Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with install

Minimizing the hassle of reinstalling everything?

Alabaster — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:03:01 -0800

Help me save time and frustration reinstalling my programs/settings after a fresh Windows install / upgrade / etc. Reinstalling my system after an OS upgrade, system wipe, or on a new PC always becomes an enormous task -- usually taking several days plus weeks of random annoyances ("oops, have to find that codec, oh gee, I don't have Java installed, oh no I have to re-map all of my keyboard shortcuts, etc. .")

I'm thinking of wiping my bloated Vista 64 system and upgrading to Windows 7, but I don't have the time to go through the whole process. (I use Acronis TrueImage for emergency restores, but this won't help with an OS upgrade).

The problems:

* I use LOTS of software regularly
* I'm a tweaker, and have a lot of personalized settings for everything
* Tracking down install files (some on discs around my house, some downloaded, some need to be re-downloaded)
* Many of my programs have been through several patches and upgrades which will need to be gathered and re-applied
* Many programs require online registration/authorization. Some will need to be re-registered because authorization code is tied to system hardware.
* Many programs have a lot of tweaks, settings, plugins, presets, presets, advanced settings, key bindings etc that I would like to retain.
* All those random things like Flash, Java, video codecs, .NET framework, runtime libraries, etc.

Steps I've taken pre-upgrade:
* Backup all data, obviously
* Keep data on a separate partition from programs/OS
* Use portable versions of programs whenever possible to eliminate the need to reinstall
* Save all purchased program serial numbers in one location
* Whenever updating/patching a program, save the patch installer in a folder called "Program Updates"
* Whenever possible, export program settings/presets into a catch-all folder called "Presets" for easy reinstall. Prior to upgrading, go through all crucial programs and export. Make a note of settings which will need manual re-setting
* Use Driverbackup software to gather all of my drivers into one place for easy reinstall. (Is there a similar program for codecs?)

I'd appreciate any advice on:
1.) How I can reinstall all my stuff as quickly/efficiently as possible
2.) How I can maintain my system from now on to make future upgrades/restores hassle-free (I'm curious about using some kind of VM for all but my most essential programs, but I don't know much about this)
3.) If I get lazy and decide to do an in-place upgrade (from Vista 64 Home Premium to Windows 7 x64 Home Premium), will I regret this? Does a Windows 7 install clean up a lot of system bloat and other issues?

Thanks

How should I install Windows 7?

cheapskatebay — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:25:33 -0800

How should I install Windows 7? Our 2-year-old home computer has 32-bit Vista Home Premium as its OS. It's been quite stable for us and I guess I'm one of those rare birds who actually likes it better than XP. We're very light, non-power users and we've been satisfied with our Vista experience.

That said, I plan to upgrade to Windows 7 (32-bit, Home Premium), perhaps as soon as this weekend. The computer can handle it per the Microsoft Upgrade Advisor. It will be an upgrade, not a clean install. I'll back up the hard drive before upgrading.

So far, so good. I understand that Windows 7 may be purchased as a download from the Microsoft web site or as a DVD. My hopefully simple question is, am I better off downloading the new OS or buying a DVD for the installation?

Frankly, I'd rather just download and be done with it... is there any compelling reason not to? A trusted friend suggested the size of the download may be prohibitive - true? (I have Verizon's FIOS service and download speeds are pretty good.) Should I anticipate trouble obtaining a repeat download should the need arise?

I have a subsidiary question about whether Microsoft Security Essentials, combined with Windows 7, will provide enough anti-virus and malware protection to justify dumping my Trend Micro program, but I'm more concerned at the moment with the method of installation of Windows 7.

I've read lots of advice about how to upgrade smoothly from Vista to Windows 7, but not on this particular point. (Hopefully, it's a non-issue!) Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

How do I eject the Snow Leopard install DVD on a Mac Mini?

keijo — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:42:54 -0800

How do I eject the Snow Leopard install DVD on a Mac Mini? I tried to install Snow Leopard on an older Mac Mini but foolishly did not realise that it required 1GB of memory. The install program informs me of this and then gives options to either "Restore From Backup" or "Restart". There is no time machine backup and if I restart it boots again (and again) from the install disc.

I have tried rebooting with holding down the eject button on the keyboard or the left mouse button to no avail. Thanks for any help in getting the big cat out.

