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Run Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) from your USB Flash Drive

pendrivelinux.com — This tutorial enables you to install, boot and run Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) from USB. In addition to installing Ubuntu to a USB device and then booting Ubuntu from USB, this tutorial will enable you to automatically save your changes and settings back to the stick and further restore them on each boot.

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  • sleekdraft, on 10/26/2007, -3/+13awesome tutorial. =)
    • megagram, on 10/27/2007, -0/+3I just installed Ubuntu to my USB Flash Drive as though it was just another Hard Disk in my computer. Worked like a charm. All I had to do was manually specify that GRUB be installed to the stick as opposed to my HD. And there was a bit of messing around with the GRUB menu.lst file but nothing serious.
      • zwaldowski, on 10/26/2007, -1/+6Yes, but copying the CD gives you the hardware detection support. The Ubuntu you 'installed' is configured for YOUR computer, primarily in X11.
        • megagram, on 10/26/2007, -0/+2Right. But, despite having to run "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" on each new computer I booted from the USB flash drive, everything else worked wonders. I've successfully used it on 5 different machines without any problems. It's also quite easy to make a script to replace different xorg.conf files to match specific hardware.

          Now, however, I just use arch linux with xorg 1.4 with video card autodetect. No reconfiguring needed!
      • CoolWind, on 10/27/2007, -1/+1Why use Grub? You can set your bios to boot first from a flash drive. Then connect the flash drive before you boot only if you plan to use it.
        If you are actually using the flash drive where you installed ubuntu on other machines, will grub still work?
    • RocketGib, on 10/26/2007, -0/+2Funny how this appeared on the front page... I was actually in the process of doing this since late last night, but was using instructions for an older version of Ubuntu...
  • phil2490, on 10/27/2007, -1/+54Tutorials this detailed are few and far between. I will definitely try this!
  • marshmel, on 10/26/2007, -3/+10Thanks for this great how to! It's the only one that has ever worked for me. Thank you!!!!!!
  • JonathanB, on 10/26/2007, -11/+5I've been looking for a good use for my empty flash drives. So can I just run this by sticking my flash drive in the computer and restarting?
    • ausfahrt, on 10/26/2007, -2/+17Try reading the article !?!?!?
    • pak314, on 10/26/2007, -0/+22I think your motherboard still has to support booting from a flash drive. Most new motherboards probably support that already.

      • NJank, on 10/26/2007, -0/+4This is correct. I spent an evening or two trying to get one working on my laptop. QEMU would virtually boot just fine off the stick within windows, but it would never actually boot successfully. Finally just gave up after reading about the couple different methods that a motherboard could treat a USB device at boot, and that only certain ones would work. (and my laptop, a not too old Dell Inspiron D610, apparently didn't support the write method.)
      • theaceoffire, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1Actually, you still have an option: Stick a boot floppy / boot cd and use that to boot from the USB.
      • theaceoffire, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1Actually, you still have an option: Stick a boot floppy / boot cd and use that to boot from the USB.
    • n88n, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3yeah I had this funny little terminal device that was real cool but the hard drive was busted. THe case was impossible to get into so I could not replace the hard drive. the only port on the thing was a usb drive. I created this booting USB linux thingy and my terminal fired right up.

      works well.
      • djGentoo, on 10/27/2007, -0/+2Live USBs for the win. I use NimbleX on mine because of its fast boot time.
  • grinding, on 10/26/2007, -1/+18Seems like a good way to carry around a portable Web/FTP server. With a big enough drive I can see someone hosting various files/torrents (legal or otherwise) on random computers (universities, libraries, and the like).
    • Etaoin, on 10/27/2007, -3/+13The thing about a server is it's only useful if other people know where to find it.
    • HiddenCanuck, on 10/27/2007, -0/+2you could always use the portable XAMPP server at portableapps.com
    • Mike89, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1grinding: you need to open ports still. Random library computers aren't going to have port 80 forwarded to them :P. Alas, you could still seed torrents or something, I suppose. That is, assuming you get on the local network with Ubuntu.
  • Switchnig, on 10/27/2007, -72/+9ubuntu sucks balls
    • ventralnet, on 10/26/2007, -4/+25hahahahaha you are going to get dugg down so fast.
      • MatchStick, on 10/27/2007, -1/+3why do people say "dugg down"? don't you mean buried?
    • TeacherOfHeroes, on 10/27/2007, -0/+18You wouldn't have to put up with the ubuntu stories (and we wouldn't have to put up with you...) if you just removed linux from your viewing preferences.
      • MicrosoftBob, on 10/26/2007, -0/+8But then he wouldn't get the pleasure from getting the Ubuntu supporters' goats.

