Direct installation to USB-stick or SD-card

Option 1: *.usfs.xz file

For those who are already running a recent version of Linux, and do not want to be bothered with an ISO file, the *.usfs.xz file offers an alternative direct installation method, along with the install script '4install-quirky-to-drive-gpt'.

This actually was the only method offered for Quirky, but users kept telling me they wanted an ISO file, so I did.

What you do is download the *.usfs.xz file, then run the '4install-quirky-to-drive-gpt' script -- both are required to be in the same folder, in a Linux partition, with at least 2GB free space.
Don't forget to run 'sha1sum' to check the downloaded files are ok. Do it all like this:
# sha1sum *
# gunzip 4install-quirky-to-drive-gpt.gz
# chmod 755 4install-quirky-to-drive-gpt
# ./4install-quirky-to-drive-gpt
The script will install Quirky to a USB Flash stick or SD-card. Any size 4GB or greater is OK, although I recommend at least 8GB for practical ongoing usage.

The Flash-stick/SD-card will boot on any computer with 64-bit x86 CPU, which is most of them, and any with BIOS-firmware or UEFI-firmware.

All PCs manufactured from 2012, with Windows 8 or later, are of the UEFI-firmware type. The main thing that you have to do it turn off "Secure Boot" to be able to bootup an external operating system, as explained here:
http://barryk.org/quirky/uefi.htm

If the script fails for any reason, the most likely being that you are running an older or inadequate Linux distribution, then consider Option 2.

Option 2: SD-card or USB Flash-stick *.img.xz

There is another way to install Quirky, a ready-made image file for a 8GB drive. If you have a 8GB or larger Flash stick available, this is an easy option. Note, although this is an 8GB file, installing to a larger Flash stick, say 16GB, is OK -- you will receive an offer to expand the partition to fill the drive at first bootup.

The file is compressed, using 'xz' compression. To write to the SD-card, running Linux, do this:
  1. Make sure the card is inserted but not mounted.
  2. Be absolutely certain that you know the correct drive name (ex: /dev/sdb)!
  3. Execute this in a terminal, in this example /dev/sdb is the SD-card:

     # unxz --stdout quirky-8gb-xerus-8.1.5.img.xz | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=4M
     # sync
If you are running Windows or a Mac OS, there are instructions elsewhere. For example, here: http://barryk.org/news/?viewDetailed=00441

Regarding point 2, if you are running Puppy Linux, or any derivative such as Quirky, I recommend that you run "probedisk" in a terminal to list all your drives, to confirm the correct drive name that you want to write to.

For the latest news on Quirky, please monitor my blog:
http://barryk.org/news/

Regards,
Barry Kauler
Dec 25, 2016