Re: Portable Debian?

[Glenn English]

> On 2016-05-11, emetib  wrote:
>> I know this is a little off topic, yet I wrote this a while back
>> because of script kiddies messing with ssh on my server at the time.

Use ssh key logins and a packet filter to allow only certain IP(s)/user(s) to 
access your server(s)?

-- 
Glenn English

Re: Portable Debian?

[Oliver Briscbois]

On 2016-05-11, emetib  wrote:
>I know this is a little off topic, yet I wrote this a while back
>because of script kiddies messing with ssh on my server at the time.

Thanks for that.

Oliver

Re: Portable Debian?

[Lisi Reisz]

On Wednesday 11 May 2016 23:30:52 emetib wrote:
> I know this is a little off topic, yet I wrote this a while back because of
> script kiddies messing with ssh on my server at the time.
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1voXlQpos4uI0qhndcIunBew1mmQbwTPl07xG5JF
>8bNM/edit?usp=drive_web It checks your auth.log for people trying to get in
> that don't belong and sends an email to the isp hosting their ip address.
> Every little bit helps to keep the net safe.
> Take care.

What a lovely script!  Thank you.

Lisi

Re: Portable Debian?

[emetib]

I know this is a little off topic, yet I wrote this a while back because of 
script kiddies messing with ssh on my server at the time. 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1voXlQpos4uI0qhndcIunBew1mmQbwTPl07xG5JF8bNM/edit?usp=drive_web
It checks your auth.log for people trying to get in that don't belong and sends 
an email to the isp hosting their ip address. 
Every little bit helps to keep the net safe.
Take care. 

Re: Portable Debian?

[Steve Matzura]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 23:00:53 +0100, Lisi wrote:

>Did you discover the Adriane version?  Now available as an alternative boot on 
>the mainstream disk.  It is specifically for the blind and partially sighted, 
>and has things like Daisy Player there, as well as screen readers and speech.  
>Adriane is Karl Knopper's wife, and is in some way visually disabled.  He 
>originally did the Adriane version for her, and it was originally completely 
>separate.

No, I did not. Better take another look! Thanks for the tip there.

Re: Portable Debian?

[David Christensen]

On 04/27/2016 02:10 PM, Joe wrote:

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 15:43:08 -0400 Steve Matzura 
wrote:

Do you still think I should go the mech drive route and not put it
on a USB key?



I've been happy with the drive, but as I said, I'm looking for a SSD
 replacement soon. I've found typical USB sticks to be slow,


I use SanDisk Ultra Fit 16 GB USB 3.0 flash drives for system drives (a
poor man's SSD).  I really like the compact form factor -- very little
drive sticking out to break off.  Read performance is good, especially 
random reads -- boot, desktop startup, and application startup times are 
noticeably faster than 7200 RPM mechanical drives.  But, writes can 
cause Xfce to stutter (sometimes for several seconds).  I don't know if 
it's Xfce, X Windows, Linux, the flash drive, or what, but for $10 it 
works good enough for low-end servers.




but something I haven't tried yet is one of the faster microSD cards
 (class 10) in a USB reader. A Raspberry Pi is noticeably brisker
with a class 10 card than with a typical class 4, but of course
that's direct, not through USB.


My assumption has been that the insides of microSD cards and USB flash
drives are much the same.  I have an SD to USB adapter and my laptop has
an SD card port -- it would be interesting to run some benchmarks the
next time I buy an SD card.



Also, even a 160GB hard drive (which mine is) is way ahead of even
today's USB sticks in capacity, so it can store a fair amount of
backup material as well.


The SanDisk Ultra Fit is available in 16, 32, 64, and 128 GB.


For my file server and my backup server, I put the Debian install on
SanDisk Ultra Fit 16 GB USB 3.0 flash drives and I put the data,
backups, etc., on 3 TB desktop drives in mobile docks.  Moving the
flash drive and HDD to another machine is easy.


David

Re: Portable Debian?

[Lisi Reisz]

On Wednesday 27 April 2016 20:43:08 Steve Matzura wrote:
> Either I'm smarter than I think (LOL), or you're psychic. I looked at
> Knoppix earlier this morning. I didn't know about the throwaway aspect
> of it, though,

Did you discover the Adriane version?  Now available as an alternative boot on 
the mainstream disk.  It is specifically for the blind and partially sighted, 
and has things like Daisy Player there, as well as screen readers and speech.  
Adriane is Karl Knopper's wife, and is in some way visually disabled.  He 
originally did the Adriane version for her, and it was originally completely 
separate.

Lisi

Re: Portable Debian?

[Joe]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 15:43:08 -0400
Steve Matzura  wrote:

> Joe:
> 
> On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:05:26 +0100, you wrote:
> 
> >The most versatile system that I know of is Debian-based Knoppix, but
> >the development effort goes into hardware detection and driving, with
> >the result that it is not maintainable. It is installable to a hard
> >drive, but you throw it away and install the next version when that
> >becomes available, there is no carefully-designed upgrade path as
> >with straight Debian.  
> 
> Either I'm smarter than I think (LOL), or you're psychic. I looked at
> Knoppix earlier this morning. I didn't know about the throwaway aspect
> of it, though, so that is now out the window and I'm back to straight
> Debian, from which I probably should not have strayed in the first
> place.

I did actually try it a few years ago, but (at that time) Knoppix
was using much of unstable but not the kernel, and the Knoppix
repositories are not updated much, so it proved impossible to keep it
up to date. To be fair, somewhere in the Knoppix FAQs it was stated
that a hard-drive installation was possible but not recommended.

The latest CD is always useful to have around, though. If Debian has
trouble with hardware, you can usually figure out what's needed with
Knoppix, and usually install the solution into straight Debian.
Sometimes it's just a detection issue, Debian already has the driver
but doesn't know that it's needed.

> 
> >So I don't think it's possible to make a long-term boot-anywhere
> >installation, but a 32-bit all-drivers Debian goes a long way towards
> >the goal.  
> 
> Right. That's what I'll do. I'm using it primarily for backup and
> restore, so it's going to be really slimmed down. As long as it talks
> (with Speakup) and I can put IFL on it, I'm happy. I've tried it
> before with other distros such as Arch Linux but wasn't happy with the
> results. Do you still think I should go the mech drive route and not
> put it on a USB key?
> 

I've been happy with the drive, but as I said, I'm looking for a SSD
replacement soon. I've found typical USB sticks to be slow, but
something I haven't tried yet is one of the faster microSD cards
(class 10) in a USB reader. A Raspberry Pi is noticeably brisker
with a class 10 card than with a typical class 4, but of course that's
direct, not through USB.