Obsolete hardware + Linux = fail?

caution live frogs — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:56:47 -0800

Attention Linux gurus of MeFi: Attempting to set up an old Dell Latitude CS laptop as a Linux system (Xubuntu) for a coworker. Massive installation headaches ensue thanks to missing hardware. Any suggestions? The laptop is barely capable of doing much but all my friend wants is something she can use to browse the web. Basically a stone-age netbook.

The laptop was picked up used, and has no internal floppy drive, no internal CD drive. External drives are missing. It does have a Xircom 10/100 pcmcia card, but it refuses to netboot using that card even if "Cardbus Ethernet" is selected in BIOS as a boot device. One USB port, but won't boot from that either.

System was running Win2K, so I was able to use a Windows-based bootloader to get the machine to restart and begin installing Xubuntu over the network. All went fine until the end - machine failed to install GRUB. Tried LILO. Fail. Tried LILO on the primary partition instead of MBR. Fail. Tried reformatting the drive (which wiped out the Windows partition) and reinstalling GRUB and LILO. Fail.

I'm currently reinstalling the base system in hopes that the reformatting screwed things up - but not really confident.

So here's where I need help: I now have a machine that is running Linux from the install image, but I am afraid to reboot it as I have no backup method of starting it should it fail.

1 - what might be causing GRUB and LILO to fail? My initial thought was (a) the existing Windows partitions, which is why I repartitioned the drive, or (b) some weirdness with the disk itself (SCSI HDD) that is stopping GRUB from going to the MBR (but why won't LILO install on the / partition itself?)

2 - Any way for me to run the GRUB install manually, rather than using the install menu to do it? I am wondering if the installer is trying to send it to a drive that doesn't exist.

3 - If all else fails and I end up with a brick on my hands, should I be able to pull the drive out and fix the problem by plugging it in to another system using an external drive enclosure? (And if so, how do I do this without screwing up the bootloader on the system on which I do the repair?)

This makes me mad. I agreed to do the job before realizing that the damn computer didn't even have a floppy drive. I did a bare metal to network file server install in under 2 hours last weekend for my neighbors, and up until today was feeling like I knew what I was doing, but this one is reminding me just how weak my Linux skills are.

Which distro of Linux should I try?

n3rt — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:20:04 -0800

Which one of the multitude of Linux distros should someone who's never used Linux before give a go? I''m by no means a PC-phobe [or a Windows-phobe for that matter] but I've just done a couple of system backups and reinstalls of Vista, and am looking at my laptop [Acer Aspire 720Z with 2GB RAM, Intel Core-Duo] with a "hmm, what if eye, and wonder whether I should finally give a Linux distro a try.

My computing background was initially Amigas [hey, configuring Ami-TCP by hand was fun! To a certain extent... :) ] and I'm a graphic designer by profession. I already use a fair bit of Inkscape / GIMP so I'm not scared of new apps to replace anything, I'm just stumped at what to try from the various advice proffered by various techy-types here.

Any advice greatly appreciated - and play nicely! :) [Remembers the Amiga vs PC debate years ago...]

Create Win2K network install image?

mcarthey — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:43:11 -0800

How to simply create an install image for Win2K and place it on the network for another computer to install from? I'm looking for a quick and dirty guide, or even a quick application to step me through the process of taking the Win2K installation CD and putting it onto the network to be installed onto a laptop that does not have a CD drive.
I have found too much information to be useful and all assume an administrator's level of experience or a corporate environment that I'm pushing service packs or the like.
Can someone simplify this for me?!

Thanks!

Do we tip the satellite installer?

hippybear — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:14:12 -0800

Do we tip the satellite installer? We arranged to have an upgrade done to our satellite service, moving to an HD-capable system. The upgrade, which we thought would be a simple case of swapping out satellite boxes, has turned into him running new higher-grade cable into the house, crawling about in our attic space to drop cable down through the walls, really he's going well above and beyond what we expected him to do.

We aren't paying for this install / upgrade -- it's somehow being covered through the upgrade deal.

Should we tip the installer? If so, how much?

How to Install a Vise on a Workbench

GregX3 — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:20:42 -0800

I bought this vise on Amazon but it didn't come with any screws. Can you advise me on how to install it on my wooden workbench? I don't have a good measuring tool, but the holes seem to be 1/2 inch (maybe less?) in diameter if that helps.

How can I use my PC's DVD drive from my netbook?

whir — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:47:42 -0800

Does software exist which will allow me to use my PC's DVD drive as an external USB drive for my netbook? I'm going a bit crazy trying to get OS X onto my netbook via a USB flash memory stick and have decided to try it with a DVD drive instead. I don't particularly want to fork out $50 or more for an external USB DVD drive that I'll probably only ever use for this purpose, and I've got two drives on my PC already.

