I found myself tackling with installing and configuring Backtrack 5 to an USB stick so I wrote it down to this note. It required a good amount of Googling.

Installation

Download Backtrack ISO. I installed Backtrack 5 but should this work with most other versions.

Download and install Oracle VirtualBox.

Boot a Linux/Ubuntu virtual machine in VirtualBox using the Backtrack ISO:

1. Press New
2. Select Linux/Ubuntu, write a name.
3. Next, next, next...
4. On "Select Installation Media" "-screen, select your Backtrack ISO.
5. Press enter when you see "boot:" text.
6. After system has loaded run startx

Check that virtual machine has your USB included in Devices > USB Devices.

Start Backtrack installer inside the virtual machine.

If you want to manually setup partitions you need at least 3 partitions:

Mount       Size        Format      ?
'/'         ANY         ext4        Backtrack operating system partition
'boot'      200MB+      ext4        boot partition
-           1024MB+     swap        Linux swap partition

Consider making /allos partition using FAT32 file system format that all operating systems can access easily. That all OS partition, must be set as the first parititon or Windows won't detect it.

Configuration

To get networking working.

ifconfig

# Check if the interface is up and ip address assigned?

# Starting networking manually
/etc/init.d/networking start

To change keyboard layout.

dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

Something not working? Check the file system first.

e2fsck -y -f /cdrom/casper-rw

Starting graphical interface.

startx

Adding fonts.

# Go to /user/share/fonts/truetype
# Create folder for custom fonts e.g. "custom"
# Add your fonts there
sudo fc-cache -f -v

Adding non-root users.

adduser <USERNAME>
usermod --groups plugdev,admin,disk,cdrom,audio <USERNAME>
xhost +
# Now you can use that user in Launcher options
# E.g. sudo -i -u <USERNAME> <THE_COMMAND>

# Get all users
more /etc/passwd

# Get users that are in group.
getent group <GROUP_NAME>

# Get all groups
cat /etc/group

FAT32/NTFS partition access privileges to non-root users.

# Open /etc/fstab and find your partition e.g. ...
UUID=EB9D-D6A4  /allos          vfat    utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0       1

# Change umask ID to 077
UUID=EB9D-D6A4  /allos          vfat    utf8,umask=077,gid=46 0       1

# Make sure that the non-root user is in 'plugdev' group

How to use package manager apt-get.

# Install a package.
apt-get install <PACKAGE_NAME>

# Remove a package.
apt-get remove <PACKAGE_NAME>

# Remove a package and configurations.
apt-get remove --purge <PACKAGE_NAME>

# Update package listings from repositories.
apt-get update

# Upgrade all currently installed packages.
apt-get upgrade

# Install dependencies
apt-get -f install

How to use package manager dpkg.

# Install a package file you downloaded (.deb).
dpkg -i <PACKAGE_FILE_NAME>

# Remove an installed package.
dpkg -r <PACKAGE_NAME>

# Remove an installed package and related configurations.
dpkg -P <PACKAGE_NAME>

# Reconfigure package.
dpkg-reconfigure <PACKAGE_NAME>

Installing Chrome

# Download Google for Ubuntu.
dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb

# If you do not want to add non-root users...
gedit /usr/bin google-chrome

# Change last line to...
"exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@" --user-data-dir"

Installing Spotify

# Add next to /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free

# Run
apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 94558F59

# If following whines something about verification, google new keys.
apt-get update
apt-get install spotify-client

Installing Skype

# Download Skype for Ubuntu.
# http://www.skype.com/
dpkg -i skype-ubuntu-lucid_4.1.0.20-1_i386.deb