Also, even a 160GB hard drive (which mine is) is way ahead of even
today's USB sticks in capacity, so it can store a fair amount of backup
material as well. Actually, if Samsung was still making the drive I'd
buy another one, but it's a long-obsolete S1. The USB is on the drive
PCB, and the drive is 1.8", so it's really small, much smaller than
their current M3. Most portable drives are at least four inches long
and some need two USB ports for the power, and I don't think anyone
makes 1.8" drives now.

-- 
Joe

Re: Portable Debian?

[Steve Matzura]

Joe:

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:05:26 +0100, you wrote:

>The most versatile system that I know of is Debian-based Knoppix, but
>the development effort goes into hardware detection and driving, with
>the result that it is not maintainable. It is installable to a hard
>drive, but you throw it away and install the next version when that
>becomes available, there is no carefully-designed upgrade path as with
>straight Debian.

Either I'm smarter than I think (LOL), or you're psychic. I looked at
Knoppix earlier this morning. I didn't know about the throwaway aspect
of it, though, so that is now out the window and I'm back to straight
Debian, from which I probably should not have strayed in the first
place.

>So I don't think it's possible to make a long-term boot-anywhere
>installation, but a 32-bit all-drivers Debian goes a long way towards
>the goal.

Right. That's what I'll do. I'm using it primarily for backup and
restore, so it's going to be really slimmed down. As long as it talks
(with Speakup) and I can put IFL on it, I'm happy. I've tried it
before with other distros such as Arch Linux but wasn't happy with the
results. Do you still think I should go the mech drive route and not
put it on a USB key?

Re: Portable Debian?

[Joe]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 10:44:31 -0400
Steve Matzura  wrote:

> On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 20:22:48 +0100, Joe wrote:
> 
> >I've found that a minimal installation, then dpkg --get-selections
> >and --set-selections and a bit of judicious /etc copying, to be a
> >fairly painless way to get a clean near-copy of an existing
> >installation. I migrated a server, I think lenny or squeeze, from
> >32bit to 64bit hardware that way, and it had years of configurations
> >built up by then, having started life as sarge. I did actually try a
> >straight copy and then an in-place 32bit to 64bit upgrade, but the
> >complexity quickly outran my gumption, and I cheated.  
> 
> Sounds like a plan. I'll look into the external disk thing first. One
> final question: Is it even possible to build an all-hardware system?
> Different machines have different audio cips, disk controllers, etc.,
> so what's the best way to ensure one of these portable builds will run
> on as many varieties of hardware as possible? 

I've found one PC my system won't boot on, but it wasn't worth the
effort of finding out why. I'm guessing that the problem was very
fundamental, that the BIOS was unwilling to boot from a USB-based hard
drive. There was absolutely no attempt to access the drive, even when
the BIOS boot settings were such that it should have tried.

> Or is that not a valid
> consideration? Maybe what I should be doing is to build the system on
> the specific piece of hardware I want to run it on? That way I know it
> will run correctly.
> 

At some point in the installation, you are asked whether you want
drivers for just the detected hardware, or all current drivers. Also,
there are still 32-bit computers around (my netbook is one) so a 32-bit
build will be a little more versatile at the cost of a small amount of
speed on 64-bit hardware.

The most versatile system that I know of is Debian-based Knoppix, but
the development effort goes into hardware detection and driving, with
the result that it is not maintainable. It is installable to a hard
drive, but you throw it away and install the next version when that
becomes available, there is no carefully-designed upgrade path as with
straight Debian.

So I don't think it's possible to make a long-term boot-anywhere
installation, but a 32-bit all-drivers Debian goes a long way towards
the goal.

-- 
Joe

Re: Portable Debian?

[Steve Matzura]

On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 19:04:40 -0700, David Christensen
 wrote:

>Alternatively, make your own Debian Live images (hybrid ISO -- can put 
>on optical discs or USB drives):
>
> https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-live/

Good solution. It solves the drivers problem for sure.

Re: Portable Debian?

[Steve Matzura]

On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 20:22:48 +0100, Joe wrote:

>I've found that a minimal installation, then dpkg --get-selections and
>--set-selections and a bit of judicious /etc copying, to be a fairly
>painless way to get a clean near-copy of an existing installation. I
>migrated a server, I think lenny or squeeze, from 32bit to 64bit
>hardware that way, and it had years of configurations built up by then,
>having started life as sarge. I did actually try a straight copy and
>then an in-place 32bit to 64bit upgrade, but the complexity quickly
>outran my gumption, and I cheated.

Sounds like a plan. I'll look into the external disk thing first. One
final question: Is it even possible to build an all-hardware system?
Different machines have different audio cips, disk controllers, etc.,
so what's the best way to ensure one of these portable builds will run
on as many varieties of hardware as possible? Or is that not a valid
consideration? Maybe what I should be doing is to build the system on
the specific piece of hardware I want to run it on? That way I know it
will run correctly.

Re: Portable Debian?

[David Christensen]

On 04/25/2016 03:21 AM, Steve Matzura wrote:

My system that I built late last year/early this year is running
great, except for the occasional overrun of inbound ssh from such
addresses as 59.*.*.*, 213.*.*.* and others, but that's only because
I have not put any blockers in place, either on my home gateway
device or my Debian system, but that one's on me. I have no GUI
desktops installed, I run completely from CLI and use Speakup for all
of it, including and especially Image for Linux for backup and
restore, which I use on all my Windows machines..

I'd like to take the installed Debian system as it is, write it to a
CD or DVD, and use that as a talking backup/restore disc. Is this
possible? Or should I create a new installation and write it to an
ISO image, or just what should I do to accomplish the goal of
creating a basic talking Debian shell environment that includes a
licensed IFL?

As always, thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.


If your motherboard firmware and Debian version support booting and
running from USB, you could clone your existing system drive to a USB
drive -- flash drive, HDD, SSD, SSHD.


Alternatively, make your own Debian Live images (hybrid ISO -- can put 
on optical discs or USB drives):


https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-live/


On 04/25/2016 11:07 AM, Steve Matzura wrote:

So, do I start with the running installation and run something to
create the new media, or boot from the distro itself and create the
new system on the target USB device?


I power-down the computer, connect a USB 3.0 flash drive, boot the
Debian 7.10 Xfce CD, partition the flash drive manually, and install
onto the flash drive as usual.  Upon reboot, I configure the CMOS setup
to boot from the USB flash drive.


