Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

[Qqmike]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

fyi

Problems updating (packages/kernels) in a live persistent K/Ubuntu flash drive, a criticism of usb-creator but applies in general (i.e., to "manually"-built live-persistent UFDs, in my experience).

Interesting exchange of experience/discussion here (YMMV, as is evident from the variety of responses; also see list of Duplicates on right side bar)):

Bug Report:
MASTER update-initramfs is disabled since running on a live CD but it is running from a flash drive.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/292159

[Qqmike]

(bug?)--Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

usb-creator for Intrepid ...

Have not tried it yet, have no idea exactly what this might be about, but those using it might want to bookmark this issue as it develops, if it does further:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...rt/+bug/125702
Scroll to Steve Dodd's posts (today):
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...rt/+bug/125702
where he also has a (tentative) patch.
(btw, same bug report #125702 as before, for Gutsy issues)

(His) summary: - failure to umount local filesystems - gutsy tribe 2
+ casper-rw fs not cleanly unmounted on persistent live USB shutdown

Just an fyi for those not on the list for that bug.

[Qqmike]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/219192
If this is important to you, you may subscribe to it.

I'll be curious to see how JJ & usb-creator do.
Personally, haven't had much luck with 8.04 & 8.10.

[DeathKitten]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

So I encountered an annoying issue earlier today. I complained about it in a thread I started in the casual talk forum today, but I figured I would also introduce it to the discussion here too.

My boyfriend has an apple laptop, it won't let me boot to the live drive I set up following directions found in this thread. A little googling indicated this was because Apples don't use the BIOS system, they use something else. Ideally I'd like my live drive to work on both Apples and PCs, as most of my reason for wanting this drive is so that I can be comfortable on almost anyone's computer by bringing my own OS and programs. A little bit of reading when I googled indicated there were ways to fix this booting issue to make it Apple friendly, the easiest for me would be convincing my boyfriend to install boot camp, but the more universal solution would be alternative boot loader options. The latter option, I don't know if I can set it up so it'll boot on either machine type from the same drive. Anyone have any experience with this?

Also something I plan to experiment with... the persistent Casper partition, I want to format it in something like fat32, so that when I'm not using the drive as a live drive, I can still dump files onto it. I don't remember if we've touched upon that topic in this thread already or not, but I will go back and look into it when I'm home again and have time to play with it.

I want to thank everyone who's been contributing to this thread, it's been awesome and fun!

[toad]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

Hm, my knowledge is quite limited, but I did manage to get an apple laptop to boot off a CD. So I reckon the problem is the USB drive.

Have a look here for more reading: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=837538 (and please let us know how you get on )

Re Casper - Casper is not bound to a particular file system so I don't foresee any problems on that front

[dibl]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

@DK, most recent BIOSs have an "Enable USB Boot" option -- but it is typically disabled by default. You might look for that and enable it, if it exists and is disabled.

Then the other thing to do is to check the "Boot device sequence" and make sure the USB device is moved up above the internal hard drive in the sequence.

[DeathKitten]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

I *think* CDs are a different beastie than flash drives, as they've become the norm for a system to boot from if there isn't anything installed, or if there is a problem. That said, I need to poke around a little more to confirm what I skimmed over when I made my first couple posts the other day. I haven't really had time to stop and play since then... this is the first time I've been home for any time without the boyfriend around to distract me or trying to sleep, since my failure to boot the Apple laptop from my flash drive.

I know I'm not the only one who's had problems booting from a flash drive on an Apple system, and the general consensus I found when I did look was that Apple just didn't use BIOS, they used something else. Unfortunately, the next time I have a day off is Saturday, and my boyfriend will be around. Well, not entirely unfortunately, it will be nice to be able to spend time with him some more... but unfortunately distracting for my forwarding this project. That said, if I'm a good girl and do some catching up on my laundry, I might also be able to dedicate a little time to frelling around with this project between work shifts and sleeping.

