How do I run second life from a flash drive, and still save user settings?

[RichAnderson Alter]

I've already figured out a way to run SL from a flash drive, plugged into a Microsoft Windows computer, but all info is lost if the user closes the viewer, moves to a new machine, and starts the viewer. I would like to make Second Life easier for my student to access and use by allowing them to install Second Life on a flash drive (for use with a Microsoft Windows computer) but in a way that stores all custom user data and settings on the flash drive so it isn't lost

(1) Is this possible? If so, how?

(2) If it's not possible now, is it something that's being worked on, or should I just give up on the idea?

[Tempest Lefevre]

Be sure that in the preferences tab you have changed all the default settings for the caches to go to your flash drive. By default they go to the C drive. You have to be sure they are set to go to whatever drive the flash drive ends up on the computer you are using. The drive designation will change from computer to computer, depending on what is on it. On my laptop it would be F drive, on my desktop it would be G. That may be the problem. Remember A and B are for floppies, C and on are hard drives, then CD/DVD drive,then the externals like your flash drive. Hope that helps.

[RichAnderson Alter]

The cache settings idea is a good suggestion. But of course, the reason for running sL on a flash drive is that the user will be running it on multiple computers will may have different drive letters for the usb flash drive. Is it possible to set the SL cache location so that it's, by default, the drive and directory form which the viewer is currently running? Or is it possible to write something like a batch file so that the cache could be in a stardard location on the c drive, but then copied to the flash drive upon exiting the viewer, and then copied to the standard c location again upon restarting the viewer?

[ELQ Homewood]

Using the regular preferences, I don't think so. I'm sure you could target your flash drive if you compiled your client from the source, though.

A batch file may be a possibility.

[Kathmandu Gilman]

Probabaly not the easiest way but once it is set up it can be pretty self contained and portable. Install Ubuntu on the flashdrive as a live CD with SL installed as well. You would have to set up the computers to be able to boot from the USB drive. 

[Reno Rowlands]

One thing you could do if you run Vista or Windows 7 is to use symbolic links. It's fairly easy (depending on your comfort level with command prompts and such) to set this up but you'd need to do it on each computer on which you ran the client.

Assume your flash drive letter is F and your Windows login name is Josh.

First, create a folder F:\SecondLife.

Then, *move* the folder C:\Users\Josh\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife to F:\SecondLife and rename it "Data".

Then, *move* the folder C:\Program Files\SecondLife and rename it "Bin".

Next, open a command prompt as an administrator (cmd.exe, PowerShell will not work for this) and type:

MKLINK /D "C:\Users\Josh\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife" "F:\SecondLife\Data"

MKLINK /D "C:\Program Files\SecondLife" "F:\SecondLife\Bin"

Now, Second Life can go on happily writing files to the locations it thinks it installed to, but really it is redirected to the flash drive.

[RichAnderson Alter]

Ubuntu and mlink are good ideas to. But the reason I want to have students run SL from a flash drive is that neither I nor my students has administrative privilages on the various lab computers. And tech support does not wnat to put SL on them because of frequent required updates. And of course, I can't reconfigure the computers to boot from a flash drive or to do an mlink.

[Reno Rowlands]

Ah then you'll probably need to either work with the source code or look into something expensive like VMWare ACE.

[Reno Rowlands]

Oh hey nice I just found this page. Suggests you could use a -settings parameter to specify the path to a user settings file.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Client_parameters

[Clyde Lindman]

I tried this about a year ago. I remember for some reason everything ran way too slow. I can't remember the reason that was given to me though......something about the data transfer rate between the flash drive and the computer.

[RichAnderson Alter]

Yes, I can see how speed might be a problem (changing the parameter settings to store user settings on the flash drive). But flash drives have gotten faster, so it might work better now. I will try this approach. Thanks.

[Reno Rowlands]

You would definitely not want to store the cache on a flash drive. Compared to modern hard drives, flash drives have very good seek times but very poor transfer rates. They are good for when you need to randomly access small chunks of data. But locating the binaries on the flash drive should not be a problem because they will be pulled into memory when run.