David

Re: Portable Debian?

[Joe]

On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 14:07:09 -0400
Steve Matzura  wrote:

> Joe:
> 
> On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 15:17:08 +0100, you wrote:
> 
> >I run ssh on a non-standard port, and my router redirects to 22 of
> >my server, alternatively ssh itself will listen wherever you tell it
> >to.  
> 
> That's probably what I should be doing. As you say, it keeps the logs
> clean and the riff-raff at bay.
> 
> >I have a sid installation on a portable USB [mechanical] hard drive 
> >which was installed as 32bit with all drivers, and therefore boots
> >on just about any PC. I just plugged the drive into a 64bit desktop
> >and made a new installation to the drive.  
> 
> That's the ticket, yes. I'll get me one of those USB-powered drives
> and build an installation on it.
> 
Portable USB SSDs seem to be slow in appearing, but I'm getting the
occasional disc error, so I'm heading that way at some point. At the
moment, Verbatim 128GB drives seem to be on the edge of affordability.

I do use the drive a fair bit, as I couldn't face trying to dual-boot
my Win8 laptop, though it was originally made as an exercise in running
my netbook a bit faster than its unbelievably slow first-generation SSD
could manage. 

> >You might get away with copying 
> >your existing installation if you have the right drivers installed
> >to suit your target PCs.  
> 
> That's a chance I'd prefer not to take. It's easy enough to make
> another piece of boot media as you suggest.
> 
> So, do I start with the running installation and run something to
> create the new media, or boot from the distro itself and create the
> new system on the target USB device? I'd rather the former, as now
> that I have everything running correct, I probably answered some basic
> configuration questions wrong and corrected them later, so I'd prefer
> not to have to go through that mess again unless it's really
> necessary.
> 

I've found that a minimal installation, then dpkg --get-selections and
--set-selections and a bit of judicious /etc copying, to be a fairly
painless way to get a clean near-copy of an existing installation. I
migrated a server, I think lenny or squeeze, from 32bit to 64bit
hardware that way, and it had years of configurations built up by then,
having started life as sarge. I did actually try a straight copy and
then an in-place 32bit to 64bit upgrade, but the complexity quickly
outran my gumption, and I cheated.

-- 
Joe

Re: Portable Debian?

[Steve Matzura]

Joe:

On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 15:17:08 +0100, you wrote:

>I run ssh on a non-standard port, and my router redirects to 22 of my 
>server, alternatively ssh itself will listen wherever you tell it to.

That's probably what I should be doing. As you say, it keeps the logs
clean and the riff-raff at bay.

>I have a sid installation on a portable USB [mechanical] hard drive 
>which was installed as 32bit with all drivers, and therefore boots on 
>just about any PC. I just plugged the drive into a 64bit desktop and 
>made a new installation to the drive.

That's the ticket, yes. I'll get me one of those USB-powered drives
and build an installation on it.

>You might get away with copying 
>your existing installation if you have the right drivers installed to 
>suit your target PCs.

That's a chance I'd prefer not to take. It's easy enough to make
another piece of boot media as you suggest.

So, do I start with the running installation and run something to
create the new media, or boot from the distro itself and create the
new system on the target USB device? I'd rather the former, as now
that I have everything running correct, I probably answered some basic
configuration questions wrong and corrected them later, so I'd prefer
not to have to go through that mess again unless it's really
necessary.

Re: Portable Debian?

[Joe]

On 25/04/2016 11:21, Steve Matzura wrote:

My system that I built late last year/early this year is running
great, except for the occasional overrun of inbound ssh from such
addresses as 59.*.*.*, 213.*.*.* and others, but that's only because I
have not put any blockers in place, either on my home gateway device
or my Debian system, but that one's on me.


I run ssh on a non-standard port, and my router redirects to 22 of my 
server, alternatively ssh itself will listen wherever you tell it to.


I'm well aware, before anyone jumps in, that this provides *no* *extra* 
*security*, but it certainly keeps the logs clean.



> I have no GUI desktops

installed, I run completely from CLI and use Speakup for all of it,
including and especially Image for Linux for backup and restore, which
I use on all my Windows machines..

I'd like to take the installed Debian system as it is, write it to a
CD or DVD, and use that as a talking backup/restore disc. Is this
possible? Or should I create a new installation and write it to an ISO
image, or just what should I do to accomplish the goal of creating a
basic talking Debian shell environment that includes a licensed IFL?



I have a sid installation on a portable USB [mechanical] hard drive 
which was installed as 32bit with all drivers, and therefore boots on 
just about any PC. I just plugged the drive into a 64bit desktop and 
made a new installation to the drive. You might get away with copying 
your existing installation if you have the right drivers installed to 
suit your target PCs.


I have done it with USB sticks, but they tend to be slow and unreliable, 
and not bootable everywhere. I've no doubt it could be done with a CD 
image, but I'd be afraid that such an installation, being non-writable, 
might have limitations of usage that a drive-based one would not. I'm 
more comfortable having something that behaves exactly like a desktop 
installation would, with persistent log files, email cache, etc., and 
where I can make small configuration changes without rebuilding and 
burning a new disc. And of course, more PCs are appearing without 
optical drives, particularly laptops.


--
Joe

Portable Debian?

[Steve Matzura]

My system that I built late last year/early this year is running
great, except for the occasional overrun of inbound ssh from such
addresses as 59.*.*.*, 213.*.*.* and others, but that's only because I
have not put any blockers in place, either on my home gateway device
or my Debian system, but that one's on me. I have no GUI desktops
installed, I run completely from CLI and use Speakup for all of it,
including and especially Image for Linux for backup and restore, which
I use on all my Windows machines..

I'd like to take the installed Debian system as it is, write it to a
CD or DVD, and use that as a talking backup/restore disc. Is this
possible? Or should I create a new installation and write it to an ISO
image, or just what should I do to accomplish the goal of creating a
basic talking Debian shell environment that includes a licensed IFL?

As always, thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

Re: portable Debian

[Rob Owens]

On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 03:59:13PM -0500, Stefan Monnier wrote:
  I've found that deleting 75-persistent-net-generator.rules takes care of
  the network devices.
 
 Yes, but you should expect this file to re-appear at the next package
 upgrade, which is why I opted for an rm in /etc/rc.local.
 
Really?  I haven't seen it happen so far (about 6 months or so).  I've
gone through plenty of package upgrades, but I'm not sure if udev has
been upgraded.

