This entire tutorial is done after entering the ’sudo -i’ command which allows us to act as the SUPER-USER for the entirety of our terminal session. You’ve been warned.

sudo -i

NOTICE!!! I am aware that we could use the ‘a2ensite’ and related commands. But for the sake of understanding the entire process, I will not be using it.

1) Install the required modules from the command line

apt-get install apache2 mysql-server mysql-client php5 php5-cli php5-mysql

2) Change the directory to /etc/apache2/sites-available

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available

3) If you run the ‘ls’ command while in the sites-available directory you should see the following

ls

Output

default  default-ssl

4) Copy the ‘default’ config to a site specific config. For this tutorial I am using dev.acloudtree.com.

cp default dev.acloudtree.com.conf

5) Make the application directory

mkdir /var/dev.acloudtree.com

6) Open the file with an editor of your choosing. I prefer VIM.

vi dev.acloudtree.com.conf

The output below is the entire file but I will discuss certain parts that we will need to edit.

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
 
        DocumentRoot /var/www
        <Directory />
                Options FollowSymLinks
                AllowOverride None
        </Directory>
        <Directory /var/www/>
                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
                AllowOverride None
                Order allow,deny
                allow from all
        </Directory>
 
        ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
        <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
                AllowOverride None
                Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
                Order allow,deny
                Allow from all
        </Directory>
 
        ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
 
        # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
        # alert, emerg.
        LogLevel warn
 
        CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
 
    Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
    <Directory "/usr/share/doc/">
        Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Order deny,allow
        Deny from all
        Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
    </Directory>
 
</VirtualHost>

7) Add the name of the server. This will be the name that you type in the URL field of your web browser (IE: Firefox)

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
	ServerName dev.acloudtree.com
...

8 ) Point the Virtual host to the correct directory

...
        DocumentRoot /var/dev.acloudtree.com
        <Directory />
                Options FollowSymLinks
                AllowOverride None
        </Directory>
...

9) Also make the change here.

...
        <Directory /var/dev.acloudtree.com/>
                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
                AllowOverride None
                Order allow,deny
                allow from all
        </Directory>
...

10) So this is what your dev.acloudtree.com.conf file should look like when you are done. Write/Quite the file and we will move on.

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
	ServerName dev.acloudtree.com
 
        DocumentRoot /var/dev.acloudtree.com
        <Directory />
                Options FollowSymLinks
                AllowOverride None
        </Directory>
        <Directory /var/dev.acloudtree.com/>
                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
                AllowOverride None
                Order allow,deny
                allow from all
        </Directory>
 
        ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
        <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
                AllowOverride None
                Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
                Order allow,deny
                Allow from all
        </Directory>
 
        ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
 
        # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
        # alert, emerg.
        LogLevel warn
 
        CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
 
    Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
    <Directory "/usr/share/doc/">
        Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Order deny,allow
        Deny from all
        Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
    </Directory>
 
</VirtualHost>

10a) IMPORTANT! Make a symbolic link in the sites-enabled directory

ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/dev.acloudtree.com.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-dev.acloudtree.com.conf

11) We need to edit our /etc/hosts file

vi /etc/hosts

Output

127.0.0.1       localhost 
127.0.1.1       servername
 
# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

12) Right beneath the ‘localhost’ definition, add the following

127.0.0.1      dev.acloudtree.com

13) The complete file looks like this.

127.0.0.1       localhost
127.0.0.1       dev.acloudtree.com
127.0.1.1       servername
 
# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

14) Create an index.php file in /var/dev.acloudtree.com for testing purposes.

vi /var/dev.acloudtree.com/index.php

Contents of .php file.

<?php
 
        echo 'Jared Folkins\' tutorial on acloudtree.com really works!';
        phpinfo();
 
?>

15) Reboot the apache2 process.

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

16) Now open up your web browser and enter dev.acloudtree.com into the URL bar and it should work!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that in this environment, I like to configure log files for each virtual host. This is our current dev.acloudtree.com file.

