CrunchBang Forums » Help & Support

Crunchbang on USB Flash

(8 posts)

  1. ruud
    Member
    5 posts

    Hi,

    I love to carry my Linux around on a usb flash. there are a lot of tutorials on how to put a distro on an usb-stick. I also did this with Ubuntu. Copy everything on the usb and make it bootable with syslinux.
    However if I follow this tutorial with Crunchbang, everthinbg works but when the distro starts, it starts Ubuntu??
    Of course You use Ubuntu as base-system. I guess you have a kind of overlay for your windowmanager and looks. This will be in a file which is not activated by syslinux. Can you perhaps point out to me what I am doing wrong?

    Ruud

    Posted 2 years ago #

  2. snowpine
    Member
    22 posts

    I am also curious to hear from anyone who's got this to work. I installed Crunchbang to a 2gb thumb drive with mixed results. Installation was really easy. I physically disconnected my computer's hard drive (this step may be unnecessary, but I was paranoid the installer might somehow mess up my Grub). Then, I booted from the #! Live CD and installed to the USB drive just like it was a normal hard drive. When I rebooted, it worked amazingly well--Crunchbang on a stick!

    However, here is the catch. When I reconnected my hard drive, it will now no longer boot from the USB. It always boots from the hard drive instead. It may just be a bios issue with my computer--I have not had a chance to test it on a newer computer. I know how to change the boot order in bios, but unfortunately, USB does not appear as an option in the boot menu.

    Any suggestions, anyone?

    ps Ruud, you could try disconnecting your hard drive like I did. This will help you troubleshoot whether or not your USB install is bootable or not. I am not familiar with the syslinux method you used; like I said, I just installed Crunchbang using the normal method (it was really easy).

    Posted 2 years ago #

  3. snowpine
    Member
    22 posts

    Update to the above post: I did not realize this, but USB appears as a Floppy in my Bios, strange but now that I know, I am running Crunchbang off my USB drive without any problems. Works great!

    From my research, I gather there are two different types of USB install.

    1) Like I did, just install Crunchbang as you would to a "normal" hard disk. Easy but takes up more space.
    2) LiveUSB, using the Crunchbang ISO (which takes up a lot less space) and setting it up so changes are persistent.

    Anyone have a good tutorial on option #2?

    Posted 2 years ago #

  4. ruud
    Member
    5 posts

    Hi Snowpine

    I did a normal hard disk install to my USB. And now I have it too on my USB. This is great. However after the installation my MBR on my harddisk was messed-up. My computer did not boot from the harddisk anymore. Error 21 it said. Luckely I still had not gone anyfurther then a fresh install, so I did another install on my harddisk. Now I got them both (USB & HD) running a full #!.

    Just wondering why my MBR on my HD was messed-up, but more how I can fix this without a new install. There must be an easier way. I guess something like chrooting into the HD and do a grub-instaal. But I don't know how exactly.

    Maybe somebody can help.

    Ruud

    Posted 2 years ago #

  5. corenominal
    root
    251 posts

    Hi Ruud,

    Glad to hear you managed to get your USB installation working. As for your MBR issues, you could try the Super Grub Disk: http://www.supergrubdisk.org/

    I have used it in the past to restore problematic systems. It is a handy tool to have at your disposal. Hope this helps.

    Get CrunchBang Linux | Join the mailing list
    Posted 2 years ago #

  6. snowpine
    Member
    22 posts

    Hi Ruud, sorry to hear about your problems with the MBR! I am kind of paranoid about something like this happening to me, so I actually have an old laptop with no hard drive that I use for testing Live CDs/USBs. Actually, the reason I use Linux full time is that, while trying to set up a dual boot as a complete newbie, I accidentally destroyed my Windows, but thankfully I've never looked back! I know that doesn't help you recover your MBR in this case; just sharing my experience.

    Posted 2 years ago #

  7. ArtF10
    Member
    7 posts

    Which would be faster:

    1. Crunchbang Linux on a CD-ROM
    2. Crunchbang Linux on a USB 2.0 memory stick

    Posted 1 year ago #

  8. snowpine
    Member
    22 posts

    Hi ArtF10, I'm going to give the cop-out answer and say "it depends on the speed of your CD drive and/or flash device." On my computer, I'd guesstimate the CD is marginally faster, but the USB has the advantage of being a full install rather than a non-persistent Live CD.

    Both are very slow as compared to a regular hard drive install.

    (edit) ps If you are looking for an "on the go" distro that you can use from a live CD, for example if you want to check your email from a public computer without leaving any traces, SliTaz is incredibly fast as it is only 25 mb and can run entirely from ram. Because it also uses Openbox, it will be familiar to Crunchbang users. In fact, I was able to copy some of my Openbox and Conky settings from Crunchbang to SliTaz, then remaster the live CD. Not that I would ever encourage anyone to give up Crunchbang, of course, but Crunchbang at home and SliTaz on the road is a great combination. :-)

    Posted 1 year ago #

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