Installing Arch on a Flash Drive

I was not doing anything specific and decided to do some crazy experiment.

I begin to hate Linux CD/DVD distributions without live scripts and install only options.

Reason for is, that I have to install them to my hard disk, often having to redo the work.

This was bit of a nuisance and I thought of doing the install on a Flash Drive instead on my hard disk.

Downloaded 686 Arch Linux and booted it up.

After it booted up as root on terminal, I plugged in a Flash Drive.

Nothing happening since previously I mounted CloudUSB on this Pendrive and it filled up with Linux files and stooped due to lack of space. CloudUSB needed 4 GiB and this had only 2 GiB.

Then I mounted the Flash drive and using fsdisk prepared a boot file, swap file and a root file and fallowed instructions to the letter and installed the the ARCH Core on and installed grub and password for Arch and click OK.

The it forced me to look at the Grub file which I did and I could not exit from the command terminal.

Fortunately, I had selected Vi editor and not nano that ARCH offered (I have not used nano and it had only two editers).

I had to type I and fiddled with the  command line (not used for ages and forgotten keyboard short cuts) and typed exit and quit and they did not work.

Somehow some trial and error and Esc and q (not wq) and I exited the console and booted up with Flash Drive attached. My old computer does not boot from USB but it detected the USB but went back to my hard disk MBR.

This is one of the maddest thing I have done in Linux, thank god  I did not erase my MBR.

(Even then no worries Just install Mepis again or PClinux).

Anyway I mounted the flash drive and it's boot partition and looked at the GRUB file.

What I could to find  was interesting.

It was mounting hd0 and non-existing Windows, probably a reflex action and not a true detection or detective work.

It could not detect my Mepis, PCLinux in that hard disk of 80 GiBs.

These Linux guys worship windows and I was really disappointed.
In their defense the first partition was FAT with Image files stored there. 

I want to mount this Flash Drive in my laptop and see what happens (My gut feeling is it won't boot up) but it was nice thing for me to go to old ways and use Vi Editor and fsdisk for just fun.

Beauty of fsdisk is unlike graphic partition tools it reads all the cylinders and mark them and leave no un-partitioned gaps.

I am convinced even before mounting this on my laptop since this flash disk now has no fat partition but a boot partition, root and swap  (500 MiB) only  that one eighths of my RAM.

Sure enough it did not but only read the boot file and menu.


Still direct Linux booting is not allowed by convention and by force.

This has to change why worship FAT/MBR /BIOS?

But for newbies this is good dress rehearsal for bigger things to practice and learn without damaging the hard disk.
One has to remember the nomenclature used in numbering SATA or IDE  or USB disks.
I in fact had made a mistake used a for b and I ROLLED backed and redid the procedure above three times once due to monitor going idle and I could not proceed for configuring and second I named it wrongly and used sda1 and had to ROLL BACK.

I still have an old UNIX book and if I am in trouble (many Linux) I can roll BACK to books unlike newbies with slightest problem who go to the web with a help me post and start WHIMPERING AND SAYS LINUX SUCKS.

I may write few simple books and already introductory lessons in Linux is on ebay.
But I won't stop blog post though.
It is like writing an editorial.

SwiftLinux-Regular-An Update

While everybody was focusing on new trends and tablets, I was keeping an eye on SwiftLinux.

My last report of it was unsatisfactory since it did not boot up in my old IBM and fonts were missing.

It is a Debian (Mepis antiX clone) derivative and it has come out with SwiftLinux 0-1-2 and the latest one is sleek fast to boot and work on both my old and new IBM (Relatively).

It is light on your computer and like Puppy very light on the RAM and and amazingly uses less than 100 MIB for the live CD.

That is very good feature of this distribution.

It has AbiWord and OpenOffice (prefer LibreOffice-next time round please) and Python but no Vi.

Its graphic memory usage (Debian terminal memusage is not there- but why should it have both graphic and terminal mem utilities) is revolutionary idea going back to Linux development of Memory part of the kernel. Below is a rough breakdown of the memory usage.

Python less than  4 MiB

Abi Less than       5 MiB.

Open Office from 18 to 25 depending of what part of the suite is used.

Terminal also takes about 12 MiB surprisingly.

Thanks guys and girls of SwiftLinux living up to the reputation for old computers and low memory guys.

Mind you it can be used with new too.

Now i have no hesitation of recommending it and it is going to take lot of points from my point scheme and it will now start rivalling Puppy in a constructive way for newbies.

Puppy of course is my number one.

Knoppix 2 and Debian 3 and when it becomes stable SwiftLinux will certainly occupy the 4th or fifth place if they introduce utilities for visually handicapped who do not need lot of graphic utilities for obvious reasons.

Please think of the days when Linus had the 386 and developing multitasking utilities for his resource poor computer bought on student loan.

There are lot of poor guys in the African and Asian subcontinent.

Ubuntu moving away from the low end and poor end of the market (which is essential for different reasons I have stated elsewhere) we must not lose track of the majority who are poor including senior citizens (pensioners) who will be visually handicapped and struggling to survive with low budget.

Mind you these facts are true for poor Americans too.

Dream-13 and its interpretation from Heaven

Below is a phrase cut out from real life story of Linus and his erstwhile (current too)  friend.

I won't tell you where it is posted but it is an inspirational piece of writing and how a young undergraduates feels about his/her life in the campus and his/her career accomplishment thereafter and how collaboration works and isolation ruins. 