        When you feed the troll it tends to keep coming back.
    • ubuwalker31, on 10/27/2007, -5/+18Does that mean you like Ubuntu? I mean, since you like suckin balls and everything...
      • chsbrgr, on 10/26/2007, -1/+13when ball-sucking enters the development stage I'm sure they'll be calling on him for some *style* tips
    • mbonzo531, on 10/27/2007, -16/+4ubuntu is very overrated
      • MicrosoftBob, on 10/27/2007, -3/+16Compared to what? Other distros? Windows? Mac? Olive Garden?
        • zezerik, on 10/27/2007, -11/+2Compared to other distributions of Linux stupid
        • Dylson, on 10/27/2007, -4/+3Being a dick on the internet doesn't make u cool.
        • solidus636, on 10/27/2007, -3/+2@Mike Bob, extended from Dylson..

          ..it only makes u look like a dumbass.
    • djGentoo, on 10/26/2007, -1/+1So does your mom. Except that I could actually *explain* why she does. You, on the other hand...
  • skiCO, on 10/26/2007, -2/+16How new does a computer have to be to boot from the USB? Would you need access to the bios to configure the boot priorities? I'm asking because this could be pretty useful for keeping your account info secure while traveling. I'm using a U3 system to keep everything safe but this definitely steps it up a notch!
    • TeacherOfHeroes, on 10/26/2007, -0/+8It depends on the motherboard, as some supported it before others. I'd say most computers made in the last 2/3 years (maybe except some really cheap laptops) should have this support.

      Theres usually a prompt for a boot menu on the initial boot screen. Something like 'Press F2 to enter system setup, press F12 for boot menu' where the boot menu is just a list of detected bootable drives.
    • ubuwalker31, on 10/26/2007, -0/+6The question isn't how new...its whether the motherboard bios supports booting AND whether the bios has been locked out. It is hit or miss, really, with hotel computers.
      • plizard, on 10/26/2007, -7/+1uhh any motherboard from 1999 and up can do this
        • TeacherOfHeroes, on 10/27/2007, -0/+9Perhaps some of them could - by 1999 most Mobos *had* usb drives - but many of them couldn't boot from them. I have a few Mobos as new as 2003 that can't
    • InsaneVideos, on 12/19/2007, -1/+0You can boot from a Pentium 3 with 256 megs of Ram, as long as you have usb, and your bios allows the USB to be the 1st startup device.

      Cheers
  • bjxrn, on 10/26/2007, -5/+17Is it possible to switch the USB stick between computers, or will ubuntu be configured for a speciffic computer?
    • kushed, on 10/26/2007, -0/+26Any, it will reconfigure itself during boot up and load the appropriate drivers for that machine.
      • plizard, on 10/26/2007, -3/+12another win for linux!
        • HentaiJeff, on 10/26/2007, -4/+4well to be fair Microsoft could do this with windows, they just need to want to. unfortunately only power users would need this type of thing and they don't exactly cater to that demographic.
          • TeacherOfHeroes, on 10/26/2007, -0/+6I don't know - not needing different ghost images for different computer hardware configurations would be a big hit with corporate sysadmins - and since MS primarily targets businesses I'd think that if they could do it, they would.
          • c0mrade, on 10/27/2007, -4/+0uh no, then the os would have to compleatly reconfigure on every boot
          • c0mrade, on 10/27/2007, -4/+0uh no, then the os would have to compleatly reconfigure on every boot
        • TeacherOfHeroes, on 10/26/2007, -0/+7Interestingly, windows 98 was pretty good at adjusting to new hardware, probably because its foundation (DOS, really) wasn't too complicated - it would just go through a process of detecting everything and installing new drivers. This was one of the few things to actually get worse with the switch to the NT base - XP has a conniption when you seriously change hardware on it (and I don't just mean activation...)
    • NJank, on 10/25/2007, -0/+5It will (should) run just like a LiveCD, which self-configures. Now, some of your individual data and settings may be specific to the platform you're using it on, but that will vary from case to case.
    • condormcs, on 10/26/2007, -0/+4Would there be any point to putting it on the USB drive in the first place if you weren't going to run it on different comps?
  • kirrus, on 10/29/2007, -11/+41Be careful with running a linux distro from a USB key! It can quickly burn up the USB keys' data cells. (Forget the correct term....)
    A standard USB key only has 10,000 writes to each area on the disk (minimum cell size tends to be 8-16KB depending on your key & manufacturer). You may see corruptions pretty quickly if you use a USB key for your filesystem...
    (Which is why flashlinux uses JFFS2...)
    • TeacherOfHeroes, on 10/27/2007, -0/+9From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usb_key#Weaknesses

