Make a USB Boot CD for CrunchBang Linux

The following tutorial will enable you to create a USB Boot CD that can be used to Boot CrunchBang Linux from a USB Flash Drive on systems that do not natively support booting from USB. The USB Boot CD uses a grub bootloader to launch the vmlinuz kernel and initrd from the CD, loading the necessary USB drivers, and then proceeds to locate and extract the compressed filesystem from the flash drive. CrunchBang Linux is a unique remix based on Ubuntu.

USB Boot CD for CrunchBang Linux creation essentials:

• PC with a BIOS that does not support booting from USB
• CrunchBang Live CD
• Working CD Drive and USB Port
• Flash drive with CrunchBang preinstalled

How to Create a CD to Boot CrunchBang from USB

1. Insert the CrunchBang Live CD and restart, booting from the CD
2. Open a terminal and type mkdir -p usbcdcb/boot/grub
3. Type cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage2_eltorito usbcdcb/boot/grub
4. Type gedit usbcdcb/boot/grub/menu.lst
5. Add the following information to your menu.lst file and save it

title Run CrunchBang from USB DISK
root (cd)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
boot

6. Type cp /cdrom/casper/vmlinuz ~/usbcdcb/boot
7. Type sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
   Add the following lines to the modules file and click save:

   usbcore
   usb-storage
   uhci_hcd
   ohci_hcd
   ehci_hcd
   sd_mod
   scsi_mod

8. Type sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
   Add the following line to the bottom of the file and click save:

   WAIT=8

9. Type sudo mkinitramfs -o usbcdcb/boot/initrd.gz
10. Type mkisofs -R -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o usbcdcb.iso usbcdcb
11. Burn the usbcdcb.iso to a CD

Booting from the USB Boot CD for CrunchBang

1. Shutdown your computer
2. Insert the USB Boot CD and your CrunchBang USB drive
3. Set your BIOS or Startup Menu to boot from CD
4. Start your computer (booting from the CD)

The USB Boot CD should load the necessary USB drivers, locate filesystem.squashfs on your flash drive, and then proceed to boot CrunchBang from the USB device.