How to install BackTrack onto a USB stick in three easy steps.
Note: This procedure will not work for versions of BackTrack prior to the BackTrack 2 IRC pre-release.
- 1. Open the BackTrack .iso file:
- In Windows, use a program such as Winzip, Winrar, PowerISO, or IsoBuster.
- In Linux, mount the .iso. (mount -o loop -t iso9660 yourcd.iso /mnt/iso)
- In OSX, mount the .iso.
- 2. Extract and copy the /boot and /BT folders from the .iso file to the USB flash stick.
WARNING: The following step makes the device bootable by creating a Master Boot Record (MBR). Make sure you run this command from the USB stick, not from the mounted .iso, otherwise you will corrupt your existing MBR.
- 3. Make the USB Stick bootable:
- In Windows, navigate Explorer to the /boot folder, execute the bootinst.bat, and follow the prompts.
- In Linux or OSX, navigate to the /boot folder, execute the bootinst.sh, and follow the prompts.
The writers of this article assume no responsibility for this procedure, especially if you don't heed the warning in step 3.
Annotations
Unidentified poster:
If you're using the Backtrack Installer from the Version 2.0 Final LiveCD do the following:
- Use /boot as source,
- Then select sda for creating the MBR on it
- And sda1_removable or the Name of your stick as Destination folder,
Make sure not to choose your HD Drive here! It will render your current OS Install useless! After that just copy the BT Directory to the stick.
Unidentified poster:
Before you say that your key is not working or booting, try ALL of your USB ports. Some USB 2.0 hardware restricts booting to some ports. For me, the front ports were not booting, so I tried the back ones and it worked! Although, after a while I tried the front ports again and it worked. I'm not sure what happened there, but good luck!
Tomasz M:
A more automatic approach to installing to a USB than above: if you have an ISO image of BT2 Final, mount it in /mnt/iso (for example) and using the Backtrack Installer set Source to /mnt/iso, select destination and triple check that you haven't misspelled it. The same applies to the MBR destination.
When you start the installation you can go for a coffee, as this takes a few minutes. Nothing special about this method, but some may prefer this way of installation.
Joe S:
I had issues with setting up the MBR, because I didn't have permissions for /boot/syslinux/lilo and /boot/syslinux/syslinux. Just chmod 755 both files, and it'll work out.
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