-Rob


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Re: portable Debian

[Stefan Monnier]

 I've found that deleting 75-persistent-net-generator.rules takes care of
 the network devices.

Yes, but you should expect this file to re-appear at the next package
upgrade, which is why I opted for an rm in /etc/rc.local.


Stefan


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Re: portable Debian

[Sven Joachim]

On 2010-02-17 21:59 +0100, Stefan Monnier wrote:

 I've found that deleting 75-persistent-net-generator.rules takes care of
 the network devices.

 Yes, but you should expect this file to re-appear at the next package
 upgrade, which is why I opted for an rm in /etc/rc.local.

Another option is to create an empty 75-persistent-net-generator.rules
file in /etc/udev/rules.d, since that will take precedence over the
shipped file in /lib/udev/rules.d.  See udev(7).

Sven


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Re: portable Debian

[Rob Owens]

On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 11:47:44PM -0500, Chris Jones wrote:
 On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 11:36:23AM EST, Stefan Monnier wrote:
  - Some udev rules try to give unique and *stable* names to devices by
simply remembering the names they used in the past.  On a system that
you move around on many different machines, this can be a pain in the
rear, since your only ethernet card may easily end up named eth7
(because eth0-eth6 were already used for the cards on other machines).
So you may want to rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-* in your
/etc/rc.local.
 
 Good point. I've had this 'project' on the back burner for a while and I
 think it's time to take another look and finalize portability aspects.
 
I've found that deleting 75-persistent-net-generator.rules takes care of
the network devices.  70-persistent-net.rules still exists, but it never
gets any devices added to it.  Though you'll need to make sure you
delete any device lines that appeared in that file before
75-persistent-net-generator.rules was deleted.

-Rob


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Re: portable Debian

[Stefan Monnier]

 A good place to test your system is the local consumer
 electronics store.
 Closed a couple of years ago, CompUSA that is.
 I still have a Best Buy not too far from me, but I'm not sure they would
 be agreeable beyond a quick boot, which would be okay if everything
 works, but not ideal if you need to debug the thing.

It's OK if they don't like it, so long as you can find the time to
do it (e.g. go there at a time where they're sufficiently busy).


Stefan



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Re: portable Debian

[Mark Allums]

On 2/15/2010 10:36 AM, Stefan Monnier wrote:


Some live distributions have USB environments (I call them) which allow
you to create a bootable image complete with a good-sized /home/ space for
data on a USB thumb drive.  An example is Knoppix
(http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/), which has a utility just for that
purpose.  Knoppix is basically Debian; it is binary compatible.  It uses the
LXDE environment, which is KDE 3, but with GTK instead of Qt.


The problem with most (all?) of them is that they're based on the idea
of a read-only partition plus a separate partition that will hold
the changes.

In many cases, this is perfectly fine, but I hate re-installing so
I want to be able to keep updating my Debian Live via aptitude
upgrade for the foreseeable future (say 10 years).



Knoppix does something like this, yes, but I have updated it and 
installed to it, and the changes were persistent.  I don't recall any 
problem during the era that I used it (though there were other issues; 
nothing is free.)  At any rate, a 16 GB USB flash drive is less than 
US$40.00 and that is enough space even for a swap partition, should one 
be required.  Whether you use a live distribution or roll your own, it 
should be possible to do what OP wants to do without too much fuss.


Mark Allums


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Re: portable Debian

[Andrei Popescu]

On Mon,15.Feb.10, 23:47:44, Chris Jones wrote:
 
 What I did on my machine with a BIOS that will never recognize USB
 devices, was boot off of the hard drive grub and then point grub2 to the
 USB device from the shell that's accessible by hitting 'c' on the grub
 boot menu.
 
 With current versions of grub-pc, you have to load the two USB modules
 manually, which on my hardware takes for ever. But when you see the USB
 light come on, you know you're in business.

I use this little script to make a bootable CD-RW. The menu.lst is setup 
with root=LABEL=

,[ boot-on-cdrw.sh ]
| #!/bin/sh
|
| set -e
|
| TMP_ROOT=/tmp/iso
| TMP_IMAGE=/tmp/boot-on-cdrw.iso
|
| # copy the curent /boot to a temporary location
| mkdir $TMP_ROOT
| cp -ra /boot $TMP_ROOT
|
| # add stage2 if needed
| if ! [ -f $TMP_ROOT/boot/grub/stage2_eltorito ] ; then
|   cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage2_eltorito $TMP_ROOT/boot/grub/
| fi
|
| # create the bootable image
| # all parameters to genisoimage are copy-pasted from the grub manual
| genisoimage -R -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -no-emul-boot \
|  -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o $TMP_IMAGE $TMP_ROOT
|
| # burn the image, assume cdrw media
| wodim -v -sao -eject blank=fast $TMP_IMAGE
|
| # clean-up
| rm -rf $TMP_ROOT
| rm -f $TMP_IMAGE
`

Regards,
Andrei
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Re: portable Debian

[Stefan Monnier]

 Well, no, what i really want is a portable Debian, so i can, for
 example, build a web app and show it everywhere without need a web
 server and just have my own configuration and run it every where
 Some live distributions have USB environments (I call them) which allow
 you to create a bootable image complete with a good-sized /home/ space for
 data on a USB thumb drive.  An example is Knoppix
 (http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/), which has a utility just for that
 purpose.  Knoppix is basically Debian; it is binary compatible.  It uses the
 LXDE environment, which is KDE 3, but with GTK instead of Qt.

The problem with most (all?) of them is that they're based on the idea
of a read-only partition plus a separate partition that will hold
the changes.

In many cases, this is perfectly fine, but I hate re-installing so
I want to be able to keep updating my Debian Live via aptitude
upgrade for the foreseeable future (say 10 years).

Luckily it's not that hard to make such a partable Debian.  The only
possible problems I can think of:
- disk size (when I first tried mine, I only had a 128MB USB disk at
  hand, and the one I use right now is 512MB but with some space kept for
  a FAT partition used when I use that disk as a floppy).  In my case
  I solved the problem by using a compressing filesystem, which made
  things more complex because the only one I could find was jffs2 which
  doesn't work on plain block devices.
  If you have 1GB or more of space, this is a non-issue.
- getting your BIOS find your kernel:
  - some machines can't boot from USB at all.
  - others can, but with some restrictions (typically Apple hardware,
so I end up having to setup my flash key with grub-efi-32,
grub-efi-64, and grub-pc, which is poorly supported under Debian).
  - of course yet other machines aren't even using the IA32 instruction
set, so you may need several separate installs (PowerPC/Mips/Arm/...).
- getting your kernel to find the root filesystem.  Your external hard
  disk partition will typically not have a fixed device name like
  /dev/sdb2, so you'll want to refer to it with its UUID, label, or via
  LVM naming.
- Some udev rules try to give unique and *stable* names to devices by
  simply remembering the names they used in the past.  On a system that
  you move around on many different machines, this can be a pain in the
  rear, since your only ethernet card may easily end up named eth7
  (because eth0-eth6 were already used for the cards on other machines).
  So you may want to rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-* in your
  /etc/rc.local.


