Linux N00B Question(s) RE Live from USB

Ok here goes, I've always been "interested" in using a Linux OS. Purely for the performance and stability that it (and everybody else) boasts about. However I've never had any real success with it. Bear in mind that I'm trying to get comfortable with using Linux as a primary OS on my AAO D250, after having used Windows all these years and being very, very pleased with how well Windows 7 performs on my rig.

I tried Ubuntu 8.04 (was the only one i had lying around) and it didn't really work. No WiFi, no network, nothing worked except the screen and the sound. So then I downloaded Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx). So far I've used Unebootin to create a bootable "Live" USB OS. It runs pretty darn good and everything is working, sound, screen, applications for net surfing are all there, was able to install Flash thru the "APT" which I'll learn more about in the future, etc, etc.

So basically, I'm sort of enjoying running Ubuntu 10.04LTS off my "live" USB drive. (A Toshiba 2gb)

Questions:
[Q] If I install programs (Vuze for example) and do any Updates for the OS, will they remain permanently on my Live USB drive? or next time I reboot, will they be gone. (I don't really want to have to re-download anything)
[A] If you have done nothing more than created a Bootable Live USB for "trying" on a computer, then no, all changes are redundant. If you have used a tool to create a Live USB install, with "Persistance" changes will be saved and used each time the Live OS is booted, this is limited by the amount of space dedicated to Persistance - Note: A "Persistant Live Install" of Ubuntu 10.04LTS on a 2gb USB media will only get you so far, you really need much more space
[Q] I really like the idea of being able to run the whole OS off the USB drive, leaving my 160Gb internal drive spare for storage, I also really don't like the way that Ubuntu ALWAYS nags for a password, I simply can't install it without assigning one. Can I safely rely on keeping the OS on the bootable USB drive as a "Live" OS?
[A] As above, you can safely rely on "Trying" Ubuntu from a USB drive, but without persistance it's pointless as an everyday OS. Get a 4gb or larger USB drive and install with persistance, or install as an OS, but in my n00b experience, I've had to go and actually install the OS to my HDD. Most of the password nagging that I saw in Ubuntu 8.04 is gone in the 10.04LTS version I'm using now
[Q] On my quad core desktop, I encode all my movies / clips in DivX format. I've tried installing the official DivX CoDec from the DivX dev site, but it's install.sh script seems to be wrong, running it in terminal only gets me as far as reading the EULA. I had to edit the file to drop the EULA script so I could actually proceed with the install. Installer terminates with code as follows

Code:

mkdir: cannot create directory `/usr/local/include/divx': File exists

As a Windows user this tells me that the file already exists and the installer can't over-write it. Am I right? or am I doing something wrong?

 

hi,
what you need is a persistent version of linux on a usb. This is formatted so that the OS files remain seperate from the users files. Using a persistent setup enables you to add applications to the usb which will persistently retain them. Below is a link to the ubuntu version but you can extend it to any flavor of linux with a bit of application,
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveUsbPendrivePersistent
Enjoy
D

 

The typical installation of Ubuntu (and most other Linux distros) on a USB flash drive is a fixed LiveOS (a fixed copy of what's on the CD or DVD from which you installed) and a persistent file in which your changes are installed. You just have to be sure that the persistent file is large enough - I've messed up a large number of them by trying to install more packages than the persistent file can hold.

Another approach, which avoids the above problem but requires more space is to do a full-blown installation onto a USB flash drive. I've found a 4GB flash drive to be quite adequate; about 2.5-3 GB for the operating system, the rest for data.

 

Hi all, thanks for the input.

I went thru the advice in the first reply but it didn't really help me much. For some people it might work though. But after a while of screwing around and investigating, I found that Ubuntu 10.04LTS came with a USB installer. Specifically for creating a fixed Live install with persistance. Installed it on my 2 gig USB drive and it seemed ok. But after installing Vuze (my torrent client of preference) and a couple of security updates, I was completely out of space. Things were crashing, couldn't save anything except to the AAO's HDD, and could no longer do any updates. Needless to say, after all the nice things said about Linux's stability etc, what I thought would be a simple Bootable USB install started to really irritate the sh*t outta me. Was almost thinking of just giving up (for the umpteenth time) on Linux and go back to Windows.

So I had to bite the bullet, as much as I wanted Ubuntu on a removable, bootable USB drive, I booted back into my second (of two) Win7 partitions, and installed Ubuntu "inside" the first partition. Gave it 10 gigs of space to play with, seeing as I want my HDD as my primary storage media. The installer claimed that it would function with slightly reduced hard drive access speeds, but so far so good. The only drawbacks I've seen since successfully getting it installed is that I have to go thru two bootloaders, first is Win7's which is acceptable, but then thrown back into the Linux loader which since updating now has two versions and two recovery modes.

