Install Linux to Flash drive
I have a 2.0 GB flash drive and I want to be able to intall Linux (any distro) to is. Here is the catch though, I DO NOT want it is be a bootable CD type install where it still loads into the RAMDisk. I want the flashdrive to be treated as an actual harddrive with a swap partition and everything. Is this possible? Will it work on any Linux distro? How do I do it?
You may wish to try Damn Small Linux - http://www.damnsmalllinux.org
I have that installed on a 128Mb stick and USB stick installs are a specific supported feature. It's a small distro, but has X, Firefox, and plenty of apps you can bolt on as MyDSL packages (just tar.gz's really). Depends what level of features you require. I'm pretty sure Knoppix also supports this, and has a far, far larger set of applications including OpenOffice. Unfortunately my company don't seem to want to anything bigger than 512Mb so I can't say I've tried it yet.
Whilst the 2 mentioned are both traditionally "live" distros, they will happily install and live on other mediums in the traditional sense.
I have that installed on a 128Mb stick and USB stick installs are a specific supported feature. It's a small distro, but has X, Firefox, and plenty of apps you can bolt on as MyDSL packages (just tar.gz's really). Depends what level of features you require. I'm pretty sure Knoppix also supports this, and has a far, far larger set of applications including OpenOffice. Unfortunately my company don't seem to want to anything bigger than 512Mb so I can't say I've tried it yet.
Whilst the 2 mentioned are both traditionally "live" distros, they will happily install and live on other mediums in the traditional sense.
ASKER
The thing is I have tried installing DSL to a flashdrive and it would not recognize it as a valid harddrive. This was the same for Auditor as well. If seems that Linux cannot have a flashdrive act like a harddrive and run directly from it without the RAMDisk. Am I missing something with DSL that allows it to actually INSTALL to a flashdrive as if it was a harddrive?
If the solution uses a RAMDisk, that is NOT what I want.
If the solution uses a RAMDisk, that is NOT what I want.
At work we installed Slackware to flash drive to run as you say. I first installed to a normal HDD and cut it down to 64MB or so (no compilers, man pages or other doco but keep gdb and network tools like tcpdump traceroute &c.). Then copy it over (Knoppix / NFS or temporarily connect 2 CD drives - system normally has none). No swap - we had 512M RAM and a 512M flash.
Flash not being recognised as a disk could be a problem. Is it configured as an IDE disk on the mobo? Have you tried booting Knoppix and looking for it with fdisk? (try fdisk /dev/hda, fdisk /dev/hdb, ... until you find it)
Flash not being recognised as a disk could be a problem. Is it configured as an IDE disk on the mobo? Have you tried booting Knoppix and looking for it with fdisk? (try fdisk /dev/hda, fdisk /dev/hdb, ... until you find it)
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ASKER
Thank you for your detailed input on this topic. I really had hoped that it would be possible, but I guess not. Is it possible to install Linux to an external harddrive?
Please read punkrawkpat's post in this thread :
http://forums.devarticles.com/the-lizard-lounge-10/linux-install-suse-on-an-external-usb-drive-6250.html
Also an excellent IBM Linux support WEb site :
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fireboot.html
nedvis
http://forums.devarticles.com/the-lizard-lounge-10/linux-install-suse-on-an-external-usb-drive-6250.html
Also an excellent IBM Linux support WEb site :
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fireboot.html
nedvis
ASKER
Thanks for all the input once again!
I would recommend using damn small linux:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/