Stefan


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Re: portable Debian

[Stefan Monnier]

 Not that I can confirm my USB stick 'portable debian' would work on a
 wide range of systems. For a number of reasons I was not able to pursue
 this much further than what is described in my notes, one of them being
 that I did not have access to a target machine (or machines) and
 discover possible/probable problems.

A good place to test your system is the local consumer
electronics store.


Stefan



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Re: portable Debian

[Chris Jones]

On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 11:45:22AM EST, Stefan Monnier wrote:
  Not that I can confirm my USB stick 'portable debian' would work on a
  wide range of systems. For a number of reasons I was not able to pursue
  this much further than what is described in my notes, one of them being
  that I did not have access to a target machine (or machines) and
  discover possible/probable problems.
 
 A good place to test your system is the local consumer
 electronics store.

Closed a couple of years ago, CompUSA that is.

I still have a Best Buy not too far from me, but I'm not sure they would
be agreeable beyond a quick boot, which would be okay if everything
works, but not ideal if you need to debug the thing. The local library
might be a more comfortable place, but if I told them what I plan to do,
they might get nervous and call the cops or something.

CJ


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Re: portable Debian

[Chris Jones]

On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 11:36:23AM EST, Stefan Monnier wrote:

[..]

 - getting your BIOS find your kernel:
   - some machines can't boot from USB at all.
   - others can, but with some restrictions (typically Apple hardware,
 so I end up having to setup my flash key with grub-efi-32,
 grub-efi-64, and grub-pc, which is poorly supported under Debian).
   - of course yet other machines aren't even using the IA32 instruction
 set, so you may need several separate installs (PowerPC/Mips/Arm/...).

What I did on my machine with a BIOS that will never recognize USB
devices, was boot off of the hard drive grub and then point grub2 to the
USB device from the shell that's accessible by hitting 'c' on the grub
boot menu.

With current versions of grub-pc, you have to load the two USB modules
manually, which on my hardware takes for ever. But when you see the USB
light come on, you know you're in business.

 - getting your kernel to find the root filesystem.  Your external hard
   disk partition will typically not have a fixed device name like
   /dev/sdb2, so you'll want to refer to it with its UUID, label, or via
   LVM naming.

Yes. 

 - Some udev rules try to give unique and *stable* names to devices by
   simply remembering the names they used in the past.  On a system that
   you move around on many different machines, this can be a pain in the
   rear, since your only ethernet card may easily end up named eth7
   (because eth0-eth6 were already used for the cards on other machines).
   So you may want to rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-* in your
   /etc/rc.local.

Good point. I've had this 'project' on the back burner for a while and I
think it's time to take another look and finalize portability aspects.

Thanks,

CJ


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Re: portable Debian

[Germana Oliveira]

Well, no, what i really want is a portable Debian, so i can, for
example, build a web app and show it everywhere without need a web
server and just have my own configuration and run it every where



El mié, 10-02-2010 a las 20:34 -0500, Rob Owens escribió:
 I think you want Debian Live.  http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/
 
 I use it to boot multiple machines from a USB flash drive, but it should
 work for a USB hard drive as well.
 
 -Rob
 
 On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 04:20:46PM -0400, Germana Oliveira wrote:
  Hi!!
  
  I want to know if someone have done this before:
  
  I have a external disk, and i install Debian in it from my PC, but when i
  try to run it from my laptop i just can' t... but i just want to know if
  somebody have done this and how, should i install it with some especific
  parameters so it runs from any other machine?? should i change something
  every time it runs in a diferent machine???
  
  I have google it but i can't find something that tell me how to do it.
  
  Thanks!!!
  
  -- 
  Germana Oliveira
  
  germanaoliveirab arroba gmail punto com
  http://626f67.wordpress.com
  http://slcarabobo.wordpress.com
 
 


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Re: portable Debian

[Rob Owens]

On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 09:14:59AM -0430, Germana Oliveira wrote:
 Well, no, what i really want is a portable Debian, so i can, for
 example, build a web app and show it everywhere without need a web
 server and just have my own configuration and run it every where
 
Debian Live offers a persistence option, which will allow you to
install whatever software you want and it will persist between reboots.
You can run it on any machine you want.

-Rob
 
 
 El mié, 10-02-2010 a las 20:34 -0500, Rob Owens escribió:
  I think you want Debian Live.  http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/
  
  I use it to boot multiple machines from a USB flash drive, but it should
  work for a USB hard drive as well.
  
  -Rob
  
  On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 04:20:46PM -0400, Germana Oliveira wrote:
   Hi!!
   
   I want to know if someone have done this before:
   
   I have a external disk, and i install Debian in it from my PC, but when i
   try to run it from my laptop i just can' t... but i just want to know if
   somebody have done this and how, should i install it with some especific
   parameters so it runs from any other machine?? should i change something
   every time it runs in a diferent machine???
   
   I have google it but i can't find something that tell me how to do it.
   
   Thanks!!!
   
   -- 
   Germana Oliveira
   
   germanaoliveirab arroba gmail punto com
   http://626f67.wordpress.com
   http://slcarabobo.wordpress.com
  
  
 
 
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Re: portable Debian

[Germana Oliveira]

Rob: Sorry not to trust you!!

I already read a little bit of Debian Live, so should i follow :
http://live.debian.net/manual/html/ch02s03.html

so i can install Debian Live in a HDD, or maybe i go for the USB ...
How many space do i need to have a standard Debian + Apache + mysql and
a web app framework?

THANKS

El sáb, 13-02-2010 a las 09:45 -0500, Rob Owens escribió:
 On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 09:14:59AM -0430, Germana Oliveira wrote:
  Well, no, what i really want is a portable Debian, so i can, for
  example, build a web app and show it everywhere without need a web
  server and just have my own configuration and run it every where
  
 Debian Live offers a persistence option, which will allow you to
 install whatever software you want and it will persist between reboots.
 You can run it on any machine you want.
 
