USB Booting with Linux

USB Booting with Linux

This piece long overdue.

The real reason is our strike and I was doing three times the work I had not done at home and was organizing my living room and workshop.

These were done on a leisurely pace not in a rush as when I was working.

My dog took a lot of time of me which he really enjoyed and the little squirrel is a bundle of energy.

All the same I got all my computers USB bootable one by one.

I have used only two methods.

Method 1

I. UnetBootIn and get the stuff copied to a USB stick.

this has disadvantages.

UnetBootin takes over the flash drive entire and one cannot have storage space except of course home folder.

It uses only FAT partition

One cannot get the GRUB installed with your existing operating systems in the hard drive booted.

The real advantage is one can make any iso image bootable provided that one has enough space in the USB stick and your RAM is at least 1 GiB.

Anything less is not advisable.

Method 2

This is the method I prefer since in an emergency, the hard drive systems can be booted in a breeze or if they are not working one can boot up with the external hard disk and start doing repair work from there if the operating system used in the USB hard drive is packed with Rescue utilities .

One can use Rescatux.

But here I will take PCLInux as an example.

Its USB Creator is now solid and very good (latest download after Texstar took a back seat).

One has to use the PCLinux USB Creator

1. The advantage is it uses Linux Partitions.

2. It writes the GRUB already in the Master Boot record.

3. One has to do the installation once one has finished all the installation in the Internal Hard disk/s.

4. It has storage more space.

5. In my case my archived isos reside on the spare NTFS partitions

6. It is easy carry in your front shirt pocket and one cannot lose or misplace it like the Flash Drive.

7. Password protected and safe with your critical data 

I have not given the details since all that is there in this blog under different titles.

Other reason is to thank the PCLinux team for doing a good job without making a big ha ho.

Thank YOU PCLinux Guys and Girls.

Pooches, poo and "crottes de chien"

Dear Friends.

Since our strike is suspended and in suspensions (not underwear) for now, till the real budget comes in November, let us read some real news.

If we continued with the strike we would have had POOS up to our BRIM not dogs of course and I get the information, they we collecting by the buckets.

Years ago Kandy had Bucket latrines and thank god the Municipality discontinued this procedure.

We had to go to Guha Goda- (I think it was derived from Gu Goda which the British could not pronounce and went as Guhagoda) in our public health appointment and unfortunately when we reached there they were unloading the Municipality products.

That was the first and the last day I went there.

But it was a good opportunity for me to put some insight into practice later when I started as an intern.

At Ratnapura Hospital, The Children Diarrhoea Ward was no different from Gu Goda or Guha Goda.

I requested that it should be cleaned on several occasions but the staff took me as joke, it was never cleaned it continued to be Gu Goda.

I came home for weekend break and returned on Monday in probably five or six buses (all the bridges were blasted by the JVP from Kegalle to Darniegala to BulathKohupitiya).

I gave instruction for it to be cleaned when I return on Monday

I went straight to the  diarrhoea ward to see it was in the same mess as it was on Friday.

I talked to few of the mothers told the nurses to get me some KOSU (Mops were not known) and I myself changed to a short (not a trouser) and started cleaning it from one end to the other.

Then, the laboures came and chased them away saying I do not need them.

This was hot news that day and children were piling up in the main ward not seen by (the other guy who was from Colombo did not turn up on time and came only at 11 A.M.) a doctor.

I only saw the diarrhoea patients till the other guy came.

When I got the news that the other guy came. 

I went to my room had a bathe and a cup of tea.

I used to make my own cup of tea.

I had a brand new electric kettle (these were the time we did not have tooth paste) which my brother brought from UK.

Mind you all the doctors in the hospital had Infectious Hepatitis in that year. except me.

I believe I was the only one who practiced simple hygiene.

This was many moons ago and we would been in a mess, like Guha-Goda, if we continued on our action and could have got Infectious Hepatitis instead of a salary hike.

READ MORE,

Dogs and Digital Tombs

Dogs and Digital Tombs

This is the best feature article I read during Christmas,2011.

Unfortunately it is taken off the main page and I had to search for it today.

I have some extracts below for your perusal.

I have a suggestion for French and People in Paris.

Instead of stoned tombs in the cemetery, they should have a server with DIGITAL TOMB with all the photographs and videos of the dogs when they were alive and well for not so dog lovers or dog loving Sri-Lankan administrators to see.

For the poo ("crottes de chien"), I have suggestion, they must send them to Sri-Lanka as fertilizer for the Banana Plantation we are growing in the thick of virgin forest to feed American entrepreneurs.

We love anything including "poo", if it is foreign but make sure they are scented with French cosmetics for poos, please.

This is good for our City Planners in Kandy and Colombo where dogs are rounded up and slaughtered and some end in dinner plates as "chicken substitute".

It is no point saying all the beings be happy and content like a mantra.

Without them (dogs) we cannot protect our things from petty thieves.

Extracts

The pampered pooches of Paris

By Joanna Robertson Paris

Pet dogs in the French capital appear to enjoy the freedom of the city, accompanying their owners just about everywhere - and even have their own cemetery.

The pampered pooches of Paris

By Joanna Robertson Paris

Pet dogs in the French capital appear to enjoy the freedom of the city, accompanying their owners just about everywhere - and even have their own cemetery.

There are hundreds of thousands of dogs in Paris.

They can be chosen from puppy-shop windows or ordered from countryside breeders.

They are seen traveling about the city, nestled amongst the groceries in shopping trolleys or peering out of handbags.

Dogs perch on the running boards of mopeds - ears flying in the wind - or sit, swathed in blankets, in bicycle baskets.

They are petted on the bus, the tram and the metro and, for a flat-rate ticket costing 5.10 euros (£4.25), the smaller ones can escape the metropolis and take the train to anywhere in France.

Access all areas

When on all four paws, dogs in Paris can choose from 72 gardens to walk in - from formal palace grounds to tiny urban squares.

In between, they can mark lamp-posts, trees, ornamental masonry and the corners of Art Nouveau metro stations to their hearts' content.

Paris dogs snooze under cafe tables and sit politely in restaurants.

They are allowed into shops - even when officially not - and, from time to time, sneak into cinemas, usually for a matinée on a wet afternoon.

Each dog has its own preferred vet and there are hundreds to choose from.

Each vet has a preferred dog diet. Calves liver, braised. A little "blanc de poulet" (white chicken meat) or a slice of rare roast beef.

What goes in must come out, and Paris dogs apparently drop 20 tons (20,000 kg) of "crottes de chien" (dog poo) on the city's streets every day, although who exactly weighs it remains a question that even the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) cannot answer.

From time to time, the city's more creative residents have used the crottes as pavement art, sticking them with coloured flags, photographing and painting them.