Pre-requisites

• Host computer running arch and with grub installed
• Internet Connection ( for iso download )
• USB Flash Memory ( at least 10% bigger than the iso you want to use )

First we need to get the latest iso for the greatest Linux distro around, ArchLinux.

If version 8.0 had been released you can download it directly from
http://www.archlinux.org/download/

Today Feb 14 2007 the only way to get your grubby little hands on it is via the beta release
ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/other/0.8/

You may download the current, ftp or my personal favourite base,
It depends on the size of the flash key and any extra uses you might have planed for it.

Prepare

Plug your flash memory into any trusted, working and accessible usb port on your host computer.

Find out what device the flash was assigned.

$ dmesg | tail
   usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
   usb 1-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
   scsi5 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
   usb-storage: device found at 4
   scsi 5:0:0:0: Direct-Access Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
   SCSI device sdb: 2015232 512-byte hdwr sectors (1032 MB)
   sdb: Write Protect is off
   sdb: Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
   sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
   sdb: sdb1
   sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sdb
   sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
   usb-storage: device scan complete

In my case the device I will work with will be “sdb” as you can see from the output of the last command, but for safety we will call it “sdx“.

Now it’s time to get partitioning!

Partitioning

You have two choices

1. Double Mint

   Two partitions - one for the install and the other for misc storage

   Pros:

   * You can keep things separate

   * VFAT: You can format the second partition in VFAT so you can use the flash memory with winblows machines

   Cons:

   * You will have two mount points bugging you all the time

   * VFAT: Bye bye permission data

2. Big Red

   Single partition separated by directories and protected by permissions

   Pros:

   * One mount point

   Cons:

   * You have a slim chance of accidental deletion of an important directory if not first secured using permissions

Double Mint

Let’s get started, we will create the partition structure

  # fdisk /dev/sdx

Let’s create a new partition table

  Command (m for help): o 

  Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
  until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
  content won't be recoverable.

Let’s create the first partition ( arch )

  Command (m for help): n

    Command action
     e   extended
     p   primary partition (1-4)

We will make a primary partition

  p

This will be partition number 1

  Partition number (1-4): 1

This partition will begin from cylinder 1

  First cylinder (1-1015, default 1): 1

Here you will have to round up the size of the ISO + 10%

CURRENT ISO 550MB + 55MB = 605MB
BASE ISO 150MB + 15MB = 165MB
FTP ISO 20MB + 2MB = 22MB

  Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-1015, default 1015): +165M

Let’s create the second partition ( storage )

  Command (m for help): n

    Command action
     e   extended
     p   primary partition (1-4)

We will make a primary Partition

  p

This will be partition number 2

  Partition number (1-4): 2

This partition will be default all the way

  First cylinder (199-1015, default 199): &ltreturn&gt

  Using default value 199

Here you will just press return again

  Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (199-1015, default 1015): &ltreturn&gt

  Using default value 1015

If this partition will be formatted using VFAT then let’s change the system id

  Command (m for help): t

Just partition 2

  Partition number (1-4): 2

W95 FAT32 is ‘b’

  Hex code (type L to list codes): b

Now we must make the first partition active ( boot )

  Command (m for help): a

Our boot partition is 1

  Partition number (1-4): 1

Where all done here, let’s write the new partition table.

  Command (m for help): w

  The partition table has been altered!

  Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

  WARNING: If you have created or modified any DOS 6.x
  partitions, please see the fdisk manual page for additional
  information.
  Syncing disks.

Now we can format our second partition:

If you want to make it ext2/ext3

 # mke2fs -j -L storage /dev/sdx2

Or if you are like me you might want to use reiserfs

 # mkreiserfs -l storage /dev/sdx2

Maybe your not cool and decide to make it VFAT

 # mkdosfs -v -n storage -F 32 /dev/sdx2

Big Red

Let’s get started, we will create the partition structure.

  # fdisk /dev/sdx

Let’s create a new partition table

  Command (m for help): o 

  Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
  until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
  content won't be recoverable.

Let’s create the main partition ( arch )

  Command (m for help): n

    Command action
     e   extended
     p   primary partition (1-4)

We will make a primary partition

  p

This will be partition number 1

  Partition number (1-4): 1

This partition will be default all the way

  First cylinder (1-1015, default 1): &ltreturn&gt

  Using default value 1

Here you will press return again

  Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-1015, default 1015): &ltreturn&gt 

  Using default value 1015

Now we must make the first partition active ( boot )

  Command (m for help): a

Our boot partition is 1

  Partition number (1-4): 1

We’re all done here, let’s write the new partition table.

  Command (m for help): w

  The partition table has been altered!

  Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

  WARNING: If you have created or modified any DOS 6.x
  partitions, please see the fdisk manual page for additional
  information.
  Syncing disks.

Format

It’s time to format our new arch partition

If you are a ext2/ext3 fan:

  # mke2fs -j -L arch /dev/sdx1

Or If you are a reiserfs fan:

  # mkreiserfs -l arch /dev/sdx1

Copy

Let’s make an iso mount point:

  # mkdir -p /mnt/iso

Mount downloaded iso

  # mount -o loop /path/to/the/arch/cd.iso /mnt/iso

If everything went well you should see the iso’s contents via ‘ls’:

  $ ls /mnt/iso
  arch  boot

We also need to make a temporary mount point for our boot partition

  # mkdir -p /mnt/tmp

Mount our fresh boot partition

  # mount /dev/sdx1 /mnt/tmp

If all went well we can start the copy process

  # cp -rav /mnt/iso/* /mnt/tmp/

Make it boot

Systems that can boot-up via flash memory treat the contents just like a fixed drive, that said, we will need to modify the original cd contents.

You will need to modify the arch menu list, the easy way

  # cat /mnt/iso/boot/grub/menu.lst | \\
      sed -r 's/hd0,0/hd1,0/' | \\
      sed -r 's/\(cd\)/\(hd0,0\)/' > /mnt/tmp/boot/grub/menu.lst

Here is why your host arch system needs to have grub installed

We need to copy grub’s stage files

  # cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/*  /mnt/tmp/boot/grub/

Now let’s make and identifier so we can identify our partition in grub console

  # touch  /mnt/tmp/boot/grub/.usb

Let’s start up grub

  # grub

    GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

 [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
   lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
   completions of a device/filename. ]

Here is where our little identifier comes in handy

  grub> find /boot/grub/.usb
   (hd1,0)

In my case hard drive ‘1′ partition ‘0′, your result may vary

We need to tell grub where it’s files are located
thats result from our last command (hd1,0)

  grub> root (hd1,0)
   Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0x83

Finally we tell it to generate the MBR, you need to tell it what hard drive ( in my case hd1 )

  grub> setup (hd1)
   Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
   Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
   Checking if "/boot/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5" exists... yes
   Running "embed /boot/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5 (hd1)"...
      19 sectors are embedded. succeeded
   Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd1) (hd1)1+19
      p (hd1,0)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
  Done.

That’s it, now we quit

  grub> quit

Permissions

Let’s make sure root is owner of all and allow users the joy of knowing

  # chown -R root:users /mnt/tmp/

Now this will allow users to create directories and files in the partition while forcing the group ‘users’,
great if you want to share your flash with your friends and family.

  # chmod 2775 /mnt/tmp/

OK your done!!

Let’s get rid of the iso mount

  # umount /mnt/iso

And now we un-mount the boot partition, It might take a little bit since it needs to flush

  # umount /mnt/tmp

We now eject it safely

  # eject /dev/sdx

Now go test it out !

END

Comments are welcome,
Guillermo A. Amaral