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User Zone => General Discussion => Topic started by: Dan on June 13, 2016, 05:24:19 AM

Title: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on June 13, 2016, 05:24:19 AM
I've been looking at some of the distros that are popular for putting on USBs in order to have a portable Linux OS to use on any computer...so after looking at several, I decided to use...wattOS!

So today, I did a full install of the R9 32bit LXDE onto an 8 GB USB, ran the updates, saved a document to see if it would still be there the next time I used it, rebooted, and everything is there as though on an actual hard drive...and it's only taking up 2.5 GBs of the USB at this point.

I know this is nothing new, but it might be something of use to others.  :)
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: cheiron on June 13, 2016, 05:41:06 AM
Hi Dan


Good to hear that all went well for you. How did you find WattOS as a whole running as a portable against a standard install? (what spec machine was it ran on as a benchmark against your normal)
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on June 13, 2016, 05:53:16 PM
cheiron,

Here are the basic specs of the computer that I used to make the portable OS with...

Computer: HP dx5150 SFF
CPU: Single core AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 1.8GHz
GPU: Gallium 0.4 on ATI RS480
RAM: 935MiB

While using the portable version on the same computer, I noticed no difference in performance. Here are the basic things that I tested with the portable version...

1. Internet usage
2. Listening to an internet radio station with Audacious
3. Changed some of the settings
4. Installed Abiword and saved a document with it

After rebooting, everything was saved as I left it...including the internet radio station on Audacious. I did a few other things, but I can't imagine that I'd use it for much else as a portable OS. This computer is using ethernet, so I'm looking forward to trying this portable version later at work so that I can test it on a couple of other newer computers that use wireless and have newer hardware. I am interested to see how it might perform on computers other than the one that I used to make the USB with. I'll post the results.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on June 13, 2016, 11:07:49 PM
Okay...here are the results from two more computers...IT RAN GREAT!  :D

The first computer is my personal laptop which I keep at work...it only has wattOS 64bit on it.

Computer: Toshiba Satellite L505D
CPU: AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile M520 @ 2.3GHz
GPU: AMD/ATI RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4225/4250]
RAM: 3701MiB

This second computer is one of our computers at work...

Computer: HP Compaq Presario CQ5320F (Desktop running Windows 7 Professional)
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 240 Processor @ 2.8GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
RAM: 3000MiB

I'm not sure about the GPU...it's been a long time since I've looked up information like that on a Windows computer!  ::)

Anyway, the portable wattOS performed brilliantly on all three computers. And now for your enjoyment...or boredom...I give you a short video showing it in action.  8) There's no video of me or my voice. The only sound will come from Audacious and Youtube... ;)

https://youtu.be/ogr5oLFxW8Q
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: cheiron on June 14, 2016, 06:18:34 PM
@Dan


Cool! nice spread of pc's and abilities of each.


Thats some very useful feedback and help for others considering portable or not.


Well done that man!  8)
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: leenie on June 14, 2016, 10:56:20 PM
Hi Dan,
LOVED YOUR VIDEO! I subscribed, hoping for many more. I've been using wattOS a long time and never tried it portable. Hmm, I have a 16 GB stick around here somewhere...
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on June 15, 2016, 01:19:56 AM
Thanks cheiron and leenie. I think it's a good idea and opportunity for those who may need to do online banking (or any type of secure/important work) without having to do so on a Windows computer where security is such a risk.

While I was looking at the other distros, I was most drawn to one in particular...but I couldn't wrap my mind around it. I read a ton of their documentation, but was still left wondering about updates and exactly how to install it in order to use it from a USB instead of a full install on hardware.  Then it dawned on me...wattOS is light; why not try it?

Just another reason why wattOS is such a great OS!

Also, I must confess...I lied in the video. When I said that I had only added three additional applications, I forgot that I had also added a firewall to it.  So I actually added four items. ;D

There is one other thing that perhaps someone could possibly help with or offer advice about...

When I installed it onto the USB, it ran OSprober and updated the grub (of the USB stick; not the host computer's grub) as a normal install does. Therefore, when I boot the USB, it first lists the USB's wattOS on the grub screen; then it lists the other OS from the host computer that I used to make the USB with...so there's "supposedly" two operating systems to choose from on the grub screen, and of course that same grub screen shows on any computer that I plug it into. That doesn't present a problem, because I know what I want to boot. I'm not sure what would happen if I inadvertently chose the other OS on a computer other than the host computer that I made the USB with.  :o  However, it could be confusing to someone who wants to try this out. Not really sure what to do about it, because I don't see any way around it during installation. I even tried reinstalling it a second time just to see if there was a way around it...to no avail. Like I said, it's not a problem or confusing to me. I'd just hate to cause others any confusion on something that I suggested.  :)

Thanks for the kind words and for subscribing leenie! H...o...w...e...v...e...r, I'm not much of a videographer!  ;D  I don't make videos very often. :-\  :)
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on August 05, 2016, 06:41:48 PM
Looking forward to the new release coming out soon!  :D

As a side note...as an experiment, I allowed my portable version to upgrade to 16.01. Took about an hour. Everything looked good after reboot...except...I couldn't log out, restart, or shut down anymore.  :o  Had to turn the computer off manually. So...I plugged it into a different computer when I got home...and...it wouldn't even boot at all.