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
	ServerName dev.acloudtree.com
 
        DocumentRoot /var/dev.acloudtree.com
        <Directory />
                Options FollowSymLinks
                AllowOverride None
        </Directory>
        <Directory /var/dev.acloudtree.com/>
                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
                AllowOverride None
                Order allow,deny
                allow from all
        </Directory>
 
        ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
        <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
                AllowOverride None
                Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
                Order allow,deny
                Allow from all
        </Directory>
 
        ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
 
        # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
        # alert, emerg.
        LogLevel warn
 
        CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
 
    Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
    <Directory "/usr/share/doc/">
        Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Order deny,allow
        Deny from all
        Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
    </Directory>
 
</VirtualHost>

Just change the ErrorLog and CustomLog names to match the virtual host.

...
        ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/dev.acloudtree.com_error.log
 
        # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
        # alert, emerg.
        LogLevel warn
 
        CustomLog /var/log/apache2/dev.acloudtree.com_access.log combined
...
</VirtualHost>

sudo apt-get install openssh-server openssh-client

2) Open the sshd_config file using VI

sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

3) Here is the file in its entirety that was created by the installation process

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# Package generated configuration file
# See the sshd(8) manpage for details
 
# What ports, IPs and protocols we listen for
Port 22
# Use these options to restrict which interfaces/protocols sshd will bind to
#ListenAddress ::
#ListenAddress 0.0.0.0
Protocol 2
# HostKeys for protocol version 2
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
#Privilege Separation is turned on for security
UsePrivilegeSeparation yes
 
# Lifetime and size of ephemeral version 1 server key
KeyRegenerationInterval 3600
ServerKeyBits 768
 
# Logging
SyslogFacility AUTH
LogLevel INFO
 
# Authentication:
LoginGraceTime 120
PermitRootLogin yes
StrictModes yes
 
RSAAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes
#AuthorizedKeysFile	%h/.ssh/authorized_keys
 
# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files
IgnoreRhosts yes
# For this to work you will also need host keys in /etc/ssh_known_hosts
RhostsRSAAuthentication no
# similar for protocol version 2
HostbasedAuthentication no
# Uncomment if you don't trust ~/.ssh/known_hosts for RhostsRSAAuthentication
#IgnoreUserKnownHosts yes
 
# To enable empty passwords, change to yes (NOT RECOMMENDED)
PermitEmptyPasswords no
 
# Change to yes to enable challenge-response passwords (beware issues with
# some PAM modules and threads)
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
 
# Change to no to disable tunnelled clear text passwords
#PasswordAuthentication yes
 
# Kerberos options
#KerberosAuthentication no
#KerberosGetAFSToken no
#KerberosOrLocalPasswd yes
#KerberosTicketCleanup yes
 
# GSSAPI options
#GSSAPIAuthentication no
#GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes
 
X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10
PrintMotd no
PrintLastLog yes
TCPKeepAlive yes
#UseLogin no
 
#MaxStartups 10:30:60
#Banner /etc/issue.net
 
# Allow client to pass locale environment variables
AcceptEnv LANG LC_*
 
Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server
 
UsePAM yes

4) But we are mainly concerned with this part right here

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# Package generated configuration file
# See the sshd(8) manpage for details
 
# What ports, IPs and protocols we listen for
Port 22
 
...

5) Change the default port that is currently 22, to a non standard port. I changed mine to 22999

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# Package generated configuration file
# See the sshd(8) manpage for details
 
# What ports, IPs and protocols we listen for
Port 22999
 
...

6) Write/Quite so that you can save the changes to the file.

7) Now, all we have to do is restart the ssh daemon and it will listen from the new port.

sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart

8 ) Finally, from another linux (or whatever OS you prefer) box, use the SSH client and login to your newly reconfigured server. Make sure to change the port using the ‘-p’ flag.

Example: ssh YOUR_USERNAME@IP_ADDRESS_OF_SERVER -p 22999

ssh jaredfolkins@192.168.1.107 -p 22999

Full Disclosure: I own no real estate, I don’t, nor have I ever worked for a Real Estate Agent, a Bank, or a Mortgage broker. I am just a nerd.

