We have tested installing to and running from a USB flash drive using the Dell R200 platform. On that machine, you need to first configure the emulation mode for the USB flash drive in the BIOS to be "disk" instead of floppy. This option only shows up in the BIOS menu if you actually have a USB flash drive inserted.

After you've done that, you can boot up on the LiveCD with the USB flash drive inserted, and the flash drive will show up as a disk device (e.g. /dev/sdb if you have one real hard disk drive).

After that, you can tell install-system to install onto this device, and it will happily do so, so long as your USB flash drive is at least 512 MB in size.

After that, you have to configure the boot sequence in the BIOS to list the USB flash drive before the internal hard disk drive. Here again, the USB flash drive only shows up as an option in the boot sequence menu if you actually have the USB flash drive inserted. Once you have changed the boot sequence, the system should boot up and run on the USB flash drive.

At that point, if you want to run entirely disk-less, you can remove the internal hard disk drive. Just remember to disable that SATA port in the BIOS so that the system doesn't complain about a missing disk drive at boot time.

Different platforms will naturally have different BIOS configuration requirements, but the general process should be the same.

BTW, Dell's higher-end server platforms like the R300 and 1950/2900/2950-III (but not the R200) have an internal USB connector, so you can run your system off of a USB flash drive without having it dangling off of the box.

Bob.

This looks like what I would like to do, however, is there a way to "install" the LiveCD onto the thumb drive without booting to the live environment?

I do not have access to a cd-rom drive.

On Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 10:23 PM, roe1234 wrote:

You MIGHT be able to boot the LiveCD using a VMWare system, then run
install-system to the USB drive from the VM system.

Best,
Justin

while this *is* a viable option, I was wondering of there was anyway to get the live CD environment onto the USB drive

roe - I hear that there is something coming from Vyatta -
in the meantime you may want to check out liveusb-creator
https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator

On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 10:48 AM, roe1234 wrote:

Generic instructions are as follows...

Create a partition and filesystem on your USB stick. To create a livecd type of install on your USB stick; Mount the Vyatta iso. Copy the files from the iso to your USB drive. To create a native type of install; Mount the iso. Then mount the filesystem.squashfs file on the iso using a loopback. Copy the files from the filesystem.squashfs to your USB stick. Finally, for both types of installs, run grub -install on the USB stick using grub2 preferably. The exact commands for each step can be found in the install-system script included with Vyatta. If you can't access install-system locally you can browse the script here:

http://suva.vyatta.com/git/?p=vyatta-cfg-system.git;a=blob;f=scripts/install-system;h=1f507fe9520dccc91de3f4525c672a70a5381dda;hb=refs/heads/jenner

You might need to change your grub or kernel parameters on startup. If so, just use the built-in grub editor during boot to do so. (hit when you see the grub message.) Parameters you might need to change include "root", if you install natively. I would recommend trying the native install route since it will provide you with a writable root directory. You can get a writable root with a livecd install, but you will need to create a filesystem in a file named live-rw. That file should be placed in the root of your USB.

Depending on your Linux savvy it might be worlds easier to just install to USB from a VmWare image.

roe1234 wrote:

Actually just last Friday I was looking at the option of building a "live USB" image (in addition to the live CD image). Such an image can be written to a USB stick directly, which can then be used to boot a machine just like a live CD. So please stay tuned!

This is great, I can confirm works fine with v4.1.4 Community Edition using a Kingston Data Traveller 2.0 4GB formatted to FAT32.

This also has the added benefit that you can plug it into a Windows PC and edit as required. GREAT FIND! Kudos there...

However, can someone, maybe a developer, please inform me how to edit my new Live USB to become live editable? So I can save my config back to the USB key which is currently a LiveCD on USB.
I ask because I'm currently emergency setting up my replacement router that has a failed hard drive. I'm really running out of time as we speak.

The problem I'm having in particular is that when I install onto my USB, even though the installer works fine and GRUB installs perfectly, the finished USB key wont boot.
Developers please take note on that fact: The LiveCD boot method works perfectly but the install from a LiveCD doesnt boot (At least in this configuration, and I have checked everything). I'm unsure of the exact differences, as I'm not much of a developer but if there is a LiveCD or USB installer in the works, please use the boot method used to boot the LiveCD.

Thanks anyone.