      "Mid-range flash drives under normal conditions will support several hundred thousand cycles..."

      Swap usage shouldnt be a problem if the computers you use have enough RAM since linux doesn't really use swap space until physical memory is full.
      Also, doesn't linux buffer disk writes to reduce those kinds of problems (as well as corrupted disks during power loss and others)?

      In the future it *would* be nice to see more official support for this like alternate filesystems to accomodate, but I'm not sure its as serious an issue as some think.
    • Skod, on 10/25/2007, -0/+6That's why I have mine on a small hard disk that powers itself from the USB.
    • TheRealPod, on 10/26/2007, -0/+4I did kill a drive this way. I think it was from trying to format it however. All of a sudden it started freezing after sustained writes. I also went with a small hard drive, but I'd like to upgrade to 7.10 without losing everything....
    • Werrismys, on 10/26/2007, -5/+6A myth. USB flash drives cost what, 10-30 €? Even if you trash it 24/7 it won't wear up until Ubuntu 8.04 Horny Hobbit is out :-D
      • xkorbin, on 10/26/2007, -0/+2Dugg for using Horny Hobbit to track versions.
    • BlueSkyfish, on 10/26/2007, -1/+1I knew my 2 gig, type II CF card would come in handy SOMEDAY
    • SuperCoupe, on 10/26/2007, -0/+2I'm pretty sure that when running ubuntu in persistent mode, the settings are only written onto the drive before shutting down, or at least only periodically. The writing/reading is done within RAM.
    • fuge, on 10/26/2007, -2/+2What if you use a usb microdrive?
  • sardaukar, on 10/30/2007, -2/+22It would be a cooler tutorial if there was no need for a tutorial :) just post a link to a 1GB, 2GB or 4GB image ready to DD into a flash drive already!
    • HentaiJeff, on 10/25/2007, -2/+2But that would be too easy. not to mention rather static.
      • TeacherOfHeroes, on 10/27/2007, -0/+9how would it be any more static than installing it manually? once you dd the image, it would be just as if you had installed it yourself.
    • TH3W1R3D, on 10/27/2007, -1/+8Why doesn't somebody just follow these steps, archive the whole flash drive files to a rar, and upload it via bittorrent?
      I would, but I am one lazy bastard.
      • tamupino, on 10/27/2007, -0/+3You should - to help out the other less geeky lazy bastards
  • slothlovechunk, on 10/27/2007, -4/+2You'll probably want to shoot yourself in the head while you wait for the writing of all of those tiny files to your flash drive. Not to mention, working from a flash drive and even writing little settings file can be particularly painful.
    • TeacherOfHeroes, on 10/25/2007, -0/+1Write speeds for flash drives cover a pretty wide range, actually. Looking at stores online, I see drives that write at 13Mb/s and drives that write at 28Mb/s - and thats only from one brand...
      • slothlovechunk, on 10/25/2007, -1/+1Yeah, they will do that for one big file.
        If you give them a bunch of little files, they will slow down at least a couple orders of magnitude.

