Porteus is a complete linux operating system that is optimized to run from CD, USB flash drive, hard drive, or other bootable storage media. It's small (under 300Mb) and insanely fast which allows you to start up and get online while most other operating systems are left spitting dust. Porteus comes in both 32 & 64 bit and aims to keep on the bleeding edge. It also supports several different languages and the user forum has language sections. Join the community now!

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The 64-bit edition of Porteus will fully utilize all the resources of a modern computer. Let your CPU and memory run unbridled with the sleek and feature-packed KDE4 desktop!
The 32-bit edition of Porteus will run on old and new systems alike. You won't believe how fast and responsive even an older system can be!
Available for both 32 and 64-bit systems, the Xfce editions of Porteus offer an alternative look and feel with all of the speed and simplicity of the standard editions.
Porteus is one of the fastest distributions on the face of the Earth. On a modern PC, it will boot into the 'lxde' desktop in less than 15 seconds! With the 'copy2ram' boot option, you can copy the entire OS to your RAM, giving you the lightning-quick responsiveness you've always wanted.
Porteus now offers a kiosk edition, which is a minimal system that is locked down for use by the public. Try it now, and take all of the guesswork out of preparing your next customer-oriented project!

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Creating and formatting partitions

Creating & formatting partitions in Porteus

There are two ways to do things in Porteus. Using a GUI (graphical User Interface) or from a console prompt. If you prefer using a GUI then you can use gparted or the kde partition manager, which take care of creating and modifying partitions.

Creating partitions from a console:

There is a built in application to modify your partition table in Porteus. It is called cfdisk and gives you a CUI (console user interface) to manage your partition through. Simply open your console and type: cfdisk

Another built in function for modifying partitions is called fdisk which also uses a CUI. The benefit of fdisk is that it can be called from a script. You should know the path of your USB device before using this option which you can get from typing: fdisk -l at console. Once you know the path of your USB device you would start fdisk by typing: fdisk /dev/sdb where sdb is the path of your usb. Don't include the number on the end (for example /dev/sdb1) as you will need to modify the entire devices partition table. After starting fdisk you can get a list of commands by typing: h [NEED CONFIRMING]

Formatting partitions from a console:

The example here will use /dev/sdb as the USB device. You should change this to suit your setup.

Formatting partition to FAT32

# mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sdb1

Formatting a partition to ext2

# mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdb1