try frugal install.

official guide:
http://doc.slitaz.org/en:guides:frugal

my own take:
http://forum.slitaz.org/index.php/vanilla/discussion/1130/slitaz-3.0-xvesa-frugal-install-on-fat32-dos


i prefer frugal because it keeps slitaz folders to a minimum on the root of the disk.

\boot
\slitaz
\tux

you need to compress rootfs.gz after adding packages. this can be done when logging out. keep in mind that bigger rootfs.gz will take toll on old pc's with low memory.


addendum, re: "home=usb"

i used the serial number of the fat32 partition. ntfs also has it but i don't know about others.

my menu.lst entry:

title Slitaz
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /boot/bzimage
kernel /boot/bzimage rw root=/dev/null autologin home=4039-E1EC lang=en_US kmap=us 
initrd /boot/rootfs.gz

Hi ,

For sure, Slitaz is x more better in RAM than installed on HD

So, either, you can create your own rootfs.gz after having installed packages and make some custom modification (like internet connection, appareance ...) but then your Slitaz will be "static" / unchangeable ...

Either, as I do, install packages , make the rootfs.gz , then write a personnal script launched from grub . This way you can can modify at boot time your internet connection, graphic theme ... from a text file script. And you will not have all these home=usb complications and delays at boot

If you want more details ...

Neither of those methods sound like they install a liveUSB. Part of the reason I'm using SliTaz is so I can move the OS between computers with different hardware. I tried installing to a hard drive and creating a liveUSB, but the USB was preconfigured to run only on the host's hardware. Is there a line of code somewhere that tells SliTaz to autodetect hardware? I am able to access the command line, but no gui.

For your stated purpose:

Try: ftp://download.tuxfamily.org/slitaz/iso/3.0/flavors/slitaz-3.0-xvesa.iso

slitaz-3.0.iso uses xorg, video autodetection is not good.

tazusb

http://hg.slitaz.org/tazusb/raw-file/tip/doc/tazusb.en.html

/home folder is mounted with UUID of USB key at boot , it never runs in ram so nothing has to be saved on shutdown, it's written to USBkey in realtime

writefs command saves the rest of the filesystem ie. new programs and renames the current /home/boot/rootfs.gz as previous.gz
writefs can use no compression,gzip,or lzma
remove audio config and screen resolution on writefs so it querys you each time unless all computers will accept the same resolution

tazusb is well commented and located in /usr/bin/
I use ext3 filesystem and edit tazusb to save additional folders at root like /opt, /media and not delete downloaded tazpkgs from /var/cache/tazpkg in case I forget to move them.

I have not tried the gen-liveusb option.

Thanks for the link, that video driver is much better than the default (the linked one goes up to 1920x1200x24, the default maxed at ~800x600). I'm still having issues with the home directory, when I save something to "My Documents" @ /home/tux/Documents I can access it during the session, but it is lost at reboot. This is true for all packages downloaded and themes set aswell.

Have I not set something right? I tried the writefs gzip command and it created a rootfs.gz @ /media/devicename/boot but that is not autoloaded on start.

Sorry it's not working for you. Tested tazusb gen-iso2usb on a new 4 gig flash drive. Works as advertised,wish I had the answer.

I went ahead and created a new distro based off the xvesa, I needed extra tools like dosfstools and abiword. So the distro installed to usb without hitch (I love command line!), but it still wont keep persistent files in the home directory. I changed the icon layout, theme, packages added text file to Documents, right clicked desktop > SliTaz Live > TazUSB Writefs gzip, rebooted and it's all gone. Am I forgetting something?

First you have to verify, that you have a correct /home directory, that is found by SliTaz. And home=usb is not very good, its better to use home=UUID

to find out the UUID nubmber type: "blkid /dev/sda1" - eg. whereever your /home is and I prefere to use a seperate /home partition and it should ext2 or 3 and not fat32

I had once the problem, with an old pc, that the 6 seconds slitaz waits to find the usb-disk was to short - I manged it, but do not remember how (perhaps with cheatcode) - to veryfy, if the partition is mounted as /home use gparted

after TazUSB Writefs you have to copy rootfs.gz (which is in /) as root to your /boot folder - SliTaz does it only when /home is mounted - here from the handbook:
"The command 'writefs' will take the current memory resident filesystem and create a "rootfs.gz" file. If your flash drive is mounted as /home (as it should be), the new filesystem will be copied to the drive for you, otherwise it is left on the root of the drive. "