Slitaz Linux 25MB on OQO model 01+ and USB flash disk

You come to my blog so far because you probably have been trying hard to install Slitaz 1.0 with no luck. The same thing happened to me, everytime I run the installer, it gave me an error message and dismount the /media/cdrom automatically. The have it fixed already, but anyway if you want to know how everything works you can try the walk-through below. I write down step by step here what I did on this wonderful Slitaz distro on my OQO model 01+ UMPC. Instead of editing slitaz-installer under /usr/bin, we can edit /usr/bin/slitaz-installer.sh.

First, you have to have OQO (of course), external CD/DVD ROM, and usb stick. Make sure you have a copy of slitaz-1.0.iso in your usb stick. Boot your OQO from your external drive, choose the language as your preference, keyboard in US layout, accept the sound card, and choose the display as 800x480 24 bit. That is the first step of booting. Since I didn't want to be bothered with entering root password again and again while installing, I entered as user root with password root. Be careful when you log in as a root!

Second, insert your usb stick and mount it under /mnt with mount /dev/sda1 /mnt. Then mount the slitaz iso image under /media/cdrom using mount -o loop /mnt/slitaz-1.0.iso /media/cdrom.

Third, edit /usr/bin/slitaz-installer.sh and comment these lines to avoid the installer to search for CD/DVD ROM:

# Mount target device and cdrom.
# mount_devices()
# {
# echo ""
# mkdir -p $TARGET_ROOT /media/cdrom
# echo "Montage de la partitions et du cdrom..."
# # Mount points can be already used.
# if mount | grep $TARGET_ROOT; then
# umount $TARGET_ROOT
# fi
# if mount | grep /media/cdrom; then
# umount /media/cdrom
# fi
# mount $TARGET_DEV $TARGET_ROOT
# mount -t iso9660 $CDROM /media/cdrom || exit 1
# }

Fourth, go to /usr/bin and run slitaz-installer.sh. Follow the on screen instruction and choose your partition to install. That's all! Cute, small, and faster than the original Windows XP.

Things to do:

1. Get the wireless to work.
2. Get the bluetooth to work.
2. Get the tablet and stylus to work.
3. Put in standby when closing the lid.

Thanks for reading and I appreciate any comment and help.

Readings:

http://www.slitaz.org/
http://forum.slitaz.org/viewtopic.php?id=422
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
http://www.howtogeek.com/tag/linux/