Is there any Windows XP or Linux software that will allow me to plug the netbook into the PC (via a hub) and have the PC's drives run under the control of the netbook as though they were external DVD drives? I recall seeing "USB host" options in the Linux kernel setup, so I'm fairly sure this is possible to do in Linux, but I've been googling around for how to do it and haven't come up with anything.

As another wrinkle, I'll need the netbook to boot from the DVD drive, so it will need to be pretty "real" USB hosting, on a level that the netbook BIOS can grok.

advice on reinstalling xp from i386 folder

jcwilliams — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:36:53 -0800

I want to reinstall xp but i dont have an xp disc. Can I just click on winnt32.exe? Is this simple to do?

I don't have an XP CD and can't find much info other than this wikihow article.

I also don't know if it would be a repair install or a completley fresh install and i don't fully understand how a repair install works.

What could go wrong?

Would it be safer to burn the c/i386 folder to a cd and somehow run it from the startup/boot screen?

I have borked my computer. Help me save my nerd cred!

sah — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:47:46 -0800

Help me install Windows XP with a (non-bootable) installation CD! I decided yesterday that my computer needed a good old reformat. I dutifully backed up my data and then proceeded to wipe and repartition the drive. The problem? My XP pro install CD (which is legitimate) isn't bootable.

All I really want is a plain old DOS prompt so that I can run the stupid installer from the XP Pro CD (which is just a burned copy of the installation files). I have tried all kinds of boot CDs claiming to do this to no avail. The nearest I have come is using FreeDOS to give me a DOS prompt...sans CD-ROM support.

I have tried using the recovery console on a separate (and bootable) XP home CD. But once I get into the console it won't let me eject the CD and swap them out.

What is the best and easiest way to do this? Thank you in advance!

Damn it, lenny. Come on now.

koeselitz — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:29:40 -0800

Increasingly annoying problem installing Debian 5.0.0 'lenny' on an HP G60 with an Itanium (ia64) processor that is currently running Vista Home Premium. Specifically, the debian-installer consistently falls under the impression that I have an AMD 64-bit (amd64) processor. Why? So I told a client (one who's more adventurous than most, which is awesome!) that I'd install Debian 5 on his laptop this weekend; the specs are above. However, I've found it impossible to boot the standard debian-installer, and difficult to run the installer-loader for netbooting correctly. Here are the steps I've followed:

1) First, I wanted to try this new wubi-like Debian installer loader to see how easy it was and to see if I could possibly recommend it to people. In general, it went very smoothly; I downloaded and ran the Windows loader, selecting the 'Expert/custom' install and the 'stable' release. This went fine. Then, at the end of the loading of the installer, it prompted me to reboot, which I did. This brought me into the Vista BCD selection screen, from which I could choose 'Windows Vista' and 'debian installer.' Of course, I selected debian installer. That brought up the debian installer. It took a few times rebooting to get it to recognize my network hardware and download all the installation components, but finally it did; I proceeded through the install, set up separate partitions for swap, /root and /home, and installed the base system. Then I set up a GRUB.

After the installation was finished and I had a partition with Debian on it, I spent some time figuring out chainloading a GRUB. Not excessively difficult, especially with EasyBCD.

But when I booted Debian from the chainloaded GRUB, the kernel would run along and start booting until a certain point, at which time it would fail at a procedure and stop. Right off I figured there was just a problem with the install, so I turned around, jumped back into Vista, and ran the same install again.

And that's when I noticed what the problem had been: watching the installation take place, it was clear that the installer was downloading and installing the files with the '.amd64.' extension in the middle of them. It thought this was an amd64 machine! But it's not!

I let it finish the install, but the same thing: an inexplicably unbootable system.

So I deleted that partition and started over a different way.

2) I downloaded the full installation DVD of 'lenny' from debian.org. (I checked the md5 sum, by the way.) I burned a copy (with InfraRecorder) and booted up again; but when the BIOS screen finished and disappeared, the DVD drive spent about ten seconds running, a flashing cursor appeared in the top left-hand corner of the screen, and after about a minute and a half, the computer booted back into the BCD selection screen (where I only had the options to select Vista and the Debian installer, which I'd since deleted anyway, so it wouldn't boot to that.) I thought to myself, 'ah- a BIOS issue. Simple.' So I went into the BIOS - which is, by the way, completely current, and this is a brand-new laptop - and checked: it's set to boot to CD-ROM. That's when it occurred to me that some BIOSes don't have the necessary drivers to boot from DVDs - okay, simple fix, right?

