How to install SLAX (a Live CD distribution) to a USB stick.

To install SLAX, get the latest version from http://www.slax.org/download.php. SLAX has many versions of the same distribution, with certain differences in apps and size. Select among Frodo, Standard, Popcorn or KillBill editions.

We used the slax-popcorn-5.1.8.iso edition of 115MB with XFCE.

To start with, switch to a root console and enter your password for the root user:

$su root
Password:

Mount the ISO image file of SLAX using the loopback device. In our case, we called the mount directory /mnt/iso. Here is the command we used:

#mount -o loop slax-popcorn-5.1.8.iso /mnt/iso/

Format the USB pendrive to use FAT16. We assume your USB drive is located at /dev/sda and has only one partition.

#/sbin/mkdosfs -F 16 /dev/sda1

After you have a bootable and formated FAT16 partition in the pendrive, mount it. In our case we used a mount directory at /mnt/usb:

#mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb/

Copy all the files from the directory /mnt/iso/, where you mounted the ISO of SLAX, to the mounted pendrive:

#cp -rav /mnt/iso/* /mnt/usb/

Synchronize the data:

#sync

And go to the pendrive location (/mnt/usb):

#cd /mnt/usb/

Now, copy the files vmlinuz and initrd.gz to the root directory, where you mounted the pendrive, in our case from the directory /mnt/usb/, and do:

#cp boot/vmlinuz .
#cp boot/initrd.gz .

Now we need to make some changes to the isolinux.cfg file. All instances of boot/vmlinuz are to be replaced with vmlinuz, and all instances of boot/initrd.gz are to replaced with initrd.gz. The updated file is to be stored in syslinux.cfg, and we can then remove the old isolinux.cfg.

#sed -e 's/boot\/vmlinuz/vmlinuz/g' -e 's/boot\/initrd.gz/initrd.gz/g' isolinux.cfg >syslinux.cfg
#rm isolinux.cfg

Use syslinux to make the pendrive bootable:

#syslinux -s /dev/sda1

SLAX is now installed. Enjoy it. Umount the pendrive and reboot. Change your BIOS to boot from the USB pendrive before booting up again.

Note: SLAX in its version 5.1.8 provides an install script called make_disk.sh which can copy all the SLAX-files to the pendrive and which then uses LILO to install the master boot record on the pendrive. This should result in a bootable USB stick, too. But when we tested it, it wouldn't boot, so it appears that the make_disk.sh still has some problems.