 -Rob
  
  
  El mié, 10-02-2010 a las 20:34 -0500, Rob Owens escribió:
   I think you want Debian Live.  http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/
   
   I use it to boot multiple machines from a USB flash drive, but it should
   work for a USB hard drive as well.
   
   -Rob
   
   On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 04:20:46PM -0400, Germana Oliveira wrote:
Hi!!

I want to know if someone have done this before:

I have a external disk, and i install Debian in it from my PC, but when 
i
try to run it from my laptop i just can' t... but i just want to know if
somebody have done this and how, should i install it with some especific
parameters so it runs from any other machine?? should i change something
every time it runs in a diferent machine???

I have google it but i can't find something that tell me how to do 
it.

Thanks!!!

-- 
Germana Oliveira

germanaoliveirab arroba gmail punto com
http://626f67.wordpress.com
http://slcarabobo.wordpress.com
   
   
  
  
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Re: portable Debian

[Chris Jones]

On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 08:44:59AM EST, Germana Oliveira wrote:

 Well, no, what i really want is a portable Debian, so i can, for
 example, build a web app and show it everywhere without need a web
 server and just have my own configuration and run it every where

Is this what you are talking about?

http://osdir.com/ml/debian-user-debian/2009-12/msg4.html

I did something similar and started documenting it in the attached
draft.

CJ
Title: The quick and Dirty LiveUSB

The quick and Dirty LiveUSBTable of Contents1. Hardware2. Cloning the system3. Configuring grub-pc4. Configuring the clone5. On my laptop6. Other machines6.1. Booting the clone6.2. Running the clone7. Synchronisation8. Conclusion9. AppendixChris Jones cjns1...@gmail.comAbstractAfter cloning my debian lenny system to another partition on my hard drive in order to safely
upgrade to debian testing, I realized that I could use the same technique to create a bootable copy
of my current system that I could carry around on a USB stick, and hopefully boot any PC I might run
into, as long as it had one free USB port, thus saving myself the headaches and backaches of taking
my laptop with me, and yet have both all my data and my highly specific desktop everywhere I go.Well, here’s how it went.1. HardwareThe entire procedure was tested on a Dell Inspiron 7500 laptop, whose BIOS is not capable of
booting off of a USB device. The USB stick is an 8GB Sandisk Cruzer Micro, acquired from my local
Radio Shack at the reasonable cost of about USD 20.00. Since the laptop only supports USB 1.1,
running linux off of the USB stick turned out to be very slow, with a very noticeable lag when
starting applications.2. Cloning the systemThere are other tools, but since there were parts of my debian lenny file system I did not wish to
copy to the USB stick, I found that rsync was fitted well this particular task. Since I had never
used rsync, it was also well worth the extra effort to gain some familiarity with rsync, since once
the clone is finalized, it will be imperative to keep the two systems in sunc', something that rsync
does efficiently, and that other tools do not appear to do out of the box.One useful aspect of rsync is that it supports dry runs via the -n | --dry-run flags, which lets you
verify ahead of time that your carefully carved rsync command is doing what you expect.It seems to be indispensable to run rsync as the superuser, since my personal user does not have
read access to all the files that need to be copied to the target system.Some directories were not copied to the target system, either because their content is specific to
the source system, such as /proc, /tmp, /sys, or because their usefulness on the target system was
questionable, such as my collection of debsrc’s for instance, and would both use up space on the USB
stick, and greatly increase the time it takes to clone the system.NoteIt appears that the main difficulty with rsync is to understand exactly how to specify the
directories that need to be excluded from the cloning.Here are the commands that I issued:# mount -t ext2 /dev/sda1 /media/memstick

# rsync -av / /media/memstick
# rsync -av /usr /media/memstick
# rsync -av /home/myuser/ /media/memstick/home
# rsync -av /var /3. Configuring grub-pcthe idea was to verify that at least on the same hardware as the cloned system everything workedthe bug, and how I was advised to work around it for now (debug=uhci,ohci,usbms + insmod uhci  usbms and the
orange light came on)adding 2 stanzas to /etc/grub.d/40_custom + update-grub4. Configuring the cloneobviously /etc/fstab must be adjusted to mount the file system on the USB sticknetwork aspects - the laptop has a pcmcia nic - what happens with a regular PCI nic, how about WiFi.. what of
funnyISP issues: I have cable, what about DSL.. ISDN.. good old POT modems..udev - avoid creating new devices for ethx or cdrom’s etc. on each new machineXorg - I love native resolutions .. I hate black screensother?5. On my laptopeverything worked first time around, albeit slowlywhat I tested: ….6. Other machines6.1. Booting the cloneneed to make the USB bootableneed to burn a grub rescue CD for those systems whose BIOS cannot boot off of a USB device6.2. Running the cloneBe prepared! it may not be convenient to travel back to the main system to fix stuff.. and it may likewise not
be easy to fix them locally. Bring along a copy of a decent rescue CD just in caseneed as generic a config as possible
need to separate private data from programsis it a good idea to have one partition for the the system and another for /home?security  privacy issues - at least be aware of the fact that USB sticks are small and it’s easy to lose
them,  or forget them on some public PC somewheres..Slowness of the system7. SynchronisationAll done with mirrors .. rsync I mean.This needs to be optimized and easy as peach .. since it is imperative to do it immediately upon booting into
the main system and before leaving

Re: portable Debian

[Germana Oliveira]

I have problems with that:

Well, I guess that since my pcmcia nic won't be there on the target
system(s), I should remove the corresponding udev rule for instance. 


So, what i understand is that i have to remove this rule in my 'external
Debian' ?

and something i dont understand is the UUID stuff... (im not a pro
configuring Debian - as you can see)

I have to do all this changes in my 'external Debian'? - i guess is a
stupid question but i feel i have to do it

THANKSS

El sáb, 13-02-2010 a las 10:41 -0500, Chris Jones escribió:
 On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 08:44:59AM EST, Germana Oliveira wrote:
 
  Well, no, what i really want is a portable Debian, so i can, for
  example, build a web app and show it everywhere without need a web
  server and just have my own configuration and run it every where
 
 Is this what you are talking about?
 
 http://osdir.com/ml/debian-user-debian/2009-12/msg4.html
 
 I did something similar and started documenting it in the attached
 draft.
 
