About Sugar on a Stick
The goal of the Sugar on a Stick project is to give children access to *their* Sugar on any computer in their environment with just a USB key.
We are still in preAlpha on this project. It is not ready to use with children yet.
Creating a USB Stick
The basics of creating a Live, bootable USB are you download a '.iso' image. Then you use a USB creator program to copy it to a USB, create a space for users to store files on the USB (if required) and set it to be bootable.
In practice this means the first thing you need is a Live USB creator.
Windows
For Windows: http://sdz.fedorapeople.org/olpc/liveusb-creator-3.0.zip
Download that file to a windows machine and install it.
Next download current version of Sugar that we are testing for Sugar on a Stick:
- Plug in a 1GB or larger USB stick into your computer.
- Open "liveusb-creator.exe"
- Use "Browse" to find "liveusb.iso" that you just downloaded.
- Set the Target Device to your USB device
- Click "Create Live USB". It will take a few minutes.
How much persistent memory you set will depend on the size of the .iso and the size of your USB but make sure you have some so people can save files.
Ubuntu
Ubuntu contains an application called 'USB-creator' (use apt-get or other package management application to download it from the repositories) which can copy an Ubuntu based LiveCD to an USB drive automatically and make it bootable. USB-creator can use the currently running LiveCD or a specficied '.iso' image, and provides for a option for persistant storage using a read-write file on the same partition as files from the CD (some systems use a seperate partition).
There another application UCK (Ubuntu Customization Kit) which can be used to remaster a LiveCD image to remove/include applications, change the artwork etc....
There is a Ubuntu Wiki article which walks though the stages of modifying a LiveCD image http://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomization
Using Sugar on a Stick
The trick is to set the BIOS to boot from USB. Unfortunately this is slightly different on each computer. Try Google on BIOS your computer model and explore the setup screen for your system.
If you have trouble try creating a "Boot Helper" CD using the .iso below. This will start the boot from the CD then read files from the USB.
You can also use the 'PLoP Boot Manager' to create a boot floppy for machines without the ability to boot from CD or USB, see http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/No_native_BIOS_support
Join the development effort
We are coordinating work on this project on Sugar Labs Moodle system. Please create an account and join the Sugar on a Stick Class. http://schools.sugarlabs.org/course/view.php?id=17
Report Sugar on a Stick Bugs
- Use the Sugar Trac system at http://dev.sugarlabs.org to report bugs. Use the "Sugar on a Stick" component.