A few questions before install

[nadir]

You may put grub on the stick instead of the mbr.
In case it doesn't boot from USB Bro.Tiag did write a how-to make use of a CD (you put grub and a kernel on the CD, if i recall correct). That would be quite a bit of work... so in that case it's different (I wouldn't say "hey, just use a stick" and give you trouble and headaches and that. I like easy solutions. But, theoretically, it would work.)

BTW: i did a short search and found this:
http://wiki.debian.org/alsaconf

<!> alsaconf was removed from alsa-utils at 1.0.17-1. From the package changelog: "The only valid use-case for alsaconf is aiding the configuration of ISA sound cards."

Not sure what that means for your question. Just a short hint. I guess someone will be able to tell you.

[nadir]

If your PC is able to boot from a stick it is no big deal.

[GSi]

I know...That PC is almost 10 years old...

[nadir]

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=33094
Have a look and make up your mind. It is not easy (or better: it was and is not easy for me).

[Bro.Tiag]

I have one more question.. I have a very old PC with ISA sound card. If I install Debian on that PC will the ISA sound work?

Have you tryed a LiveCD?

Cheers

[GSi]

Thank you for that manual! Tomorrow before booting up to windows I will go in bios and see what booting options I have and If I don't have USB boot I will try do the CD that redirects to USB boot

[GSi]

No, I didn't theres no way to start live CD with 128 mb ram..

[nadir]

You might try those (all somehow Debian-based):
feather-linux
i think fluxbox or jwm

antix
fluxbox and icewm; very good OS with lots of apps and user-comfort.

knoppix with lxde
(one of them comes with lxde, but which one?)

damn small linux
fluxbox and jwm, looks like <profanity> but runs on everything.

hag and grml are also good ones.

And, top of the pops and brand new:
refracta
with e17 (and perhaps other window-managers. I don't know). I would say choose medium or full. Super-cool.

I don't say they will work with 128MB as a live, but they might.
I have ran live-cd's on such PC's, but it takes a lot of tries to find one which does. I ran a live on a 64MB PC (to copy an OS from a stick to hard-disk.
It did work )

[fsmithred]

I ran an earlier version of refracta, which is debian lenny with e17 desktop, on a 450MHz PIII with 64MB of memory. I'll bet the lxde or xfce versions of debian-live would boot with 128. What happened to the 1G of ram you mentioned in an earlier post?

Here's the link to the debian-live i386 images -
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/relea ... 86/iso-cd/

[GSi]

I'm sorry.
There are 2 PCs
The one I'm Using now (AMD Duron 1.3ghz 1gb RAM) and I have an older PC with wich I'm experimenting ( trying different Distributions) The 2-nd PC's specs : 400mhz Intel Celeron 192mb RAM 4gb Hard drive

[GSi]

Which one?

http://www.picvalley.net/v.php?p=u/2196 ... YpcG5A.JPG

[fsmithred]

USB-HDD should work. If that's on the older computer, I'm impressed. Running off a usb stick is about as fast as running off the hard drive (my subjective experience), compared to running off a cd, which can be painfully slow. I didn't notice if there were any usb images on the page I linked for debian-live, but I'm pretty sure they have some.

Edit: or you could just install to the usb drive as someone suggested above. Then you'll be able to add/remove programs.

[GSi]

Yes,the PC is almost 10 years old... Today I borrowed my dad's 8gb kingston flash drive and tried to install debian on it.. I disconnected the Hard Drive First (I don't know why.. ) and the setup detected the flash drive and I made it to the point where you partition the HDD (or flash drive) and stopped the install (the flash drive was full with music).. So soon I'll buy the same flash drive and use Debian from USB

[nadir]

Sounds good.
The only thing which is a bit troublesome is installing grub.
If i recall correct i have choosen:
a)install grub? -Yes
b) install it to mbr? -> No
c)but where you wanna install it instead? -> /dev/sdXXX
(should be /dev/hdb1 or /dev/sdb1 if you got one hard-disk)

good luck.

[GSi]

But when I install on the Flash drive the Hard Drive is Disconnected..

[GSi]

And what about other PCs? My PC has Nvidia GeForce 2 (wich has problems with ubuntu) what will happen to the driver for the nvidia card if I plug the flash drive in PC with other video card? Will I have to redo the settings again?

[fsmithred]

Unplugging the second hard drive during the install is an ok idea if you're paranoid about installing to the wrong disk. I've done it that way occasionally, just so I know there's no chance of making that mistake. You might have to edit some config files when you hook it up again. Not really a big deal. ( /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst)

Installing grub to the mbr of the usb drive shouldn't be a problem, either, assuming your bios lets you set that drive to boot first.

If you're planning to use the nvidia proprietary driver, then you may need different ones for different age cards. I haven't thought that through, but I'm sure there's a way to do it. I've got a GeForce2 on one machine, and I think I'm using nvidia-glx-legacy on it. I can check before you get to that point. It'll work fine with the open-source nv driver, which I expect will be chosen automatically when xorg starts.

[GSi]

I dont know about the driver.. I think I will.. I'll try using Compiz..

[GSi]

And If I Write Grub Into the flash drive's MBR will I be able to format it to FAT32 (for regular use) later?

[fsmithred]

Yes, you'll be able to reformat the drive to whatever you want to later.
Here's a post by julian67 that might be helpful - http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 55#p251528