How to: USB BackTrack 4 with Changes

[Pyro01]

So I go in and configure my syslinux.cfg in order to setup persistant changes, save it, and when I reboot it the option isn't in the boot menu. It worked before when I had a BT3 USB going, but not for BT4. I go back in and look at the config file and everything is how I changed it and is supposed to be. What give? My /dev/sdb2 has a folder labelled changes in it, and it's not capitalized. I don't know why it's being such a pain.

[imported_Deathray]

Richard_Naggin forgot to give credit to the blog, and the blog forgot to mention this thread, which is where pretty much all the information originates from.
*edit. I just received an email from the author of the blog who kindly updated it

[kriggins]

First a little clarity on who blogged and who copied. My name is Kevin Riggins and I am the author of the blog post which Richard Naggin copy and pasted from to start this thread.

Next, I would like to offer a little explanation on the lack of attribution to Deathray's original post.

I created a Backtrack 3 how-to last year and used Deathray's info in that post. I did give reference attribution then. I mistakenly thought the previous attribution was sufficient because of my own tunnel vision of thinking that others would be aware of the Backtrack 3 post and the attribution therein.

As I shared with Deathray in an email, after discussing it with some friends I realized I should have either given chained attribution through my previous blog post or direct attribution. I changed the how-to to give a bit of both.

I apologize publicly to Deathray for not providing appropriate citation to his work and I appreciate his gracious editing of his post.

Kevin Riggins

[kapinga]

Is there any way to make a persistent install more portable? All the guides to this process involve adding "changes = /dev/sdXX" to the kernal command line parameters. This works great when BT will be booted from one machine with a static configuration, but trying to boot from a machine with a different configuration could obviously cause trouble. Is there any way to use drive labels or some other technique to identify the 'changes' partition without regard for other potential disks in the computer?

[imported_Deathray]

Thanks for your apology but you really didn't have to - I made that guide from information scattered throughout the forums myself

Is there any way to make a persistent install more portable? All the guides to this process involve adding "changes = /dev/sdXX" to the kernal command line parameters. This works great when BT will be booted from one machine with a static configuration, but trying to boot from a machine with a different configuration could obviously cause trouble. Is there any way to use drive labels or some other technique to identify the 'changes' partition without regard for other potential disks in the computer?

If you follow the guide, you can use the usb to boot a computer with no hard drive on unlimited number of computers, and the settings will still be saved. You have misunderstood something. You have to add changes = /dev/sdX to the syslinux file ON the usb.

[Archangel-Amael]

Maybe it is not said enough or whatever but thanks to both of you for sharing the information with the community. I'm sure the newbs appreciate it also.

[bloody]

nice tutorial, I might suggesting just taking 2 empty usb stick, mounting bt4 iso, copying files to each one of them, going to the boot directory and starting the make boot bat for both! now booting from one of them (the one u dont want to use), arp-get install gparted: partition the one u wanna use! then switch to it and start the make boot shell, cause mbr might be broken! edit it's files like described for persistant. now restart and boot from that one,) i think it's pretty easy and fast ,)

[Archangel-Amael]

nice tutorial, I might suggesting just taking 2 empty usb stick, mounting bt4 iso, copying files to each one of them, going to the boot directory and starting the make boot bat for both! now booting from one of them (the one u dont want to use), arp-get install gparted: partition the one u wanna use! then switch to it and start the make boot shell, cause mbr might be broken! edit it's files like described for persistant. now restart and boot from that one,) i think it's pretty easy and fast ,)

Which defeats the entire purpose of using unetbootin.
The idea is that unetbootin takes care of the boot process for you.
Also with the above method one only needs one usb stick.
For doing what you are suggesting there are other easier ways of doing so.
For instance there is gparted live. Partitions can be made also in windows as well.

Just out of curiosity do you or have you used ubuntu before?

[bloody]

hmmm, ok, this were just my 2 cents... without using more tools then needed, I think this is the fastest way... I can't do my ext2 patitions on windows, not without another tool...
and no, if it wasn't for backtrack I wouldnt use ubuntu!

[kapinga]

If you follow the guide, you can use the usb to boot a computer with no hard drive on unlimited number of computers, and the settings will still be saved. You have misunderstood something. You have to add changes = /dev/sdX to the syslinux file ON the usb.

Except with my laptop, BT4 identifies the USB key as /dev/sdb, so in that case, I would make the line for /dev/sdbX. If I were to plug it into my desktop, I'm fairly sure it would identify itself as /dev/sdc (and therefore the line would be /dev/sdcX), since I have two harddrives there.

Yes, I'm adding that parameter to the bootloader on the USB key, but the exact value depends on the number of harddrives in the host computer -- which is what makes it less portable than the ideal. I'm hoping for a solution where I can plug the key into a computer with one, two, or no harddrives and still have the persistent changes saved, without having to modify the parameters at boot time.