Bootable Ubuntu Flash drive
August 16, 2010 6:40 AM Subscribe
Booting Ubuntu from a USB flash drive
I have a Sony USB flash Drive that boots Ubuntu. But it doesn't retain any preferences like email settings, Firefox add-ons or downloaded apps like Opera. Not surprising right?
So I tried to use the "USB Startup Disk Creator" on another Flash drive from the System - Admin menu... but it never completes... it just stops and says there are files missing. I'm thinking its because I'm trying to run it FROM a skeleton version that I'm booting off the USB.
Anyone know a way I can create a proper bootable Ubuntu USB flash drive without having a pre existing full blown installation?
I have a Sony USB flash Drive that boots Ubuntu. But it doesn't retain any preferences like email settings, Firefox add-ons or downloaded apps like Opera. Not surprising right?
So I tried to use the "USB Startup Disk Creator" on another Flash drive from the System - Admin menu... but it never completes... it just stops and says there are files missing. I'm thinking its because I'm trying to run it FROM a skeleton version that I'm booting off the USB.
Anyone know a way I can create a proper bootable Ubuntu USB flash drive without having a pre existing full blown installation?
You're probably just missing the actual iso of your system. These creator programs will unpack the iso and put it on a bootable USB drive and give you options to make a persistent storage area, but I haven't seen one that will (basically) clone your running system and do the same. So you just need to boot from the USB you have, download the iso and then select it from the Startup Disk Creator, it also has all the options you need to make a persistent storage area.
If you started with a bootable CD, you can boot from that and create the USB version with persistent storage without re-downloading the iso (the CD is the iso...).
posted by zengargoyle at 7:28 AM on August 16, 2010
If you started with a bootable CD, you can boot from that and create the USB version with persistent storage without re-downloading the iso (the CD is the iso...).
posted by zengargoyle at 7:28 AM on August 16, 2010
Sounds like you've already gotten the answers you're looking for, but I feel compelled to add that this is probably impossible (as of this date) on Apple hardware. I've wasted days trying to get it to work, all in vain. Also everyone should be aware that the rapid number of disk read/writes an OS makes can be hell on a USB flash drive. You are likely to wear out the device relatively quickly this way, so don't look at it as a long-term solution.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:36 AM on August 16, 2010
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:36 AM on August 16, 2010
If you're looking for a USB-bootable Linux with persistence that won't hammer your flash stick, check out Puppy. It boots off USB, runs totally in RAM, and doesn't write to the flash drive again until you shut it down (it can even do the same trick with CDROM or DVD if booted on a PC with a burner).
posted by flabdablet at 9:12 AM on August 16, 2010
posted by flabdablet at 9:12 AM on August 16, 2010
Disregard worrying about hammering your USB flash, it's a red herring (aka, that's not how they work.)
The common Live-CD -> Bootable USB process (especially those made by the one-tool-for-any-distro types) is pretty simple. The files from the CD/iso are simply copied over to the flash and the boot sector is extracted and installed. Once the USB boots, it runs exactly like the LiveCD would have. That means that the system is mounted read-only, and tweaked to not do all disk access you would expect from a normal install. The root fs is probably a squashed filesystem that can't be easily modified that's mounted read-only, and what user space is needed is a tempfs ram disk mounted read-write.
What you don't want to do is try to install a normal non-LiveCD version of the OS on a flash. Even then, now with netbook tuned distros you probably won't have any problems since they are tuned to not write that much to disk so they can save power by allowing the disks to spin down.
It will still be relatively slow from flash since it will be a compressed filesystem that you're reading from.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:30 AM on August 16, 2010
The common Live-CD -> Bootable USB process (especially those made by the one-tool-for-any-distro types) is pretty simple. The files from the CD/iso are simply copied over to the flash and the boot sector is extracted and installed. Once the USB boots, it runs exactly like the LiveCD would have. That means that the system is mounted read-only, and tweaked to not do all disk access you would expect from a normal install. The root fs is probably a squashed filesystem that can't be easily modified that's mounted read-only, and what user space is needed is a tempfs ram disk mounted read-write.
