Salix OS

I just inherited a cheap little laptop that has no disc drive. How can I install Salix on it? I have Salix on my other laptop and I still have the installation disc. But obviously that disc does me no good without a drive.

Hi, Sasquatch,

In this case, you would need to prepare a USB thumb drive / flash drive and install from that medium. The Salix FAQ has two mini-guides which can help you:

http://docs.salixos.org/wiki/How_to_ins ... an_USB_key

Salix 14.1 currently has Live versions available for Xfce and MATE.

http://docs.salixos.org/wiki/Install_from_a_USB_stick

Salix 14.1 has (non-live) installation images for Xfce, MATE, Openbox and Fluxbox.

Either of these methods should work; you just need to decide which one you prefer.

HTH and Good luck.

Thanks for the links. I don't have time to try it today. Hopefully I can do it next weekend. I doubt I'll have free time this week.

Hi, Sasquatch,

You're welcome. Please post back if you run into problems, and I'm sure someone will be able to help you.

I have an old HP Mini 210 netbook (which lacks an optical drive), and using those instructions, have been able to successfully install Salix from a Live USB (Xfce) as well as a USB installation image (KDE, I think it was Salix 13.37). (The Mini is currently running Debian 8 [Jessie] Fluxbox; since it's working well and I have less time to fiddle / tinker, I don't have plans to install Salix on it. I do enjoy using Salix on my desktop PC, though).

It doesn't work. I downloaded the iso, did the "dd" command as per the instructions on the one link above, but nothing happens when I try to boot from the usb. I don't know if there's more to it. Or maybe I need to try a live version instead.

Sasquatch wrote:It doesn't work. I downloaded the iso, did the "dd" command as per the instructions on the one link above, but nothing happens when I try to boot from the usb. I don't know if there's more to it. Or maybe I need to try a live version instead.

Maybe my intro thread may help or not

http://forum.salixos.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6131

Sasquatch wrote:It doesn't work. I downloaded the iso, did the "dd" command as per the instructions on the one link above, but nothing happens when I try to boot from the usb. I don't know if there's more to it.

Whether something needs to be done, also depends on the BIOS code and the BIOS settings. I do not know this hardware. But generally there are several things to consider..

It may be necessary to:

• - yet allow booting from USB stick
  - power up the USB interface explicitly
  - change the boot order
  - call a boot menu and select a boot device
  - plug the USB stick before the computer is turned on

rokytnji wrote:

Sasquatch wrote:It doesn't work. I downloaded the iso, did the "dd" command as per the instructions on the one link above, but nothing happens when I try to boot from the usb. I don't know if there's more to it. Or maybe I need to try a live version instead.

Maybe my intro thread may help or not

http://forum.salixos.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6131

So I need to try "of=/dev/sdc" instead of "of=/dev/sdc1"? I have a couple usb ports, so I thought the "1" made a difference. Or was there something else in that thread that I needed to pay attention to? I got a similar message telling me how many files were read and written when I did the "dd". So I'm assuming the USB stick has the iso on it. Maybe the Acer needs something different to boot? Or maybe, as I posted previously, I should try a LiveCD version and install from that.

westms wrote:Whether something needs to be done, also depends on the BIOS code and the BIOS settings. I do not know this hardware. But generally there are several things to consider..

It may be necessary to:

• - yet allow booting from USB stick
  - power up the USB interface explicitly
  - change the boot order
  - call a boot menu and select a boot device
  - plug the USB stick before the computer is turned on

The laptop in question is a tiny Acer. I don't have the model number handy. I did F2 into BIOS to set the boot device. But it only allows me to set boot order. I set the USB to the top of the list. I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure I did have the stick plugged in before booting. I'm not sure how to allow booting from the USB, how to power up the USB explicitly, or call a boot menu.

This is odd to me. I've done at least twenty distro installs from CD/DVD on both laptops and desktops. I'm not unfamiliar with the basic process. But I'm also not familiar enough with the intricacies to be able to diagnose what is going wrong. I suppose it could also be a problem with the USB stick. I didn't format it or anything before using it.

I do appreciate the help. Salix is easily my favorite of all the distros I've tried over the years, largely because of the great community behind it. I'm looking forward to having another Salix box in the house.

Sasquatch wrote:So I need to try "of=/dev/sdc" instead of "of=/dev/sdc1"?

Yes.

sdc is the whole device/stic. You want to put the image to the device. sdc1 is the first partition on the device. If you use sdc1, you create a partition table, under the devices partition table, which can never be used.

gapan wrote:

Sasquatch wrote:So I need to try "of=/dev/sdc" instead of "of=/dev/sdc1"?

Yes.

sdc is the whole device/stic. You want to put the image to the device. sdc1 is the first partition on the device. If you use sdc1, you create a partition table, under the devices partition table, which can never be used.

Still doesn't work. I'll try a different iso later today in case something got corrupted while downloading. I'll see if one of the Live versions works better. It's possible there's something about the booter on the USB stick that the Acer box just doesn't like.