Did not include Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz, but later thought my reply may help someone else. So... Stewart, I think you should include Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz in the Cc because may be another person may read your message and be able to help you or answer your questions better than me.... for example the part about whether to install and run Linux from a Flash drive. I hope now someone may answer you about that, and may be correct me. And Felix, this may also help you... the part about Live Cds. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Arslan Farooq <arslanone@gmail.com> Date: Fri, May 18, 2012 at 7:34 PM Subject: Re: [Koha] Can anyone help a new Koha user? To: Stew Wilson <stewartrwilson@gmail.com> Hi Stewart I realise you are probably a busy guy, so I don't want to trouble you too
much. But what would be helpful is to have someone I can ask a few questions. I can follow detailed step by step instructions - but sometimes I just need to know where to start. If you don't mind, I have a couple of questions below:
Right now I am at work... it's 7:15pm here... and when I get home I'll probably have dinner and an hour later go to sleep. But tomorrow or most probably this Sunday I'll write a step-by-step guide how to install Debian and Koha according to best of my abilities. That may help others also.
I've been reading about Debian Live <http://live.debian.net/> project. From what I understand, I'm able to have Debian installed on a USB drive. What I'd like is to be able to have Debian and Koha installed and running on a USB drive. Is this possible? Is it a good idea? And if so, which version do you think I should be downloading? I wasn't sure which .img to download, so I went with "debian-live-6.04-i386-gnome-desktop.img". I have yet to try to install it!
I have not used Debian Live so can't say much about it. But if you need to try some Live CD why not try a Linux+Koha Live CD like: First see this: http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Koha_LiveCD http://sourceforge.net/projects/kohalivecd/ http://www.osslabs.biz/koha/livecd http://www.dlnetsa.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63&Itemid=69 And about running Debian and Koha from a USB: I think for short-term plan it is fine. But for long-term usage not a good idea in my opinion. If I remember correctly I read somewhere a while ago that flash disks have limited read/write life cycles and after that they begin to wear out. And a Linux server (or any sever) constantly writes data to disk (log files etc). Ask someone more knowledgeable though. I may be wrong. As things have changed a lot (it's 2012!). So you decide. And if you like one of the Linux+Koha Live CDs then you won't need my help :) But if I had to help someone with the Debian installation for Koha, I'd have asked to download this ISO: http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/6.0.5/i386/bt-cd/debian-6.0.5-i386-xfce+... Anyway, now you'll have to let me know if you want me to write that Debian + Koha installation guide *this* Sunday. If you like the Koha Live CDs (which I think are installable surely), then I may postpone writing the guide... till some other Sunday :) If this isn't desirable or workable, that's fine. Perhaps you could just
recommend a good Debian build, and a thorough step-by-step installation guide?
Hmm, let me google that for you tomorrow... it's been a long day. Will do my research tomorrow.
Thanks so much for your help, the students and I really appreciate it.
No problem. I once was also new to Linux. I understand. arslan -- arslanone@gmail.com, arslanone@yahoo.co.uk arslanone