Mint 10 persistent

Computer Help and Discussions The Lounge
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This is sort of a follow up to Ishi's thread here: http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=32374&st=0 . Good thread, Ishi, helped me learn something new. Might be that everybody already knew this stuff, but it was new to me. :D

Just got Mint 10 installed onto a usb stick using LinuxLive USB Creator (LiLi), available HERE. Universal USB Installer didn't work for me, nor did installing from the DVD.

There is a good set of instructions for LiLi starting HERE

LiLi offers the option to make the usb persistent, and if you do you still have the option to boot it as persistent or live (no changes) each time.

You also have the option to run Mint in VirtualBox. You just plug the usb stick into a running windows box and click on "Virtualize_This_Key.exe", and you boot to Mint (or whatever distro you installed) in VirtualBox. Instructions are HERE.

You can install VirtualBox after you have the usb stick working. It's a zip file, you just unzip it into the usb stick.

It worked OK but the screen was a bit cramped. Still it is a nice feature.

Both LiLi and the VirtualBox installer make some changes to your registry.

Edit: Just edited this post from Mint in the virtual box under Powershadow without having to log out of windows.

One more interesting twist. You can save a "snapshot" of your working Mint setup by simply saving the file called casper-rw to another folder somewhere. Then if you mess something up you can delete casper-rw from the USB stick, copy the saved casper-rw back, and shazam !! you have the old setup back. It takes a while, the file is large, 2 gb here, but it is simple and it worked twice here.

2

You're certainly putting some time in with this stuff, and I'm pleased to see you're having some success with it.

Really good information for anyone dipping their toes into Linux.

3

You're certainly putting some time in with this stuff, and I'm pleased to see you're having some success with it.

Really good information for anyone dipping their toes into Linux.

Thanks for the kind words, Dennis. This was a lot easier to fathom than getting Slitaz to run persistently like you did for us HERE. The LinuxLive Creator doesn't support Slitaz persistence, either, so your topic is a lifesaver.

I know that right now none of these linuxes (should that be Linuces?) are going to replace windows, but I like the idea that my hard drive is not spinning needlessly, and I am not totally dependent on windows, and so far all of them boot and run faster that windows. When I can I'm going to try Puppy or Slitaz on a computer w/ no hard drive at all.

I appreciate the tolerance of you and the other moderators, and especially the Piri development team for allowing topics like this.

4

If it wasn't for topics like this, Piriform would be a lesser place.

It is a "Community Forum" after all, which to me means it's a little more than a "Support Forum", although the latter is it's main purpose of course.

Keep this type of thread coming, and we'll all continue to benefit from them.

5

I would agree with Dennis here. I think we learn from all the different things we seem to talk about on this forum.

Even if we don't actually try some of the things ourselves, it can be handy just knowing about what's on offer out there.