Can you retrofit the non-PAE kernel to a Precise install LiveUSB?

[Liam Proven]

On 17 May 2012 13:09, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've tried to install Precise from CD on my IBM Thinkpad X31 laptop.
> It won't boot. Precise uses the PAE kernel and my 2004 laptop's
> Pentium-M CPU.
>
> (Lubuntu works but I wanted to try a clean install of "full" Ubuntu
> first. 11.10 is getting unusably slow on this machine, but then, it
> started out on 8.10 & has been updated through every version since.)
>
> If I make a Precise LiveUSB with the System Disk Creator and then I
> boot it, can I install the non-PAE kernel into that and then boot and
> install from it?

To answer my own question:

No, you can't just install the generic kernel on a bootable USB stick.
The USB stick doesn't use GRUB (but rather syslinux or something) and
the root FS isn't writable, so kernel installation fails.

The Alternate CD doesn't work either, AFAICS.

But if you use the "mini" ISO - the netboot CD - then there is a
non-PAE version of this. It boots and runs just fine on a Pentium-M. I
picked one package to install - "Ubuntu desktop" - and the result is a
plain, standard Precise system.

Minor tweaks to /etc/X.11/xorg.conf (to force 16-bit mode, which is
faster & allows a 2nd monitor, at least in theory - not tried this
yet) and /etc/default/grub (to add "nomodeswitch" to enable suspend
and resume and "mode=791" to get a clean, unfuzzed graphical bootup
screen) and it's working just fine.

Also, because with the mini ISO, everything is installed off the 'net,
there was no need to install any updates when it was finished.

And incidentally, the advice to use Unetbootin was good - Startup Disk
Creator did not list "mini.iso" as a suitable CD image to build a USB
stick from, so I had to use Unetbootin.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com • Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884