All the distro needs is a web browser and email reader really and it needs to be small of course (not more than 128mb). But I don't want to use DSL because of it's name...

Thanks!

PS. Do you think MP3 player could be used for this as well? I quess it wouldnt work as a player any longer after the linux is installed.

In Christ,
Jari.

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

quote:

---

Originally posted by jari:

All the distro needs is a web browser and email reader really and it needs to be small of course (not more than 128mb). But I don't want to use DSL because of it's name...

---

quote:

---

PS. Do you think MP3 player could be used for this as well? I quess it wouldnt work as a player any longer after the linux is installed.

---

The only player that I know of would be an iPod. After you install linux on an iPod you can still play music through xmms or something similar.

------------------
All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!! chown -r us ./base
"After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless.'' -- Tao of Programming Book 2

To each his own, but it seems like it would suit your cause nicely.

------------------
quit posting on CCN? nope. I havn't been driven off yet.

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

------------------
proverbs 17:28
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

proverbs 25:7
open rebuke is better than secret love.

www.gfa.org - Gospel for Asia

www.persecution.com - Voice of the Martyrs

if you have the time, knowledge, and patience this would be a good idea. i'm thinking about diving head first into this one myself. they had a version that would run apache that took up only 8mb! i'm sure it's difficult. think i'll try this out tonight when i get home.

------------------
proverbs 17:28
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

proverbs 25:7
open rebuke is better than secret love.

www.gfa.org - Gospel for Asia

www.persecution.com - Voice of the Martyrs

------------------
"Be nice to the nerds because later on, you'll be working for them" - Bill Gates

quote:

---

Originally posted by bennythebear:
i guess one the linux gurus here could direct you toward tutorials and whatnot on compiling your own distro, or modifying your own distro.

---

I was considering this option but Im not sure is it worth the time and even I found instrunctions for it I'm not sure.
Thanks!

And thanks for the link FM!

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

[This message has been edited by jari (edited May 17, 2006).]

The easiest to install would be Slax and it shouldn't take you more than 20 minutes to install onto you USB Drive. If you need more info or help PM me.

------------------
All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!! chown -r us ./base
"After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless.'' -- Tao of Programming Book 2

------------------
In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
--------------
Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

quote:

---

Originally posted by firemaker103:
puppylinux.com

---

ok..i just now installed this on my mp3 player and booted my machine from it lol! they made it soooo easy!

it appears to be working great!, the only problem I have is with my wireless network, but im having problems in xp with that right now anyway. it looks pretty cool, though

Here's what I had to do:

1) Download and burn their iso image of puppy to a CD (to boot from)
2) Connected my mp3 player (usb cable) to the computer
3) Once you get to the desktop...click on Start...Setup...Install Puppy USB Drive.
4) This program went step by step detecting, installing, and setting up the USB drive. I honestly thing a 3 year old could have followed these instructions, (trust me i know close to zilch about linux)
5) That's it!

Had to make sure my bios was set to boot from USB and I put my USB device in my boot sequence...but when the machine booted it booted into puppy linux! that was fun!

it did take 122 mb on my mp3 player (only has 128mb built in) so that leaves me uhhhh... enough for one small song!!

..ok, it only took up around 120 mb, I put two mp3's on the player and they played fine...

one more thing, it loads completely into memory, so when you run it's fast and conserves your usb drive wear/tear + batteries, only writes back when saving prefs and when you save files and stuff.

[This message has been edited by coolj (edited May 18, 2006).]

CPUFreak: Thanks for the info! I'll keep all that in mind.

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2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

the build I used didn't have python preinstalled they have several different builds of puppy to choose from, but since I chose one that uses up most of my space on the mp3 drive, I'll have to uninstall some apps to free up space to install python

quote:

---

Originally posted by coolj:
this could just be because my mp3 player is slow at reading.

---

Hmm do you know how fast is you mp3's reading speed?