1) Find a house using the MLS, Zillow, or whatever site gives you the best access to the homes you like. Important! The house must have a posted address. In this first screen shot, I am using the site www.centraloregonrealtors.com, and I found a house that I have watched for a while. It’s current MLS # (though it has had many) is 2903276.

2) You can see that on the bottom of the ad, there is a address. So I hightlight the area, right click, and copy the address to my clipboard.

3) I then head over to the Deschutes county web application known as D.I.A.L (click the link).

4) We are mainly interested in this area right here.

5) Click the ‘Check All’ button, then select the ‘Street Address’ radio button, and finally paste the address that you found from a Real Estate site and click submit.

6) In this case you are presented with the following screen.

NOTE: There is a lot of data here, so I am going to break it down for you.

a) This is the Deschutes county liability section. For the most part, you can ignore this.

                    DISCLAIMER AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

     Information on the Deschutes County Computer is not guaranteed to be
accurate and may contain errors and omissions.  Deschutes County provides NO
WARRANTY AS TO THE MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE FOR
ANY INFORMATION.  Original records may differ from computer entries.  If
reliance upon computer record is intended, verification of information on
source documents is required.  User expressly acknowledges and agrees that
the use of any information appearing on the Deschutes County Computer is at
User's sole risk.  Deschutes County shall not be liable for any direct,
indirect, incidental, or consequential damages caused by mistakes, omissions,
deletions, errors, defects, in any information, or any failure or delays in
receiving information.  The following property tax assessment data is updated
nightly.

b) This next section starts to get interesting. The three primary things you will see, is the current owners names, the loan originator, and the address.

Account: 184388  Map/TL: R 1-001 171230 DB 04900    

* * *  CURRENT Ownership Information ONLY 

SILVER,MATT J
BLUE,CATHERINE C
2332 NW CANDLELIGHT PL
BEND  OR  97701-5450

THRU:  Bank of America Commercial Loan Service
AGENT: BAC (P)

Site Address: 2332 NW CANDLELIGHT PL  BEND 97701

Assessor Property Description
CITY VIEW PHASE II Lot: 24

Prop Cls:101  MA:5  VA:26  NH 013  Vol-Page:  2006-12233
Asmt Zone:RS  CDD Zone:BEND (CITY OF BEND)

***  Land Values  ***
    Asmt type                                     R.M.V.
    URBAN LOT                                   180,900
    LA                                            4,500
    SD                                            3,000
   *Total                                       188,400

***  Improvement Values  ***
     FB        $ R.M.V.            BLT %GD
    153        289,850            2005

c) And here is the property description and the attributes on record of said property. It also has a summary of the property’s sales, but I usually head farther down the document, for the more descriptive sales information.

***  Land Values  ***
    Asmt type                                     R.M.V.
    URBAN LOT                                   180,900
    LA                                            4,500
    SD                                            3,000
   *Total                                       188,400

***  Improvement Values  ***
     FB        $ R.M.V.            BLT %GD
    153        289,850            2005
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

    Room Grid for 153    Total SqFt: 2521
                                - - - - - - - R O O M S - - - - - - -
                                       LR K DR FAM BD BATH OTH FP UTL
                  Sq Ft: 1541  1st Fl   1 1  1     1   1\1      1  1
                          980  2nd Fl           1  3   1
                         1010  Garage                               

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

***** Values shown below are as of the Assessment Date, January 1 of each year *****

***      --------2009--------     --------2008--------     ---------2007--------
          Total       Taxable      Total       Taxable      Total        Taxable
           RMV          A.V.        RMV          A.V.        RMV           A.V.
LND:     188,400                  220,320                  233,900
IMP:     289,850                  341,000                  344,440
TOT:     478,250      237,490     561,320      230,580     578,340       223,870
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

SALES: --- 1 ---   --- 2 ---   --- 3 ---   --- 4 ---
  Date 02-17-06    09-30-04    02-02-95    12-27-93
Sale $ 639800      96000       41705       37900
 Cndtn 30          33          30          30
 Class 101         100         100         100
Inst # 2006-12233  2004-61118  1995-36429821993-3242218
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

d) And here is the very detailed sales information. The thing to note, is that the SELLER is on the LEFT and the BUYER is on the RIGHT. If you are paying close attention, you will also notice that the current owner looks to have paid $639,800 in February of 2006, but up in our MLS ad, the owner is asking $299,900. We can deduce that the most likely scenario in our current economic environment is a SHORT SALE.