Now that I have Lucid Lynx running and am able to do pretty much everything I need, and some things I wanted to try (eg. seeing how the AAO goes as far as ripping 3 vids off Youtube and re-rendering them into one file, hey it was the first episode of Tale Spin and was only available in 3 parts lols) I'm feeling more and more comfortable with it as an OS.

As far as performance goes, it's so far much of a muchness for Win7, except Win7 seems to lag every now and then on comparison.

I'll update my OP to reflect what I've found, and maybe post another question or two.

 

It's just gotta be said!!

Okay, it has to be said, **** Linux, it's a piece of shit as an "alternative operating system".

Yes it's free, but god damn what a load of screwing around just to get a stable working environment, which NEVER HAPPENED.

Can you use your hotmail account with evolution? Short answer no, long answer yes, but with a LOT of dicking around and googling to find out how other people have done. M$ Outlook 2007 handles my @msn.com account just fine with no fucking around
Can you use your gmail account with evolution? Short answer no, long answer yes, but you have to fark with the settings to be able to send an email. Once again, M$ Outlook 2007 does it perfectly.
Can you run M$ Outlook 2007 in Wine? Nope, not unless you're a fucking genius and/or willing to pay nearly $40 USD for an add-on for Wine... wait, I thought linux was based on FREE software...
Can you save a basic TXT file created in Gedit? Apparently no, just spent half an hour on the phone to my wholesalers, gathering prices etc for a quick estimate, SAVED it as a txt file, but nope, it's NOWHERE on my computer
Can I run my invoicing program? Yes you can run it in Wine, but you have to fark with settings to tell it where a DLL file is, even then the program will run, but you can't use it, it just sits there and looks blank at you
Can I install these free packages? Yes, but every single one of them crashes durring install thanks to the PSB-Kernel-Source, but can you report the error to the developers? NO! cos it's not a "genuine package", not only that, but without several hours of googling you MIGHT just find out which particular packages you need, MIGHT
Can you change your screen resolution? NO! don't even try to tell it that you can run a higher resolution than it detects, cos it'll just FAIL when you try to use the COMMAND LINE to integrate the new setting, does anyone have a solution? Nope, after days of googling, everyone has the same issue, but no one has a resolution. Can the average joe work it out? Nope, not unless your a programmer who can develop a driver. Is there a new driver available? nope, even though linux updates itself every fucking day, there's no support for the D250's graphics chip to enable the higher resolution that Win7 easily handles with a simple reg edit.
Can I automatically mount an NTFS partition used for data storage? Yes! but forget about every, single link you made to that partition, cos they don't mean jack shit now. And forget about downloading a torrent to that folder that has say, 100 RAR files, cos you then have to redirect them all.
YES EVEN LINUX allows programs to steal focus!!!!! You can install a package to disallow it, but it screws with all the pretty effects that you used to have
Does firefox work on linux? Yes it does, but backspace no longer functions as the "back" button, you can triple-click to highlight what you previously had in the google search box, but typing will just put your new search somewhere in the middle of what was previously there so you end up with "ubuntu wine inmental telepathyvoices programs"

Okay, yes Linux is free, and came with Evolution for free. But Windows (as much as you have to pay for it) comes with Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail for free... and they work, so does Outlook 2007
Yes you can probably achieve a higher screen resolution under linux, but not without at least spending 10-20 mins in an archaic command line. Under Win 7 just a simple regedit, 5 mins, bang done, higher resolution
And yes, Windows uses "mainstream" file systems, but they work, what's more you don't have to **** around to get an NTFS partition mounted, they - just - work!
Both Windows & Linux allow apps to steal focus, but I'm willing to bet my left testicle that if there was an app developed for Windows to prevent it, it wouldnt' effect the desktop and window effects. Hell to be honest from what I've read, it's the developers of the individual applications that are at fault by mis-appropriating a tag that makes the app stay-on-top when it's not supposed to
Firefox, great alternative to IE if you feel the need, but in Win7 at least, the keyboard shortcuts work. No screwing around laying out your keyboard shortcuts!

Say what you want about linux, rag on Windows all you want. But here I am, I've put it to the test. I tried and tried and tried for at least a month solid to use it for the most basic of functions. But when you want something you can rely on, go with something stable, intuitive, user friendly and one that just fucking works. Go with Windows. Linux is absolutely no where near ready to be a mainstream OS for anyone that wants to do anything more than browse the net and email. Even email it can't do properly. And let's face it, Ubuntu 10.04LTS "Lucid Lynx" is just butt ugly. No matter how you look at it, upside down, inside out, it's ugly.

Now for the clincher, you know the only thing i can relate to? Remember MS-DOS Shell? That's all Linux is to me, a glorified GUI Shell, over an obsoleted command line. Kinda also reminds me of Windows 3.11...

