- This topic has 53 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated Aug 23-11:45 pm by Brian Masinick.
-
Posts
-
Kjellinux
Does using Rufus work? I have never tried it and just relied on others’ feedback.
As far as I can judge it does what it claims to do.
Anonymous
well with 512 mb ram and a swapfile you should be able to run a web browser with
a tab or two. test, take notes, and post results for it. might try antiX-19 32-bit iso
since mostly has a low ram usage too. does your acer-3100 have ati or intel video since some
other chips are a problem. SIS video has proven trouble. can you post
inxi -Fxz
of the test machines so other readers know what the running machine has?
wifi chips can be trouble on some too.Please post the link where antiX recommends Rufus. I can’t find it. Once found, I’ll remove it.
We have a “Live USB Maker”; for our distribution, it will allow you to use many of the features that distinguish our distribution; it can also create a Live USB for other distributions using the standard dd utility. We do not recommend other tools, so I agree with anticapitalista. Anything you may have seen regarding Rufus or other tools either were not on this site, or if they have been mentioned, they certainly were NOT an official recommendation.
Rufus has (past tense, I have not tested w/ antiX21) been skidoo’s recommended utility for onboarding Windows users.
The mention of rufus was penned by Dave, at my request.
As is, the wording on the antixlinux.com downloads page is non-ideal, fails to clarify that rufus is a “from Windows only” utility.
Brian Masinick
How about dd for Windows – http://www.chrysocome.net/dd
or if not, maybe cygwin, (install the cygwin utilities, then you can use many UNIX-like commands, including dd and bash).
https://www.cygwin.com/
Cygwin version
The most recent version of the Cygwin DLL is 3.2.0. (as of August 22, 2021).Installing Cygwin
Install Cygwin by running setup-x86_64.exeUse the setup program to perform a fresh install or to update an existing installation.
I was able to use cygwin tools in one or two business environments that were welcome to using both Windows, UNIX, and Linux. A couple of them were even migrating environments from Sun Solaris to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (or other implementations) in order to be able to purchase much less expensive commodity servers.
They definitely got more raw power in certain instances using 12+ processors in a Solaris environment, but they found excellent economy of scale with PC servers; it was places like this that were open to alternatives like cygwin even in Windows environments because engineers could then use tools like bash and dd, along with others on either Windows, UNIX or Linux systems.- This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Brian Masinick.
--
Brian Masinick@Kjellinux – If your goal is still the same – seeing what runs well on old hardware – using a live USB:
1. boot with that live-cd you made earlier.
2. use antiX to make a live-usb with Live-USB-Maker (under applications > antiX) – choose fully-featured, and use the defaults.
3. Reboot with USB from now on – when you boot, choose persistence option (F5) p_static_root; then choose F8 to save the configuration, so each time it will keep that default until changed.
4. During boot it will ask for a persistence file size – choose something like 3 GB, if using that 16GB stick. It will then offer to make a swap file – go ahead and let it.See how you like that – That’s test #1.
Tell us how it goes….
@christophe
Here is how it went…
1. Worked fine, just like before.
2. Took a while to realise i needed to chose the option “Clone running live system“.
3. Went with “p_static_root” (your first post stated f_static_root).
4. Accepted suggested 4GB file size. No offer to make swap file. On next boot tried custom option and 3GB file size. Now I was offered to create a swap file. (I guess you have to choose custom.)Betwen steps 2 and 3, I decided to change to the previously created USB with 64 bit full, so as to be able to evaluate as many functions as possible.
There have been many recommendations to use the Live USB Maker. This does indeed appear to be a convenient tool, but not until you are already running antiX. Before that, I find it to be a bit of catch 22/hen and egg situation. Most people today don’t have optical drives, which leaves you with finding some utility to flash the .iso file to a USB (or other type of flash memory). I have tested a few, and all the ones I tested overwrote the preconfigured swap partition. Fortunately I managed to insert a swap file after the .iso was flashed to the USB. I suspect there might be a better/more correct way to do this, but until I find out how, I’ll settle for having a working live USB that allows me to test the system.
One practical problem I encountered was the limitation of having only 512MB RAM. Running antiX base from the CD, I tried to download antix 64 bit full, but the system froze/crashed. My guess, without knowing for certain, is that it ran out of RAM.
From my testing so far, I conclude that antiX performs well enough, running from a live USB on my test rig, for me to find it useful to do further tests. These further tests will include minimising needed hardware requirements, adapting antiX to make it as “Windows user friendly” as possible and a few other things. If (or rather when) questions arise in connection with my furhter testing, I will create new threads.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Kjellinux.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Kjellinux.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Kjellinux.
Brian Masinick
There have been many recommendations to use the Live USB Maker. This does indeed appear to be a convenient tool, but not until you are already running antiX.
That’s why in post #65441 I provided a couple of other options for those who need to create a USB Flash Drive image from Windows.
--
Brian Masinick@Brian Masinick
That’s why in post #65441 I provided a couple of other options for those who need to create a USB Flash Drive image from Windows.
I had a look at them, but I discarded dd for Windows since I prefer a GUI, and cygwin when I read “a large collection of GNU and Open Source tools” (I prefer one small tool).
- This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Kjellinux.
Brian Masinick
Since you prefer a GUI and skidoo has specifically recommended Rufus (ONLY for Windows), then that may be your best option. If you choose it, please use it with care. At least one person had “issues” with it “erasing” information. That’s not really the fault of Rufus or any other device creation tool, this is due to the privileges any device-based tool requires, and therefore ALL such tools, including our own tool require care. Live USB Maker will only work with specific device locations; in that context it’s a safer tool.
--
Brian Masinick
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
