PDA

View Full Version : Runt



HungSquirrel
November 12th, 2004, 03:56 PM
There's a bootable USB thumbdrive Linux distro based on Slackware called RUNT (http://www.ncsu.edu/project/runt/), which just released version 4.0 . It can be used as a nice portable Linux recovery distro. It requires a 128MB or greater USB storage device. (I have a 128MB stick and I am nearly out of room after installing it.) If you want to give it a shot, here's how to do so, as taken from my experience.

- If your computer supports it, set your BIOS to allow booting from USB. Otherwise, make sure you have a blank floppy disk.
- Your USB device should have a FAT16 partition. If you want to format it, do the following, assuming your device is /dev/sda1:

sudo mkdosfs -F 16 -n RUNT /dev/sda1

- You will need some tools for working with MSDOS partitions.

sudo apt-get install mtools
- You will need to download this file (http://www.ncsu.edu/project/runt/runt-4.0.zip). For these instructions, download it to your home.

(This assumes /media/usb0 exists.)

mount -t msdos /dev/sda1 /media/usb0
cd /media/sda1
unzip ~/runt-4.0.zip
The above step sets up the initial Linux file structure on the USB drive.

The below step makes the USB drive bootable.

sh runutil/makeboot.sh

If your computer doesn't support booting from USB, insert a floppy and do:

sh runutil/mkfloppy.sh

If all went well with no errors, reboot. You should see a boot: prompt come up. If you booted from USB, you can just hit Enter for the default. Hit F1 for help, or to use a framebuffer console.

Once you reach the login prompt, login as root with no password. If you want to change the blank root password, once you are logged in do passwd. If you want to add another user, do adduser.

RUNT has a forum (http://moses.sca.ncsu.edu/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=2) if you need help or you want to comment on the mini distro.

jdodson
November 12th, 2004, 08:14 PM
i think this is great. i think it would be more helpful in the HOWTO section. perhaps the mod can move this post. just my 2 cents.

HungSquirrel
November 13th, 2004, 10:28 AM
The reason I didn't put it in HOWTO is this isn't Ubuntu specific. I thought it would be kind of weird to put a HOWTO about another distro in the Ubuntu HOWTO section. If you guys want to move it, I don't mind of course. :)