How to boot Ubuntu from USB and make persistent install for saving sessions
You can try Ubuntu with downloading the Live CD and booting up from a CD or USB, but every time you get the same session without saving your work. Do you like the idea that you can always carry your personal OS in your pocket everywhere? And also saving your sessions? Checking mail with your personal OS at your friends computer? Here is tutorial (http://www.pendrivelinux.com) how to do that with Live CD:
You need Ubuntu Live CD and USB 1GB or more!
- First download Live CD from Ubuntu official site, or just click here, and burn it to empty CD.
- Now boot up from a Ubuntu CD
- When Ubuntu is started insert the USB
- On main Ubuntu menu click Applications/Accessories/Terminal, and type sudo su
- Next type fdisk -l to list available drives/partitions (note which device is your flash drive Example: /dev/sdb). Throughout this tutorial, replace all instances of x with your flash drive letter. For example, if your flash drive is sdb, replace x with b.
- Type umount /dev/sdx1
- Type fdisk /dev/sdx
- type p to show the existing partition
- type d to delete it
- type p again to show any remaining partitions (if partitions exist, repeat the previous step)
- type n to make a new partition
- type p for primary partition
- type 1 to make this the first partition
- hit enter to use the default 1st cylinder
- type +750M to set the partition size
- type a to make this partition active
- type 1 to select partition 1
- type t to change the partition filesystem
- type 6 to select the fat16 file system
- type n to make another new partition
- type p for primary partition
- type 2 to make this the second partition
- hit enter to use the default cylinder
- hit enter again to use the default last cylinder
- type w to write the new partition table
- Type umount /dev/sdx1 to unmount the partition
- Type mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n ubuntu8 /dev/sdx1 to format the first partition
- Type umount /dev/sdx2 to ensure the partition is unmounted
- Type mkfs.ext2 -b 4096 -L casper-rw /dev/sdx2 to format the second partition
- Remove and re-insert your flash drive (if prompted that a new medium has been detected, select to open in a new window and click ok)
- In terminal, type sudo apt-get install syslinux mtools
- Type syslinux -sf /dev/sdx1
- Type cd /cdrom
- Type cp -rfv casper dists install pics pool preseed .disk isolinux/* md5sum.txt README.diskdefines install/mt86plus /media/ubuntu8
- Type cd /media/ubuntu8
- Type wget pendrivelinux.com/downloads/u8/syslinux.cfg
- Type cd casper
- Type rm initrd.gz
- Type wget pendrivelinux.com/downloads/u8/initrd.gz
- Reboot your computer and set your system BIOS boot priority to boot from the USB stick.
If everything has gone as it should, you should now be able to boot Ubuntu from the USB flash device and it should save your changes, restoring them on boot.
Notes: If your having trouble getting Ubuntu to boot, your memory stick may have a corrupted MBR. To repair the MBR of your USB device, at the terminal type sudo apt-get install lilo then type lilo -M /dev/sdx (replacing x with the letter of your flash device).
The good thing is that you can boot up your OS from USB stick and learn a lot of things for Linux, and then decide to install it on your hard drive.
The negative side is the speed (is a little slowly) and protection – becouse is open session everyone who is using your usb can enter in your computer – for example.
Tags | Howto, Installation, Linux, Tutorials, Ubuntu
you forgot to add the link of ubuntu live cd
Miss TT
Link added. Thank U Miss TT
Thanks. This one is related with your’s:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1734965 :
==== Safe & tidy live USB, with personal files, persistent or fresh boot, no CD, any BIOS ====
This tutorial shows how to create a bootable USB flash drive with both Ubuntu and personal data in it.
Features:
+ The operating system files are kept appart from the personal ones
+ On booting you can choose to do it in a persistent or fresh way (loading or not saved configuration or session)
+ No CD needs to be burnt (only it the BIOS is old …)
+ If the BIOS of your computer cannot boot from USB (for example because it’s old) a solution is given so it can (see at bottom: Appendix A))
+ If you don’t have a (free) pendrive an alternative is given (see at bottom: Appendix B))
Advantages:
+ We have 2 partitions:
++ The first partition is for our personal files or archives (songs, photos, videos, documents, …)
++ The second partition is for Ubuntu (the operating system), including the persistence file, casper-rw
+ This way the pendrive can be used for 3 things:
++ Boot Ubuntu in any computer (in Live mode)
++ Install Ubuntu in any computer
++ Use our personal files, both from Ubuntu Live (for example the one in the same pendrive), an installed Ubuntu, other Linux distro, Windows, …
+ As our personal files are appart from the operating system ones:
++ Our personal data is easily accessed and managed by any operating system (for example, booting the Ubuntu Live of the same USB flash drive you don’t need to use sudo neither search within the file system; and you can edit, delete, … them)
++ The operating system files are safe (for example Windows XP cannot access them: it only can access the first partition, where the personal data is. If everything were in a single partition, with any operating system, all the files would be accessable and for example when trying to delete a personal file we could delete by accident an operating system file).
