Li'l Linux Help?

I'm counting on you linux experts to help me along on this one....


In short, I'm trying to figure out if there is a method to install and run linux applications from a removable media, such as usb sticks, sd cards etc. I've done this multiple times with windows applications under xp, but never heard of this done in linux before.

My Asus EeePC has limited storage capacity, so i would really like to have this as an viable option


Anyone have any idea's on how to accomplish this?


Ryan

 

You can use something like Knoppix for this (www.knoppix.org) it's bootable from cd so I'm sure it can be installed on a SDcard or sim. but I havn't tested that so you'll have to google around.

 

Lol, this always seems to be what people think


I've run linux distro's from usb many times before, but I'm interested in installing and running linux applications from a removable media, such as installing gimp to a usb stick, and running it under ubuntu, or xandros...

Problem i have with this concept, is that alot of applications when installed in linux, either through synaptics or what not, disribute their files across the entire system, as opposed to something like windows program files...


Cheers

Ryan

 

Have you just tried to install a program on a usb stick and see what would happen? I don't really see any reason why it wouldn't just work. You will probably have to manually install it and not use synaptics though.

 

Try this:

- Log in as "root"
- Plug in the USB pendrive or the USB Card Reader
- mkdir /mnt/usb on the Terminal to create the directory for the USB device (for each USB device, a directory will be needed)
- Edit the /etc/fstab file, adding this line:
/dev/sda1 /mnt/usb user,noauto,exec,sync 0 0
- Then mount it: mount /mnt/usb

PS: If you want it to boot since start, just replace noauto for auto.
PS: Also check if the module for USB devices is loaded. Just type modprobe usb-storage and modprobe usbcore on the terminal

Hope this helps. I remember having a hard time to make an old parallel port Zip Drive to work under Ubuntu, and something like this did the trick.

 

Thanks Johnny, I'll give that a shot!


I tried running some programs from the usb drive using the source to no avail, most cited an error regarding missing files

Ryan

 

Hope it works :thumbsup:

 

What applications are you trying to run from the usb stick?

 

I had some games i wanted to boot off the drive,....some of them still don't want to co-operate, but i have gotten others like assualt-cube, to work fine.

Its just a matter of finding games which come self-contained, and just need to run the appropriate file to run the game (no installation, nada) like assualt-cube.


Cheers

Ryan
So many different applications use so many different libs, that i've found its just a matter of sorting through which ones work and which ones don't.

 

So, my tip did work, but not 100%?

I'll look for more info on this.

 

yea, it seemed to help! Thank you!


My other silly concern now, is with linux apps that come as ".package" files....it seems to be a major pain in the rear to install these, even though they should be simple. Tried last night, only to be confronted to wanting to install several different libraries 0_o

Ryan

 

No problem. I'm not an expert Linux user, but like to mess with it.

This package files you say, is just a way Linux is i guess. I wanted to install a network utility one time, only to know after that it needed lots of libraries. Apt-Get and Synaptic really help this, but i think they always install on the main hdd.

 

You'd be better of stripping down the installed Linux to save space, and move documents to external storage. If it would play nice with the hardware, Damn Small or Puppy would give you plenty of room.

Here's a couple of links that might be useful:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=648777
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=624056

 

That's what I've been doing. I've been looking for linux apps that would run nativly off of a usb flash storage or similar, so as i could preserve space on the system's internal drive. I've had at best, moderate success with this method.

There's also eeexubuntu, and several other distro's that have been modified to take advantage of the EeePC. eeexubuntu, or was it feeedora took up i believe 400megs which is nice.

Right now though, im contemplating just installing an nlite'd version of xp on the machine, as i know for sure of dozens, if not thousands of programs that run perfectly fine off of usb drives, i'd have to kill the page file and a few other things to really get xp kickin' though.

I really like Xandros and the distro that Asus is using though, its fast, pretty stable and does what i need for the most part, but the lack of alot of libraries and some rather shoddy software support for other repositories is annoying to me...


Ryan

 

I picked up an A-Data 8GB SDHC Card on the weekend, and I'm rather stumped about this one.

The card works fine under the EeePC, though when i plug it into my Acer Aspire 5100 card reader, windows XP doesn't reconigze it what so ever. I've run updates, and gotten it to the point that if i cold boot the laptop with the card in, it will see the presence of the sd reader, but not the card itself

Curiously, the card is found and works fine on the same laptop on my Ubuntu 7.10 partition. The laptop was an exp-Vista machine, which i put XP on it. Interestingly, there is a ENE card reader driver for Windows Vista for my laptop, but not for xp.

To me, this sounds like crappy design, as in the card reader needs a special tailored driver to function properly, while xp only provides the bare minimum generic driver instead.


What y'all think about this?


Cheers

Ryan

 

daft thought, but it is formatted FAT/NTFS right?

 

yup..ubuntu lists it as fat 32.

xandros command: "/sbin/cfdisk /dev/sdb(through to sdh) results in an error of:...FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 0: Partition ends in the final partial cylind
Press any key to exit cfdisk

though it works fine, i don't have any other sdhc compatible devices to try the card on either. I'm sure that if it was a sector issue i would have encountered errors with writing reading it. I've run assaultcube, and mupen64 off of it without any errors so far.

Gparted shows it as two partitions on the card, a 4mb unmounted volume and a 7.6gb locked (shows a little lock besides it) partition.

I've found that this distro of xandros is rather lacking in its gui abilities, so i've ended up using ubuntu with the card too check its formats and what not....


Ryan

 

Just an update, tried the card in another vista laptop today (hp tablet actually) and it works fine, so its nothing wrong with the card i take it.

Now, question is....would installing the vista drivers under xp do any harm!

 

As a new member of the eee club, you could try what I plan to do as soon as my SDHC card comes - I plan to have my linux install on the SD card (with swap) and then use the internal 4GB as docs and data storage. This way I preserve the internal SSD. I will then possibly get a 2nd SD card which I will run windows on, and then I will have the internal SSD common to both

 

what os do you plan to run off of the sd card?

i was cotemplating putting xp off of the sdhc,though right now im workin on booting osx from an external hdd....


Ryan