[Ubuntu-ch] Problems with USB-Sticks and Swiss Remix

[Theo Schmidt]

Wolf Geldmacher schrieb:
 > Hi Theo,
 >
 > I'd like to second Dani's suggestion to do a plain install instead.
 >
 > I've just done a plain install of Swiss-Remix 9.04 treating the (8GB) USB
 > Stick like a hard drive attached to USB. This works and results in a system
 > that is faster and also updatabe/patchable with a lot less waste of space:
 > the r/w live-system I previously had on the same stick (and for me the
 > supplied USB install on the Swiss-Remix DVD "just worked") could not be
 > brought to the current patch level - it ran out of space way before
 > finishing.
 >
 > One additional remark - when doing it this way make sure that the root FS
 > is mounted with the "relatime" or "noatime" option in /etc/fstab - otherwise
 > you might find that you are wearing the memory stick too fast.


Hi Wolf and Dani,

Thank you for your suggestions. I've now tried hard (about ten times) to do a 
plain install, using two different computers and two different Swiss-Remix 9.04 
DVDs. Unfortunately I've not been able to. At first the installer kept 
complaining about not being able create file systems. After using gparted 
manually, it became possible, but the installer broke off half way claiming 
copying errors, leaving half a system on the stick. After that, no amount of 
reformatting could induce the installer to regain its former behaviour. Much of 
the problem seems to be that Ubuntu seems to automatically mount the partitions 
on the USB-stick and can't unmount them (or keeps remounting them). On one of 
the rare occasions where it worked the installation wnet about halfway and 
ubibiquity quit with an unspecified error. With my hardware, it seems impossible 
to install Swiss Remix onto a stick without resorting to command-line methods or 
third-party tools.

Another observation:
I've you don't take care and click the "erweitert" button near the end of the 
installer wizard, it will put the boot-loader on your hard disk instead of the 
USB-stick.

A question:
Even if I had been successful, would the plain install on a stick have been any 
use for sending on to my brother-in-law for use on an entirely different 
computer than the one which installed the system? Presumably plain installations 
transfer some hardware information to the system. This was the reason I wanted a 
frugal install, which does the hardware detection with each boot.

Cheers, Theo