        Try running some little program from a flash drive and just saving the program's configuration file. You'll think the program locked up because it is so much slower than a harddrive.
      • Dillenger69, on 10/26/2007, -0/+2My experience with both 7.04 and PuppyLinux on USB is that they run too slow to be useful.
        Unless you have a massive amount of system memory for a virtual hard drive you will end up with either not enough RAM or not enough virtual hard drive.
        Your average system with anywhere from 512 megs to 2 gigs of ram isn't going to handle this very well.
        It's neat to be able to run from a flash drive but it is still more of a novelty than anything.
  • DefaultGen, on 10/26/2007, -3/+28Literally yesterday I installed a driver and Windows completely died on me and I saved my files using an Ubuntu LiveCD. I don't know why I ever thought Linux was useless or for solely extremely savvy people and elitists.
    • NJank, on 10/26/2007, -0/+9I tend to keep a Knoppix LiveCD around just for that purpose. A little easier accessing NTFS volumes out of the box. Not that it's that hard in Ubuntu, but every little bit...
      • TeacherOfHeroes, on 10/26/2007, -0/+5Not trolling - serious question - what do they do to make it easier?
        • DefaultGen, on 10/26/2007, -0/+6I believe Knoppix mounts the volume automatically and puts in on your desktop.
          • theaceoffire, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1Ubuntu 7.10 does too, and you can edit those volumes if you needed to I think.
      • MattBD, on 10/25/2007, -1/+2I actually think it's a very good idea for everyone to have a Live CD around so they can retrieve their files if something goes wrong, even if they never, ever use Linux otherwise.
    • Kamujin, on 10/26/2007, -2/+5+10 points for using Ubuntu to fix your Windows installaton.
      -20 points for not knowing you could use the recovery console on your windows installation CD for the same thing.
      • DefaultGen, on 10/26/2007, -1/+9+10 points for not owning an XP cd? I just borrowed a friends TinyXP cd to install windows.
  • plizard, on 10/26/2007, -0/+5this looks like a better idea than running a vm on my machine since i'm looking to learn linux.
    • condormcs, on 10/26/2007, -2/+1i'd recommend downloading this program which installs a bootable image on your C:/ drive withought touching windows, google it
  • TH3W1R3D, on 10/27/2007, -2/+12Couldn't have come at a better time. My cd-rom drive on my laptop just broke and I was looking to install Ubuntu. Bye bye M$.
  • Dan2552, on 10/25/2007, -0/+1awww :(
    "This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota"
  • TH3W1R3D, on 10/25/2007, -0/+3http://duggmirror.com/linux_unix/Run_Ubuntu_7_10_G ...
  • Orion682, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3I'm currently running Slax 6 rc 6 on my thumbdrive when I found out Fiesty Fawn couldn't be run from USB effectively. Not sure if I wanna switch though, as I've grown to like slackware a lot :/
  • Palonek, on 10/27/2007, -12/+0Hello, The site is down, I guess too many people are trying, but I am really excited in the idea of taking an entire OS and running it from USB stick.
    Edward Palonek
    EdwardPalonek.ca
    • inksmithy, on 10/26/2007, -0/+4Wow Edward, you managed to buy up just about every domain with your name in it! Thats amazing...Did you think someone was going to cybersquat on you?
    • MicrosoftBob, on 10/27/2007, -0/+8Dugg down for signature.
    • djGentoo, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1See above. And besides, an OS on a USB? Where have you been the past 3-4 years?
  • stutimandal, on 10/27/2007, -2/+8Kirrus is wrong. Memory cells have write cycles (the number of unique writes you can perform) of about 1 million now. If you use a SanDisk memory key, it surely should be fine for a while.

    Also remember, that Sandisk's technology allows infinite number of reads, but only a finite number of write cycles (1 million).

    Flash Hard-Disk would not have been a reality if write cycles were only 10000
  • NJank, on 10/25/2007, -1/+1And it's DOWN!! (Exceeded Quota)
    mirror anyone? Diggmirror doesn't have it.
    • NJank, on 10/25/2007, -0/+1nope.... back up . Nevermind.
    • DefaultGen, on 10/26/2007, -2/+4Duggmirror works fine for me but if you're really desperate i'll copy past everything:
      USB Ubuntu 7.10 Essentials:

      * Ubuntu7.10 ISO
      * CD Burner
      * 1GB USB flash drive (2GB+ recommended)
      * U710fix.tar (http://pendrivelinux.com/downloads/U710fix.zip