+ It’s useful to have the option to boot the live USB in fresh mode:
++ The booting is faster (the persistence file is not used)
++ We can use it to boot the live USB in a computer different to our’s, which probably will have a different hardware (even if we can boot in persistent mode on it -I think that normally yes- after finishing the external computer’s configurations would be saved and when booting back again on our computer probably some of the configurations would be different to the ones we like to use)
+ As we don’t burn any CD (only it the BIOS is old …) we help to keep or room or office tidy, we save money, pollute less, …
+ We can have a “live USB” even if we don’t have a pendrive but yes a memory card of a photo camera and an external card reader
Howto:
(If you have Ubuntu installed in your computer or in another live USB jump to B))
A) You have Windows installed in your computer but not Ubuntu
0. Boot Windows
1. Download http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/Universal-USB-Installer/Universal-USB-Installer-1.8.4.1.exe
2. Insert your USB flash drive
3. Copy the files you want to keep to another drive
4. Run the program downloaded in 1. and follow the instructions of http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ (by now don’t use the persistence option)
(If you have another USB flash drive jump to B))
5. Reboot the computer and press the key stated by the BIOS to go to the boot menu (F12, F11, …, then use the arrows to select the USB flash drive and then press Enter). If no boot menu, go to the BIOS main menu (with F2 or Del …), then to boot options …
6. Install Ubuntu in your computer. More info in https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStickQuick
B) You have Ubuntu installed in your computer (or in another live USB)
I’ll do it with this example:
+ Desktop -or laptop- computer, not netbook
+ USB flash drive of 4 GB
+ Personal files will take up more than half of the memory or space
+ Ubuntu version for the USB flash drive: 10.04, 32-bit (for 32-bit or 64-bit computers)
0. Boot Ubuntu (the one installed in your computer’s hard drive or the one in an extra live USB)
1. Download the required ISO file: http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download (and choose and click) or ftp://swtsrv.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/pub/linux/distributions/ubuntu-release/lucid/ubuntu-10.04.2-desktop-i386.iso (or from other country …)
2. Plug the USB flash drive
3. Copy the files you want to keep to another drive
4. Hold Alt key and press F2 . Type gnome-terminal and press Enter
5. Type sudo bash and press Enter. Enter your password
6. Type ls /dev/disk/by-id/*usb* -l and press Enter . At the end of the first line there should be something like sdb or sdc or sdd … In my case sdb
7. Type fdisk -l and press Enter . After /dev/sdb I see /dev/sdb1 (there is only 1 partition; no divisions in my USB flash drive)
8. Type umount /dev/sdb1 and press Enter
9. Type fdisk /dev/sdb and press Enter
10. Type m and press Enter to see the options
11. Type p and press Enter to see the partitions (in my case /dev/sdb1 )
12. Type d and press Enter (fdisk selects the only partition I have)
13. Type p and press Enter (now there is no partition so no /dev/sdb1 is shown)
14. Type n and press Enter then p and Enter then 1 (number of partition) and Enter then Enter (to use the default beginning: 1) then 600 (something more than the half) and Enter
15. Type p and press Enter. I see /dev/sdb1 with Id of 83 (Linux file system)
16. We want change it to FAT32: Type l and press Enter . We see that c is our option (W95 FAT32 (LBA) file system)
17. We change it: Type t and press Enter (it selects the only partition up to now). Type c and press Enter
18. Type p and press Enter . We see Id of c (W95 FAT32 (LBA) file system)
19. Type n and press Enter then p and Enter then 2 and Enter then Enter (to use the default: just after first partition) then Enter (to use the default: all the free space, to the end)
