Installation of ExLight to a USB stick
(To perform the installations you must be root)
NEWS 160612
The ExLight ISO is now a ISO-hybrid,
which means that it can very easily be transferred (copied) to a
USB pen drive. You can then even run ExLight from the USB stick
and save all your system changes on the stick. I.e. you will enjoy
persistence!
A) "Normal" installation without
persistence
ExLight can be installed/transferred to a USB stick
directly from the ISO file. It might be good to use this method
if your computer lacks a CD/DVD drive, or if you just prefer to
run Linux systems from a USB stick.This is the way to perform
the installation:
1. Boot up a Linux system (Ubuntu or...) and
download the ISO fil exlight-64bit-e20-isoh-1260mb-160612.iso
2. Open up a terminal and cd to the folder where the ISO file is
3. Insert a USB stick and make sure which name it was given
(/dev/sdb1 or /dev/sdc1 or ...)
4. Run the installation command cp
exlight-64bit-e20-isoh-1260mb-160612.iso /dev/sdb
5. Then run the command sync
Done!
B) Installation with perfect persistence
Installation with perfect persistence using the regular installation program Ubiquity
Do it like this:
1. Start up ExLight from a DVD and log in as root.
2. Insert a USB stick of 8GB, 16GB or 32GB and format the stick as
ext4. Use GParted
(installed in ExLight) for that so you can be absolutely sure that
the stick is known as /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc or…
3. Start Ubiquity from Menu >> Applications >> Other
>> Installer (ubiquity) . Be sure to choose the Installation
type “Something else“.
4. Then choose your USB stick (/dev/sdb1, /dev/sdc1 or…) to
install to and set the mount point to /. No need
to format the stick again. Be sure not to choose
/dev/sda as “Device for boot loader installation”. The correct
place is /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc or…I.e. on the stick.
5. Again be sure to install the boot loader (Grub2) to the USB
stick.
6. Start the installation and follow the instructions.
NOTE 1: It is not necessary to format the USB
stick. The scripts take care of everything.
NOTE2: Do not use /dev/sda. (You
will then delete the partition on which you probably have a
Windows system).
NOTE3: You shall not write /dev/sdb1
(which is easy to believe).
After following the instruction 1 - 5 or 1-7:
Restart your computer with the USB stick in place and change the
BIOS so that the
computer in the first place is booting from the USB stick.
NOTE4: This
way to transfer/install ExLight to a USB stick works perfectly.
See this Boot menu.
NOTE5: If the above described methods doesn't
work for you, you should try with another USB stick. (Another
brand). All different versions of SanDisk
are known to work very well. See also below.
Error messages when running from USB
Common error message when trying to run ExLight from an USB stick:
(initramfs) mount: mounting /dev/loop0 on
//filesystem.squashfs failed: Invalid argument. Can not mount
/dev/loop0 (/cdrom/casper/filesystem.squashfs) on
//filesystem.squashfs
Solution: Try with another USB stick (another
brand). NOTE:
It appears that not all USB sticks are suitable for topical
purposes. I.e.
they can not be made bootable. I
myself have experience of brands Kingston DataTraveler,
SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 and Sony Micro Vault. The
first two works (for me). You
shall not use USB sticks of older model. They
may work, but mostly bad. If
you - after the installation of ExLight to the USB stick -
get different error messages (see above) when you try to run
the system from the stick it is often because the stick is not
"good enough".
Alternative in Windows
You can as an alternative to the above
mentioned commands use Linux
Live USB creator (LiLi) in Windows. When using it it will
look like this.
Persistence can't be enabled though. Be sure to go to OPTIONS and
choose/force "Recognized Linux" as Ubuntu 15.10 before starting
the installation. You can also use UNetbootin
in Windows or Linux. NOTE: You must
replace syslinux.cfg in the root of the stick
with this file
when using UNetbootin. (Also so you can enjoy persistence an run
ExLight from RAM). Change the file extension from .txt to .cfg
before or after you have replaced the original syslinux.cfg.
There's other ways to do it, but using UNetbootin is the
best/safest way. I.e. if you want to do the USB installation of
ExLight in Windows. However, if you want to install ExLight to
hard drive you will have to run the system from a dvd disc during
installation or install ExLight to USB the way I describe in
paragraph A). If you use Startup
Disk Creator in Linux to transfer ExLight to USB it is also
possible to install ExLight to hard drive later on from the USB
stick.
BIOS settings
To be able to run your computer from the USB stick you’ll
have to change the BIOS
settings. For example from UEFI
to Legacy
boot. View this screenshot
from one of my computers. As you can see I’m using SanDisk
Cruzer Blade. Works very well (and you can buy it for about 7 $).
exton /160612
