SLAX – Linux for USB
On Makes Me Wonder, I once blogged about putting Linux onto a USB drive. It worked great, but it started up very slowly. So I set out looking for a lighter-weight Live USB distribution, and stumbled upon SLAX, a small distribution based on Slackware. It starts up within 30 seconds (off my USB drive!) and runs great.
Installation
Go ahead to http://slax.org/ and go to the ‘get slax’ page. Choose the ‘tar’ version that says USB on it, download it (30 minutes on a fast connection) and unpack the archive (if you don’t know how, get WinRar at rarlab.com). Copy the ‘boot’ and ’slax’ folders onto your drive, and run the bootinst.sh (if on Linux) or bootinst.bat (if on Windows) from the boot folder to make the drive load the operating system. You’re done!
Running SLAX
Old computers might not be able to boot off a USB drive. Turn off your computer, insert the USB drive, and turn it on, clicking F10, or whatever to enter Setup. There, change the boot order, putting USB-HDD or just USB into the first position. Then Save and Exit setup. The computer will restart and boot off your drive. Once you see the graphical menu, choose ‘Boot into Graphical Mode’. Wait for it to load.
There are many things you can do in SLAX, including installing modules to add functionality (I will post about this later), and doing many other productive (or not) things. My only concern is that it runs KDE, when my preferred window manager is GNOME, but I’ll live. SLAX is still awesome.
