HowTo: Set up a USB stick to save changes

[kidshoalin]

Will this tutorial work for Backtrack 4?

[thorin]

Step 4 was giving me no end of headaches. No matter what I did I kept getting the following after doing the 'w' to write the new table:

WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 22: Invalid argument.
The kernel still uses the old table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot.
Syncing disks.

I googled for a few solutions none of which worked. I fired up qtparted and it worked fine. (I may add a small note to this effect to the wiki).

Step 6 seems to be missing a switch in the copy command:

cp /mnt/sdb1/* /mnt/sdd

should be

cp -r /mnt/sdb1/* /mnt/sdd

Also http://www.infosecramblings.com/back...ssus-ff3-nmap/ has some good follow-on steps (add nessus, upgrade nmap and firefox).

Edit: wiki has been updated.

Will this tutorial work for Backtrack 4?

Check this:
http://forums.remote-exploit.org/showthread.php?t=20279

[DangerUponU]

ok so things seem to work just fine up until step six.

Back in root, type:
Code:
mkdir /mnt/sdd1
mount /dev/sdd1 /mnt/sdd1
mkdir /mnt/sdd2
mount /dev/sdd2 /mnt/sdd2
cp /mnt/sdb1/* /mnt/sdd1



when i am at the "mkdir /mnt/sdd1" (mine is sda1) it says that the dir already exists so i just skipped it. the rest goes fine til the last one. it just says that it doesnt exist or something like that. that makes me wonder: do i need have something different for the last part? this is what i entered:

mkdir /mnt/sda1
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
mkdir /mnt/sda2
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2
cp /mnt/sdb1/* /mnt/sda1

at the end it says it doesnt exist. what am i doing wrong?

[Barry]

ok so things seem to work just fine up until step six.

Back in root, type:
Code:
mkdir /mnt/sdd1
mount /dev/sdd1 /mnt/sdd1
mkdir /mnt/sdd2
mount /dev/sdd2 /mnt/sdd2
cp /mnt/sdb1/* /mnt/sdd1



when i am at the "mkdir /mnt/sdd1" (mine is sda1) it says that the dir already exists so i just skipped it. the rest goes fine til the last one. it just says that it doesnt exist or something like that. that makes me wonder: do i need have something different for the last part? this is what i entered:

mkdir /mnt/sda1
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
mkdir /mnt/sda2
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2
cp /mnt/sdb1/* /mnt/sda1

at the end it says it doesnt exist. what am i doing wrong?

Did you format it?

[DangerUponU]

after seriously thinking about it i figured out that im just an idiot. it really makes a difference when you copy from the source.... figured it out, thanks for the response.

[kazalku]

Hope that the thread is not dead yet. Anyway, I tried this "USB installation with change" with BT4b as well, however for few issues (like, if I update msf, db_driver doesn't work) I had to come back to BT3.

From the following 4 sets (which I'll call 1, 2, 3 & 4):

LABEL startx
MENU LABEL BT3 Graphics mode (VESA KDE) - Persistent
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND changes=/dev/sdb2 vga=0x317 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw autoexec=kdm

LABEL xconf1
MENU LABEL BT3 Graphics mode (KDE) - Persistent
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND changes=/dev/sdb2 vga=0x317 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw autoexec=xconf;kdm

LABEL xconf1
MENU LABEL BT3 Graphics mode (KDE)
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND vga=0x317 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw autoexec=xconf;kdm

LABEL startx
MENU LABEL BT3 Graphics mode (VESA KDE)
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND vga=0x317 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw autoexec=kdm

all 1, 2, 3, 4 work on my old laptop (Dell, Inspiron 1520). However, when I'm trying it on my new one (Dell Studio 1537), only 4 (VESA KDE) is working which doesn't serve the purpose, no changes are saved.

Error msg shown after 'strartx' for all others:

VESA (0): No matching mode
Screen(s) found, but none have a usuable configuration.

Any idea?

[thorin]

1) Only the first two include tha ability to save changes, hence "changes=/dev/sdb2".
2) Are you sure "/dev/sdb2" is still your USB key on your new machine?
3) At the boot menu you can select the "KDE Vesa" option, hit Tab and append " changes=/dev/sdb2" to the boot parameters and see if it works.

[kazalku]

1) Only the first two include tha ability to save changes, hence "changes=/dev/sdb2".

Yes, I know

2) Are you sure "/dev/sdb2" is still your USB key on your new machine?

Yep, if I hover my mouse on it after login (in VESA KDE mode), it shows /dev/sdb2

3) At the boot menu you can select the "KDE Vesa" option, hit Tab and append " changes=/dev/sdb2" to the boot parameters and see if it works.

No Luck

Thanks anyway for the reply. Anything else?

[Barry]

Anything else?

Is the changes partition ext2/3? Is there a "Changes" folder there?

[kazalku]

Is the changes partition ext2/3?

It's ext2

Is there a "Changes" folder there?

Good point Barry.... However, I mentioned in original post:

all 1, 2, 3, 4 work on my old laptop (Dell, Inspiron 1520).

So, it works well (with save changes) there. If I summerise the problem then, this one boots well:

LABEL startx
MENU LABEL BT3 Graphics mode (VESA KDE)
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND vga=0x317 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw autoexec=kdm

but this one does not:

LABEL startx
MENU LABEL BT3 Graphics mode (VESA KDE) - Persistent
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND changes=/dev/sdb2 vga=0x317 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw autoexec=kdm

ONLY difference between them is the addition of changes=/dev/sdb2

Thanks for your helps