What you don't want to do is try to install a normal non-LiveCD version of the OS on a flash. Even then, now with netbook tuned distros you probably won't have any problems since they are tuned to not write that much to disk so they can save power by allowing the disks to spin down.
It will still be relatively slow from flash since it will be a compressed filesystem that you're reading from.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:30 AM on August 16, 2010
Seconding PuppyLinux.
The newest version (the 5.0 family) is Ubuntu-based, so (I believe) you can use Ubuntu packages to install software. This gives you a wider selection of applications than older Puppy versions offered, thus answering one of the biggest barriers to using Puppy full-time.
Puppy is also small & light enough to make decrepit old machines look almost sprightly - though they need to be new enough to have a USB-booting BIOS.
posted by richyoung at 1:22 PM on August 16, 2010
The newest version (the 5.0 family) is Ubuntu-based, so (I believe) you can use Ubuntu packages to install software. This gives you a wider selection of applications than older Puppy versions offered, thus answering one of the biggest barriers to using Puppy full-time.
Puppy is also small & light enough to make decrepit old machines look almost sprightly - though they need to be new enough to have a USB-booting BIOS.
posted by richyoung at 1:22 PM on August 16, 2010
Response by poster: Wow, Thanks everyone. Lots of good info here.
I tried the Pendrivelinux.com tool and installed the Ubuntu 10.X (whatever the top option was)
It worked well, as advertised. Some issues I have:
- I made the Casper/rw partition 2gigs (on a 4 gig stick) and after installing ThunderBird and Opera I started getting "out of space" messages. So I'm re-running it now with a 3 gig casper/rw. Hopefully that will be big enough. There doesn't seem to be any recommendations with regard to how big that partition should be on the Pendrivelinux.com site... that might be helpful.
- It seems to run very slowly. I had a bootable USB stick that didn't have any "persistance" before that ran super fast..... I'm not really sure why there is such a speed differential. I've been reading that there are netbook optimized flavors of Linux.... would one of those be a good idea? Any suggestions there?
- Firefox times out and goes into a grey coma often... and seems to take thunderbird down with it... that's pretty irritating.
Other than that... all seems well. Thanks again.
posted by Scoops at 7:18 AM on August 17, 2010
I tried the Pendrivelinux.com tool and installed the Ubuntu 10.X (whatever the top option was)
It worked well, as advertised. Some issues I have:
- I made the Casper/rw partition 2gigs (on a 4 gig stick) and after installing ThunderBird and Opera I started getting "out of space" messages. So I'm re-running it now with a 3 gig casper/rw. Hopefully that will be big enough. There doesn't seem to be any recommendations with regard to how big that partition should be on the Pendrivelinux.com site... that might be helpful.
- It seems to run very slowly. I had a bootable USB stick that didn't have any "persistance" before that ran super fast..... I'm not really sure why there is such a speed differential. I've been reading that there are netbook optimized flavors of Linux.... would one of those be a good idea? Any suggestions there?
- Firefox times out and goes into a grey coma often... and seems to take thunderbird down with it... that's pretty irritating.
Other than that... all seems well. Thanks again.
posted by Scoops at 7:18 AM on August 17, 2010
Some USB sticks, especially cheapie generic ones, are just amazingly slow. If you're going to do speed comparisons, do them on new, same-model sticks.
posted by flabdablet at 9:58 AM on August 17, 2010
posted by flabdablet at 9:58 AM on August 17, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
The word you're looking for is "persistent". All pendrive needs you to do is grab the iso of your choice and feed it to the program. Note that it will delete anything on the drive. You do need to make sure you hit the checkbox for adding a persistent option to the install.
posted by TomMelee at 6:49 AM on August 16, 2010