Sales Detail Information

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vol Page 2006-12233      Sales Date 02/17/06   Adjusted Sales Price    $639,800

   Sales Code 30    UNCONFIRMED SALE

Grantor:                                  Grantee:

ROGERS, SCOTT M & ALLISON M               SILVER, MATT J & BLUE, CATHERINE C
                                          1612 NW KINGSTON
BEND OR 97709                             BEND OR 97701                           

***
Site Address: 2332 NW CANDLELIGHT PL  BEND 97701
Assessor Property Description
CITY VIEW PHASE II Lot: 24

Acct 184388    Map/TL: R 1-001 171230 DB 04900
  MA: 5   VA: 26  Class: 101  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vol Page 2004-61118      Sales Date 09/30/04   Adjusted Sales Price     $96,000

   Sales Code 33    CONFIRMED SALE

Grantor:                                  Grantee:

SHEASGREEN,ALAN                           ROGERS, SCOTT M & ALLISON M
8309 SE LIESER POINT DR
VANCOUVER WA 98664                        BEND OR 97709                           

***
Site Address: 2332 NW CANDLELIGHT PL  BEND 97701
Assessor Property Description
CITY VIEW PHASE II Lot: 24

Acct 184388    Map/TL: R 1-001 171230 DB 04900
  MA: 5   VA: 26  Class: 100  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vol Page 1995-3642982    Sales Date 02/02/95   Adjusted Sales Price     $41,705

   Sales Code 30    UNCONFIRMED SALE

Grantor:                                  Grantee:

LEWIS,JAMES R                             SHEASGREEN,ALAN
2518 NW GOODWILLIE CT                     8309 SE LIESER POINT DR
BEND OR 97701                             VANCOUVER WA 98664                      

***
Site Address: 2332 NW CANDLELIGHT PL  BEND 97701
Assessor Property Description
CITY VIEW PHASE II Lot: 24

Acct 184388    Map/TL: R 1-001 171230 DB 04900
  MA: 5   VA: 26  Class: 100  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vol Page 1993-3242218    Sales Date 12/27/93   Adjusted Sales Price     $37,900

   Sales Code 30    UNCONFIRMED SALE

Grantor:                                  Grantee:

CITY HEIGHTS INC                          LEWIS,JAMES R
1070 NW BOND STE 203                      2321 NW TORSWAY ST
BEND OR 97701                             BEND OR 97701                           

***
Site Address: 2332 NW CANDLELIGHT PL  BEND 97701
Assessor Property Description
CITY VIEW PHASE II Lot: 24

Acct 184388    Map/TL: R 1-001 171230 DB 04900
  MA: 5   VA: 26  Class: 100  

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

d) Further down, there is tax and other information, but this is not really needed for our tutorial so I will skip the description.

7) Highlight the primary owner’s name, right click, and copy it to your clipboard.

8 ) Now, head over to the Deschutes County clerk site by clicking the link. The first screen you will see will be a disclaimer. Go ahead and click ‘I Accept’ after reading.

9) The next page will be the search page, go ahead and copy in the name of the current owner on the property that we are researching.

10) After clicking ‘Search’, you should see the following screen (or fairly close to it)

11) Now, the thing that jumps out at me is the second document. The Doc Type: is Notice of Default & Election to Sell which means that this record is going to be foreclosed on. Let click on the link title 2009-036611 and see what information we get. Our goal here is to track down the relevant documents pertaining to the property we are researching. You should get the following screen.

12) Do you see that link at the bottom of the screen? The one that says 2006-078298? Do you also see the words Deed of  Trust / Mortgage? Well, that is the original mortgage document. Go ahead and click on the 2006-078298 link.

