Host software liveusb image

This is the release documentation for the host software liveusb image.

The current version of the liveUSB image is 0.3 and is considered experimental. In particular, it has never been connected to a Reprap, this urgently needs to be tested. Please report all bugs to #reprap on freenode.net. Alternatively, you may post them on this page in the troubleshooting section.

Requirements

• 1 Gb USB flash drive or larger
• Windows or Fedora linux computer. Support for other variations of linux is experimental, see Host software liveusb image#Download for more details.
• Computer capable of booting from USB (most recent ones are capable.)
• Atleast 1 gb ram (for the host software)

Download

There are two parts to the project, a liveCD image and a liveusb creator to turn the liveCD into a liveUSB.

LiveCD Image

The liveCD image is available here. Please verify the integrity of your download with the SHA1 sum before reporting any bugs. For an alternate mirror, try here.

LiveUSB Creator

Windows users

The liveusb-creator software is available at https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/

Fedora Linux users

You have two options. The GUI based liveusb-creator is available in the F10 updates-testing repository. Alternatively, you may use the livecd-iso-to-disk program, which is available in the livecd-tools package in the standard F9 and F10 repositories.

Non-Fedora Linux users

The livecd-iso-to-disk program used by the fedora linux users is a bash script which should be compatible with other versions of linux. You may find a copy of it from the Fedora Git Tree.

Install instructions

Windows

• Format a usb key with FAT16 (commonly known as FAT)
• Run the liveusb-creator program and select the drive.
• Select the reprap iso as your installation source
• Select your usb key as the destination device.
• Specify the size of your persistent overlay if desired.
• Build the image.

Fedora Linux

• Format the usb key with FAT16. These instructions seem to work well.
• If you are using liveusb-creator, you may follow the windows instructions, as they are similar.
• If you are using the livecd-iso-to-disk script, issue the following command as root:

livecd-iso-to-disk --overlay-size-mb 512 /path/to/iso /path/tousbstick

• In the previous example, --overlay-size-mb is the size of the persistent overlay, and /path/tousbstick is the partition path (i.e. /dev/sdb1)
• The livecd-iso-to-disk command will generate output indicating whether it was successful or not. You may now use your liveusb if successful!

Non-Fedora Linux

• The instructions are very similar to the Fedora linux livecd-iso-to-disk instructions. Any quirks in the process will be listed here when reported.

How to Use

Booting into the liveUSB image

• with your liveUSB drive plugged in, restart the computer.
• Choose one of the following:
  • jump into bios when prompted (usually F2, F10, F12, or 'delete'), and set the priority of USB boot devices higher than your primary hard drive.
  • select the usb drive as a temporary boot device

Using the liveUSB image

• The Reprap host software is started by clicking on the Reprap icon in the bottom toolbar.

Known Issues

Yum update is broken. DO NOT UPDATE THE LIVECD

• Updating results in a permanently broken liveUSB image, which requires a re-install.

The overlay has a limited lifespan

• The overlay is an implementation of the LVM snapshot feature. As such, it will not handle an unlimited number of writes (aside: nor will your USB key!) It will break eventually. When this happens, you will need to recreate the liveusb image. Keep the data backed up somewhere.

Troubleshooting

Post any problems here prefixed with 'Q:'. I will attempt to answer them. Hopefully we'll have a 'Q:', 'A:' structure going.

Q: Why would someone use this "host software liveusb image" rather than the "Portable USB Ubuntu RepRap Host" ?