Newbies USB boot and save file woes.

Post here if you are a new Porteus member and you're looking for some help.
huymog
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Newbies USB boot and save file woes.

Post#1 by huymog » 04 May 2014, 08:02

Hi all,

I've spent the last two days (well not all the time but on and off) trying to get Porteus 3.0 KDE to run off a USB stick. I've tried booting off a Linux prepared USB (using Mint 13 Mate, and Precise Puppy 5.7.1) format ext 2 and from Windows 7 format FAT 32. Both were prepared off the same ISO from the custom ISO choice screen for downloads.

The Windows boot would not let me boot in the "graphics mode" and forced me into the "always fresh" mode and told me to set up a save file. The app to this would not work for me. I tried creating the save file in the boot partition (FAT 32), in an empty ext 2 partition on the same drive and to a USB hard drive. All three returned the message "sorry <folder name>is inside the live file system. You must store your change file outside of aufs". I've read up what I found and could understand on the Porteus site and the forum but have not found a solution.

The Linux prepared boot would allow me to proceed past the first screen with the Graphic mode-Always fresh choice. In my case login as guest password guest was not accepted so was stuck there, and login root plus my password lead me to a red prompt line as in the console. I tried the suggested commands but could not see anything that would get me further. I even started to configure the Wi-Fi from here but gave up as it worked well and very easily in always fresh mode - except that without a save file I have set that up seven or eight times!

Any help in moving forward would be greatly appreciated. I think if I could get the save file up and running I could move on, but the problem may lie in the way I set up the USB boot sticks. I tried all the methods from the tutorial in both Linux and Windows, all gave the same result.

This was written from my laptop running on the last of attempts at a USB boot of Porteus. I like the looks of Porteus over Puppy and it seems to have more potential, but at the moment Puppy is working for me and at much less effort and that is what counts for me. I'm sure I'd prefer a working Porteus, so hoping for some help from here.

I'm sure I have given too little detail, given the question I'll answer to the point rather than filling this post with the minute details of all my mistakes getting this far.

Thanks huymog

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freestyler
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Re: Newbies USB boot and save file woes.

Post#2 by freestyler » 04 May 2014, 08:30

Hi, Welcome to Porteus.
If you have the choice boot into "copy to ram" otherwise when the boot loader menu appears press tab and at the end type:

Code: Select all

copy2ram
Once you are in, format the USB as ext4, that way you wont need a save.dat
Next use the porteus installer and select the the usb drive and choose to install boot loader.
Reboot and it should work perfect.
https://www.porteus-apps.org

huymog
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Re: Newbies USB boot and save file woes.

Post#3 by huymog » 04 May 2014, 16:08

Freestyler, thanks for the suggestion. I tried to follow your instructions. I formatted a second USB stick in ext4 so I wouldn't lose the boot USB into always fresh and boot to RAM. Took out the original boot drive after booting into load into RAM and used Porteus installer as suggested. The set-up screens all worked, pressed button to start the process and noticed the following. A console opened briefly and disappeared off screen. Nothing on the screen except the empty desktop but I did notice that the USB was being written to. Gave it plenty of time, 30+ minutes and then tried to reboot from the new USB. A message briefly appeared on a black screen saying no program found (or something to that effect) and a few seconds later the grub menu from the hard disk came up. I repeated the process, with the same result.

The console which disappeared was still live from the icons at the bottom left, was an empty (i.e no command or message after the prompt) guest console prompt.

Porteus does all I've tried in always fresh and boot to RAM mode except reboot after use with saved settings from the last session. I'm doing something wrong, but just don't know what. Any suggestions anyone?

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freestyler
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Re: Newbies USB boot and save file woes.

Post#4 by freestyler » 04 May 2014, 16:18

You can always use unetbootin, its available on every OS and easy to use. just load it up, select the .iso in the box at the bottom and click ok. It will automatically install porteus and a boot loader.
https://www.porteus-apps.org

huymog
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Re: Newbies USB boot and save file woes.

Post#5 by huymog » 04 May 2014, 19:50

It worked!!!!

I'm embarrassed!! Unetbootin worked and I had it installed on Mint all along. Thanks for your help freestyler. Very pleased with what I am seeing with KDE Porteus, makes Puppy look like a kiddies toy! more importantly everything I have tried to get to work has worked well (except the boot USB hiccup). I've been slowly working my way down distrowatches list and this is the USB boot distro I'll work with for a while.

Thanks again, huymog

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