13) At this point, I would click on the link that says View Document Image and a .pdf of the actual mortgage will open. You can see a lot of useful information. After you are done taking a gander, head back a page to the Notice of Default record.

14) Click on the View Document Image and you will again download a .pdf, but I will point out several pieces of information. The first is that you can see the address and the second is that you will find the date the home will potentially be sold on the county steps.

Date of sale and location of sale.

Conclusion: This home is going to be auctioned on the first day of 2010. So I can’t see how it is possible that a sale will go through. For what its worth, this is what will most likely happen with this property.

1. It will go up for auction
2. The bank will ask too much for it so it won’t sell
3. The bank will then place the home on the market for close to the original loan amount
4. The home will sit empty for the next several years, falling into disrepair

At least that is what I have been seeing…

Anyway, I hope this will help you get started in making an educated buying decision. And something else that I always ask myself.

Who is making money off of me?

In this case…

• Your Real Estate Agent
• The Seller’s Real Estate Agent
• The Seller
• The Mortgage Broker
• The Bank

And I have found it very helpful not to trust the opinions of those who will make money off of me. Their motivations are different than mine. I guess what I am saying, is that ultimately you need to make a sound decision based on your own research, and not the sales techniques or encouragement of others. The list of professions above, and the people who work in them, have screwed a lot of people, in the past five years especially. So don’t get hosed.

If readers find this information helpful, let me know. I have other food for thought things to share concerning RE.

-later

Also, I am running ubuntu 9.10 as my host OS but you should be able to run any linux/unix operating system and the commands should work.

1) Plug in your usb device.

2) Next, open up the terminal application and enter the following command. By issuing sudo -i command, you are assuming the identity of root for the rest of the session.

sudo -i

3) Run the fdisk -l command to look at the devices installed on your system.

root@jetBook:~# fdisk -l

4) My output is posted below.

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x355aa9d3
 
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        9407    75561696    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            9408       18813    75553695    5  Extended
/dev/sda3           18814       19451     5124735   1c  Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda4           19452       19457       48195   ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sda5            9408       18039    69336508+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6           18040       18813     6217123+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
 
Disk /dev/sdb: 4047 MB, 4047502848 bytes
4 heads, 32 sectors/track, 61759 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 128 * 512 = 65536 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
 
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1       61759     3952560    b  W95 FAT32

First you will notice my internal hard drive and the several partitions that are written on it.

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x355aa9d3
 
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        9407    75561696    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            9408       18813    75553695    5  Extended
/dev/sda3           18814       19451     5124735   1c  Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda4           19452       19457       48195   ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sda5            9408       18039    69336508+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6           18040       18813     6217123+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

5) We are primarily concerned about the following segment.

Disk /dev/sdb: 4047 MB, 4047502848 bytes
4 heads, 32 sectors/track, 61759 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 128 * 512 = 65536 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
 
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1       61759     3952560    b  W95 FAT32

6) Since I only have two drives installed on my system (Internal HD, and USB thumb drive) we can logically deduce that /dev/sdb is the thumb drive, and for several reasons. The primary one being that I am using a 4GB drive, and the output next to /dev/sdb shows the total amount of memory.

Disk /dev/sdb: 4047 MB

7) Unmount the /dev/sdb1 partition

root@jetBook:~# umount /dev/sdb1

8 ) Run the following command

root@jetBook:~# fdisk /dev/sdb

Which will produce this prompt.

Command (m for help):

9) Delete any existing partitions.

Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 1

9a) Please note, you may get a prompt asking you for a number selection (1-4). You will need to keep going through this step in order to delete ALL of the existing partitions on the usb device. Example below assumes there are two partitions on the usb device.

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 1
 
Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 2

10) Once the partition(s) are deleted, create a new one. Type the letter ‘n’ and press return. ‘n’ is for “New” partition.

Command (m for help): n

***) Enter the letter ‘p’ for primary and press return.

Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p

11) Select number ‘1′ for the partition number definition.

Partition number (1-4): 1

12) Enter ‘1′ to designate the first cylinder.

