This tutorial using openSUSE 11.1 KDE 4 LiveCD. You may try with another iso (Gnome as an example) or build a brand new iso by using KIWI.

Although it was not using GUI application, making openSUSE 11.1 LiveUSB is not too difficult to do. Below is a step by step tutorial about “how to make openSUSE 11.1 LiveUSB” :

PREPARATION

1. Preparing USB Flash Disk, 1 GB or more
2. If using Windows for making LiveCD, download latest version of syslinux
3. Download modified initrd – called initrdud – from my uploads folder. I try to modified initrd instead of using default initrd because I always got this message using default initrd :
   

   Mounting Live boot device…..
   Couldn’t find Live image configuration file..

   Related article : Thread on openSUSE forum regarding same problem

MAKE A BOOTABLE LIVEUSB

• ON WINDOWS

1. Run your Windows OS
2. Plug in USB Flash Disk
3. Extract syslinux on Windows folder
4. Open DOS Prompt (Command Prompt)
5. Navigate into win32 folder on syslinux folder
6. Run syslinux -ma driver-letter-of-flash-disk, eg :

   syslinux -ma F: 

   if F is your USB Flash Disk.

• ON LINUX
  1. Find your USB disk with

     df -h

     on konsole.

  2. Install syslinux and run syslinux /dev/sdx from konsole where /dev/sdx is your USB device
  3. If the above process failed for making bootable USB disk, try another tips

PROCESSING THE IMAGE

1. Plug in bootable USB disk
2. Create temporary folder for mounting LiveCD ISO and then mount the iso

   mkdir /mnt/liveiso
   mount -o loop openSUSE-11.1-KDE4-LiveCD-i686.iso /mnt/liveiso/

   (I’m currently using openSUSE 11.1 KDE. Make a proper changes to your ISO image if you used another iso image)

3. Copying all of liveiso content (mounted ISO content) into USB disk
4. Copying all of content on boot/i386/loader folder into root folder of USB disk
5. Rename isolinux.cfg on root folder of USB disk into syslinux.cfg
6. Copying initrdud into root folder of usb disk
7. Make a few modification into syslinux.cfg, so, USB live will boot with initrdud. Make a change to this line :

   append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=512000 ramdisk_blocksize=4096 splash=silent showopts

   into

   append initrd=initrdud kiwidebug=1 ramdisk_size=512000 ramdisk_blocksize=4096 splash=silent showopts

   kiwidebug=1 option will log any error while booting LiveUSB

TESTING

1. Boot your computer with USB HDD as top of boot device priority or make a hot boot change by pressing F12, F8, F9 or any key according to your computer
2. While booting, just press ENTER on boot option. Typing Live-System as mentioned on boot message will failed regarding kernel image

WORKAROUND

1. If you get an error :
   

   VFS: Cannot open root device “<NULL>” or unknown-block(8,9)
   Please append a correct “root=” boot option; here are the available partitions:
   Kernel panic – not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,9)

   Please check if you have syslinux.cfg as mentioned at step 5 on “Processing the Image” stage

2. If you get an error :
   

   Mounting Live boot device…..
   Couldn’t find Live image configuration file..

   Check is there a file named as initrdud and you have change syslinux.cfg configuration to used initrdud instead of initrd as mentioned on step 7 of “Processing the Image” stage

3. Don’t forget to mark the partition on your USB drive as active
4. Thread on openSUSE forum as noticed above said that I must be copied config.kde.isoclient (or config.gnome.isoclient if you used gnome) to config.isoclient, but I found I  already have config.isoclint as symlink for config.kde.isoclient

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