trying to create bootable usb with slax 32bit

Solution 1:

Standard advice

I tested cloning with mkusb, and it does not work to boot from a cloned USB drive. The slax iso file

slax-64bit-9.11.0.iso

is not a hybrid iso file.

• The standard advice suggests that you need Windows or a second USB drive with FreeDOS or some other DOS version. Boot into FreeDOS and get into the slax directory on the slax drive and follow the instructions of readme.txt which includes running bootinst.bat.
• An alternative is to loop mount the iso file, create an empty FAT32 partition and copy the slax directory from the loop mount to the FAT32 file system. Then reboot into the drive with FreeDOS and follow the instructions of readme.txt.

Create a hybrid iso file

I tested, and it works to turn the slax iso file into a hybrid iso file, and this makes things easy.

If the program isohybrid is not found, you can install it with the following program package

sudo apt install syslinux-utils

Run this copy command only to keep original iso file

cp -p slax.iso slax-hybrid.iso

The actual command to create a hybrid iso file

isohybrid slax-hybrid.iso

See man isohybrid for more details,

Clone the hybrid iso file with mkusb (or any other cloning tool)

Now you can clone the slax-hybrid.iso file and get a bootable USB drive with slax.

Example if you use mkusb:

dus slax-hybrid.iso    # if you use mkusb