 CJ


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Re: portable Debian

[Chris Jones]

On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 10:27:39AM EST, Germana Oliveira wrote:
 I have problems with that:

The attachment only contains personal notes and is not to be taken as a
formal HowTo or anything of that type. It was meant to answer your
question: 'is it possible' and hopefully provide general directions.

Not that I can confirm my USB stick 'portable debian' would work on a
wide range of systems. For a number of reasons I was not able to pursue
this much further than what is described in my notes, one of them being
that I did not have access to a target machine (or machines) and
discover possible/probable problems.

 Well, I guess that since my pcmcia nic won't be there on the target
 system(s), I should remove the corresponding udev rule for instance. 

 So, what i understand is that i have to remove this rule in my 'external
 Debian' ?

No. This was only meant as an example of configuration aspects specific
to my regular system whose cloning might be useless or even harmful on
the 'portable' version.

As explained above, I have not been able to confirm that.

 and something i dont understand is the UUID stuff... (im not a pro
 configuring Debian - as you can see)

I don't recall anything about UUID's in my notes.

 I have to do all this changes in my 'external Debian'? - i guess is a
 stupid question but i feel i have to do it

A far more robust solution would probably be to use debian-live and
figure out how you can make it copy over everything that's specific to
your 'regular' system so that when you boot the debian-live system you
are presented with the spitting image of your regular system. 

I understand this should be possible but is rather involved and requires
some scripting.

Where I had a problem with the debian-live approach, is that unless you
want to recreate your debian-live environment each time you leave home
in a rush, and have decided that you will not make any changes to the
clone that you will want to copy back to your 'regular system', you need
to find some way to synchronize the two incarnations of your system. 

I didn't see much in debian-live that would help achieve that with
minimal effort, presumably because that's not its intended purpose.

But if you don't need a clone of your entire working environment but
rather only plan to demo a particular application, it sounds like a
generic debian-live system that includes the system components that you
need to support your application (libraries, daemons, etc.) on one
partition together with a /custom partition with everything you need to
run your application that you could mount manually after booting the
debian-live system would do the trick?

Come to think of it, you probably do not even need debian-live for that,
any generic live-CD should probably work just as well.

Thanks,

CJ


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Re: portable Debian

[Mark Allums]

On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 08:44:59AM EST, Germana Oliveira wrote:


Well, no, what i really want is a portable Debian, so i can, for
example, build a web app and show it everywhere without need a web
server and just have my own configuration and run it every where



Some live distributions have USB environments (I call them) which 
allow you to create a bootable image complete with a good-sized /home/ 
space for data on a USB thumb drive.  An example is Knoppix 
(http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/), which has a utility just for that 
purpose.  Knoppix is basically Debian; it is binary compatible.  It uses 
the LXDE environment, which is KDE 3, but with GTK instead of Qt.


Mark Allums


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Re: portable Debian

[Rob Owens]

On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 10:01:58AM -0430, Germana Oliveira wrote:
 Rob: Sorry not to trust you!!
 
 I already read a little bit of Debian Live, so should i follow :
 http://live.debian.net/manual/html/ch02s03.html
 
 so i can install Debian Live in a HDD, or maybe i go for the USB ...
 How many space do i need to have a standard Debian + Apache + mysql and
 a web app framework?
 
A gigabyte should do it.  You can see some of the pre-built images here:

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current-live/i386/usb-hdd/

Basically, download one of those images and then

dd if=downloaded_image.img of=/dev/sdX

(substitute your image name, and the device name of your USB drive)

Then make an additional partition on the USB disk with the remaining
space.  Format that partition and give it the label live-rw, like this:

mkfs.ext2 -L live-rw /dev/sdX2  (substitute your device name)

This creates the persistence partition, to save all of your changes and
data.

-Rob


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portable Debian

[Germana Oliveira]

Hi!!

I want to know if someone have done this before:

I have a external disk, and i install Debian in it from my PC, but when i
try to run it from my laptop i just can' t... but i just want to know if
somebody have done this and how, should i install it with some especific
parameters so it runs from any other machine?? should i change something
every time it runs in a diferent machine???

I have google it but i can't find something that tell me how to do it.

Thanks!!!

-- 
Germana Oliveira

germanaoliveirab arroba gmail punto com
http://626f67.wordpress.com
http://slcarabobo.wordpress.com

Re: portable Debian

[Alex Samad]

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 04:20:46PM -0400, Germana Oliveira wrote:
 Hi!!
 
 I want to know if someone have done this before:
 
 I have a external disk, and i install Debian in it from my PC, but when i
 try to run it from my laptop i just can' t... but i just want to know if
what is the error ?

 somebody have done this and how, should i install it with some especific
 parameters so it runs from any other machine?? should i change something
 every time it runs in a diferent machine???
 
 I have google it but i can't find something that tell me how to do it.

make sure you are using LABEL's or UUIDs, have to make sure the
bootsector of each boot drive points to a bootloader that knows to load
your partition

 
 Thanks!!!
 

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deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by 
learning how to fly airplanes.

- George W. Bush
02/25/1990
Dallas Morning News


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Re: portable Debian

[Celejar]

On Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:20:46 -0400
Germana Oliveira germanaolivei...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi!!
 
 I want to know if someone have done this before:
 
 I have a external disk, and i install Debian in it from my PC, but when i
 try to run it from my laptop i just can' t... but i just want to know if
 somebody have done this and how, should i install it with some especific
 parameters so it runs from any other machine?? should i change something
 every time it runs in a diferent machine???

You need to provide more information.  What do you mean you just
can't?  What, exactly, goes wrong?

Celejar
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Re: portable Debian

[mtp5150]

Germana Oliveira wrote:

Hi!!

I want to know if someone have done this before:

I have a external disk, and i install Debian in it from my PC, but when 
i try to run it from my laptop i just can' t... but i just want to know 
if somebody have done this and how, should i install it with some 
especific parameters so it runs from any other machine?? should i change 
something every time it runs in a diferent machine???


I have google it but i can't find something that tell me how to do it.

Thanks!!!

--
Germana Oliveira

germanaoliveirab arroba gmail punto com
http://626f67.wordpress.com
http://slcarabobo.wordpress.com


Make sure your laptop is set to boot from an external device.


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Re: portable Debian

[Rob Owens]

I think you want Debian Live.  http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/

I use it to boot multiple machines from a USB flash drive, but it should
work for a USB hard drive as well.

-Rob

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 04:20:46PM -0400, Germana Oliveira wrote:
 Hi!!
 