Go and find it yourself.

1. It is relevant here to state how the politicians (whatever the party affiliation that would be) should not ruin the minds of young entrants by propaganda.

2. It is also relevant that a university computer student in early 1990 could not save money enough to buy a home computer.

Then of course if you have time read my latest dream and its interpretation and if you are a cricket fan (Indian or Sri-Lankan) the story is a good sleeping pill for you to drop to sleep standing or seated.

The way Australians and Englishman disposing our titles in style, the other alternative to watch cricket. 

I of course switch on Sri-Lankan match when I won't to sleep on my arm chair (not for dreaming of course).

I call it instant Sleep neither instant Cricket(IPL type) or Instant Coffee.

 

You may fall to sleep halfway through my story too but that is an added advantage of visiting this post.

Caption

Our studies for the first year ended in May, and in June we both started the semi-mandatory military service, but in different places. 

I did not see Linus for the next year. 

The Finnish army taught me to shut up, stop thinking, hurry up to wait, shoot people at a distance, and collect dirty dishes in a restaurant. 

My IQ dropped markedly during those nine months. 

I did not enjoy the experience.

Caption ENDS and the story begins. 

Now I always dream about going abroad or being abroad in an airport or in one of my friends home abroad alone while my friend is toiling in his or her office. This disease of going abroad in dreamy state I acquired while on industrial action over 3 months periods and there is no cure for except dreaming of a cure.

The Dream

I had gone to Denmark to visit a friend there who is a professor of Sociology. He is a fan of football and once Danish were the world champions in football  and he still dreams one day in the future they will become champions again.

I tell him it is nice to dream when one is old and retired and does not have enough means to support oneself.

It is all what old people have except of course politicians in power.

I always tell my friend one should not become a politician young.

Look at Obama and see how quickly he has become "old looking" in spite of American make up.

One must become a politician at old age and have your bypass and all other medical conditions attended by the state and one does not need a Health Plan or Insurance then. 

He tells me he does not like politics and rush off to work leaving behind an old computer for me to work with.

Then he turns round and find me a push trolley to take the computer on my way out if I decide to go out for a walk. He is scared I get a heart attack carrying a big computer on my outdoor activities knowing very well that computer is now an appendage of my body.

One thing he does not know is that I carry Pendrive and a Puppy Linux.

I was bored inside and loaded the computer into the trolley and was on my way to the railway station as a necessary precaution. In those countries where elderly should not come out at rush hour and you will be trampled to death. So with the trolley I get a headway and leeway at rush hour and rush points. Of course I get funny looks from bystanders, onlookers and  fellow beings of fairer skin as I progress along and towards my desired destination..

As I was going down the path to the station to park the trolley (one needs to pay), I met a lady I have known with her blind son and the daughter coming up.

We got into conversation and the blind son was figuring to place me in his memory and I was telling him.

Can't you remember that I was talking to your mum over the  phone when your sister got lost in the supermarket and I baby sat with you till she alerted the security and the police to locate her and eventually find her.

This was 12 year ago I told him.

Then he came to me grabbed me with emotion and with that emotion I was woken up.

This was a nice dream and I was taken up by the big old computer and the lost child and helping to find her.

But also annoyed why should one of my friends gives me a big old computer instead of a tablet on my short sojourns abroad?

I can understand a wheel chair but not a rackety old computer and immediately posted an email to Maha Brahma.

He responded quickly and with a saying "old time no see arhh".

I told him we are back to work and doing some catch up work.

I told him this cannot be me at the railway station with an old computer and I am now thinking of a telepathic computer chip in my forehead and not a  rackety old computer as my companion and i am very futuristic computer-wise.

I may be old in age but my computer is going to be the latest even to my grave I told him.

Son don't be impatient.

It is futuristic too.

Then I asked him why did you wake me up in the middle and  I would have liked to know all about the future politicians.

Do you want to die in prison?

Perhaps not?

Then he dished out the interpretation.

Interpretation.

There are three involved

1. A politician

2. His putative wife

3. A child under 5

Country origin of the three withheld by the advice of the Interpol(Not coconut pol)

Site A Middle East International Airport.

Modus Operandum 

Human smuggling for transplant organs.

Screen action.

1. This politician goes on a official visit.

2. His putative wife (real wife in his mother country) joins him with a child under five two days later.

3. Wife come back to airport with the child.

4. Embark for homeward journey.

5. Report the missing child to the politician by phone before take off.

6. Politician alert the local police

7. Politician attend his bogus function (underworld)
8. In the meantime missing child disappears without a trace from the airport.

9. Whisked away to a Private hospital for donor parts.

10 Money deposited on a Swiss bank in the name of the politician.

This is how the NGOs will operate in future.

See you soon and he disappeared from computer email radar.

About the politician carrying a computer on a trolley is the symptom of them living in the glory of the past who cannot change with modernity and still prefer ballot paper (which can be manipulated at the time of the election) instead of an electronic ballot. His and his retinue carry all the paraphernalia with them when travelling often in a private jet.
They prefer going abroad when things can be achieved with an electronic mail or phone call quite oblivious to the electorate who selected them.
The disappearance of the child is of course is human smuggling.
Blind person is the symbol of lack and antipathy towards differently able people who have to struggle for survival and often there is no access to disabled people in public places in spite of huge development plans.
They are taken away and incarcerated with minimal right in day to day living.