Install USB

HOW TO INSTALL exGENT version 240201 TO A USB PEN DRIVE – 3 ways to do it – see below A) – C)

A) USB drive installation of exGENT in the same way as a hard drive installation

On non UEFI computers
1. Use GParted (installed in exGENT) and create two partitions. One install partition of at least 14 GB (filesystem ext3) and one SWAP partition of about 2 GB. Watch this screenshot.
2. You need to install exGENT on an ext3 partition. You must ensure that the current USB stick is formatted once again before you start the installation. Run the command mke2fs -L / -I 128 -F -j -O dir_index /dev/sdXX
NOTE: You must use this command when formatting. Your Grub installation won’t work otherwise.

3. Before you can format, you must unmount the current install partition (the USB stick). This is done with the command umount /dev/sdXX. (“X” must of course be replaced by the letter and number of your current partition, e.g. /dev/sdb1 or…).
 
IMPORTANT: Be sure to unmount ALL partitions on your computer before you proceed. As an example below I’m using /dev/sdb1 as install partition on the USB stick and /dev/sdb2 as SWAP. Check the correct partitions on your computer to avoid data losses!

Then follow these steps:
1. So first create a Linux partition of about 30 GB and a swap space of about 2000 MB.
2. Boot up the computer from the exGENT DVD/USB and open up a terminal as root.
3. Run the command umount /dev/sdb1 (if mounted)
4. Run the command mke2fs -L / -I 128 -F -j -O dir_index /dev/sdb1
5. Run the command cd /root/install
6. Run the command ./install.sh /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb2 (IMPORTANT: The correct order of the installation partition and the SWAP partition)
7. Run the command ./install-boot.sh /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb (Comment: This will install Grub2 on the USB stick (/dev/sdb1) and in MBR – /dev/sdb).
Done! See below how it looks when the above installation commands are executed.
INSTALL exGENT
Check Grub (/mnt/sdb1/boot/grub/grub.cfg)
Before you restart your computer after a Grub install you should mount your USB stick and check that the install program got it right. Check especially line 2 and 3 – see below (hd0,msdos0).

######################
menuentry ‘exGENT (sdb1 USB) 240201’ {
linux (hd0,msdos0)/boot/vmlinuz-
6.1.67-gentoo-x86_64 root=UUID=a0e9717b-5649-4f9f-  80c1-4a03de27bcf7 rw
initrd (hd0,msdos0)/boot/initramfs-6.1.67-gentoo-x86_64.img
######################

NOTE: You’ll find out the correct UUID with the command blkid /dev/sdb1

On UEFI computers
See a slideshow below when I have used Calamares Installer on a UEFI computer to install exGENT on a USB stick.



If you can’t watch the slideshow in your browser watch this animated GIF.

When I started up exGENT from the USB stick the boot menu on my UEFI computer looked like this.

NOTE re. Calamares/USB
Running exGENT after a Calamares install to a USB stick is not the best way to run exGENT. The system will then be very slow/unresponsive. The best way to run exGENT is from hard drive or from a USB stick when Rufus has been used for the installation. When running from such an USB stick most of the system will be loaded into RAM. Thus very fast.

B) Installation in Linux using the dd command
Example: dd bs=4M if=exgent-64bit-lxqt-openrc-calamares-3860mb-240201.iso of=/dev/sdX && sync
Note: Replace X in the above example command with b, c or… Check it carefully!

C) Installation in Windows
You can use Ventoy or Rufus in Windows. Such installations were impossible before version 170309. When Rufus is running it will look like this.



To do after a USB drive install of exGENT when method A) is used

First you should open up a terminal and run the command emerge –sync. After that you can install new packages (for example Libreoffice). Command emerge –ask libreoffice. That way you’ll get to know dependencies and if you have to make any changes to the file /etc/portage/make.conf before you can go on and install LibreOffice with emerge  libreoffice. Please read about Gentoo’s Portage (package manager) before you install any new packages.

Install new programs etc.
Such an installation to a USB stick (method A) means that you can do the same things as if exGENT were installed to hard drive. I mean change everything. (Install or remove software etc.). You can (of course) use exGENT on a USB stick on all “normal” computers. That way you’ll be really portable!

NOTE ALSO
In versions before 170309 the file system wasn’t writable when running exGENT live (from DVD). Now you can emerge (install) new programs/packages even while running the system from a DVD or USB stick (even when install method B or C is used). If you do that and later decide to install exGENT to hard drive all your changes will follow! (That is if you use the install scripts in /root/install).

Good luck!

exton /240201


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