Linux Stick

Topper

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Well I have been shamed into spending some time learning a few basics with Linux and as a starting point, because I (nearly every month now) get people asking for my help on their laptop, I have decided to use a 1Gb USB stick and make that booting. I have been messing about with it over Easter and have tried Feather linux, no joy past initial boot, DSL (Damn Small Linux) even worse and so I had a look on this page I chose this version because of the utilities available as standard and the fact that I also wanted to maintain the integrity of the laptop hard drive I may be fixing/rescuing at the time. I installed via Windows USB Backtrack Linux. Followed the simple installation instructions and booted first time, not only that it detected the available wifi connections so I was on the web before I knew it after putting in the key of course.

Whilst being early days yet it appears slick and versatile and the fact that it is contained all on a pen drive makes it very portable. I will try out some of the utilities and report back.
 

rolfw

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I'll be interested in that, as it can be very useful for working on hard drives, I presume though that you mean a 1Gig stick. :)
 

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I ordered a 1Gb stick from Staples last week (a Freecom for £4.99, only ordered it cos it was cheap and I wanted the free toolkit they offered me!!! :D ), I never thought of using it for booting off, but a USB pen I got from Staples for free (128mb) I've not used much, so maybe using it as you're planning to might be a good idea... :D

(assuming it would all fit on a 128mb stick!!!)
 

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rolfw said:
I'll be interested in that, as it can be very useful for working on hard drives, I presume though that you mean a 1Gig stick. :)

Must be your eyes Rolf :-rofl2

As I said still early days however the thing I am finding difficult is that it is laborious taking out the hard drives which on some laptops are not easy to get at. I have to say I am really impressed with the way it boots up, I may do a small tutorial and post the files as it makes sense to approach recovery in this manner.

The other problem I have come across is that where the HD is not recognised by the bios, you cannot recover any data. I am sure there is a way around this but it will require further research.

@2cvbloke this installation because it is packed with features takes 950Mb
but this is because there are many versions of the same thing included. If you search around there are many DSL version as small as 50Mb
 

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Topper said:
@2cvbloke this installation because it is packed with features takes 950Mb
but this is because there are many versions of the same thing included. If you search around there are many DSL version as small as 50Mb

I was looking at some of the features and it looks like it's worth a 1GB stick, shame I didn't buy 2!!! :D

I just hope the bloomin' thing arrives tomorrow along with my new laptop!!! :D
 

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I have mentioned in a previous post about a Linux stick however a satellite laptop came into my possession recently and what a sorry mess that was. The owner had had it to three places for an estimate and all three had taken it to bits, so it was not surprising that nothing worked. The hard drive gave IO errors some long screws were in the wrong place impinging on the motherboard others were missing altogether. Battery does not charge. Despite me getting it sort of working I advised her to buy a new one as even the mini power adaptor board was broken. So it could not even be main run. I did manage to do a temporary fix for that.

Anyhow I decided that this may be a good vehicle to use with my stick but then whilst playing I discovered why the HD was giving IO errors as the drive was not seated correctly in the adaptor. Then the drive could not be read as it had corrupted sectors and even reformatting did not help. The odd thing was though that the linux stick knew the drive was there identified it but could not read anything. In the end I took the drive to pieces and found a small piece of the filter material sitting on the polished disk. I blew it away and put the drive back together. I do have a USB to 2.5, 3.5 and SATA drive adaptor and connected it to that. Suddenly although it could still not read the corrupted disc I was at the third attempt able to Fdisk and reformat the drive successfully.

I then decided to try Linux Mint, and whilst it was a bit of a pain to install on this laptop from an iso I burnt to CD. Once it was on and I added the correct Windows WIFI driver suddenly it all started working, the mint level 1 ungrades and level 2 have now updated and I still have another 98 level 3 upgrades to install at my leisure. I do like the overall feel of the mint version but I still have a screen driver issues to resolve yet but hey I cannot do everything at once.
 

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get people asking for my help on their laptop

Do they all run Linux? Have you looked at ubuntu?
 

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mhku said:
Do they all run Linux? Have you looked at ubuntu?

No they still run allsorts these days, 98SE, 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, no none of them so far have been Linux based, got another lady coming tomorrow with her XP laptop, she contacted her ISP's helpdesk who told her to delete all the stuff she should not have done and now it don't work any more, that was kind of the help desk wasn't it.

No I have not used Ubuntu but I have five Kubuntu servers at work
 

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Topper said:
I have mentioned in a previous post about a Linux stick however a satellite laptop came into my possession recently and what a sorry mess that was. The owner had had it to three places for an estimate and all three had taken it to bits, so it was not surprising that nothing worked. The hard drive gave IO errors some long screws were in the wrong place impinging on the motherboard others were missing altogether. Battery does not charge. Despite me getting it sort of working I advised her to buy a new one as even the mini power adaptor board was broken. So it could not even be main run. I did manage to do a temporary fix for that.

What Satellite model is it? :confused
 

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2cvbloke said:
What Satellite model is it? :confused

Sorry got that wrong it is an HP Pavillion ZE2251ea bit of an odd bod with the shape but seems OK, still struggling charging the battery though
 

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You might be interested in Knoppix- saved a few Vista'd laptops where I worked last :)

_http://www.knoppix.org/
 

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Topper said:
Sorry got that wrong it is an HP Pavillion ZE2251ea bit of an odd bod with the shape but seems OK, still struggling charging the battery though

Ugh, HP laptops, ugly, bulky, fragile, yep, that sounds about right... :D
 

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mhku said:
You might be interested in Knoppix- saved a few Vista'd laptops where I worked last :)

_http://www.knoppix.org/

I did not need it, she had inadvertently installed Windows live toolbar and was using multiple tabs which just froze IE7 dead everytime. After a couple of hours doing volume repair and defragging a 47% fragmented HD ( with the laptop :eek: ) I uninstalled Windows live toolbar and all of a sudden multiple tabs working again no problem.
 

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I did a silly thing with my 1GB stick, I washed it... :-ohmy

I left it in my trouser pocket, washed 'em, and just as I was about to thrown them in the drier I felt the stick in my pocket, and it was wet!!! :eek:

But thankfully I managed to crack it open, dry out the board and flash chip, put it back together and it still works!!! :cool:
 

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Is this a new alternative to Mail Washer Pro?
 

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PaulR said:
Is this a new alternative to Mail Washer Pro?

You could try it and see, but needs Daz Handwash & Twintub to work... :D
 

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Here's one for you, I got a new mouse the other day cos my old one stopped moving (cable fault), and this new mouse, bought at a discount, has a 2-in-1 card reader with slots for both Smart Media and Compact flash, so, ignoring the SM slot, you could stick a 2GB CF card in it and essentially contain the system's OS and storage in the mouse... :D

I'll have to get a cheap CF card now to try it out... :D
 
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