Super Computers!

DIY

Linux dominates super computing. It occupies 470 of the top 500 spots. The remaining: 25 with Unix, mainly AIX, and Windows with only 5

Still no year of Desktop Linux?

Windows 7 took 4 days to have more market share than all distributions of Linux combined

Get your own Linux distro on a ash drive and use it on PCs as you travel around. We show you how could stay up and running with your data no matter where you are

Rahil Banthia
readersletters@thinkdigit.com

e k n ow youve always wanted a full Linux operating system on a USB thumb drive. But the problem was that most of the tools only made a non-persistent installation that worked like a Live CD and all the changes were wiped out with a reboot. Well, now we will show you how to get a portable Linux operating system and run it from any computer that can boot from a USB ash device, allowing you to bring your entire operating system, desktop, applications, les, email, personal settings, and more with you. Its like carrying your own personal operating system in your pocket; fully customised, with your own favourite apps and all your settings intact. No magic trick. We will use this Windows tool called Universal USB Creator that makes all this possible. Its a stand alone application that automates the process of downloading, formatting, and installing a Linux OS to Select Ubuntu 10.4 Desktop amd64 a USB drive, as well as imple- from the dropdown list

menting a variable amount of persistence. This means when you install new software, change keyboard shortcuts, store les in your home directory, or make other changes to your portable Linux, they stick from boot-up to boot-up which isn't the case with most portable Linux distributions. Another useful feature that you wish for: your USB drive can still be read by Windows when you're done formatting, so your pen drive is not wasted and you can still use it the old-fashioned way: for storing data! Download the Universal USB Installer from http://tinyurl. com/digit0810linux and 'Run' the executable. Click 'Browse' and open the downloaded ISO le. If you've already downloaded a Linux installation ISO and run Universal USB Installer from

Linux on a Flash Drive

the same directory the ISO is in, the app will nd it and use it for the installation, rather than download another copy. Make sure you select persistence from the dropdown box, else it will be just another Live CD type installation. UNetbootin is yet another Live USB creation tool that can be used to create a Live Linux ash drive from an ISO. Most of the Linux distributions are supported out of the Choose the USB drive and click Create box with custom install options available for Linux disdev/sdb1. The rst partition tributions. One bad thing about we will make on our pen drive will be formated as a FAT leUnetbootin as compared to system of size 16 and this will Universal USB installer is that contain the CD image: the pen drive created using this software is not persistent and $ sudo mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n liveusb /dev/sdb1 all your changes are lost upon reboot. It is just like a Live The second partition should CD, but works nonetheless. be of type ext2 with a blocksize Download UNetBootin from of 4096 bytes, and labelled as http://tinyurl.com/digit0810ucasper-rw. Make sure that it netbootin and double-click on is labeled as casper-rw oththe executable le to start it. erwise this tutorial might not Select the DiskImage radio work: box and browse using the on $ sudo mkfs.ext2 -b the right side to select your 4096 -L casper-rw /dev/ sdb2 ISO le on the hard disk. Next, set the target USB drive in the At this stage, your usb pendrop down box labelled 3 in drive is ready to host the liveCD our image. Next, click on Ok image. You just need to copy the

and youre done. First, you need to check under which device node it is associated. Type the following command: $ sudo fdisk -l On our test system, the device appeared as /dev/ sdba, we will therefore use / dev/sdba as a reference for this tutorial; you just need to replace it accordingly for your system. Now comes the part where we will make a separate partition for this install. You need to ensure that the already mounted partition is unmounted with $sudo umount /dev/sdb1 and then launch fdisk, a command line software to edit partitions under Linux sudo fdisk /

92 Digit | August 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

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DIY

ubuntu.ico as well as les casper/vmlinuz, casper/initrd. g z and i n s t a l l / mt86plus. $ cd /tmp/ubuntulivecd $ sudo cp -rf casper disctree dists install pics pool preseed .disk Using UNetbootin to create a Live USB Linux isolinux/* md5sum. txt README.diskdeles to the USB drive. And you fines ubuntu.ico casper/ need to do this in a specic way vmlinuz casper/initrd.gz detailed below: install/mt86plus /tmp/ First mount the Ubuntu liveusb/ ISO: Also go to the rst partition If you have the CD, you can of your USB disk and rename do so by $ sudo mount / isolinux.cfg to syslinux. cfg: $ cd /tmp/liveusb $ sudo mv isolinux. cfg syslinux.cfg change /tmp/liveusb according to your settings Next, you need to edit syslinux.cfg so that it looks like: DEFAULT persistent Installing Ubuntu on a pendrive from GFXBOOT bootlogo an existing Ubuntu installationLinux GFXBOOT-BACKGROUND 0xB6875A APPEND file=preseed/ media/cdrom. If you have an ubuntu.seed boot=casper image le, you can do so by $ mkdir /tmp/ubuntuinitrd=initrd.gz ramlivecd. disk_size=1048576 root=/ $ sudo mount -o loop dev/ram rw quiet splash -/path/to/feisty-desktopLABEL persistent i386.iso /tmp/ubuntulivecd (Replace the ISO name menu label ^Start with your Linux variant). Ubuntu in persistent Next, mount the partitions mode kernel vmlinuz of your pen drive: $ mkdir /tmp/liveusb append $ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 file=preseed/ubuntu. /tmp/liveusb seed boot=casper perCopy at the root of your USB sistent initrd=initrd. drives rst partition: gz ramdisk_size=1048576 The directories: casper, root=/dev/ram rw quiet disctree, dists, install, splash -LABEL live pics, pool, preseed, .disk,the content of directory menu label ^Start or isolinux and les md5sum. install Ubuntu kernel vmlinuz txt, README.diskdefines,

append file=preseed/ubuntu. seed boot=casper initrd=initrd.gz ramdisk_size=1048576 root=/dev/ram rw quiet splash -LABEL xforcevesa menu label Click on Other to choose the ISO le Start Ubuntu in safe ^graphics mode kernel vmlinuz append file=preseed/ubuntu. seed boot=casper xforcevesa Select the le and click on Open initrd=initrd.gz ramdisk_size=1048576 root=/dev/ram rw quiet splash -LABEL check menu label ^Check CD for defects kernel vmlinuz append boot=casper integrity-check Select the USB stick in the bottom box and click on Make initrd=initrd.gz ramStartup Disk disk_size=1048576 root=/dev/ram rw quiet splash -LABEL memtest menu label ^Memory test kernel mt86plus append LABEL hd menu label ^Boot from first hard disk localboot 0x80 append DISPLAY isolinux.txt TIMEOUT 300 PROMPT 1 F1 f1.txt F2 f2.txt F3 f3.txt F4 f4.txt F5 f5.txt F6 f6.txt F7 f7.txt F8 f8.txt F9 f9.txt F0 f10.txt We are almost done. Now, the last thing that needs to be

No commands, no unmounting drives, creating partitions, installing additional software

done is: making the usb bootable. For this, you need to install syslinux and mtools by: $ sudo apt-get install syslinux mtools Then unmount /dev/sdb1 and make it bootable: $ cd $ sudo umount /tmp/ liveusb $ sudo syslinux -f / dev/sdb1. And, you are done!
Digit | August 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 93