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Linux : Creating Bootable USB Install Drives with UNetbootin watch!

linuxjournal.com — How to use UNetbootin to automatically create a bootable USB drive with one of many available Linux distributions.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 18, 2009

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51 Comments

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  • greenx, on 02/18/2009, -2/+22This video is cool.
  • LiquidSpark, on 02/18/2009, -0/+18Cool. I'm one of those people with like 10 live CD's scattered around. This'll be useful.
  • redrabbit, on 02/18/2009, -0/+12Another helpful site: www.pendrivelinux.com/
  • shellnet, on 02/18/2009, -0/+11Sweet. He goes fast, but that seems to be his style. I really liked his "Multiple Desktop Environments"
  • BoneheadFarker, on 02/18/2009, -1/+12You suck.
    There I said it.
  • radison2, on 02/18/2009, -0/+9Damn this utility! Instead of having a bag full of boot disks I now have a keychain full of USB sticks (5 to be exact lol).
  • sigmaman2, on 02/18/2009, -0/+8I use this regularly and it is seriously nice. The only downside is waiting for the ISO to download,so make sure you have lots of bandwidth. Aside from that, the program does everything for you. It's a lazy man's dream.

    ...oh, and make sure you format your USB stick first to FAT32!
  • trunkboy, on 02/18/2009, -0/+8hehehe, no I didn't. :) Watch the clock at the top of the screen.
  • kdruckman, on 02/18/2009, -2/+9that's what she said :)
  • Bicep, on 02/18/2009, -0/+4Very Cool. I'll have to give that a try.
  • MorpheousMarty, on 02/18/2009, -0/+4The Ubuntu install CD has a built in tool for this, and even allows you to have a persistent environment:
    http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ubuntu-810-install-us ...
  • mariamystar33, on 02/18/2009, -0/+4Very cool! I wanted to try something other than puppy on my thumb drive!
  • kdruckman, on 02/18/2009, -0/+4lol! If you look at the clock on the desktop you can see that it was about 30 min. The magic of video editing... :)
  • zip000, on 02/18/2009, -1/+5It really doesn't.
  • plainOldFool, on 02/18/2009, -0/+4here here. I am about three weeks in after installing Mint6 and I am really loving the experience. However, I want to give Kubuntu a whirl and dl'ed the iso. I was really dreading burning yet another CD so this trick will come in very handy. Perfect timing too, as I was going to get all Trogdor tonight.
  • ddfall, on 02/18/2009, -0/+3I've used this a few times. The Windows version is literally one file with no extra installs needed. Just be sure to have the USB drive you need installed first. :) Works like a charm and let me install Linux to my SD card on my Compaq Mini 700.
  • dustout, on 02/18/2009, -2/+5dugg for linux
  • FlyingCaveman, on 02/19/2009, -0/+2Yeah, Unetbootin is awesome, its going to make my cd/dvd drives obsolete.

    Ever try to put Windows on a USB disk, its like a 13 step process that may or may not work depending on if your bios tries to emulate a floppy or a hard drive.
  • nofx1510, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1I just used this a few days ago to install ubuntu on my eee pc. Awesome software that can do about every popular linux os including backtrack which is extremely useful to have on a flash drive.
  • ryan83189, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1I tried that out last night, it works good, I just need more room on my drive for storing stuff.
  • mr0nine2five, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1I loved the fact that I could still throw over 200 megs of music onto my original 1gig thumbdrive after installing pendrive linux. It was a fully functioning linux OS WITH compiz, metisse, and beryl (3D cubic desktops) installed and ready to go. It was perfect for doing an impromtu linux demo.

    I've only got a basic knowledge of linux, but programs like these are what make it fun and interesting to get involved with.
  • ryan83189, on 02/18/2009, -1/+2There in no way he downloaded that iso that fast.
  • sigmaman2, on 02/18/2009, -1/+2I tried that too, and it works nicely. But from what I can tell, it's limited to Ubuntu. Unless I'm missing something, you can't use it for other distros.
  • plainOldFool, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1Wow ... this is awesome. I'm getting tired of burning iso's to cd. Now I need to grab a dedicated usb stick or two.
  • theaceoffire, on 02/19/2009, -0/+1Yes, it creates a usable environment if the disk you are installing is a Live disk.

    It can also format and install onto the C drive (over itself!) to install on computers that only have net access. Saved me a lot of trouble.
  • nedzeve, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1I'm not completely clear on what this does.