      Ubuntu 7.10 USB installation tutorial:
      Hint: You can drastically speed up the install by Copying (Ctrl+c) and Pasting (Ctrl+v) commands into the terminal instead of manually typing them out. With the exception of replacing X with your drive letter.
      1. Grab the Ubuntu 7.10 ISO and burn it to a CD
      2. Insert the CD and your USB flash drive
      3. Reboot your computer into Ubuntu from the Live CD
      4. Open a terminal window and type sudo su
      5. Type fdisk -l to list available drives/partitions. Note which device is your flash drive (example: /dev/sda) Throughout this tutorial, replace x with your flash drive letter. For example, if your flash drive is sdb, replace x with b.
      6. Type umount /dev/sdx1
      7. Type fdisk /dev/sdx
      * type p to show the existing partition and 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
      8. Type umount /dev/sdx1 to ensure the 1st partition is unmounted
      9. Type mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n ubuntu710 /dev/sdx1 to format the first partition
      10. Type umount /dev/sdx2 just to ensure the 2nd partition is unmounted
      11. Type mkfs.ext2 -b 4096 -L casper-rw /dev/sdx2 to format the second partition
      12. Remove and Re-insert your flash drive
      13. Back at the terminal, type apt-get update
      14. Type apt-get install syslinux mtools
      15. Type syslinux -sf /dev/sdx1
      16. Type cd /cdrom
      17. Type cp -rf casper disctree dists install pics pool preseed .disk isolinux/* md5sum.txt README.diskdefines ubuntu.ico casper/vmlinuz casper/initrd.gz /media/ubuntu710/

      Ignore any "cannot create symbolic link" errors

      18. Type cd /home/ubuntu
      19. Type wget pendrivelinux.com/downloads/U710fix.zip
      20. Type unzip -o -d /media/ubuntu710/ U710fix.zip
      21. Restart your computer, set your BIOS or Boot menu to boot from the USB device and reboot again.

      You should now have a USB Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon flash drive that should automatically save your changes, restoring them on boot.

      Note: 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)
  • duyleq, on 10/25/2007, -1/+2Hey,,Anyone try this tips ?
  • thunderl, on 10/26/2007, -2/+1Yay, HDD tear and wear - no more!
  • Hockey37, on 10/25/2007, -1/+3Can this be used even with those pain in the ass U3 enabled SanDisk Cruzer drives?
    • n88n, on 10/27/2007, -0/+2I did it with that U3 2gig SanDick Cruizer with the slide out usb port. It worked great. It was real fun to give Linux a spin with out having to partition my hardirve or anything else that might mess up my laptop.

      Works real well.
    • Orion682, on 11/02/2007, -0/+3You realize you can just uninstall U3 if you don't like it, right?

      I do it all the time.
      • Hockey37, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3I tried, but it kept seeming to reincarnate itself.

        I fail.
        • Orion682, on 11/02/2007, -0/+2There's an uninstaller built into the program... how can you possibly fail?
  • edzilla, on 10/25/2007, -1/+2Anyone knows a good tutorial on how to set up grub to boot from the flash drive?
  • mrkredo, on 10/27/2007, -4/+1Pizduntu pizdorial. Pizdawsome.
  • TeacherOfHeroes, on 11/09/2007, -8/+3Since some people say its down now, let me post what I have open from earlier...

    U710fix seems to work from here
    wget http://pendrivelinux.com/downloads/U710fix.zip

    USB Ubuntu 7.10 install from Linux: This tutorial enables you to install, boot and run Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) from USB. In addition to installing Ubuntu to a USB device and then booting Ubuntu from USB, this tutorial will enable you to automatically save your changes and settings back to the stick and further restore them on each boot using a second "casper-rw" persistent partition. The tutorial was written for those already familiar with working from Ubuntu or another Linux desktop environment. If you do not have access to or prefer not to use a Windows computer, this Ubuntu Linux on a stick tutorial is for you.

    Ubuntu 7.10 takes slightly longer to boot than previous releases. However, once it's up and running, it performs much better than running from the Live CD.

    USB Ubuntu 7.10 Essentials:

    * Ubuntu7.10 ISO
    * CD Burner
    * 1GB USB flash drive (2GB+ recommended)
    * U710fix.tar

    Ubuntu 7.10 USB installation tutorial:

    Hint: You can drastically speed up the install by Copying (Ctrl+c) and Pasting (Ctrl+v) commands into the terminal instead of manually typing them out. With the exception of replacing X with your drive letter.

