update stick
 

Hi,
I just downloaded the kbuntu iso and installed it on a 8GB
pendrive. Everything looks fine, really nice.
When I wanted to update/upgrade:
apt-get update, apt-get upgrade
It failed because of insufficient memory. Looking at the disk partitioning i realized that the virtual / partition
is only 1Gb big.
the whole stick is mounted as /cdrom correctly with >6Gb
free. I looked a bit around but i could not find a description how to increase the virtual partitions on the live stick.

Do you have any hints?
Thanks a lot,
hansjoerg

Greetings hansjoerg,
Are you sure it failed with insufficient memory? Wasn't it lack of disk space? Because 1GB of swap is more than enough for running apt-get and installing updating packages! It shouldn't be even necessary to hit the swap!
I haven't tested this installation in a USB drive yet, but my guess is that there wasn't any space allocated for working with files! And if /cdrom has the whole 6GB space for itself, it might be defined as read-only.

By my experience with Live Ubuntu's in USB drives, lets try the following commands, and perhaps you can post your results here:

• Code:

  ---

  df -h

  ---

  This will give you a detailed space usage per mount, in human readable values (GB, MB, kB)
• Code:

  ---

  mount

  ---

  This will list what mounts are active and with which options. This can help us check if /cdrom is read-only or read-write.
• Code:

  ---

  ls -l /cdrom

  ---

  With this we can check if it is giving you a list of the contents of the USB drive.

Now, if /cdrom is writable, and has a lot of space available, then you can create a file for storing data in EXT3/4 format. For that, follow these instructions (based on these instructions):

1. Create the file that will have a 2GB EXT3 file system
   Code:

   ---

   dd if=/dev/zero of=/cdrom/ext3file bs=1M count=2048
mkfs.ext3 /cdrom/ext3file

   ---

2. Mount it in the folder /mnt:
   Code:

   ---

   sudo mount -t ext3 /cdrom/ext3file /mnt -o loop

   ---

3. Copy the current /var and /tmp into the mounted file:
   Code:

   ---

   sudo cp -r /var /mnt/
sudo cp -r /tmp /mnt/tmp

   ---

4. Remove the folders and link them to the new ones:
   Code:

   ---

   rm -rf /tmp /var
ln -s /mnt/var /var
ln -s /mnt/tmp /tmp

   ---

And voilá, you now have space for the temporary files, for apt-get to get it's business going. Although, this won't cover the bigger issue: the apparently missing casper-rw file :( Without it, apt-get won't be able to install the contents of the packages... snap, why did I write all of this above :confused:

OK ok... lets go back a few steps... Hansjoerg: how exactly did you install the ISO in the USB drive? Did you install it as a Live CD/DVD/USB or as if you were installing in a hard drive?
For more instructions for Ubuntu's Live USB, see here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveUsbPendrivePersistent

Best regards,
Bruno

Hi,
Thanks for the detailed instructions. I will try that out.
I installed the iso as a live-cd using the usb-creator which comes with ubuntu and I also tried out UNetbootin
The partitioning of the stick is as follows
ilesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
aufs 1003M 39M 964M 4% /
none 998M 292K 998M 1% /dev
/dev/sdc1 7.5G 1.6G 6.0G 21% /cdrom
/dev/loop0 1.3G 1.3G 0 100% /rofs
none 1003M 0 1003M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 1003M 92K 1003M 1% /tmp
none 1003M 92K 1003M 1% /var/run
none 1003M 0 1003M 0% /var/lock
none 1003M 0 1003M 0% /lib/init/rw

and actually the cdrom was really mounted readonly, but i cannot unmount and
remount it due to the fact that the root file system is on the stick.
I have a casper directory with 1.3 GB big filesystem.squashfs
After the update /tmp is 100% full and dpkg breaks with the error message that it cannot write on device anymore. Then kde hangs up.
Should i make a normal install on the stick to get a "normal" ubuntu installation.
This definitely then would require much more space on the stick, but if it is too
complicated to create a "rw" live image, then i can also go this way

thanks hj






best hansjoerg

Hi hansjoerg,
It's as I figured... you only have temporary memory activated. In other words, the 1GB of RAM is used for both memory and disk space.

Attached is a picture with notes in red, indicating where you should define casper-rw file to be active. Pull the slider to the extreme right... it should give you 2 or 4GB of workspace. The slider will only be available after picking the USB drive and ISO... both of which I didn't do for the picture :rolleyes: Then write again to the USB drive and you should be ready to go!

But since you want to do a lot of upgrades to the Live DVD, then you better follow these instructions for installing Ubuntu (while taking into account that you are using KUbuntu) directly on an USB drive: How To: Install Portable Linux Ubuntu on a bootable USB Flash Drive from SUN VirtualBox

Best regards,
Bruno

Hello Henrick,

I am trying to install the tgz version of OpenFOAM Workshop-USB-Stick but I am having a problem. I downloaded the .tgz file on to my laptop, and then extracted the compressed file in the USB stick. Then, I ran the boot/bootinst.sh and it said that the drive is bootable now. However, when i change my boot preference and boot my device from the USB stick, it gives me the following message :

No default or UI configuration directive found.
boot :/

I have no clue as to how to solve this problem. Can you help me out with the installation

Boot Options
 

Henrik,
The USB iso is a fantastic idea. I have successfully loaded my 8Gb drive with the iso image. But I am not getting happy yet. First I tried it on my IBM T-60.

Not a 64 bit machine - failed. (IS THERE A 32 BIT VERSION?)

Then I put it in my W520 from work. I get a Welcome screen with 5 options. The first is "live - boot the Live System"

This sounds good, so I go for it. But it thinks and thinks and eventually says it can't find any media with a live System. ???

There is also a "start the installer directly", but won't this try to write to my (sacred company's) hard drive?

Thanks.

Albert

live usb files still available?
 

hi,
i wanted to download the file for the live usb from:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openfoam-extend/files/
but I could't find them. have they been removed?

Yes, they have been removed.

Those live images were containing some files we could not longer distribute. So we had to remove them.

Martin

Martin, thank you for the answer.
such a sin for the live usb. is there any plans for a new distributable version?

I don't know.

In previous years, live-usb images were created as support material for the Workshop's training, and quite often distributed pre-installed on USB sticks to the Workshop participants.

So I would not be surprise if a new live-usb version will pop up just before OFW9...

Martin

OpenFOAM v7 on live usb
 

I was wondering whether a live sub has been created for OpenFOAM v7 now as a live usb created last time was for the version 5 and as it was so helpful for everyone without a linux operating system installed, it would be great if anyone shared their knowledge regarding this topic.