Get TUX onto your USB drive

Posted by tech master  |  at  7:08 PM No comments

For the purpose of this workshop, we will use Damn Small Linux - It's the smallest distro for USB drives. You could also use distros like Puppy or SLAX.


WHAT YOU'LL NEED

1. A USB thumb drive, 256 MB or larger, with USB 2.0 recommended.
2. A PC that can boot from USB device.
3. The Damn Small Linux (DSL) Distro.
Click here to download it.
4. Syslinux V3.11.
Click here to download it.
5. The HP USB DISK STORAGE FORMAT TOOL.
Click here to download it.


FORMATTING THE USB DRIVE

Insert your drive into USB slot. Download and install the HP USB DISK STORAGE FORMAT TOOL, then run it. Use the following settings in the HP USB DISK STORAGE FORMAT TOOL dialog box:
1. Device: The name and capacity of your storage device
2. File system: FAT
3. Volume label: Name it as whatever you want
4. Confirm the Format by clicking YES.
5. Once the format is complete, you'll get a list with information about the file system, volume, etc. about your device. Click OK.


Extracting the neccessary files

Download and extract the DSL distro to the root of the USB device using WinZip or any other extraction software. Then download and extract all the files from syslinux-3.11.zip to a folder named Syslinux on your primary hard drive, that is, "X:\Syslinux", where X is the drive letter of your primary hard drive.

Open a command prompt ( Start > Run > cmd), type in "cd X:\Syslinux\win32" and press Enter. Then type in "syslinux.exe -f Y:"(where Y represents the drive letter of the USB device). Hit Enter. Close the command prompt.


BOOTING TO LINUX

Keep your USB device plugged in, and reboot your PC. Enter the BIOS and set the boot order with the USB device first. Save your changes and exit BIOS.
If all goes well you will be presented with DSL's boot screen. Press Enter to continue the boot process.