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

------------------
In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
--------------
Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

------------------
"One World. One Web. One Program." -Microsoft promotional advertisement
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer!" -Adolf Hitler

quote:

---

Originally posted by buddboy:
that is cool!! so what, you hook it to your pc and it will run from that? sweet... lol...
[/B]

---

yeah, exactly..of course I have no practical use for this right now...I thought I read somewhere you could build a cheap(er) computer (without the hard drive) by just running of your thumb drive. It might be good for emergency an boot if your hd is toast.

I guess one cool use would be have your own portable os, being able to plug it into any computer anywhere that supports booting from usb and be able to plug it boot it up. I wonder if they would let my try it at the library? lol

quote:

---

Originally posted by jari:
Hmm do you know how fast is you mp3's reading speed?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by coolj:
yeah, exactly..of course I have no practical use for this right now...I thought I read somewhere you could build a cheap(er) computer (without the hard drive) by just running of your thumb drive. It might be good for emergency an boot if your hd is toast.

---

Hmm yeah that is the question, does it have enough practical use to have linux in USB stick? If I can go to any PC and use it in there then it would be useful but how many PC's support boot from USB stick? Do all PC's which have USB port support it as long as its enabled from BIOS or what, any one knows?

I need to buy mp3 player but the question is how much mem should it have. 512 probably for linux or just 128 if I wont be using linux in it.

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

quote:

---

Originally posted by jari:
Hmm yeah that is the question, does it have enough practical use to have linux in USB stick? If I can go to any PC and use it in there then it would be useful but how many PC's support boot from USB stick? Do all PC's which have USB port support it as long as its enabled from BIOS or what, any one knows?

I need to buy mp3 player but the question is how much mem should it have. 512 probably for linux or just 128 if I wont be using linux in it.

---

Good questions..If your bios supports 'boot from usb' i think it is fair to say it should work.

I would look for an mp3 player with usb2 support for data transfer....

Also make sure your mp3 player has standard usb support as a generic usb storage device. Almost all do, but there are a few out there that use some propietary format that you have to have their *special* drivers installed for (I think my kodak camera is like this, I should try installing linux on it! ) Why they do this? I have no idea!

As far as what mp3 to buy...you just reminded me why when I plug my mp3 player in I see 2 drives instead of one. It has 128mb built in AND it has a card slot for SD mem card. I would guess this is the setup for most mp3 players were you can add more mem, im not sure. but to be able to pop in a 1 gig sd card and install linux on that gives me room to expand. something to keep in mind.

my biggest issue is not how slow it is on boot, but battery usage. my mp3 player runs off of 1 AAA battery and i use cheapo batteries (12/$1 at the Dollar Store) so I burn though juice quick!

[This message has been edited by coolj (edited May 23, 2006).]

quote:

---

Originally posted by coolj:

my biggest issue is not how slow it is on boot, but battery usage. my mp3 player runs off of 1 AAA battery and i use cheapo batteries (12/$1 at the Dollar Store) so I burn though juice quick!

---

Ouch I didn't think of that! thanks for the warning...

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

------------------

"I am very good at hiding, so if you don't see me, that's where I am." Orc Outlaw, TES III Morrowind

[This message has been edited by ereon (edited May 23, 2006).]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ereon:
You know Jari this whole discussion gave me a really cool idea. What about a Bible stored on a flash drive? With just 128 or even 64 MB you could store a complete Bible, multiple commentaries, daily reading schedule tools, and even several translations. It would be inconspicuous, easy to carry, and you could access your Bible from wherever there was a computer with a USB port. Is it doable and what do you think?

---

Sure that's bossible, there is a program called bible time for linux (KDE) and you can download many translations to it.

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

------------------
In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
--------------
Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

------------------

"I am very good at hiding, so if you don't see me, that's where I am." Orc Outlaw, TES III Morrowind

------------------

"I am very good at hiding, so if you don't see me, that's where I am." Orc Outlaw, TES III Morrowind

quote:

---

Originally posted by ereon:
Yeah, I was thinking of tinkering with it. Might be useful when I go to college in 2 years. Would be rather conspicuous to carry my big old Bible around with me 24/7, and this way, put it on my keyring and I'm spiritually armed wherever I go .

