install SLAX to a USB pen drive

2006-May-19 at 2:59 pm · Filed under Linux, SLAX

Finally I decide to install SLAX onto my 2G USB pen drive. I record my steps for further reference.

  1. Desktop computer
    1. Model: HP Pavilion a1117cl
    2. OS: Fecora Core 5
  2. USB Pen Drive Model: Sandisk
  3. SLAX version: 5.1.4

Here's the preprations:

  • download SLAX ISO image from http://slax.linux-live.org
  • mount the ISO image:
    • mount -o loop -t iso9660 /home/hkai/software/slax-5.1.4.iso /mnt/cdrom
  • insert USB pen drive
    • My Fedora automatically mounted it to /media/disk
    • run this command if need mount manually: mount /dev/sde1 /mdeia/disk
  • copy the files from CD to USB
    • cp -ra /mnt/cdrom/* /media/disk/
    • you may notice there's some error messages like this: cp: failed to preserve ownership for `/media/disk/autorun.inf': Operation not permitted
    • that's caused linux want to set the file ownerships on a fat32 file system, should be no problem
  • now, move some files on USB drive
    • cd /mdeia/disk
    • mv boot/*.gz .
    • mv boot/spash.* .
    • mv boot/vmlinuz .
  • we need to edit some files to allow slax boot from the pen drive
    • cd /media/disk
    • mv isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg
    • vi syslinux.cfg
    • change syslinux.cfg like the following, basically, remove some boot/ reference

display splash.cfg
default slax
prompt 1
timeout 40
F1 splash.txt
F2 splash.cfg

label slax
kernel vmlinuz
append vga=769 max_loop=255 initrd=initrd.gz init=linuxrc load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=4444 root=/dev/ram0 rw

label linux
kernel boot/vmlinuz
append vga=769 max_loop=255 initrd=initrd.gz init=linuxrc load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=4444 root=/dev/ram0 rw

label memtest
kernel boot/memtest

  • now, we need to edit spash.cfg
    • vi spash.cfg
    • remove the boot/ as well
  • all set for the editing, umount the USB drive
    • umount /media/disk
  • we need a tool to make the USB drive bootable: syslinux
    • install syslinux if required
      • on Fedora: yum install syslinux
    • syslinux -s /dev/sde1
  • now you should able to boot SLAX from the USB drive

However, my PC don't support boot from USB directly, so I have to burn a slax CD, and use it to boot from USB drive.

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