I don't know if the trouble was because it's portable or not, but I ended up having to reinstall it on the USB again...and I quickly turned off the notification for LTS upgrades after the installation.  ;D

However, I will be putting the new version on a USB too.  ;)
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: biffster on August 06, 2016, 05:07:07 PM
Very nice Dan :) - thanks for posting test results and info. Its always helpful. New release will be out soon so you can experiment with the latest :)

biff
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on August 10, 2016, 12:53:36 AM
Thanks biffster...I'm really looking forward to it! In fact, the geek in me went out and bought a new 32 GB USB just to use for a portable version of the new release.  ;D
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: blaze on August 20, 2016, 05:15:13 PM
That was a very good investment Dan. Please let us know how it all went down later on. :)
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on August 22, 2016, 06:33:03 PM
That was a very good investment Dan. Please let us know how it all went down later on. :)

Will do.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on September 04, 2016, 01:17:22 PM
The portable version of R10 is working great! I've tried it on the same three machines as mentioned in the earlier posts, and it has done well on all three.

If anyone may be interested in making your own, but you're not sure what to do...I'm intending to either make a video or give detailed instructions on how to do a portable version, because it is a little different than a regular install...but it's still very easy,   ;)
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on September 05, 2016, 01:50:13 AM
Okay...here's the video for doing a full install of wattOS onto a USB...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-kfuw-9KA4
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: teejay on September 05, 2016, 01:11:14 PM
Pretty impressive, Dan.
I can understand setting "don't use" for the swap space, but thought the reason was to prevent porta-watt2 looking for sda5 on boot  ie to make it independent of the current box.
What happens when you boot the Debian 8.5 install ?  Swap space gone or untouched ? 
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on September 05, 2016, 03:22:47 PM
Let's see if I can answer without writing a 10,000 word thesis.  ;D

This is my understanding...I reserve the right to be wrong.  ;)

The installer wants and expects to assign a Swap partition during installation; therefore, if the user doesn't assign one, it will use one that already exists in the list...even though it's on a separate disk.

So, the portable won't have swap on any other computer other than the host computer that was used to make the portable version anyway.

How is the host computer affected? The first time that I made a portable version of wattOS, the host computer was running wattOS also. I allowed the installer to assign the host computer's swap that time...merely because I didn't catch it. However, there were no bad side effects...I assume it's because it was the same OS...but I'm not sure about that.

Later on...while trying to figure out my grub situation that I referred to in an earlier post, I made another portable with a Debian host computer...again allowing it to assign the host computer's swap. On a subsequent boot of that host computer, and I can't remember the exact "fail" or "warning" message that was listed during the boot process (or the shutdown process)...but the Debian computer's swap was no longer accessible...or something like that.

So, I had a portable with no swap except on one computer, and I had one computer with no swap any longer.

So...to me, there were two options.

1. Don't allow the installer to assign a swap partition.

2. Use gparted to make two partitions on the portable USB...one being around 500 MBs in size (on an 8 GB USB) to assign as swap during the installation.

In my case, the "no swap" option is preferred as I only use the portable version on rare occasions and for short amounts of time. If I were using it more, I would want the swap partition...which is also easily done.  :)
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on September 05, 2016, 04:09:27 PM
What happens when you boot the Debian 8.5 install ?  Swap space gone or untouched ?

Sorry teejay, I realized that I didn't answer your question when I answered your question!

Using the "no swap" method, the host computer's swap is untouched.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on September 05, 2016, 06:04:43 PM
I can understand setting "don't use" for the swap space, but thought the reason was to prevent porta-watt2 looking for sda5 on boot  ie to make it independent of the current box.

Sorry, I didn't respond to this either...

All I can say here is from my experience.

When I allowed the installer to use the host computer's swap on the portable, it booted with no problems on every computer that I used the portable version on.

Likewise, the "no swap" version also boots with no problem on every computer that I've used it on.

As far as I know, the main key is to assign the bootloader to the USB/portable; otherwise, the portable won't boot.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on September 05, 2016, 11:54:39 PM
Okay...just in case...I made another video showing how to include Swap on the portable.

Here's the video to the original "No Swap"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-kfuw-9KA4

Here's the video to the new "With Swap"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSijwtrmGHg
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: teejay on September 06, 2016, 02:00:06 AM
Wow, the whole story !
Thanks, Dan - explanatory and empirical.
I read an article somewhere which reckoned that with "large" RAM and "small" Linux demands  the swap space was rarely used, and Linux would survive well without it.     Large/small are not absolutes, obviously, and growth in applications might cause a rethink on that.     Your low-demand use probably fits well with that "no swap" logic.
Again, thanks.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on September 06, 2016, 03:21:12 AM
There does seem to be more folks who are saying that Swap isn't necessary any longer; however, I personally disagree...depending on your machine.