3) I then downloaded the set of three full install CDs from debian.org, md5sum-checked them, and burned copies. But when I try to boot these, the same thing happens! I've tried pretty much all installation images supported by my architecture now - I went back and tried installing the 'testing' package, then the smaller netinst image. Same thing on boot every time.

4) At this point, I start to get worried about the way this thing can't seem to boot to CD even though the BIOS is set up for that. So I grab my Knoppix boot cd (5.3.1) - works just fine, boots right up into Knoppix! Fluke? I grab my Super GRUB Disk - same thing, boots fine. I d/l a new version of the latest Knoppix (a disappointment, by the way, since they're moving toward something sparser and it's pretty stripped-down) - boots just fine. What's going on?

The only thing I can imagine is that the installer invariably sees this machine as amd64 instead of what it is, ia64, and therefore can neither boot into the installed (amd64) debian system nor boot to the proper disk. But that's just a working theory - frankly, I'm pretty damned confused. I'd be satisfied if I could get the installer loader to recognize correctly, as that's the farthest I've gotten with any method. I'm getting more frustrated as time goes on; I've always loved the Debian installer, and I've run installations on it about six times! It's never not worked like this. Help!

Does anyone know what the hell is going on?

Windows XP repair/install woes.

RobotHero — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:53:10 -0800

My install of Windows XP got borked by a virus that necessitated the deletion of a number of .exe files needed by the operating system. I was kind of hoping to do this without re-formatting my C: drive, so I've been selecting the option to Repair the C:/Windows installation. It says that it successfully copies its setup files, and then restarts the computer. Upon restarting, it shows me a black screen with a mouse pointer but does not continue the install. If I boot from the Windows CD again, it says "Setup has already attempted to upgrade the following Windows installation." And it gives me the option of "Retry upgrading to Windows XP" or "continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing."

Just a couple days ago, I successfully ran a repair from this disk. (In order to get it running long enough to scan everything with Avira, which deleted a bunch of infected .exe files, thus leading to the install I'm trying to run now.)

Are there any other ideas I can try before I start backing up the many files I'll want to save from my C: drive?

Is it just me, or is installing many applications on Mac OS X fairly newbie unfriendly?

realpseudonym — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:14:50 -0800

Is it just me, or is installing installerless applications on Mac OS X fairly newbie unfriendly? For instance, say I download 'VLC' a fairly popular alternative media player. When I double-click the .dmg file, it shows a window with the following icons
- Read Me.rtf
- VLC
- Goodies Folder
- alias to 'Applications'

The 'Applications' alias seems fairly common in many .dmgs.

It seems like the 'obvious' thing to do would be to select the first 3 icons and drag them to the 'Applications' alias, which now leaves a 'Read Me.rtf' and 'Goodies' folder in the Applications folder.

2 months later, I would have no idea that the 'Goodies' folder came with VLC. Also, both may get overwritten by another application that I try to install in the same way.

What I do to avoid this is create a folder first within 'Applications' called 'vlc' and copy the files to the newly created folder. Easy enough for me. But I'm pretty sure my grandma would be puzzled why the 'Applications' alias is shown, but I'm telling her to ignore it. And I also need to tell her how to create a new folder.

Is there a different way to install programs like this (no installer program, which seems to be more common in the OS X world) that I'm missing that is more newbie friendly? Is this just the way it is?

can't install windows millennium edition on dell dimension 4700

metadave — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:47:15 -0800

Can't install windows millennium edition on dell dimension 4700. A call for help. Hi,

I'm trying without success to install windows millennium edition on a dell dimension 4700.

I have a dell windows me re-installation disk and a windows me boot disk. The installation formats the hard disk, copies files from the cd, then reboots the computer from the hard disk (as it should). At this point things go wrong. Usually at this point, I get a brief flash of the windows me logo screen and then the computer reboots *again* and this time goes into the menu that gives the Normal Boot/Safe Mode/Logged Boot/Step By Step Boot choices. None of these work. Which ever I try, the computer just reboots from scratch and goes right back to that menu again.

I have tried different variations that I had hoped might make a difference: using fat16, using fat32, creating a fat32 partition with linux, running with less ram ( 2gb - down from 4gb ) - none have had any effect.

