Lorenzo Sandini

Hello group,

It's been a while since I used ubuntu, but I am interested in having a
persistent install on a USB key, so Google directed me to
www.pendrivelinux.com, where I found the basic directions.

The 7.10 installation from the Live CD went smooth on a 4GB kensington
key, I had to install lilo to the MBR and now all is fine. Booting from
the USB key takes some time (3-4 minutes), but after that it works
great. Or does it ?

The changes I do don't seem to be persistent. For example the connection
to my wireless router through a D-link G520 (atheros) worked fine right
out of the box with WPA, and the passphrase was stored in a keyring,
that is unfortunately forgotten at every reboot.

I also wanted to install proprietary drivers for my nvidia gfx card, but
after enabling the driver and rebooting as requested, the driver is
absent. Also changing the screen resolution is also forgotten at every
reboot. I updated the packages via the automatic updater, which found
new compiz and cups-related packages. But at every reboot those updates
are undone.

Should I do those changes as root ? Any reason why my changes are not
persistent ? From the boot menu I swear I chose the persistent option

There are 2 partitions on the USB key, the first is FAT16 (800MB) and
the second takes all the rest in ext2, for the casper system and the
personal settings. What am I doing wrong ? Pendrivelinux keeps the
settings correctly, but I'd prefer the Ubuntu install, to avoid all the
driver mess.

Thanks in advance,
Lorenzo

Cushie

Lorenzo Sandini wrote:
>
>
> The changes I do don't seem to be persistent.

Lorenzo, study the options given at the boot prompt. I think you will
see an instruction to choose 'usb' which you type in the boot prompt,
this works for me. Also typing persistant' might work.
I have had no success at installing the video drivers either, I dare say
the files are lost in the rebooting process.
Regards, Cushie Linux user 451873.

Cushie

Lorenzo Sandini wrote:
>
>
> The changes I do don't seem to be persistent.

Lorenzo, study the options given at the boot prompt. I think you will
see an instruction to choose 'usb' which you type in the boot prompt,
this works for me. Also typing persistant' might work.
I have had no success at installing the video drivers either, I dare say
the files are lost in the rebooting process.
Regards, Cushie Linux user 451873.

Lorenzo Sandini

Cushie wrote:
> Lorenzo Sandini wrote:
>>
>>
>> The changes I do don't seem to be persistent.
>
> Lorenzo, study the options given at the boot prompt. I think you will
> see an instruction to choose 'usb' which you type in the boot prompt,
> this works for me. Also typing persistant' might work.
> I have had no success at installing the video drivers either, I dare say
> the files are lost in the rebooting process.
> Regards, Cushie Linux user 451873.
>
>
Thanks cushie for your help. Tried a bit of this and a bit of that from
what I read in newsgroups, but nothing seemed to work. I'll try my luck
in the ubuntu forums and report back if I find an answer.

Lorenzo

De Kameel

Lorenzo Sandini wrote:

> Hello group,
>
> It's been a while since I used ubuntu, but I am interested in having a
> persistent install on a USB key, so Google directed me to
> www.pendrivelinux.com, where I found the basic directions.
>
> The 7.10 installation from the Live CD went smooth on a 4GB kensington
> key, I had to install lilo to the MBR and now all is fine. Booting from
> the USB key takes some time (3-4 minutes), but after that it works
> great. Or does it ?

Lorenzo, I followed the same instructions (
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/09...ibbon-install/ ),
including the last two lilo commands, but my computers don't see the USB
stick as a bootable device. And yes, fdisk shows that the /dev/sdb1 is
Active/Boot.

Any tips? Can I check whether there is a MBR on the stick?

de Kameel

Lorenzo Sandini

De Kameel wrote:
> Lorenzo Sandini wrote:
>
>> Hello group,
>>
>> It's been a while since I used ubuntu, but I am interested in having a
>> persistent install on a USB key, so Google directed me to
>> www.pendrivelinux.com, where I found the basic directions.
>>
>> The 7.10 installation from the Live CD went smooth on a 4GB kensington
>> key, I had to install lilo to the MBR and now all is fine. Booting from
>> the USB key takes some time (3-4 minutes), but after that it works
>> great. Or does it ?
>
> Lorenzo, I followed the same instructions (
> http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/09...ibbon-install/ ),
> including the last two lilo commands, but my computers don't see the USB
> stick as a bootable device. And yes, fdisk shows that the /dev/sdb1 is
> Active/Boot.
>
> Any tips? Can I check whether there is a MBR on the stick?
>
> de Kameel
>

Are you sure your motherboard allows you to boot from USB ? On one of my
older computers with an MSI mobo, the option to boot from USB was quite
well hidden, USB-HDD was not listed as an option at all:

In that case you need to "allow boot from other device", and during post
hit briefly F8 to invoke a boot menu in which only floppy, cdrom, hdd
are the options. But when selecting HDD it opens a new menu showing the
SATA, IDE and USB devices, bingo !

