OT: your desktop on a stick

[Phil Meyer]

Phil Meyer wrote:
> Anne Wilson wrote:
>> Much has been said about the ability for a linux distro to be carried 
>> around on a usb stick, making any computer into your familiar 
>> desktop.  Does anyone actually do this?
>>
>> I ask because I installed F9 and Mandriva 2008 onto sticks for tests 
>> with my EeePC.  Today I put the Mandriva stick into the Acer netbook, 
>> and watched the messages scroll on, as it detected and set up the 
>> webcam, then the mouse, then I got to
>> "Marking TSC unstable due to: TSC halts in idle
>> Time: hpet clocksource has been installed.
>>
>> Then a loonng pause, after which
>>
>> Wait timeout.  Will continue in the background. [FAILED}
>> Non-volatile memory driver v1.2
>>
>> and it has been sitting there for 15 minutes.
>>
>> I confess I have always wondered about such hardware changes.  If 
>> this is typical, then this is another dream that is far from reality :-(
>>
>> Just to satisfy my curiosity, I'll try the F9 stick.  I won't bother 
>> reporting back if the result is very similar.
>>
>> Anne
>>   
>
> Yes, done this a lot.
>
> Current best method is to roll a livecd will my favorite apps, a 
> package containing my login (adds me to sudoers as well).
with my favorite apps
>
> Then convert the iso to a usb bootable livecd on a stick.  During 
> this, I add a system overlay, and a /home overlay.
>
> My current thumb drive is a 64GB DataTraveler.
>
> It has two partitions.  The first is 20GB, and the remainder is in the 
> other.
>
> Both partitions are formatted as ext3, thus allowing overlays greater 
> than 2GB and 
> also allowing me to use rsync to keep my music up to date on the 
> larger slice.

> --home-size-mb
cut and paste error!

> here is the command I used to make the first partition bootable:
>
> # /usr/bin/livecd-iso-to-disk --reset-mbr --overlay-size-mb 4000 
> --home-size-mb 8000 --unencrypted-home Fedora_Developer.iso /dev/sdb1
>
> Fedora_Developer.iso is my custom roll of F10-x86_64.
>
> I made the label of the second partition "music" so it would always 
> mount as media/music.
>
> Next, I booted from the thumb drive in text mode on my primary machine 
> and logged into the console as root.
>
> # mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
>    My home is on there.
>
> # cd /mnt/home/pmeyer
>
> # cp -a .ssh .tcshrc .login .mozilla .thunderbird .g* /home/pmeyer
>    As an example, but very close to actual -- YMWV
>
> # ln -s /media/music .
>
> # init 0
>
> Remove the thumb drive.  Its all done! (except I rsynced my music 
> collection to the second partition)
>
> Now I can plug the thumb drive into virtually any system and have all 
> my favorite stuff just how I like it!.  The only differences between 
> systems are video.
>
> The difference between running a live USB vs an installed USB are many.
> 1. Live CDs by nature have A LOT more modules installed into the 
> initrd.img, thus allowing them to run on a variety of hardware.
>
> 2. Hardware setting are not saved.
>
> 3. Space!  About 1/3 in my experience.
>
> The advent of persistent storage for the OS and for /home mean that 
> you can make changes to startup scripts, config files, and whatnot, 
> and your changes are preserved over reboots.  All the benefits of Live 
> CDs, with persistent storage!  It can't be beat.
>
> The best part of all, is that its installable to disk, as well.  What 
> else could you ask for? :)
>
>
> Good Luck!
>
>

I have a bad cold today and my brain is even less functional than usual! :(