The BIOS is "A10" from dell which seems to be the latest for a dimension 4700.

The computer itself seems to be in good condition. I was able to install both windows xp and ubuntu linux on it. ( I removed these from the disk before starting with windows me ).

Windows millennium edition is not negotiable - I'm doing this for a client who needs millennium to run a particular application. One option might be to run windows me in a virtual machine but when I try to do this using Sun's "Virtual Box", the install disk realizes at some point that the machine is not a dell computer and halts.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how to get windows me running on this machine?

Thanks for reading and for any feedback you have.

- Dave

Mass installation?

Whoop — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:59:34 -0800

What's the best way to mass install over an Active Directory network? Currently I'm running an network of around 60 computers, most of these are XP although there's some Windows 2003 and 2007 also.
The problem is all these computers remain logged in 24/7 and are locked when not in use, never logged out. I'm a novice Windows network admin and any ideas on how to push software to these computers?
I understand that you can set group policies to run .msi installers, however these are only run upon login and due to these computers rarley actually logging in...as they don't logout this isn't much use.

Any suggestions would be extremely appreciated. Thanks.

The problem with Preview

jammy — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:47:42 -0800

MacFilter: How do I get Preview back? I recently got an iBook G4 to complement my iMac G5. While transferring files from the G5 to the G4 I noticed that the laptop had a newer version of Preview than the one on my G5.

Without really thinking about it I moved the one from the laptop to the G5, replacing the older version. Now, Preview won't work at all on the G5 (error code -34). It still works fine on the laptop.

I still have my startup disks, but they only allow one the option to re-install all the original G5 software as a bundle. I'm worried this will overwrite existing files (e.g. my photos) in the current software so I don't really want to do that.

Anyone know how I can get Preview to work again on my iMac? Alternatively, is there a program out there that performs similar functions that I could get in its stead?

New system, Old HD?

Marky — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:22:28 -0800

New computer, how do I keep the old programs? It looks like my computer has finally bit the dust. It crashes to no video and beeps one long beep. Then it must be switched off at the power supply, and won't restart for 10-15 minutes. The crashes come randomly. It can die in 5 minutes, or run all day. "One long beep" is supposed to mean memory problems, but I've had it tested, no problems.

So I guess it's time for a new box. I want to just move my current hard drive into the new box, but I know that won't work, as any new motherboard will want different drivers. I could install the old HD as a D: drive, but I don't think the old programs would work without the proper Registry entry's. Moving the data is easy, but I want to keep my programs as well, and having to reinstall everything isn't possible. I don't have some of the disks, and haven't a clue where I downloaded some things.

How do I resurrect this iBook?

gfrobe — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:40:56 -0800

I've inherited an old clamshell iBook that freezes every time I try to boot from the install disc. How do I fix this? The iBook came with 0S9 installed and seemed to be working OK. I then tried to upgrade it using a retail Jaguar disc and it froze on booting up. Now it won't even load OS9 but instead gives me a blinking folder with a question mark.

When I try to install from the Jaguar boot disc, I get the Apple logo and then it freezes right there. I tried zapping the P-Ram a few times and that didn't fix it. I tried holding Option key when loading to and got to the screen where it lists boot options. Chose OS X and it freezes.

I followed a few other similar threads and also tried re-seating and completely removing the RAM. No difference.

When I go into Verbose mode I get some kind of kernel panic error freeze and the keyboard won't let me input anything.

Does this sound like a bad hard drive? Or is there some other button combination I can push to further troubleshoot the problem?

Wordpress 500 Error on install

Pantengliopoli — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:57:17 -0800

I'm getting a 500 internal server error when trying to install WordPress 2.6.2 on my iPower hosted website. I've installed via iPower's Control Panel several times. The mySQL table is created correctly (from what I can tell) and the config.php file has the correct information, but I get the 500 error when I try to access the /blog directory that the files are installed to, or when I try access the wp_admin site within same.

I've downloaded 2.6.2, unzipped it on my computer and FTP'd it to the /blog directory as well, with the same results.

I've tried to look at the server logs to see if there's anything there, but I can't seem to open them to check the content. Any ideas? This AskMe question had some similar questions, but the error was a 404.

Help a clueless person run a simple program

Rhaomi — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 13:31:18 -0800

A plea for help in installing/running a seemingly simple open-source program on a Windows box. I'm a big fan of the flash game Dice Wars, but after a few ~~dozen~~ ~~hundred~~ thousand playthroughs, I'm left wanting more. So I was intrigued when I learned of an indie remake of the game called DiceWarz.