    1. Grab the Ubuntu 7.10 ISO and burn it to a CD
    2. Insert the CD and your USB flash drive
    3. Reboot your computer into Ubuntu from the Live CD
    4. Open a terminal window and type sudo su
    5. Type fdisk -l to list available drives/partitions. Note which device is your flash drive (example: /dev/sda) Throughout this tutorial, replace x with your flash drive letter. For example, if your flash drive is sdb, replace x with b.
    6. Type umount /dev/sdx1
    7. Type fdisk /dev/sdx
    * type p to show the existing partition and 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
    8. Type umount /dev/sdx1 to ensure the 1st partition is unmounted
    9. Type mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n ubuntu710 /dev/sdx1 to format the first partition
    10. Type umount /dev/sdx2 just to ensure the 2nd partition is unmounted
    11. Type mkfs.ext2 -b 4096 -L casper-rw /dev/sdx2 to format the second partition
    12. Remove and Re-insert your flash drive
    13. Back at the terminal, type apt-get update
    14. Type apt-get install syslinux mtools
    15. Type syslinux -sf /dev/sdx1
    16. Type cd /cdrom
    17. Type cp -rf casper disctree dists install pics pool preseed .disk isolinux/* md5sum.txt README.diskdefines ubuntu.ico casper/vmlinuz casper/initrd.gz /media/ubuntu710/

    Ignore any "cannot create symbolic link" errors

    18. Type cd /home/ubuntu
    19. Type wget pendrivelinux.com/downloads/U710fix.zip
    20. Type unzip -o -d /media/ubuntu710/ U710fix.zip
    21. Restart your computer, set your BIOS or Boot menu to boot from the USB device and reboot again.

    You should now have a USB Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon flash drive that should automatically save your changes, restoring them on boot.

    Note: 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)

    Ubuntu® is registered trademark of Canonical ltd.
    WE OFFER NO WARRANTY REGARDING THE INFORMATION PROVIDED, AND DISCLAIM LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ITS USE!
  • mrkredo, on 10/27/2007, -21/+3ubuntu sucks
  • Olegovich, on 10/27/2007, -24/+2STFU about this UBUNTU BS. This OS has the dumbest name ever. Gutsy gibbon my ass! ,,l,,
    • TH3W1R3D, on 10/26/2007, -0/+12Better than calling it Olegovich. Man would that sound terrible...
    • daverave999, on 10/27/2007, -0/+4Gutsy gibbon your ass? Now that's conjured up a strange image in my head...
  • joolz, on 10/26/2007, -1/+14Or download this script: http://kiwilinux.org/public/isotostick.sh
    and type: sudo ./isotostick.sh /path/to/image.iso /dev/sdb1
    Courtesy of : http://janimo.blogspot.com/2007/10/live-cd-on-usb- ...
  • jeezmos, on 10/25/2007, -0/+3This would probably increase battery life, right (since the internal hard drive would not be spinning)? Or would the powering of an external USB device kinda nullify any benefits of that?
    • beastlykings, on 10/26/2007, -1/+1flash drive > hdd
      Flash drive will use way less power :)
    • Icetype, on 10/25/2007, -0/+1Ubuntu is still going to mount your hard drives.
      • xkorbin, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3Which isn't to say you can't unmount them.
  • mikedoth, on 10/27/2007, -2/+1Where do you put suggestions? I think Ubuntu desperately needs samba integration as well as hard drive GUI support.
    • edzilla, on 10/26/2007, -0/+5samba is integrated, and what kind of GUI exactly are you talking about?
      • mikedoth, on 10/25/2007, -0/+1Users, Share permissions, Network Info all in one place preferably.
        • Ademan, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3Wha? If you're talking about samba administration, there's gsambad which provides a GUI for administrating samba.

          I don't know what youre talking about though with a "hard drive GUI support", because "Users, Share permissions, Network Info[...]" has absolutely nothing to do with your hard drive (except the settings probably being stored on your hard drive). if you're talking about system users and network info there are GUIs for those as well, and share permissions don't really apply to local configuration, so, you know, no.
        • neko, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1Have you tried the System->Administration menu? Lots of goodies in there.
  • greatgospo, on 10/27/2007, -12/+1A little late to the party aren't they? Plenty of other distros have been doing this for a while. Buried.
  • tpink, on 10/25/2007, -0/+2One issue I had when I tried this before was that you're basically running a read-only LiveCD off one partition on your USB stick with another partition that has all the changes. As soon as you update your system, you still have the old version on the read-only partition and then a duplicate copy on your read/write partition. It's not a big deal when the distro is new, but all it takes is an OpenOffice update to require 50-100MB of redundant space or a kernel update to take another 30MB.

