo. It worked surprisingly well. The end result was
using something called extlinux as a bootloader for ext2 filesystems,
and a Gentoo LiveCD image (which doubles as their install media).
http://research.operationaldynamics.com/blogs/andrew/software/gentoo-linux/usb-bootstrap.html

The part I didn't blog about was that subsequent to this, on a whim, I
tried doing the installation (from a full LiveCD) by just copying the
whole image verbatim, wondering if it would work. In other words,

1. cp -a /mnt/cdrom /mnt/target
2. edit /mnt/target/etc/fstab
3. reboot

this took 6 1/2 minutes of I/O, and than TA-DA, system installed. And
that's it! Admittedly I knew what I was doing, but so much for Gentoo
being hard to install.

[I have subsequently gathered chatting with some of the Canonical guys
that this technique is what they do for an initial Ubuntu installation]

AfC
Sydney

-- 
Andrew Frederick Cowie

We are an operations engineering consultancy focusing on strategy,
organizational architecture, systems review, and change management
procedures: enabling successful use of open source in mission
critical enterprises, worldwide.

http://www.operationaldynamics.com/

Sydney   New York   Toronto   London
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