Porteus on new USB but can't copy paste files - Please help!

[softappweber]

Hello everyone,
Straight to the point, I have 2 extra USBs 32GB and 64GB. I always want to use different Porteus flavours by installing Porteus ISO using BalenaEtcher and use it as I am using this USB with Porteus Cinnamon flavour.
But whenever I flash any USB with ISO of Porteus and using Etcher, I can login to Porteus but when I use it I can not copy-paste any file on that USB. I can download but can not store anything on that USB. 'Paste' and 'Create new folder/file' these options, when we right click in File Manager are 'blurred' and are 'inaccessible'.

This has been very annoying problem since long time for me. Please tell me what to do about it?

Actually the USB I am using now to use Porteus Cinnamon, I had created this using Windows system and using YUMI multiboot tool. I can run Porteus with 'copy to ram' mode and still can store, copy paste, download etc. on this USB without problem. But it is not so, with other 2 USBs using Porteus ISO and Etcher.

Any help will be appreciated. Thank you have a nice time and best of luck everyone!

[AcnapyxoB]

I can not copy-paste any file on that USB

Hi softappweber
Probably Etcher makes them in ISO file system (read only):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc_image

Why not use the built-in tools for this purpose, there is more information in USB_INSTALLATION.txt:

Code: Select all

Porteus can be installed to a flash drive or hard 
drive in several ways.

FOR EFI SYSTEMS:
Ensure the first partition is of type FAT32.
a) Copy the EFI, boot and porteus folders onto the FAT32 partition.
You may create a second partition with a linux filesystem for the porteus folder.
If you do so, you need to add the from=/mnt/sdb2(example only, the drive name may differ)
cheatcode to the APPEND line in /boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg file.
See /boot/docs/cheatcodes > from= for more details and options.

FOR BIOS SYSTEMS:
From Windows:
a) copy the contents of the ISO image to your drive
b) navigate to the \boot folder and launch the 
'Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe' script
c) verify you are installing to the correct drive and press 'Enter' to 
complete the installation

From any Linux Distribution other than Porteus:
a) copy the contents of the ISO image to your drive
b) navigate to the /boot folder and launch the installer
'bash Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com'
c) verify you are installing to the correct drive and press 'Enter' to
complete the installation

From Porteus itself (booted from CD):
a) launch 'Porteus Installer' from the desktop menu,
 under the 'System' heading (if you are
prompted for the root password, it is toor)
b) plug in your usb drive or select a partition
on a hard drive
c) follow the on-screen instructions 

video presentations:
http://goo.gl/lB9uL
http://goo.gl/2noje

If you run into trouble please refer to the more 
detailed installation guide which can be found at
/boot/docs/install.txt or our website at 
http://goo.gl/ci4EE

Porteus Team

[Ed_P]

Some USB drives have switches that can disable writing to the drive. Check if your drives have this feature softappweber. Also in Windows delete any files/folder on the USB drive before copying the ISO's files to it.

[softappweber]

I can not copy-paste any file on that USB

Hi softappweber
Probably Etcher makes them in ISO file system (read only):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc_image

Why not use the built-in tools for this purpose, there is more information in USB_INSTALLATION.txt:

Code: Select all

Porteus can be installed to a flash drive or hard 
drive in several ways.

FOR EFI SYSTEMS:
Ensure the first partition is of type FAT32.
a) Copy the EFI, boot and porteus folders onto the FAT32 partition.
You may create a second partition with a linux filesystem for the porteus folder.
If you do so, you need to add the from=/mnt/sdb2(example only, the drive name may differ)
cheatcode to the APPEND line in /boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg file.
See /boot/docs/cheatcodes > from= for more details and options.

FOR BIOS SYSTEMS:
From Windows:
a) copy the contents of the ISO image to your drive
b) navigate to the \boot folder and launch the 
'Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe' script
c) verify you are installing to the correct drive and press 'Enter' to 
complete the installation

From any Linux Distribution other than Porteus:
a) copy the contents of the ISO image to your drive
b) navigate to the /boot folder and launch the installer
'bash Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com'
c) verify you are installing to the correct drive and press 'Enter' to
complete the installation

From Porteus itself (booted from CD):
a) launch 'Porteus Installer' from the desktop menu,
 under the 'System' heading (if you are
prompted for the root password, it is toor)
b) plug in your usb drive or select a partition
on a hard drive
c) follow the on-screen instructions 

video presentations:
http://goo.gl/lB9uL
http://goo.gl/2noje

If you run into trouble please refer to the more 
detailed installation guide which can be found at
/boot/docs/install.txt or our website at 
http://goo.gl/ci4EE

Porteus Team

Hi Thank you for the reply AcnapyxoB,
I think I should mention here that when I use Porteus ISO and Etcher for this purpose, I am always using 'copy to RAM' version of Porteus Cinnamon. Can it be the reason? Should I use 'Graphical Mode'?

[softappweber]

Some USB drives have switches that can disable writing to the drive. Check if your drives have this feature softappweber. Also in Windows delete any files/folder on the USB drive before copying the ISO's files to it.

Hi Thank you for the reply Ed_P
No the drive does not have that kind of switch. I think I should mention here that when I use POrteus ISO and Etcher, I am always using 'copy to RAM' version of Porteus Cinnamon. Can it be the reason? Should I use 'Graphical Mode'?

[softappweber]

When I tried to use 'Porteus Installer ' of Porteus OS, following error appeared, so what I mentioned is true I guess.

[Ed_P]

Yup. That Installer writes the ISO file to the USB drive as a CD which makes it unwritable. (even though yrs ago I had, and may still have, rewritable CDs. )

Use GParted to unmount it and reformat the USB drive then follow the steps in the USB_Installation.txt file and copy all the files and folders in the ISO to the USB drive and run the appropiate /boot/Porteus_Installer app.

[nanZor]

Yep - flashing or burning the iso creates the stick equivalent of a read-only CD. Some may prefer this, but to save any changes at all, must create either a savefile .dat container, or /porteus directory on a different medium other than the stick within the system. One might even consider a "two stick" solution - one read-only that you have burned or dd'ed, and another one dedicated to holding your savefile.dat containers on fat32, or reformatted with extX for example.

Some older machines also have a bios security setup which denies "booting from optical" - which means that it will read/write to CD/DVD drives, but will not boot from ANY media seen as the iso9660 format, be it spinning cd/dvd's, or sticks that have been dd'ed or burned by 3rd party utils because what is created is an iso9660 format. Not all machines employ this security feature, but those that do may have the option to allow for it in bios.

The easiest solution if you want your boot stick to be read/write, is to stop using 3rd party burning utilities, and simply double-click your downloaded iso to open it, copy all the files to the target usb, and run the installer (if desired) from that target drive. If that is not automatic, most file managers have an option to "mount" the iso from which you can copy the files.

Also note that sticks larger than 32g, such as your 64g stick, may come out of the box formatted with exFAt, and may not boot until you reformat it to Fat32 to do the simple install. Windows won't allow you to do that on sticks larger than 32g. HOWEVER, one good 3rd party use of the 3rd party Rufus burner, is that it has the drop-down option of simply formatting a stick as "non bootable" (ie, plain jane formatting), and WILL format sticks larger than 32gb to Fat32 if that is your desire, and then you can continue with the open/mount n copy method as seen in the docs.

I know it reads like a lot, but Porteus(x) charm is that one can totally set it up however they like.