Installing BBQ to a USB drive.

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catfood
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Installing BBQ to a USB drive.

Unread post by catfood » Mon Oct 10, 2016 10:43 pm

Still couldn't narrow down much with search, so here goes.

I've tried installing 8 versions of BBQ to USB. So far, the only two that worked were Cream and Cardboard. Cardboard was stuck in TTY, but that may he ignorance not an actual issue.

Most of the installs failed somewhere near GRUB install or swap install portion. Always gave an error code: 1. Unsure what that means. 2 seemed to install fine, but USBs wouldn't boot after. I remove HD before installs as a preventative measure too so everything can only go on USB no matter what.

I tried various ways to partition and install, but what worked for Cream, didn't work on others.

Wondering what the best method is for consistant installs.

Should drive be paritioned b4 install with gparted, or left blank and done with Cdisk during install?
Should swap be created before (or with Cdisk at begining), or just leave space for it and let bbqinstaller make its own during install?
Any prefered format? EXT 2,3,4? ( 2 worked for Cream, but not others. 3/4 havent worked yet, though not tried with Cream)
Thank You!
(I remember when debian "non-gui" installer scared me. #never-forget)

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franksinistra
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Re: Installing BBQ to a USB drive.

Unread post by franksinistra » Tue Oct 11, 2016 12:02 am

Hello catfood, I've made a guide before (though for Pidsley's Kermacs spin & possibly unrelated to debian stuff).

If the installer stops before installation process ended, you could always install it first to VM / normal hdd, then rsync it to the usb drive.
for instance:

install to '/dev/sda'
once installed mount the usb somewhere (ex. /mnt), and do something like

Code: Select all

rsync -aAXv --exclude {/tmp/*,/dev/*,/proc/*,/sys/*} / /mnt
then edit the fstab (use sdX or UUID or whatever suits you)
and finally do chroot and run grub install and run update-grub

I have never tested bbqinstaller on the usb drive and since you provide no logs, i couldn't help you there.
rice no more.

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catfood
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Re: Installing BBQ to a USB drive.

Unread post by catfood » Tue Oct 11, 2016 9:56 pm

I currently don't have HD space, thats part of using usbs. Also to test wildly without chances of breakin HD. Ive gotten in the habit of removing HD b4 installs because some Debian based distros have overwritten my hD grub, not the usb and also changed the HD swap UUID so it doesnt work with any until I redo swapon...

With no HD in, it recognizes the usb as /dev/sda. Unsure why it should be any different than installing on one of those eepc ssd hard drives...

Can't really get any sort of log. When Error 1 shows, it either freezes or shuts down. With the others, can't seem to get into the distro to actually see what's wrong yet.
Thank You!
(I remember when debian "non-gui" installer scared me. #never-forget)

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franksinistra
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Re: Installing BBQ to a USB drive.

Unread post by franksinistra » Wed Oct 12, 2016 1:20 am

you could easily overwrite grub install by installing from other partition/chroot/etc, i don't see that as a problem.
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Re: Installing BBQ to a USB drive.

Unread post by catfood » Wed Oct 12, 2016 2:14 am

So far with BBQ, that has been great. Previous distros I tried kept losing therir GRUb and changing physical HD UUid. So paranoia, good habit, whatever, helps prevent less restores when i done. BBQinstaller is great; simple and straightforward. I pick grub and swap and it goes where I said.
Way easier than my first Debtsan 3hr advanced install from 4 dvds :D.

I just dont like breaking my Debian stable HD while playing with usbs... some Debian Jessie glitch allows new deb installers authority over existing deb installstalations even on different drive.
Last edited by catfood on Wed Oct 12, 2016 2:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
Thank You!
(I remember when debian "non-gui" installer scared me. #never-forget)

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Re: Installing BBQ to a USB drive.

Unread post by catfood » Wed Oct 12, 2016 2:22 am

Update: Break! installed first try after I went back to make sure filesystem matched partition fs. Loads great, works great. 3 down...

Took 4 install tries to get Proof to install using same approaches...? I think it's fully installed now, but gotta swap to tty2 so login doesnt freeze. Edidted ~/.bash_sources i think it waz as suggsestd on release notes. Removed lines below they suggestio . Still default login broke. Ctrl alt f2 kinda not broke. More later, but technically in installed :D!
Thank You!
(I remember when debian "non-gui" installer scared me. #never-forget)

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Re: Installing BBQ to a USB drive.

Unread post by catfood » Fri Nov 04, 2016 10:52 pm

I was hoping to find some kind of pattern with what makes installs more likely to pass or fail. Maybe save other newbies frustration... Sadly, its been random hit or miss accross all BBQ flavors. I will say persistance is the only thing I've learned. Some versions may take 4 tries to install, doing the same methods that worked on others, but eventually every spin has successfully installed in one way or another. Don't give up kids :D
Thank You!
(I remember when debian "non-gui" installer scared me. #never-forget)

pidsley
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Re: Installing BBQ to a USB drive.

Unread post by pidsley » Fri Nov 04, 2016 11:03 pm

Older spins will always be more problematic. The best plan is to use the most recent spin you can and work up from there. We don't really support older spins. There's not much difference anyway, other than the window managers and whatever software the builder decided to include with a spin. Nothing that can't be installed to (or removed from) a recent spin.

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Re: Installing BBQ to a USB drive.

Unread post by machinebacon » Sat Nov 05, 2016 7:25 am

Yeah, there's also a difference if you install a sid-based or a stable-based remaster. I suppose the newer sid-based ones work well.
Proof fucking your brain might be related to the damned /etc/profile.d/zz-live-config_xinit.sh file -- simply remove it as root. I'm going to fix this in the next X11-base release, this is a leftover of Debian's live-config that we need for live sessions.
..gnutella..

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ivanovnegro
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Re: Installing BBQ to a USB drive.

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Tue Nov 08, 2016 9:26 pm

I suggest you do not forget this statement:

http://linuxbbq.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1629#p32386

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