Unfortunately for me, this game hails from the Linux universe, and as a Windows user I'm bristling at the unfamiliar context in which I've found the game.

For starters: the game data is found here. Seems like all the relevant rules and data files are there. There was no obvious installer, but I knew enough to recognize the "tarball" referenced at the bottom as a compact package of the needed files.

So I grabbed the tar, opened it in Izarc, and successfully extracted the game's innards to my desktop. Here's where I'm stuck.

I've got a folder with a mixture of things: a bunch of js files, a bin file, a configuration file, and an MS Word doc (which offers no help in actually running the thing). Given these files, what do I need to do to get the program running?

I'm usually reasonably proficient at this stuff, but I'm at a loss here. I don't have a lot of experience working with Javascript (which is apparently what the games is built with). And searching Google has led to horrifying open-source DIY jargon like this. It's hard to find what you need when you don't speak the language! And I would inquire at the site I got the files from, but even that is a confusing setup of directories and references to CVS's and BBS's that I just can't follow.

Please disabuse me of my ignorance! And many thanks in advance.

Installing Vista Securely

kidbritish — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:15:22 -0800

Those stories about Windows PCs getting infected within minutes of connecting to the internet... does that still apply in Vista SP1? Soon I'll be setting up a new PC put together from parts and doing a fresh install of Vista Ultimate with SP1 (retail). Should I do anything special to maximize security?

I need a locking doorknob.

Verdandi — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:13:03 -0800

I need to install a key-locking doorknob on my bedroom door. What sort of options do I have, and can I do this myself? Since I still live at home for at least a bit longer, I decided I need a little more security so I can keep my possessions where they should be (my very slightly younger brother seems to have a problem with putting things back where they belong). So, since my bedroom door doesn't lock, I'd like to make it do so, from the outside and inside.

So, my question(s):
1) How easy is this to do? I'm pretty home improvement savvy, so I think I could handle anything as long as I have instructions.

2) Are any key-lock doorknobs better than others? Or are they all pretty much the same? I have access to pretty much every home improvement store, including a small professional locksmith.

Thanks a ton in advance :)

I do not want a Live CD, why can't you remember that?

tip120 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:01:55 -0800

I am having problems making a persistent installation of Ubuntu on a usb thumb drive. I am attempting to make a persistent install of ubuntu 8.0.4.1 on a usb thumb drive. I am not looking for a Live CD on a usb drive.

I have followed several different tutorials (most notably the ones here and here*). I can, seemingly, get through the whole process without a hitch. When I start the target machine (a mini-itx with no internal or external drives, only the usb key), it will boot as if it were a Live CD. It asks for Live CD boot parameters, and no changes I make (simple ones at that, themes, or desktop background) are saved. The BIOS is set to boot off the usb key.

I feel I am missing something incredibly obvious here, but have no clue what it might be. I'm comfortable, but by no means a pro, with "the Linux," and have zero idea where to start looking for a solution.

I sent an email to the pendrivelinux dudes, but doubt I will hear back anytime soon.

*I realize this second link is for xubuntu, but that doesn't matter so much to me as making the changes to stick.

Ubuntu 8.04 on a portable hard drive?

penciltopper — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:37:58 -0800

Ubuntu 8.04 on a 40 gb portable HDD: LiveUSB w/persistence, or install straight to HDD? I'd like to be able to carry around a portable USB HD - NOT a flash drive; too small, and I'd wear it out too fast - with an Ubuntu install that I can boot to on any of the 9 or 10 machines I end up being in front of fairly often.

I've got an old install of Dapper on a 10 GB portable HD that I made work this way after some wrestling.
But every time I use it, I have to reconfigure Xorg. Doable, but annoying.

I haven't used it (or Ubuntu) in a while and I've missed it; I also figure it's time to update to Hardy Heron.
I did so researching and found that Heron has a LiveUSB installer all wrapped up now, which is cool.
Q#1: does that set up persistence too?

Q#2: Given that I'd like to do one install to a portable HD, and have that install boot from various different machines without reconfiguring X (or anything else if I can help it), would I be better off:

A) doing a LiveUSB install on the HD, with a partition for Persistence
or
B) just doing a straight install to the USB HD, because Ubuntu has some new cool thing that will adjust for different hardware now - no more reconfiguring X, etc.
or
C) some third thing I've never heard of but is supercool?