---

well, a handheld might be just what you need for that! almost all of them have some sort of bible software and bible text and ebook files are always available.

quote:

---

Originally posted by coolj:
my biggest issue is not how slow it is on boot, but battery usage. my mp3 player runs off of 1 AAA battery and i use cheapo batteries (12/$1 at the Dollar Store) so I burn though juice quick!

---

RadioShack XMods Rechargable Batteries would probabaly work good for you. That way you have 8 batteries and a 4 battery charger. Assuming an MP3 player uses 2, you would always have spares, and you can save a bit of money.

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------------------------
Its one of those... Goop... things...
hotmail: Grafitiware@hotmail.com
Yahoo: namerobbedagian

On the thumbdrive Bible. Handhelds are FAR more expensive that flash drives (Or at least the 64 MB ones I would anticipate using). I suffer from a severe lack of fundage, so I think I'd have to go with the flash drive.

------------------

"I am very good at hiding, so if you don't see me, that's where I am." Orc Outlaw, TES III Morrowind

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

------------------
In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
--------------
Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

quote:

---

Originally posted by buddboy:
you don't... you burn it to a cd, then install it on the USB drive... if you're using puppy linux it looks like you can just set it to install on the USB drive.

---

Hmm, sorry I dont understand how do you "install" it on USB?

What I did was first mounted the ISO as virtual drive and copied the files to the mp3 player's memory (after formatting it to fat32).
But when I restarted the PC it didn't boot which is understandble if some BIOS setting isnt right, just dont know what.

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

Don't know if this is the way that works, but if it is, then that's how it should go.

------------------
quit posting on CCN? nope. I havn't been driven off yet.

reiterate please coolj?

------------------
In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
--------------
Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

quote:

---

Here's what I had to do:

1) Download and burn their iso image of puppy to a CD (to boot from)
2) Connected my mp3 player (usb cable) to the computer
3) BOOT FROM YOUR NEWLY CREATED PUPPY LINUX CD
4) Once you get to the *linux* desktop...click on Start...Setup...Install Puppy USB Drive.
5) This program went step by step detecting, installing, and setting up the USB drive. I honestly thing a 3 year old could have followed these instructions, (trust me i know close to zilch about linux)
6) That's it! Remove the CD, you can now reboot to linux from your usb drive.

---

Hope that helps! I think the install process not only copies the files to the usb drive, but also makes it bootable (via a boot sector?)

[This message has been edited by coolj (edited May 24, 2006).]

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

I have two PC's available for testing but at the moment neither of them is able to boot from the USB. I have tried all the boot device priorities on the other PC so I quess those don't matter too much?

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

quote:

---

Originally posted by jari:
I just installed puppy and it sure was easy with coolj's instructions. puppy is very user friendly distro btw.
But now I need to figure how to make my PC boot from the USB.

I have two PC's available for testing but at the moment neither of them is able to boot from the USB. I have tried all the boot device priorities on the other PC so I quess those don't matter too much?

---

Hmmm..in your bios setup -
1. Enable 'Boot from USB'
2. Put your USB drive as your 1st drive in your boot sequence'

It sounds like you tried this, it should work! When you try, does it just boot into Windows, or does it go to a black screen and stop?

quote:

---

Originally posted by jari:
I just installed puppy and it sure was easy with coolj's instructions. puppy is very user friendly distro btw.
But now I need to figure how to make my PC boot from the USB.

I have two PC's available for testing but at the moment neither of them is able to boot from the USB. I have tried all the boot device priorities on the other PC so I quess those don't matter too much?

---

Hmmm..in your bios setup -
1. Enable 'Boot from USB'
2. Put your USB drive as your 1st drive in your boot sequence'

It sounds like you tried this, it should work! When you try, does it just boot into Windows, or does it go to a black screen and stop?

------------------
In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
--------------
Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

------------------
quit posting on CCN? nope. I havn't been driven off yet.