P.S Sorry for the language, but this "Operating System" and it's "Free" txt editor, have just cost me about an hour out of my working day and means I now have to look like a complete fkn dickhead by ringing my wholesalers for those details again. BACK TO WINDOWS FOR ME **** LINUX

 

much as i hate bill and hate-the-****-out-of windoze, i gotta admit that your right about the fact that if you have the money (quite a bit by my standards), Windows usually works right out of the box, most plugnplay devices DO plugnplay, software installs easily, and almost anything will run on it.
Linux, OTOH, can't make such claims, it's true, and the horrors you suffered are not that surprising, though i am a bit mystified about the problem you had with Gedit.

i don't use the kind of apps you do. and i do NOT have the money, nowhere near it, but even if i did, i'd eat shit before i'd go back to MicroSuck. i'd be willing to work hard to keep linux for the same reason that i expend considerable willpower to eat vegetarian: 1-it's healthier by a long shot and 2-eating meat is morally sickening.

software should NOT be free. somebody worked hard to produce it. even so, i used pirated windows software for years and i'll be happy to retroactively pay for everything i ever used just as soon as MicroShit starts making good on the numberless crimes they've committed through the years, crimes that YOU personally have paid a great deal for. crimes that the whole world has paid an incalculable price for.

if it weren't for the Home Depot of software and thier patently illegal monopoly along with myriad other crimes for which they were never prosecuted, software and hardware would sell at a price that I could afford, software would be produced and consumed in a free market, and WAY more people, including much of the third world, would have computers now.

what are you paying for? PIRACY, bloat, monopoly, software producers that were crushed under their heel, products that are released a year before their ready for market, and a software environment that's a breeding ground for digital disease.

plus, i can tell you, as a programmer, that without MicroScum an entire generation of geeks like me would not have worked in an environment that suppresses technological innovation and creativity while listening to that lying sack-o'-shit drone on about how he's promoting innovation and creativity.

somebody tell me what a criminal i am.

tags: windows vs. linux microsoft vs. open source bill gates sucks

 

1. Bill Gates left Micro$oft a looong time ago http://news.softpedia.com/news/Bill-Gates-leaves-Microsoft-26738.shtml
2. Yes I make my money and pay for my software, what I'm also paying for is support. There are problems in Linux based OS's that even the creators of the software ignore blatantly (get an AAO, try to use a screen resolution that a mere registry tweak under Windows enables, find that you can't do it and the command line utilities give you nothing more than a useless error, search for days on end to that error and find that every possible linux "community" forum will have the same question as you, but no answers)
3. When I create files on my Windows OS and save them, unless there's a serious hardware issue, that file WILL be in the place I saved it - When I made a simple text file on my Ubuntu install, saved it then tried to find it, it wasn't there.
4. Hate on Windows all you want, hell I've hated it myself in the past, why do you think I've tried linux so many times... but the sad fact is, that it just sucks balls. I'd rather pay for an OS that works, than something that I myself have to learn how to program, then fix the bugs myself if I want a stable OS then and there.
5. Apparently the shit I went through isn't suprising... enough said
6. "Software should NOT be free" - Excuse me... but isn't this WHY linux was created? as a FREE, OPEN SOURCE alternative to Windows?
7. Crimes rah rah rah bullshit rah rah rah piracy rah rah rah - Crap on all you want about how Microsoft's activities are "Illeagle" or even immoral, the fact is, the Microsoft team goes to work every day, works on their software every day, gets paid for it and SUPPORTS it. Someone is accountable for every and any problem in the OS. Linux... who's guess who it is. So they "might" have stolen PC DOS, boo fucking hoo, at least they made something out of it and moved on. Half the bullshit I went through under Linux was command line based bullshit.
8. "Patently Illeagle"... you're a programmer so I'll excuse you for not knowing just one main language and knowing it well. I didn't know you could patent being illeagle. I'm sure you meant "Blatently" so I'll just skip over that one, just remind me if I ever do try linux again to not ask you for help.
9. As for "bloat" Linux is full of it, Ubuntu came with so much shit built into it that I'd never use, yet you can't remove some of it because it's part of the core of the OS. Windows comes with other shit on it yes, but most of it can be removed from the installation media all together (nLite, vLite) and it's easy, or you can just uninstall a lot of other crap.
10. "digital disease" You as a "programmer" should know all too fucking well what the score is. You and I both know that Linux and all other alternative OS's aren't susceptable to "digital disease" until someone starts programming these diseases for it. Face it, if Linux did become user friendly, intuitive and mainstream enough for people to start using it instead of Windows, then you can bet your left testicle (or labia if you're a chick) that someone, somewhere will start developing viruses and malware to effect it. Don't believe me? you've used "pirated" software, they use "anti piracy" measures and some even claim that it's un crackable, just like DVD some 14 yr old cracked that in about 15 minutes and gave us the roots of all DVD backup solutions. Not to mention websites like crackspider.net etc, saying it isn't crackable is just an invitation to a programmer somewhere to crack it. Yeah Vista and Win 7 were cracked even before they were released, so tell me that it's impossible for someone to write a piece of code that adversely effects Linux.
11. Without "microsuck" an entire generation of you "geeks" would probably not have survived, if computers are all you're good at, you'd have been screwed, or ended up working for Apple, or we'd still be chugging along with ancient shit like Unix which I used in high school to do ASCII art for typing class... wait... Unix... basis of Linux... THE COMMAND PROMPT IS STILL THERE AND NEEDED!!!
12. Wanna know what type of criminal you are? you've come into a forum devoted to minature notebooks known as netbooks, more specifically those made by Acer. Your first post since May when you registered is nothing more than a reply to a topic that hasn't been touched in weeks, and all you've done is ranted about how much you hate Microsoft and Windows, you've claimed to have pirated their software on occasion, you've actively sworn on a forum where we have children readers (yeah I know I did it too, sue me) and to top it all off you've added "tags" to your post, which the forum doesn't recognise, but maybe *censored*'s SPAM bots can dig up if they're looking for "tags:"

