If you got a USB memory stick you can boot gNewSense live as with the cd. What you will need:
- A USB stick 1 GB+
- A motherboard that support booting from removables.
- A computer with usb ports with GNU/Linux or Windows running.
Make your stick bootable
This will guide you to make the stick bootable. We are going to use syslinux for it.
Install syslinux
Choose the operating system you run. GNU/Linux or Windows.
GNU/Linux
Syslinux may already be installed in your system. Type syslinux in a terminal. If the command is not found you have to install it from your distribution's repository. On a Debian/Ubuntu system this is done like this:
apt-get install syslinux
You can also run the following commands in a terminal:
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/syslinux-4.04.tar.bz2 tar -xvjf syslinux-4.04.tar.bz2 cd syslinux-4.04/unix
Now you got syslinux ready to use. Keep the terminal window up so you can use it later.
Windows
Download a syslinux zip-file from http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/.
Unpack it.
Have up your terminal by clicking Start and then Run, type cmd and press Enter.
Cd to the directory where you unpacked syslinux, cd Desktop should work if you unpacked it to your desktop and if the terminal started in your user directory.
Type cd syslinux-4.04 or whatever version you have downloaded.
Finally type cd win32 to get into the windows binary.
Now you got syslinux ready to use. Keep the terminal window up so you can use it later.
Partition the stick
Usually USB sticks are already partitioned with a FAT partition. If your USB stick is completely empty, you need to use fdisk to partition it:
# fdisk /dev/sdf
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x85934366.
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdf: 2021 MB, 2021654528 bytes
63 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1010 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 3906 * 512 = 1999872 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x85934366
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-1010, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-1010, default 1010):
Using default value 1010
Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): b
Changed system type of partition 1 to b (W95 FAT32)
Command (m for help): a
Partition number (1-4): 1
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdf: 2021 MB, 2021654528 bytes
63 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1010 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 3906 * 512 = 1999872 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x85934366
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdf1 * 1 1010 1972499 b W95 FAT32
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
WARNING: If you have created or modified any DOS 6.x
partitions, please see the fdisk manual page for additional
information.
Syncing disks.
mocca:~#
Format the stick
Again, usually USB sticks are already formatted. If you want to-reformat it, you can do it like this:
In GNU/Linux:
mkfs.vfat /dev/sdf1
Run syslinux
Run the syslinux command shown below, in the window we set up earlier, assuming drive name is sdb1 or F:.
In GNU/Linux:
syslinux -s /dev/sdb1
In Windows:
syslinux.exe -s -m F:
Mount the stick
In the most modern operating systems USB memory sticks get mounted automatically.
If not and if you use a GNU/Linux distribution run mount:
mount /dev/sdb1 /media/usb
You have to run the command as root or sudo. You also have to create the directory usb with mkdir /media/usb, or choose a mount point at your opinion.
The device name may also be different. Run dmesg | tail in a terminal after you have plugged in the stick.
Look for [sdb] or any similar. Add a 1 to it so it knows it is the first partition.
Copy files from the gNewSense iso
Download a gNewSense iso from http://cdimage.gnewsense.org/ You can burn the iso to a cd and copy the files to the stick, but it is faster to mount the iso.
note：you can use any distribute like: ubuntu, mint or something alse. all of them works.
In GNU/Linux:
mkdir /media/iso mount -oloop /path/to/gnewsense-livecd-deltah-2.3.iso /media/iso
Again, it has to be done as root or sudo.
In Windows you can use a program called Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel. Download it, unpack it and read it's readme for how to use it.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/b/6/7b6abd84-7841-4978-96f5-bd58df02efa2/winxpvirtualcdcontrolpanel_21.exe
Copy the casper directory to the memory stick. Copy the content of the isolinux directory to the memory stick. Rename isolinux.bin to syslinux.bin. Rename isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg.
In GNU/Linux:
cp -r /media/iso/casper/ /media/usb/ cp /media/iso/isolinux/* /media/usb/ mv /media/usb/isolinux.bin /media/usb/syslinux.bin mv /media/usb/isolinux.cfg /media/usb/syslinux.cfg
Unmount the memory stick to write cache.
In GNU/Linux:
umount /media/usb
Unmount the ISO image. In GNU/Linux:
umount /media/iso
Memory sticks not automounted-fix
If you installed gNewSense from the memory stick the same memory stick is not automatically mounted. This is caused by the stick being added to the fstab file. Plug in your memory stick and check in dmesg what it got for a device name.
dmesg | tail
Then edit fstab and remove the line containing the device name.
sudo gedit /etc/fstab
For example: /dev/sdb1 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD/Persistence
http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=14209&p=192127