------------------
In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
--------------
Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

Most of the time you have to go into the BIOS and alter it, since the default is usually hdd0 or hdd1.

------------------
quit posting on CCN? nope. I havn't been driven off yet.

------------------
In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
--------------
Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

------------------
quit posting on CCN? nope. I havn't been driven off yet.

------------------
------------------------
Its one of those... Goop... things...
hotmail: Grafitiware@hotmail.com
Yahoo: namerobbedagian

------------------
quit posting on CCN? nope. I havn't been driven off yet.

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

------------------
------------------------
Its one of those... Goop... things...
hotmail: Grafitiware@hotmail.com
Yahoo: namerobbedagian

[This message has been edited by Goop2 (edited May 28, 2006).]

quote:

---

Originally posted by crazyishone:
A person could theoretically write their own. Easier said than done, but eh.

---

www.linuxbios.org

------------------
All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!! chown -r us ./base
"After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless.'' -- Tao of Programming Book 2

My Blog

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

of course, there is one more option, very mysterious but oh so powerfull...boot from network..very cool! has anyone here done this?

http://frank.harvard.edu/~coldwell/diskless/

To boot from network it appears your bios AND your network card need to support it. It appears mine does! Intel PRO/100 VE

Also, a tftp/PXE server needs to be setup. Ok, this is a problem! I only have one i386 computer and a pretty old mac powerbook running yellowdog linux. If I can set this server up on my powerbook, I might give this a try.

What is really cool, i would think that if I have a server set up and my ip is static (well it's semi-static) then I could boot off it from anywhere!

quote:

---

Originally posted by Goop2:
I had a neat idea, but Im not sure if its possible... can you install Linux onto a SD card and boot from it? Then I could keep linux handy in my camera whenever I need it xD

---

I would think so, this is pretty close to what I've done with my mp3 player, though I its not on the SD card, its in the internal mem. I think most card readers are USB devices (internal & external) so you might still need to have the boot from USB option available in your bios.

[This message has been edited by coolj (edited June 01, 2006).]

quote:

---

Originally posted by jari:
Thank you for the info Christo!
Hmm fortunately there seems be one solution left and that is the boot disk which I mentioned earlier. However I cannot test it because I dont have USB stick at the moment (but planning to buy one), so if some one is able to test the boot disk thing in the puppy's site, then please let us know did it work or not!

---

ok I disabled usb boot support in my bios, then I followed the instructions below to create the boot disk. It Worked!!! (well kinda).

I booted from floppy, it detected my usb drive, then began to install linux from the usb into memory. However, my computer keeps crashing, in the middle of copying files to mem (but this is because my system is flakey because of bad capacitors {anything that's memory or video intensive causes my computer to overheat!) I know this is the problem, because when I reboot it beeps and tells me my computer as overheated.) Anyway I'll let it sit awhile later and try again, but I'm pretty confident that this will work for you!

Instructions:
http://www.puppylinux.com/boot2pup.htm

The cool thing is, since I already installed Puppy Linux on my mp3 player, all I had to do to make in boot from floppy as well, was to create an empty file called 'pupxusb' to the root level! So I should be able to boot streight usb or by floppy->usb, I think this is what you want!

Since I already had Puppy Linux setup on my usb, all I could skip the initial setup steps and start here:

(instructions from: http://www.puppylinux.com/boot2pup.htm)

quote:

---

~~part of Step 2~~~
That's it, they're installed. There is just one more small thing to do: on the USB device create a file called "pupxusb" or on the IDE hard drive create a file called "pupxide" (in the top-level directory) -- only create this file in the drive that has Puppy vmlinuz and image.gz (and usr_cram.fs) files.

You could use Notepad to create these, though Notepad has the awful habit of appending ".txt" to any files it creates. Nothing needs to be in the file, as only its name matters.