[Jak Canning]

I am pretty sure there is a way to do this. You will need to explore the start up options (http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Client_parameters).  You can specify a local settings file and I believe in there you can set the cache location.  There is also a -set start up option that supposedly lets you set (or override) any parameter in the settings file.  I have used different settings and cache files for running multiple viewers on the same computer successfully but have not tried what you are attempting.

[Andria Babenco]

If you save your user settings on the flash drive make sure the disk cache ( under preferences -> network tab in the client) is not set to the flash drive or it wont last long. Flash drives have a finite number of writes and will expire quickly if written to frequently with a cache or swap file.

[RichAnderson Alter]

Yes. Thanks all, for the tip on NOT caching to the flash drive.

[Jak Canning]

In fact I am able to preserve the settings of my different accounts.  I think this is more a function of the settings file then the cache, so you may be able to keep one cache but just use different settings files...

[RichAnderson Alter]

Well, using the --settings parameter within a shortcut almost works. The problem is that Windows xp doesn't allow shortcuts to specify relative as opposed to  absolute file paths. But since the drive letter for the flash drive can vary across machines, the shortcut (which contains the parameter that writes the SL user settings to the flash drive rather than the c drive) will sometimes fail to work.

[Reno Rowlands]

Should be pretty easy to do with a batch file instead. Create a file called SecondLife.cmd and type:

"%PROGRAMFILES%\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" --settings "%CD%\Settings.xml"

[Lusus Saule]

I'm not sure how to overcome the problem of writing the cache to a flash drive, but to overcome the problem of the slowness of a flash drive and the fact it will sooner or later malfunction, possibly using a portable hard drive might be a better option. You are possibly aware that a laptop hard drive can be fitted inside an external casing and plugged into a PC via a usb port. You will then have a portable and reliable installation of Second Life that can be used on multiple PC's. However, I don't know if this helps with the cache issue or just adds to its confusion.

[RichAnderson Alter]

It looks like it's not necessary to write the -cache- to the flash drive. Writing it to the normal spot on the c drive is fine. The user settings are separate from the cache.

[Kathmandu Gilman]

So... I have a flash drive in one hand and a blank computer screen and I ain't that bright. What do I need to do to get SL to run off the flash drive, and tell me like you are telling a 6 year old and use small words.

[RichAnderson Alter]

Note: I should not have marked this thread "answered" and I don't know how to change it from "answered" to unanswered.

The settings still aren't saving to the flash drive, and the problem is this. The --settings switch lets you change the name of the file, but not the path were it's stored. It's always stored a few layers down in the "documents and settings" on the C drive.

The next thing I'm going to try is writing a batch file that, when Second Life closes, automatically copies the settings file from the C drive to the flash drive. Then when Second Life is launged again, the batch file will copy the settings back from the flash drive to the C drive.

[Reno Rowlands]

The copying is not a bad idea. From the batch file, when you call another process, the batch file will normally continue. You can use the START command with the /WAIT parameter like so:

START "Second Life" /WAIT "Blah\SecondLife.exe" --settings Blah.xml

The start command will block until the SecondLife.exe process exits, then continue on to the next line, allowing you to copy back to the Flash drive.

[Reno Rowlands]

Also, whenever possible, to make sure the batch file works on a variety of environments make sure to use environment variables instead of hard coded paths. For example, on Vista and Windows 7, "Documents and Settings" is called C:\Users and the folder structure is different.

So instead of referencing "C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data", you should use "%APPDATA%\SecondLife\Settings.xml" or whatever. Type "set" at a command prompt to see the available environment variables.

[Kathmandu Gilman]

Ok, I managed to get this to work: Portable SL http://www.travelinlibrarian.info/2007/01/second-life-portable.html

I ended up using the bat file at the bottom of the page in the comments section since it was the newest version. I used the Emerald viewer to ensure the version I was running was what was on the flash drive by changing Secondlife.exe in the bat file to Emerald.exe wherever I found it, may need to change other things but I'm not that up on doing things like this but it worked well enough. Need to test it on a computer that's never had SL on it to make sure it works completely as it should.

[Kathmandu Gilman]

Anyone try this yet? Like I said it worked for me just fine.