Before I upgraded the memory on my old computer, Swap was used quite often on it. It had something like 937 MBs of RAM before the upgrade. If I ever opened Firefox, even though I never maxed out the memory, it would use Swap...and the Swap would still show usage after closing Firefox. The Swap would also continue showing usage until I rebooted the computer.

All of the people that I hear saying that Swap isn't needed...they have like 8 million GBs of RAM on their computer.  ;D  Seriously, they do have a high amount of RAM, so they don't need Swap. Not all of us have a gazillion TBs of RAM. LOL!
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on September 07, 2016, 02:07:24 AM
Later on...while trying to figure out my grub situation that I referred to in an earlier post,

Speaking of which, I found a solution. Sadly, there's no way around it during installation (as far as I know). However, you can disable OS Prober on the portable, and that will stop the portable from searching for other OSs thereafter.

Open the file manager as root, and go to /etc/default/grub

Add this to the file (under all of the similar looking entries)...

Code: [Select]
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true
Close and save the file.

Open your terminal, and enter...

Code: [Select]
sudo update-grub
...and the next time you reboot, only wattOS will show in the grub screen.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Mike on September 20, 2016, 06:39:45 PM
Thanks for the tips, Dan! I installed WattOS on a new 32 GB Cruzer Fit (3.0) and it runs excellent on my Acer C720P (chromebook). I've used other portable distros before but I'm not sure why I didn't consider installing WattOS on a USB stick.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on September 20, 2016, 08:55:13 PM
Thanks for the tips, Dan! I installed WattOS on a new 32 GB Cruzer Fit (3.0) and it runs excellent on my Acer C720P (chromebook). I've used other portable distros before but I'm not sure why I didn't consider installing WattOS on a USB stick.

Good deal!
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: bob on September 28, 2016, 03:27:42 PM
I tried this too, took a while to install on the USB but once it was done, awesome. Microwatt has saved me a few times being portable. :)
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: berliner on October 05, 2016, 09:57:23 PM
Dan,
just today I thought about having a live-linux-USB-stick with my personalized distro.

There is a "Pinguybuilder" something which does the job.
Only thing about it:  I have no idea how to use it.

Downloaded it from the author-website and installed it with GDebi , but it says it is installed already.
Yes, I see it in Synaptics.

But how to start and use it ?
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on October 06, 2016, 12:40:23 AM
Dan,
just today I thought about having a live-linux-USB-stick with my personalized distro.

There is a "Pinguybuilder" something which does the job.
Only thing about it:  I have no idea how to use it.

Downloaded it from the author-website and installed it with GDebi , but it says it is installed already.
Yes, I see it in Synaptics.

But how to start and use it ?

Scroll down this page for a few basic instructions...

https://sourceforge.net/projects/pinguy-os/files/ISO_Builder/
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: berliner on October 06, 2016, 05:38:24 PM
Thank you, Dan.

There I found instructions for starting PinguyBuilder from the Terminal.
I now have my whatOS on USB.
skype worked, firefox worked, only Opera did not load because of some authorization. I will re-install it when using the personal whatOS .

I saw screenshots of PinguyBuilder. Looks like there is a GUI. Maybe I will find somewhere how to start it.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on October 06, 2016, 06:02:44 PM
Looks like there is a GUI. Maybe I will find somewhere how to start it.

If you're using wattOS LXDE,

1. Go to the main menu, and click the Run command
2. In the window that pops up, enter ---> PinguyBuilder-gtk
3. Click OK

If you're using Microwatt, (this is just a guess)

1. Click mod + g

and follow the remaining instructions above for LXDE.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: berliner on October 06, 2016, 07:08:06 PM
Dan,
thanks again.  :)

It works.

I have whatOS R10  with LXDE desktop.
Will put the info about it and my PC in my signature, but first have to find out how to get the essential facts.
I know there are terminal commands for it and I know that there are apps, but first have to find and install them.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Dan on October 07, 2016, 12:31:03 AM
Well, one simple way...and it's really neat to see...is to install screenfetch.

sudo apt-get install screenfetch

After it's finished installing, just type screenfetch in your terminal, and it will give you some basic system information and a neat looking  distribution logo in the terminal.

You can also set it so that every time you open your terminal, it will show when the terminal opens.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: Mike on October 07, 2016, 12:07:12 PM
We should come up with an ascii logo for WattOS that we can use instead of the default Ubuntu logo in screenfetch.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: leenie on November 09, 2016, 12:31:42 AM
@Mike, Agreed, also how about a custom boot splash for our wattOS R10 16.04 version. I have been looking for a decent boot splash for a while, there's not much available at gnome-look.org. We can polish our wattOS.
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: biffster on November 09, 2016, 09:08:31 PM
I like that Idea....I use one on my Kali Linux laptop so every time I start it, or open a terminal it says "Security First" in an ASCII format :)
Title: Re: Taking wattOS everywhere I go...
Post by: blaze on November 10, 2016, 02:07:16 PM
Sounds  8) Would make it a little bit more wattOS  ;)