Step 3
Download this file: boot2pup.img.gz

Uncompress it, and you will have a 1440K floppy disk image. In Windows, Winzip can handle the ".gz" compression format, and in Linux you just type:

# gunzip boot2pup.img.gz# dd if=boot2pup.img of=/dev/fd0
In Windows, you have to use the "rawrite.exe" program to write a floppy disk image to the floppy (it's a DOS application): rawrite.exe

Etienne Lorrain, the developer of Gujin, contacted me and informed me about an alternative to rawrite called rawwrite, that works better with Windows. Rawwrite is to be found at: http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/rawwrite.htm

Step 4
With floppy inserted, reboot the PC, and Puppy will boot.

Note, a PC with Pentium I CPU and at least 64M RAM is required.

---

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

quote:

---

Originally posted by jari:
I just tested the boot disk method and it first gave some "abort retry ignore fail" options when it tried to read drive D and after aborting it ended up in kernel panic. So I quess it uses wrong drive or something, I have to see if the puppy pages have some tips.

---

It just sounds like a bad floppy, or the boot image wasnt properly written to the floppy. What program did you use to copy the boot image to the floppy? Just doing a standard format and copying the files to the disk want work.

quote:

---

Originally posted by coolj:
It just sounds like a bad floppy, or the boot image wasnt properly written to the floppy. What program did you use to copy the boot image to the floppy? Just doing a standard format and copying the files to the disk want work.

---

rawrite. I just thought that maybe it didnt work because I used the puppy's USB install script while running puppy in vmplayer (virtual PC). Because I remember the script asking something about drive letters... hmm

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

Btw, did you know that the new ubuntu 6.10 can also be installed in USB? I just read that from ubuntu's site.

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

[This message has been edited by jari (edited June 11, 2006).]

KERNEL.SYS
COMMAND.COM
TINY.EXE
AUTOEXEC.BAT
ASPIDISK.SYS
CONFIG.SYS
DI1000DD.SYS
HIMEM.EXE
MSCDEX.EXE
OAKCDROM.SYS
RAMFD.SYS
USBASPI.SYS
USBCD.SYS

So it sounds like step 3 didn't work for you. Here are the steps agains (I've added more detail for clarity):

1. Download this file: boot2pup.img.gz

2. Uncompress it, and you will have a 1440K floppy disk image.

In linux, use the following command (this is what I used):

gunzip boot2pup.img.gz

In windows use can use winzip to extract the image file.

Either way you should then have the file 'boot2pup.img'

3. You will need to write the image file to the floppy disk.

1st, I would recommend formating the floppy.

Then, in Linux, be sure you have the floppy disk mounted, then you can type the following command from the same directory where you have the 'boot2pup.img':

dd if=boot2pup.img of=/dev/fd0

(THis is how I did it)

You should now have a bootable floppy disk ready to go!!!

You can check the contents to be sure the files now appear on the floppy disk. They probably used a disk image for this so a bootable boot sector could be written to the floppy as well as the files:

KERNEL.SYS
COMMAND.COM
TINY.EXE
AUTOEXEC.BAT
ASPIDISK.SYS
CONFIG.SYS
DI1000DD.SYS
HIMEM.EXE
MSCDEX.EXE
OAKCDROM.SYS
RAMFD.SYS
USBASPI.SYS
USBCD.SYS

I didn't use Windows(I would recommended trying it in linux if your not able to get it to work in windows), but if you choose to, you should be able to use rawrite.exe or rawwrite.exe as the instructions described:

In Windows, you have to use the "rawrite.exe" program to write a floppy disk image to the floppy (it's a DOS application): rawrite.exe

Etienne Lorrain, the developer of Gujin, contacted me and informed me about an alternative to rawrite called rawwrite, that works better with Windows. Rawwrite is to be found at: http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/rawwrite.htm

Anyway, good luck. I've heard good things about ubuntu but I didn't know they have a usb bootable version available too, pretty cool!

------------------
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

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The ojbect of war isn't to die for your country, but to make the other guy die for his...
-George Patton

If practice makes perfect, and no one is perfect, then why practice? -Yours Truely