 I want to know if someone have done this before:
 
 I have a external disk, and i install Debian in it from my PC, but when i
 try to run it from my laptop i just can' t... but i just want to know if
 somebody have done this and how, should i install it with some especific
 parameters so it runs from any other machine?? should i change something
 every time it runs in a diferent machine???
 
 I have google it but i can't find something that tell me how to do it.
 
 Thanks!!!
 
 -- 
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 germanaoliveirab arroba gmail punto com
 http://626f67.wordpress.com
 http://slcarabobo.wordpress.com


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Portable Debian?

[Mirto Silvio Busico]

Hi all,
I need to create a portable Debian (or derivate) system.

My needs are:

* install the system on a bootable USB HD
* install a system that autoconfigure on different hardware (I don't
  know in advance which video card or lan card I'll find when I'll
  use the system)
* the system is mostly used for openoffice presentations and I
  prefer kde

I have to go around doing presentations and FOSS demonstrations.

Anyone have experience about this?
There is any Debian derivate that can be used? (Knoppix, Kanotix...)?
There is sonething like Mandriva Flash
(http://www.mandriva.com/en/linux/2007/node_3481)  besd on debian?

Any help will be greately appreciated.

Mirto

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Tel. +39 333 4562651
 


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Re: Portable Debian?

[Joe Hart]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

Mirto Silvio Busico wrote:
 Hi all,
 I need to create a portable Debian (or derivate) system.
 
 My needs are:
 
 * install the system on a bootable USB HD
 * install a system that autoconfigure on different hardware (I don't
   know in advance which video card or lan card I'll find when I'll
   use the system)
 * the system is mostly used for openoffice presentations and I
   prefer kde
 
 I have to go around doing presentations and FOSS demonstrations.
 
 Anyone have experience about this?
 There is any Debian derivate that can be used? (Knoppix, Kanotix...)?
 There is sonething like Mandriva Flash
 (http://www.mandriva.com/en/linux/2007/node_3481)  besd on debian?
 
 Any help will be greately appreciated.
 
 Mirto
 

Check out http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/179

Joe

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Re: Portable Debian?

[Mirco Piccin]

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

Hope it helps you!

Re: Portable Debian?

[Joe Hart]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

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
 
 Hope it helps you!

That is certainly simpler than the procedure I pointed out with the
link, but doing this will not allow the OP to customize the distro with
only the apps that he wants.  However, if he can find a LiveCD that has
everything he needs, and it fits on his USB stick, then I see no reason
why something like this wouldn't work.

Joe
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Re: Portable Debian?

[nicolas . flinois]

The help is located there: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive

DebianLive: Official Debian effort to build a tool to make Live
Systems, including LiveCDs and installation tools from LiveCDs (i.e to
harddisks or USB keys).


Set-up a DebianLive system onto you usb HD.

Gal'

2007/4/5, Mirto Silvio Busico [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

Hi all,
I need to create a portable Debian (or derivate) system.

My needs are:

* install the system on a bootable USB HD
* install a system that autoconfigure on different hardware (I don't
  know in advance which video card or lan card I'll find when I'll
  use the system)
* the system is mostly used for openoffice presentations and I
  prefer kde

I have to go around doing presentations and FOSS demonstrations.

Anyone have experience about this?
There is any Debian derivate that can be used? (Knoppix, Kanotix...)?
There is sonething like Mandriva Flash
(http://www.mandriva.com/en/linux/2007/node_3481)  besd on debian?

Any help will be greately appreciated.

Mirto

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Tel. +39 333 4562651



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Re: Portable Debian?

[Michael Pobega]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

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
  
  Hope it helps you!
 
 That is certainly simpler than the procedure I pointed out with the
 link, but doing this will not allow the OP to customize the distro with
 only the apps that he wants.  However, if he can find a LiveCD that has
 everything he needs, and it fits on his USB stick, then I see no reason
 why something like this wouldn't work.
 
 Joe


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?
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Re: Portable Debian?

[Joe Hart]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

Michael Pobega wrote:
 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

 Hope it helps you!
 That is certainly simpler than the procedure I pointed out with the
 link, but doing this will not allow the OP to customize the distro with
 only the apps that he wants.  However, if he can find a LiveCD that has
 everything he needs, and it fits on his USB stick, then I see no reason
 why something like this wouldn't work.
 
 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?

Maybe, I never tried it.  I would suppose that would work if you make
your own liveCD, but not with an existing one AFAIK.  I only use grml as
a liveCD so I can do a partimage of my / drive.  I do that once in a
while to make sure I have a good backup.

Joe
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Re: Portable Debian?

[Hugo Vanwoerkom]

Mirto Silvio Busico wrote:

Hi all,
I need to create a portable Debian (or derivate) system.

My needs are:

* install the system on a bootable USB HD
* install a system that autoconfigure on different hardware (I don't
  know in advance which video card or lan card I'll find when I'll
  use the system)
* the system is mostly used for openoffice presentations and I
  prefer kde

I have to go around doing presentations and FOSS demonstrations.

Anyone have experience about this?
There is any Debian derivate that can be used? (Knoppix, Kanotix...)?
There is sonething like Mandriva Flash
(http://www.mandriva.com/en/linux/2007/node_3481)  besd on debian?

Any help will be greately appreciated.

Mirto



Hi Mirto,

Of course mondo does what you want to a certain extent:
apt-get install mondo.
You end up with a CD/DVD of the partition that you backed up and that 
can be installed on any machine.

If you start out with a flexible setup then the CD/DVD will be flexible too.

Hugo


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Re: Portable Debian?

[- Tong -]

On Thu, 05 Apr 2007 09:33:24 -0400, Michael Pobega wrote:

 -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
 Hash: SHA1
 
 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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Re: Portable Debian?

[Douglas Allan Tutty]

On Thu, Apr 05, 2007 at 11:10:51PM +, - Tong - wrote:
 On Thu, 05 Apr 2007 09:33:24 -0400, Michael Pobega wrote:
  On Thu, Apr 05, 2007 at 10:30:34AM +0200, Joe Hart wrote:
   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.
   
  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...
 

I've wondered how a live distro gets security updates.  I don't see
anything about security on its web page.  I suppose it depends on what
you want to do with it; if its not going to be connected to the 'net
then its not as important.  If you want to use it to download, email,
browse, etc, then that may be an issue, especially if you consider how
frequently security updates to browsers have come down the pipe.

When you say 'prepare a usb', do you mean a usb flash drive, or a
USB-attached portable hard drive?

Also, by tiny, do you mean tiny filesystem size or memory footprint and
processing requirements?

Doug.


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