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Installing openSUSE on a USB stick hasn't been a problem since version 11.2. But using the stick for more than installation media requires a little trick.
Since openSUSE 11.2, LiveCDs images could be stored on a USB stick and used for installation without requiring a CD or DVD. The USB stick needed at least 1 GByte for the ISO image.
The question arose about what to do about the remaining GBytes on the stick. Now a script and some magic using the fdisk command should solve the problem. The trick is to load the createsecondpartition.sh script and use the following command to create a second partition:
sudo sh createsecondpartition.sh /dev/sdX
Substitute the /dev/sdX with the actual name of the USB device, which is usually /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc, depending on how many hard drives there are, and which can be determined using sudo fdisk -l.
A couple of messages from fdisk will appear. The script then adds the partition to the end of the LiveCD and writes the new partition table to the hard drive. After a reboot, the Live openSUSE stores all changes to the second partition on the USB stick.
Stop by Rikki's Open Source Exchange for dispatches from the world of women in open source.
Rikki Kite examines the experience of women across the spectrum of open source – the people, projects, organizations, events, articles, issues, and news.
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