    Does it prep the thumb drive as the bootable install media, or does it set up a usable environment? I realize in the case of so-called "live" distro's, that distinction is getting a little grey, but there is a distinction.
  • inactive, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1I really love unetbootin but I'd prefer if it would cache the ISOs it downloads for you so when you run it again later, you don't have to re-download.
  • ATL, on 06/20/2009, -0/+1http://www.slax.org/
  • freezerburn666, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1i did this with ubuntu over the weekend, worked great, installed fast off usb. i want to try it with DSL linux and a custom kernel to try and get an extremely old laptop with 16 mb ram to function.... i had it working before but the kernel didn't support the usb wifi adapter.. i'm hoping unetbootin will help once i get around to that old beast...
  • trogdoor, on 02/19/2009, -0/+1@Megatog615

    Now use syslinux instead of grub or lilo ( which don't have as many work-arounds for dealing with bugs in how BIOS's boot from USB ) and put it on in a squashfs so it takes 1/5 the space and you are almost there.
  • elmonkeylp, on 02/18/2009, -1/+2good
  • antdude, on 02/19/2009, -0/+1Is he driving too? :P
  • theaceoffire, on 02/19/2009, -0/+1You can download an ISO and select the local version.

    I used this to replace the OS on a computer without a CD drive or floppy drive, and too old to boot from USB.
  • CommanderKern, on 03/10/2009, -0/+1THIS DOESN'T DO A PERSISTENT INSTALL!!! That means you can't update the distro. Fedora's Live USB creator does do a persistent install try that instead
  • trogdoor, on 02/19/2009, -0/+1It unpacks the contents of the iso to the thumb drive, installs syslinux ( a bootloader ) and changes the isolinux ( the bootloader that most live distros use for CDs ) config file to a syslinux config file, among other things.

    Edit: I think I misunderstood your question, if you are asking if UNetbootin will make you a live environment or a minimal installer it will be exactly the same environment you would get if you burned the iso to a CD and booted from that. So if the iso was of a minimal installer you will get a minimal installer, a liveCD you'll get a live environment and if it's live with installer you'll get that.
  • godsdead, on 02/19/2009, -0/+1Ausom, i have like 30 live CD's floating around, and its a PAIN IN THE HOLE, cool programme.
  • eldridgea, on 02/19/2009, -0/+1It's also only for 8.10.
    I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I'd like this for 8.04 since it's an LTS release.
  • mbradbury, on 02/19/2009, -0/+1So does fedora
    http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/USBHowT ...
  • MonkeyFarts, on 02/19/2009, -0/+1Evil? Are you kidding me? You need to chill out on the paranoia.
  • trogdoor, on 02/19/2009, -0/+1It's considerably harder to get a compressed system that will automatically detect and configure hardware at boot so that it can be used easily with any machine.
  • Megatog615, on 02/19/2009, -0/+1Linux with udev and HAL have been doing this since 2.6.22(could be earlier)... Plus X.org without an xorg.conf will load what it needs to work. I have a debian install on my external hard drive and it works with any machine that is x86, 32-bit.
  • ooMARLAoo, on 02/18/2009, -1/+1He sure made that process look fast...
  • jorge389, on 02/19/2009, -0/+0USB sticks are not meant for that much read/write I/O... eventually it will die if you use it as the main boot device
  • TnTBass, on 02/18/2009, -2/+1Buddy needs to reboot his Ubuntu machine.
  • nazsco, on 02/19/2009, -2/+1***** those tools that does not make it clear what they do behind the scenes.

    those make more evil then good. screw it.

    for those interested in doing it right, starting by learning that a usb card works more like a floppy for boot then a cd rom. the rest is straight forward.
  • dakdak900, on 02/19/2009, -2/+1All the guides over complicate the issue. All you have to do is unplug all hard drives, boot to live CD, and install to USB drive. DONE!

    This is fast, easy, and does not mess with the MBR of the hard drive.
  • Giga, on 02/18/2009, -3/+1I still don't see the point in this. You can install any distro (well, all the ones I have tried, including Ubuntu, debian, Gentoo, Arch) directly to USB as if it was a hard drive. I've got a 4GB flash drive with the first 3.5GB assigned as a FAT32 partition and the remaining 512MB as a vanilla debian install (no GUI), set up using the default install method.
  • RobynG7, on 02/18/2009, -3/+1I hope you mean pussy.
  • Svenglar, on 02/18/2009, -4/+2Awesome tool. But how would one solve the dependency issues on an EEEpc. Has anyone tried it?
  • inactive, on 02/18/2009, -5/+1But it's free.

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