Put together your own distribution with PCLinuxOS

USB Stick

You can put the modified PCLinuxOS system on a USB stick by using the PCLinuxOS Live USB Creator tool. This tool comes integrated into the system and is located in the Additional Applications | Configuration menu.

Before you start out, you should prepare the memory stick to receive the operating system by formatting the stick with the filesystem ext2/3/4. The formatting is easy with graphical tools like GParted and cfdisk. Then, you should remove the stick from the system and start Creator.

Creator requires that the stick be reinserted into the computer so that the tool can find the stick. Then, the tool asks whether you would like to write one or more distributions to the medium. In the next step, you specify whether the flash stick should be generated from an existing ISO image or from a live CD. After selecting the desired ISO image, you need to give the installation a name. Then the assistant will transfer the data to the memory stick.

In the following step, the tool presents a number of boot options for the new distribution on the USB stick. Selections are made by setting a checkmark in the corresponding check box.

Provided the USB stick will be used for storing personal data, you should activate Persistent boot (write access to the data storage device) . Otherwise, only read access will be granted to the memory stick.

In this last step, it's a good idea to specify where the setup should write the boot manager GRUB. In order for the computer to start from a USB stick, the setup must be in the master boot record (MBR) of the stick. Now you have a completely individualized operating system that is installable on a new computer just like a standard Linux distribution.

Conclusion

You can quickly create a customized operating system using MiniMe from PCLinuxOS. Such a system will run well on older hardware because of the trimmed-down KDE desktop. Because the developers have been maintaining this system for more than 10 years, there should be no unpleasant surprises or defects in terms of stability or hardware incompatibilities.

A customized system like this is especially well suited for older hardware and heterogeneous components, such as computers for a school district, where modern hardware is typically the exception.