Otherwise I think this might help:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/09...compatibility/

Please let me know how it goes.

Lorenzo

De Kameel

Lorenzo Sandini wrote:

> Are you sure your motherboard allows you to boot from USB ?

Yes: my laptop shows the USB boot option and has already boot(ed) from a USB
key with Fedora Core 8 on it.

> Otherwise I think this might help:
>
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/09...compatibility/

OK, I'll try. I'll need a Windows computer for that as I need to
run "makeboot.bat" ... :-(

> Please let me know how it goes.

I'll do. Thanks so far.

de Kameel

De Kameel

De Kameel wrote:

>> Otherwise I think this might help:
>>
>
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/09...m-for-usb-boot
-compatibility/
>
> OK, I'll try. I'll need a Windows computer for that as I need to
> run "makeboot.bat" ... :-(

I followed that procedure with another USB-stick (16MB!), boot(ed) from the
USB-stick and both computers (2-year old laptop, brandnew desktop) showed
the PenDriveLinux-screen and then memtest86. Good!

Back to the 4GB USB-stick with pendrive-Ubuntu on it:
The laptop *does* see something, and says something about CBDebian or so,
but almost immedeatly says something like "could not find image: linux"
The desktop does not boot at all from the 4GB pendrive-Ubuntu.

So something (with the MBR?) is wrong on the 4GB USB-stick. Please tips how
to detect what's the problem, or how to do a workaround.


de Kameel

Lorenzo Sandini

De Kameel wrote:
> De Kameel wrote:
>
>>> Otherwise I think this might help:
>>>
> http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/09...m-for-usb-boot
> -compatibility/
>> OK, I'll try. I'll need a Windows computer for that as I need to
>> run "makeboot.bat" ... :-(
>
> I followed that procedure with another USB-stick (16MB!), boot(ed) from the
> USB-stick and both computers (2-year old laptop, brandnew desktop) showed
> the PenDriveLinux-screen and then memtest86. Good!
>
> Back to the 4GB USB-stick with pendrive-Ubuntu on it:
> The laptop *does* see something, and says something about CBDebian or so,
> but almost immedeatly says something like "could not find image: linux"
> The desktop does not boot at all from the 4GB pendrive-Ubuntu.
>
> So something (with the MBR?) is wrong on the 4GB USB-stick. Please tips how
> to detect what's the problem, or how to do a workaround.
>
>
> de Kameel
>
This won't help you much, but I have stumbled on a website with several
people reporting problems with 2GB Kingston Data Traveler flashdrives
showing the same behaviour. I have problems with a Kingston 4 GB, what
are you using ?

For now I have put a 2.5" HDD in a USB enclosure and installed a full
Ubuntu, to solve my persistence problems

Lorenzo

de Kameel

De Kameel wrote:

> I followed that procedure with another USB-stick (16MB!), boot(ed) from
> the USB-stick and both computers (2-year old laptop, brandnew desktop)
> showed the PenDriveLinux-screen and then memtest86. Good!
>
> Back to the 4GB USB-stick with pendrive-Ubuntu on it:
> The laptop does see something, and says something about CBDebian or so,
> but almost immedeatly says something like "could not find image: linux"
> The desktop does not boot at all from the 4GB pendrive-Ubuntu.
>
> So something (with the MBR?) is wrong on the 4GB USB-stick. Please tips
> how to detect what's the problem, or how to do a workaround.

Problem solved by excluding the specific USB key from the ... excluded USB
keys settings. :-(

Strange: the Fujitsu Siemens laptop did boot from USB key #1, but not from
USB key #2. I thought that something was wrong with the (stuff on the) USB
key. Not so: Apparantly the USB keys were seen differently by the BIOS.

Anyway: deep down in the BIOS, with the unsuccesful USB key plugged in, I
removed this:

Excluded from boot order "usb hdd: USB Flash Memory-(USB 2.0"

And now it works: I'm typing this from my persistent Ubuntu on a USB
stick. :-)

de Kameel