volrathxp Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 So.. well I just got a 256MB USB Key, and I've been looking for a way to put Linux on it. (It'd be really nice to have some stuff like netcat and nmap, etc. available on a key and boot from it.) I've already tried SPB Linux, and I can't seem to get that working. Syslinux doesn't want to install on the vfat filesystem on the key (tells me msdos fat is not supported) and when i format it as ext3 it doesn't want to work either. I was trying to do that from my gentoo box here at work... now my question is i would like to build a distro on the key that is kinda like knoppix where it's compressed so i can put some small programs on it (like nc, nmap, and basic tcp/ip trace/net analyzer tools (tcpdump, etc.)), the whole purpose of the device would be to put on a network for security auditing, etc. I would like to do a gentoo based system but based on all the files the base system comprises of i don't think i would have enough space on the usb key to do it, as well as customizing it to compress like knoppix does it. So if anyone can point me in the right direction here, I really would like to try this out, as it could be a really useful tool for me. Thanks!! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted December 23, 2003 Veteran Share Posted December 23, 2003 I have never heard of someone putting Linux on a USB key before... But I suppose it can be done, if the PC supports booting from USB. Does BIOS see the USB key as a drive? You might have to install Linux ot the key, but have a boot disk to point to it (which isn't as elegant as the boot from USB option) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 i have seen linux on a little cd, if forgot what its called, LNX or smoething, but it was for system recovery edit: here is what i am talking about http://www.lnx-bbc.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csabo2 Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 its doable. ive heard of it being done, however, i would try netBSD. supports more hardware :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csabo2 Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 Another thing. USB isnt initalized until the OS boots. so you cant really BOOT of a USB stick. if you figure that out. yuo should sell that sht in a book :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volrathxp Posted December 23, 2003 Author Share Posted December 23, 2003 Another thing. USB isnt initalized until the OS boots. so you cant really BOOT of a USB stick. if you figure that out. yuo should sell that sht in a book :) from what i've seen around the gentoo forums, it's fully doable if the bios supports booting from usb since grub will be able to see it :) i'll look at lnx thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 Another thing. USB isnt initalized until the OS boots. so you cant really BOOT of a USB stick. if you figure that out. yuo should sell that sht in a book :) Sure it will boot, if the BIOS supports it. That's why Dell is trying to eliminate floppies and are pushing the USB keys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Veteran Posted December 23, 2003 Veteran Share Posted December 23, 2003 Yeah, most of the latest BIOSes scan the USB ports for USB drives. At least, my new laptop does. This is certainly possible and I've read articles where Linux has been put on a USB drive and booted. Best of luck finding out exactly how to do it, how's about trying another form of Linux that WILL work on a FAT drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrStaticVoid Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 how's about trying another form of Linux that WILL work on a FAT drive? USB flash drives can be partitions can be partitioned and formatted. You can put any distro you want on it as long as it is smaller than 256 MB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volrathxp Posted December 23, 2003 Author Share Posted December 23, 2003 Well I'm gonna try and split it up, but I'm gonna try a basic gentoo install... not quite sure if it will work, but I am gonna try and make it work :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dewy Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 http://www.slackware-live.org (will be http://www.slax.org) or if u want a movie only here is a 4MB linux distro which loads to the ram then pops ur cd out asking for ur DVD, VCD... http://www.geexbox.org u can also add extra codecs to teh ISO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HellBender Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 That is a sweet idea. I need to try that some day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volrathxp Posted December 23, 2003 Author Share Posted December 23, 2003 http://www.slackware-live.org (will be http://www.slax.org)or if u want a movie only here is a 4MB linux distro which loads to the ram then pops ur cd out asking for ur DVD, VCD... http://www.geexbox.org u can also add extra codecs to teh ISO hmmm... now that looks promising. but how should i go about taking that, and making it bootable on the usb drive? gentoo would be a mighty too big. the extracted stage 3 is over 250mb, so unless i cut out a lot of crap, it's not gonna work, but if i can get a slack based one i'll be happy :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dewy Posted December 24, 2003 Share Posted December 24, 2003 Have a look around there forum i found this. i think i saw some othera around there. - http://www.slackware-live.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=55 - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligen Posted December 24, 2003 Share Posted December 24, 2003 my laptop supports booting from USB key and also does my desktop..... bios must support it though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xRKx Posted December 24, 2003 Share Posted December 24, 2003 My suggestion would be to forgo Linux and try putting FreeBSD on it. FreeBSD tends to run a little smaller than Linux - and can run wonderfully off of solid-state or embedded systems/drives. 256MB is also plenty of space to fit an install of FreeBSD, too. If you don't know BSD though - be prepared to learn - it handles some things really differently from Linux - such as it's usage of slices rather than disk partitions. Good URL for installing FreeBSD on USB/CF/etc. drives (This is where I note that FreeBSD also tends to have better documentation than Linux ^_~) http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1...tate/index.html Whether or not your key works with FreeBSD - I can't say. I don't own one - and I don't think my mobo will let me boot from my CF card reader, so I've never tried. (Though, now that I think of it, I /think/ 'USB device' was in my boot options. Oh well.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt74441 Posted December 24, 2003 Share Posted December 24, 2003 Puppy Linux I'll try it later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volrathxp Posted December 24, 2003 Author Share Posted December 24, 2003 My suggestion would be to forgo Linux and try putting FreeBSD on it. FreeBSD tends to run a little smaller than Linux - and can run wonderfully off of solid-state or embedded systems/drives. 256MB is also plenty of space to fit an install of FreeBSD, too. If you don't know BSD though - be prepared to learn - it handles some things really differently from Linux - such as it's usage of slices rather than disk partitions. Good URL for installing FreeBSD on USB/CF/etc. drives (This is where I note that FreeBSD also tends to have better documentation than Linux ^_~) http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1...tate/index.html Whether or not your key works with FreeBSD - I can't say. I don't own one - and I don't think my mobo will let me boot from my CF card reader, so I've never tried. (Though, now that I think of it, I /think/ 'USB device' was in my boot options. Oh well.) I know a little bit of BSD so that shouldn't be too much of a problem... I would like more to do linux first and then save it so i can rewrite back to it if i have a problem. but then i could be free to try bsd. I'm a big fan of BSD in general, so that would be cool to try. thanks everyone for the help, sure is helpful :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xRKx Posted December 24, 2003 Share Posted December 24, 2003 Well, good luck! I've read a bit about people installing FreeBSD to solid-state media devices, and there seems to be a high degree of success! Man, now I'm wanting to reboot so I can double check my BIOS to see if I was right about my boot options... Just because. I have a couple CF cards I'm not doing anything with, after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebsh Posted December 24, 2003 Share Posted December 24, 2003 Another thing. USB isnt initalized until the OS boots. so you cant really BOOT of a USB stick. if you figure that out. yuo should sell that sht in a book :) umm.. my dell laptops can boot off USB keys... so can my dell desktops... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volrathxp Posted December 24, 2003 Author Share Posted December 24, 2003 umm.. my dell laptops can boot off USB keys... so can my dell desktops... as well if you can't boot off of it you can make a boot disk that does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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