[ale] anyone installed linux on to a flash drive

[Narahari 'n' Savitha]

Mr. Warfield:

When do you propose to give that talk and is it at Central or Atlanta NW ?

-Narahari

On Sun, Sep 30, 2012 at 1:13 PM, Michael H. Warfield <mhw at wittsend.com>wrote:

> Wow...  And I'm suppose to give a talk on my "multiboot" keys sooner or
> later...  Reminder to self...
>
> Yeah, I've done this...  I have a pair of 64G USB keys (always have a
> backup if you are going to do this).  It's a multiboot key using a
> custom rolled grub2 configuration (which would be what my talk would be
> about)...
>
> What's on that key (in order)...
>
> * Boot Images for my encrypted laptop (3 most recent kernel images).
>
> * Chainloaders to drive 1 and 2 of the system.
>
> * OpenClient (and IBM customized RHEL image) run live and testdrive
> images...
>
> * CentOS 6 desktop run live.
>
> * Fedora 15, 16, and 17 Desktop run lives for i686 and x86_64.
>
> * Network Security Toolkit 2.16 (various configurations).
>
> * Parted Magic.
>
> * Ubuntu
>
> * Backtrack (another forensic related distro).
>
> * TinyCore (minimalist busybox based distro).
>
> All totaled, probably a couple dozen menu entries including sub-menus
> and what not.
>
> Takes a little over 1/2 of that 64G key including persistent image store
> and a common encrypted home directory.
>
> Why?  It's my Swiss Army Knife.  I can (have to) boot my totally
> encrypted laptop from the key.  No key - no boot.  End of discussion.
> In addition, I can walk up to any computer and boot the computer from
> any one of my boot selections and have a run live for demonstration or
> for forensic purposes.
>
> It's actually pretty easy to install a run-live to a USB key with a
> persistent store for updates and a home partition for use.  We typically
> refer to these as a "Computer On A Stick".  Building a multiboot that
> works like that (ESPECIALLY if you have a common home) is a lot tricker
> but grub2 makes it easier than syslinux or the old grub.
>
> Regards,
> Mike
>
> On Sun, 2012-09-30 at 10:02 -0400, Narahari 'n' Savitha wrote:
> > Friends:
> >
> > I want to install Linux on to a flash drive.
> >
> > Has anyone in the ALE family done this ?
> >
> > When I install Linux on to a Flash drive, does it mean that I can take it
> > from machine to machine or is it specific to the hardware that I
> installed
> > for ?
> >
> > What about taking the flash drive out and plugging it back to the same
> > machine, that should be doable right ?  I am trying to use this as an
> > alternate os at work on the same hardware.
> >
> > What is the diff between installing the OS on a Flash drive vs running
> Live
> > CD (Puppy or Linux Mint that saves data) ?
> >
> > My Flash drive is 2GB and I am not sure if Arch can be installed there
> with
> > XFace.
> >
> > Is it feasible to do so ?
> >
> > I would like all kinds of comments to help out.
> >
> > -Narahari
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
> --
> Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
>    /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (678) 463-0932 |
> http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
>    NIC whois: MHW9          | An optimist believes we live in the best of
> all
>  PGP Key: 0x674627FF        | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20121001/8431b041/attachment-0001.html