Instructions.  

This quick start guide will enable you to create a USB version of the vinux operating system from within windows.  

It doesn't matter where you have extracted this folder to, but please do not modify any of this folder's contents.  

Requirements.  

For this process to work, you will need a USB drive with a capacity of 1GB or more.  This process should work fine on 1, 2, 4, or 8 GB pen drives, it has only been tested on 1 2 and 4 GB sticks at this time.  

Please be sure to format your chosen USB stick/partition using the fat32 file system as the utility will not do this for you!  this can be done in my computer by highlighting the drive with the arrows, going to file and clicking format, then following the on-screen prompts.  

You will also need to run the program contained within this package in administrator mode in windows vista or 7, by right clicking on the file and clicking run as administrator.  

Explanation of persistance files.  

For this process to work, it is recommended to have something called a persistance file on your USB drive.  This file will save any changes made to vinux documents, settings, applications you've installed etc.  its like having your own personal computer where ever you go down to your personalised background!  

Below are the recommended persistance file sizes for different pen drives, please pay careful atention to the one that applies to you and your pen drive,  as we'll be using these later. 

For a 1 GB pen, we will need a 256 MB persistance file.

For a 2 GB pen, we will need a persistance file of up to 1024 MB (1024 MB recommended. 

for a 4 GB pen, a persistance file of 3072MB is recommended but you can have a 2048MB file or a 1024MB file as well if you want to use the space for other things. 

for a pen drive larger than 4 GB, you can have a persistance file of 4096 GB only as the maximum capacity supported by ubuntu is 4096MB. 

Making your USB drive.  

1. navigate to the folder where these files have been extracted.  
2. Click on the file called CD2USB.bat.  windows vista and 7 users, right click and click run as administrator.  An MSDos window will be displayed. 
3. Press your up arrow.  The program should be asking you if you want to use an existing ubuntu CD, a ubuntu iso, or download an iso, options 1, 2, or 3.  In this case, we do not want options 1 or 3 as we are not using an orriginal ubuntu iso.  Please press 2 and press enter.  
4.  You will then be prompted to enter a drive letter.  in this example, we will assume the USB drive is drive f.  Enter your drive's letter on its own, f in this case  with nothing after it, not even a colon and press enter.  
5. you will then be prompted to enter the size of your persistance file.  It is strongly recommended that you enter a size as this will allow you to save your changes.  In this example, i am using a 2 GB drive so we will enter a size in MB of 1024MB to have a 1GB persistance file. you only need to type the numbers, not the letters MB so 1024 and press enter.
6. You will then be prompted to confirm your settings, the drive letter, size of the persistance file, etc.  if everything is correct, press 1 and press enter to continue.  

The progress of the files being copied will then be displayed.  Note: if at any point the window displays file not found, don't worry, this does not affect the installation in any way and the program will continue copying regardless.  the copying process can typically take from ten minutes to half an hour depending on the speed of your pen drive or computer, and the size of the persistance file being created.  

When the program has finished copying the files needed to run Vinux, another message will be displayed in the dos window informing you that the process is all finished.  when this is displayed, press enter to close the program, then type exit at the dos prompt and press enter, this will bring you out of dos.  

You're done!  Safely remove your pen drive, and then try it on a computer that supports booting from USB devices.  

If your computer does not support booting from USB Devices, burn the file called USBCD4Vinux3.1.iso to a CD.  Make sure booting from CD is enabled in the bios as the first boot device, then insert your newly burned CD along with the pen and press any key to boot.  Vinux should then begin to boot from the pen.  

Any questions, please post them to the vinux mailing list or use the contact form on www.vinuxvirtual.org.uk to contact me directly.  Please tell us if this process worked for you, we welcome any feedback!  

Mo.