    I believe you can use the Ubuntu installer on a USB memory stick which is much more like a real Ubuntu system and more space efficient.
  • SiCk666, on 10/26/2007, -1/+4I will wait for slax 6, cause my usb drive has 250 mb :)
  • ewang, on 10/27/2007, -0/+2What I would like, and this tutorial doesn't address, is a way to store the settings for TWO different machines. Then I could make sure that I could use one stick on both, and then boot each one with their correct settings at different places - i.e. boot version for work, different version for home.
  • sdigroup, on 10/27/2007, -3/+6Linux is freakin sweet!
  • zezerik, on 10/27/2007, -9/+1why would I want to put Ubuntu on a flash drive? It sucks as it is on a hard drive. You want to make it crappier?

  • robopunk21, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1does anyone know how to boot into a USB device on os x? I'm using a 13inch macbook.
    • zezerik, on 10/26/2007, -0/+6I believe you hold Shift-A and punch yourself in the nuts.
  • j2p2f2, on 10/25/2007, -0/+1anyone have a mirror for the U710fix.zip file?
  • FortyCaliber, on 10/26/2007, -0/+4In an unrelated story...
    SanDisk, Kingston Tech, and Lexar experience stock surges over the next week as Users feel the need to buy 2 or even 3 replacement USB flash drives.
  • crinzema, on 10/26/2007, -0/+0This worked quite well on my 2gb cruzer, but when i tried to install nvidia drivers, it stopped working.
    • CoolWind, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1This creates a LIVE-CD on your flash drive. If you want to install drivers on your flash drive, first you should install Ubuntu on your flash drive. Of course then it won't work too well on a different machine.
  • BoostedAxela, on 10/26/2007, -0/+0Is there any reason this wouldn't work on an old iPod i'm not using anymore?
    • hatchetbearer, on 10/26/2007, -0/+0no reason it wouldnt in disk mode
    • onedigg, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1Ipods are notorious for quitting on you if you install an OS on them
      The hard drives they use are great for short bursts, but they wear out very quickly from constant use
      Google "Installing OS X on an ipod" for the warnings :)
  • ShadowApex, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3I was wondering if anyone has heard of a bootable cd that one can use to boot from other devices (e.g. usb) for older motherboards that don't support booting to USB. Then you could just pop in a cd, plug in your usb key and boot.
    • pkkid, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3Why not just use the LiveCD, and store only your files on the USB. You carry around the same amount of crap. :)
    • Aitese, on 10/26/2007, -0/+2I carry my Knoppix CD and my SanDisk Cruser holds a persistent copy of my configuration and Home folder so I can boot up without it taking up the whole flash drive...I've installed all the apps I need and it takes about 200mb only...all the other crap is on the CD already.
  • NoHoles, on 10/26/2007, -0/+0Thnx for this..will try it out.
  • MunkeeBoy, on 11/11/2007, -0/+1Love this Tutorial! I have been holding off on switching from XP to Ubuntu due to hard drive space (was going to buy a larger one first) but this makes things so much easier! Thank you so much! You rock!! XD
  • inquba, on 10/26/2007, -1/+0by the way of usb stick. it is possible to make a asterisk to work inside a usb stick. instead of buying voipteleport.com?

    thanks
  • emblemparade, on 10/26/2007, -0/+2Look at how many options we have to try Ubuntu!

    1. Live CD
    2. USB
    3. VMWare image
    4. Wubi (wubi-installer.org)
    5. Dual boot install

    ... there's simply no reason not to try Ubuntu (or any other good free operating system).
    • neko, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3Don't forget PXE booting!
    • CoolWind, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1Wubi is dangerous. If your system hangs and you have to do a hard reset, Wubi can make your system un-bootable. The Wubi admins are in denial on this issue and claim it has nothing to do with Wubi. I have been using windows daily from the very beginning and I've done many, many hard resets over all those years and never ended up with a system that wouldn't boot. But look at the Wubi forums and you will see people who installed Wubi are winding up with systems that won't boot in just a matter of days.
      • emblemparade, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1To their credit, it is in beta...

        By the way, I couldn't even get Wubi to install on my system.
  • kermithefrogand, on 10/27/2007, -1/+2this can mean endless possibilities!
  • setdosa, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1Heres a situation that I can see from this. Load the usb stick with everything and then leave just the /boot and other system folders which don't grow much in size on the usb stick and move everything else to its appropriate partition on the hard drive. Update the fstab and your system should run considerably faster.
  • sonsuztasarim, on 10/28/2007, -0/+0I love ubuntu
  •  

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