First cylinder (1-61759, default 1): 1

13) Enter the large default number so that we can use the entire disk. In my case, the ending cylinder number is 61759.

Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-61759, default 61759): 61759

14) Make the drive bootable

Command (m for help): a
Partition number (1-4): 1

15) Show the definition table by entering the letter ‘p’ from the prompt. This is to make sure there is an asterisk under the ‘boot’ column.

Command (m for help): p
 
Disk /dev/sdb: 4047 MB, 4047502848 bytes
4 heads, 32 sectors/track, 61759 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 128 * 512 = 65536 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
 
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1       61759     3952560   83  Linux

16) Write the changes to the disk by entering the letter ‘w’

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

16a) Note: you may get the following error. Don’t worry, it is not a big deal but it does mean you probably didn’t correctly unmount the device in step (STEP #7).

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
 
WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.
The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at
the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8)
Syncing disks.

If this happens, it is now like a choose your own adventure book. You can…

• Start over
• Go back to step #7
• Or remember that things may be screwed up, and proceed just to see if you can

Choose wisely…

17) Format the disk using ext2. !!!WARNING!!! if you mess this up, you can easily format the root partition of YOUR internal hard drive.

root@jetBook:~# mke2fs /dev/sdb1

Which will produce the following output.

mke2fs 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
247008 inodes, 987989 blocks
49399 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=1015021568
31 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
7968 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
	32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736
 
Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
 
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 28 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

18) Make a usb directory inside /mnt

NOTE: if you are using a different flavor of linux/unix you will have to adjust the tutorial accordingly.

root@jetBook:~# mkdir /mnt/usb

19) mount the usb thumb drive partition to the newly created directory. In my case it is the 1st partition, sdb1.

root@jetBook:~# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb

20) Create an iso directory to eventually mount the dsl-4.4.10.iso

root@jetBook:/# mkdir /mnt/iso

21) Find the directory where your damn small linux .iso file exists. Since I used firefox3.5 to download the .iso, my file is in the ‘Downloads’ directory.

/home/YOUR_USERNAME/Downloads

22) Mount the .iso to the directory. Conceptually, this allows you access to the files stored in the .iso as if it were a common directory on your file system.

root@jetBook:# mount -o loop /home/YOUR_USERNAME/Downloads/dsl-4.4.10.iso /mnt/iso

23) Copy all the files from /mnt/iso into /mnt/usb. We issue the ‘-p’ flag so that we keep the existing permissions. We issue the ‘-R’ flag so the the copy is recursive.

root@jetBook:# cp -pR /mnt/iso/* /mnt/usb

24) Install grub into the boot block of /dev/sdb.

root@jetBook:# grub-install --no-floppy --root-directory=/mnt/usb /dev/sdb

25) You should get the following output.

Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
Installing GRUB to /dev/sdb as (hd1)...
Installation finished. No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /mnt/usb/boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.
 
(hd0)	/dev/sda
(hd1)	/dev/sdb

26) Create the file menu.lst in the /mtn/usb/boot/grub/ folder.

root@jetBook:/# vi /mnt/usb/boot/grub/menu.lst

28) Here is the contents of my menu.lst file and you are more than welcome to copy/paste the contents. There is one issue though, your hardware may not lay itself out like mine, so some further troubleshooting may be involved.

title Damn Small Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/isolinux/linux24 root=/dev/sda1 ro lang=us toram noeject frugal
initrd /boot/isolinux/minirt24.gz
boot
EOF

29) At this point, you should be able to issue the following four commands in order to cleanup your file system

root@jetBook:# umount /mnt/iso
root@jetBook:# umount /mnt/usb
root@jetBook:# rm -R /mnt/usb
root@jetBook:# rm -R /mnt/iso

And from here on, it is all you. Just reboot your machine, and go into your BIOS in order to make sure you are booting from the usb device.

Please understand, in step #28 where you potentially copy/paste my ‘menu.lst’ settings, it is an area where you could run into problems. I will try and cover some information on the GRUB boot loader eventually. Because GRUB seems to mistify so many people, yet it is incredibly powerful.