Zero-Install Linux: Live-USB boot mode with persistent file storage.

[BBaker]

Some of you guys have been wanting a version of Linux which does not require touching/installing to your HD, modifying your partions, and can just run from a USB drive. There are probably various, but one lesser known Linux distro I just discovered has persistent live-USB mode built into it. So all you have to do is burn the ISO to a USB stick as usual and then once you boot it up you can enable persistent mode. No need to install anything extra. It’s called Antix and is an easy to install distro based on Debian and the latest Antix-16 has the Linux kernel 4.4 (same as Ubuntu 16.04 and LinuxMint v18). So in theory you should be able to upgrade the kernel to the latest (4.8-rc2 at the time of this post) to test if it has fixes for your wifi, audio, etc. Antix is supposedly also a very small/light and fast distro so that should work better on the slower Atom devices, in theory, provided the kernel supports it. IMO Antix is not as polished UI as say LinuxMint, but it has other benefits as you will see.

Video Intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Aw2zzBE-g
Short Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CII-vqdq7BY
Antix Main Page: http://antix.mepis.org/
Antix-16 64bit ISO download on Sourceforge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/antix-linux/files/Final/antiX-16/antiX-16_x64-full.iso/download

Burn ISO to USB normally – eg., Rufus on Windows, Unetbootin on Linux, or various other tools.

OPtional: Install to HD walk-through (though it’s on a virtual machine not bare metal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOTUk69sQNU

[Anonymous]

Sounds interesting … I look forward to your hands-on report once you’ve test-driven it.

David

[Anonymous]

Any progress on this, please?

[BBaker]

Dude just try it. Nothing to lose. Sometimes the best way to learn about Linux is just trying stuff. All you need is a spare USB stick. If you need help just go to the Antix page(s).

[Anonymous]

I date back to punch cards in college in the 70’s, punch-tape and cassettes at Heathkit, IBM-DOS, & DEC’s not-quite-IBM-compatible desktops.

I’ve just-tried tons of stuff on many dozens of versions of Linux over many years (literally hundreds of hours worth) and what I’ve learned that I have to “lose” (and what I increasingly lack to throw-away) is time.

While I love cutting-edge I need to balance various hobby interests with work and family – so I tend to force myself not to do cutting-edge as I cannot justify the trial & error & frequent dead-end time.

I also tend to always seem to find the exception where my hardware (computer and cellphone) happens to be “that model” that will not work and that no one is interested in getting to work (e.g. my prior cellphone could be rooted but they never made a custom rom for it – which I had expected there would be when I bought it).

All that to say that there must be someone else on the planet who can solve this and I will thank them, even send a small donation, and then copy what they have proven successful. Right now I have to focus on solutions I can use to be productive, even if they are a little rough around the edges & I’m a tester, rather than challenges at the margins that may never prove functional.

Thanks – David

[BBaker]

I hear you. It’s why I’ve not bought any Cherry-Trail device and probably will not. I have to have Linux and (so far) the Cherry-Trail Atoms are just not prime-time. I’d rather pay a bit more for a Core-M or Core i3/i5. The only reason I putter with trying to help people get stuff to work is because it helps me learn a little more about how Linux works. But I’ve also cut way back on it for the same reason… too time consuming. Part of it was also paying-forward the help others gave me on the Linux-Mint forum in getting my rig working… wifi, etc.

[Author]

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