Yeah there's a point and I'm getting to it. Hate on Micro$oft all you want, but admit it, Windows does just work, the people who produce it are programmers and they get paid for it (obviously you as a "programmer" are currently out of work otherwise you'd be earning a better wage than most people and you could afford to pay for someone's hard work instead of defending software that can be historically referenced as the Sega of OS's). I will admit that there are people putting in huge hours, writing and assembling code to make things like Linux and I appreciate that, just like i appreciate my own hobbies (seriously, I'll stay up all hours of the night building a model aircraft, just like programmers will stay up all night creating the next-best-Linux-thing), but really, Linux seems to be permanently in BETA stage, there's always another bug that needs fixing. At least with Microsoft if there's a problem, there's usually a solution or knowledge base, or patch, or service pack, there's also someone to be held responsible. Just like Linux, there's a community for it, it's known as either "people" or "reality". Windows is mainstream and until something viable comes along as an alternative, it'll stay that way. Until Linux gets out of the darkages and comes up with something good, I won't be going near it anytime soon and my opinion of it will stay this way.

And the point is: Next time you post on a forum, make it a post worth reading. Yeah I posted one big rant about how I hate Linux for what it put me thru (which isn't surprising to you), but at least I have 520 other posts under my belt, a 2.1post per day average and I've helped a HELL of a lot of people. Your post was just too funny to leave alone... c'mon... a programmer? that's not earning enough to buy decent hardware or software? ROFLMAO GET A JOB MAN!!!

 

well... OK... what i should have said (and didn't) was that my little rant is directed at the public and not at you, and yeah i sounded like a flame-throwing bitch. but if you think you can tell me about what i said that is not accurate, go head and try.
yes your experience shows that linux has big deficiencies, but that doesn't change the fact that Micro$cat is probably the worst thing that has ever happened to the computing public, regardless of what you choose to believe. (BTW, i have probably had alot more nightmares with winblows than you've had with linux).
anyway, i should not have implied that you were wrong, because you weren't, and i apologize for doing so. however, i do suggest you get a xanax, and a dictionary.

 

Appology Accepted.

I'll stick with Windows for now, I'm one of the few people that never had a single glitch with Vista, and Windows 7 is working a treat on my D250 and my quad core desktop has the x64 version which also runs sweet. Can't say I've ever had a single malfunction, but having said that, I am a technician, I work on them day to day and I know how to protect my systems from malware and other attacks. (most everyday users won't have as much knowledge as you or I, programmer or hardware tech) which is why they encounter most problems. And yes, each time a new version of Windows comes out there's something new to learn, or something has moved, or something looks different. But even from Ubuntu 9 to Ubuntu 10, so much changed that I had to re-learn a lot of stuff (where did my xorg.conf go?)

At the same token, years of public scrutiny and feedback have hit Microsoft, and considering they want to keep their income and their stock market prices at a decent level, they'll want to address those conserns, even if they appear to do nothing about them. Windows has come a hell of a long way from the original generations. A lot of shit hits the fan in between generations, but the OS on the whole, stays user friendly.

I have no doubts that linux will eventually get there, being open source etc. But it's just not mainstream yet. Maybe one day, but not yet. It also has come a hell of a long way since the first distro I used a few years ago (i think redhat 4), but as I've said before, until such a time as you can successfully install a new piece of hardware or software and have it just work, without having to build or do anything else in a command line environment, it's just not going to get my praise.