20. Type p and press Enter . We see also /dev/sdb2 . With Id of 83
21. Type t and press Enter then 2 and Enter then c and Enter
22. Type p and press Enter . We see Id of c bor both
23. Type w and press Enter. Changes are written on disk
24. Type fdisk -l and press Enter . Now we see the 2 partitions.
25. Now we format the first one: type mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1 and press Enter
26. Now we format the second one: type mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb2 and press Enter
27. Close the terminal or console
28. Hold Alt key and press F2 . Type gnome-control-center and press Enter
29. Click on USB Startup Disk Creator (under Hardware)
30. Click on the button named Other.. (up-right) and choose and open the downloaded ISO file
31. Under Disk to use click on /dev/sdb2
32. Down, select Stored in reserved extra space
33. Move the How much button almost to the limit. In my case the limit is 876.0 MB but I put it in 851.0 (just in case I need to modify some file of booting, …)
34. Click on the button Make Startup Disk
35. When it finishes click on Exit
36. Edit the file syslinux.cfg (inside the Live USB’s syslinux folder): delete all the content and copy there this code:
prompt 1
timeout 50
default 1
say -
say Enter the number of the desired option
say ————–
say -
label 1
say 1 Try Ubuntu without installing
kernel /casper/vmlinuz
append noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash –
label 2
say 2 Try Ubuntu without installing and fresh
kernel /casper/vmlinuz
append noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash –
label 3
say 3 Install Ubuntu
kernel /casper/vmlinuz
append noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper only-ubiquity initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash –
label 4
say 4 Check disc for defects
kernel /casper/vmlinuz
append noprompt boot=casper integrity-check initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash –
label 5
say 5 Test memory
kernel /install/mt86plus
label 6
say 6 Boot from first hard disk
localboot 0×80
FINISHED !!!
Now if we open the terminal and we use fdisk -l we see that there is a * for Boot in /dev/sdb2 . So the second partition is bootable (where Ubuntu GNU/Linux, the operating system, is located)
To see this working reboot the computer and press the key stated by the BIOS to go to the boot menu (F12, F11, …, then use the arrows to select the USB flash drive and then press Enter). If no boot menu, go to the BIOS main menu (with F2 or Del …), then to boot options ….
The first time in the middle of the boot we have to choose the language and click on Try Ubuntu v 10.04.2 LTS
If we click on Places menu and then on 2.4 GB Filesystem the first partition is mounted and the Nautilus File Browser opens there. We can copy, create, delete, edit, open … our personal files: songs, photos, videos, documents …
ENJOY !!!
Appendix A) If the BIOS of your computer cannot boot from USB you can download http://download.plop.at/files/bootmngr/plpbt-5.0.11-2.zip , uncompress the file and burn a CD (a Business card CD is enough, or the easier to find Mini CDs) from the image (file) plpbt.iso (for example the one in the root folder). You insert the CD and the pendrive with Ubuntu in the computer, reboot or switch it on, and a menu appears where you select USB, so the computer boots from the USB flash drive. It may happen that the BIOS were configured to look the hard drive before the CD or DVD drive: in this case you just need to change the boot order of the BIOS. To do this, just after rebooting or turning on the computer, press the key stated to go to the BIOS main menu (F2 or Del …), then to boot options … The newer BIOSes also have a boot menu, accessable with F12, F11, … But these modern BIOSes normally allow to boot via USB. (The Plop Boot Manager allows to boot from any USB flash drive, no matter the operating system in it)
Appendix B) If you don’t have an USB flash drive you can have Ubuntu in the memory card of your photo camera (SD, xD, …). And the memory card can hold both the operating system, your personal data and the photos you take with the camera. To boot Ubuntu from this card you just need to insert it in an external reader (for example one of those that have several sockets for different formats) connected via USB to the computer (if you put the card in the internal reader of the computer probably you won’t be able to boot Ubuntu -if someone can do it, please, explain it-)
Hi
Very informative and simple to follow.
Can I arrange Ubuntu to save to the hard drive, or an external hard drive?
I don’t want it to save to the USB.
I hope you can help.
TVM
yes, you can mount your hard disk or external memory so u can use it also for saving or reading.
Thanks for that Viktor.
Wow! Its been almost a month since I saved this.
I’ve got 10.4 on my 4G pendrive 12 items comprising 6 directories, wubi.exe, an autorun.inf, md5sum.txt and a readme. diskdefines.
I need to know how to keep my pendrive free from innumerable writes (except updates) and save all my ‘archive junk’ to a Linux partition on my hard drive.
One question – Would it be sensible (speed wise) to write all the programs to the pendrive also?
I would also like to have a windows partition for the very occasional times I am abliged to use Windows.
(I also intend writing XP to another pendrive.
Hope to hear from you
TVM
Louis