@ dibl: Hi! I didn't respond to your greeting in another thread recently, because by the time I saw it, everything had moved far along. So now that I have reason to talk to you, I'll just stick it in here. Now, back on topic: I do know that the flash drive booting is a lot of times disabled by default... but as Apple doesn't use BIOS, that isn't the issue at the moment. That said, I have not yet been able to test my drive as I think that my motherboard on my home computer doesn't support it, as it's fairly old. That said, if anyone knows how I can confirm if it is, or is not capable, I would appreciate pointers. When I get the time to throw myself into the project again, I will likely google around with my motherboard information, but pointers on what search terms to use outside of the model number and brand would be helpful, my Google-Fu is weak sometimes.

I'm still going to watch and see if anyone here has experience with the live flash drives on an Apple system though.

[andybleaden]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

As a warning to others on this issue I did a real big nono on this topic last week.

I use pen drive kubuntu at work ...with no hassle. I got curious last week with an old cd I had knocking around of Hardy and installed from the cd to the pen drive thinking it would not work. Work uses windows and I do not know enough or feel confident enough to have dual booting at workso pen drive worked for me fine ( although recently they have blocked us using pen drives after nasty virus attacks).

The pc restarted..and guess what the install to pen drive worked! Erm well actually it worked a little too well.

Took out pen drive and restarted windows...er...where is the pen drive says the pc...I was goosed...the kubuntu system was on my pen drive but somehow a grub thingy was on my work pc saying...oh you need to the pen drive.,.oh eck...I was in big trouble

a ) pc was busted
b) all access to our systems is via windoze
c) pen drives were banned
d) I needed a reinstall of windows

Luckily I had a it admin matey who I contacted via email (at least I could get on the system email with kubuntu via outlook web access) and he took away the hdd and reinstalled windows

Now then it was interesting as the pen drive still has kubuntu on it..course it will not work here or on home pc which is a little strange

But as a cautionary tale for those who like me have thought of installing a system on pen drive...here was my experience

[dibl]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

@andy, I think you installed Grub on the MBR of the hard drive. Congratulations!

@DK, I dunno about Apples -- you may be right that their BIOS has no "USB Boot" option. On your old mobo -- if you can use "hwinfo" or "dmidecode" or something like that to get the make and model, it should be possible to Google it and learn what the BIOS capabilities are. But "USB Boot" is relatively recent, so you might be hosed on that.

[Qqmike]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

@ andybleaden

You did a "regular" hard disk install to the flash drive, just as one would do to an external HDD or to an internal HDD. No problem with that! However, the installer, as dibl said, defaulted to putting GRUB into the MBR of hd0: (hd0), and so overwrote the Windows bootloader code in the MBR of the Windows drive hd0. All you had to do was to use a Windows CD (or google for some utility) to restore only the Windows bootloader code in the MBR of hd0. No need to reinstall all of Windows.

To make a regular install of Kubuntu to a flash drive so that GRUB goes ONLY into the MBR of the flash drive (and not into any other MBR):

Let's assume you have already partitioned/formatted the flash drive (say by using GParted).

Run the Kubuntu Live CD.
Enter a live Kubuntu session (i.e., do not Install yet).
Plug in the flash drive and let it be recognized by Kubuntu.
Konsole.
sudo grub
grub>geometry (hd0)
grub>geometry (hd1)
grub>geometry (hd2)
etc
until you explore all the drives in the system and you identify which one is the flash drive. Suppose the flash drive is seen by BIOS & GRUB as hdx.
Type
grub>quit
If necessary, for your information (for the installation), also do
sudo fdisk -lu
to see the drives & partitions in Linux terms, like sda1, sdb1, etc. Then:
$exit
and come back to the live Kubuntu session Desktop.
Click Install (the flash drive is still plugged in).
Step 4: Select the Manual partitioning method.
Step 5: Do your thing, specifying root /, /home, /swap on the flash drive.
Step 6: Click the Advanced button at lower right.
There, you may specify where to put GRUB. Since the flash drive is seen as sdx (from the work you did above), delete the default (hd0) and type
(hdx)
including the parentheses (the parentheses indicate "MBR" of drive hdx).
Go back to Step 6, click Finish.

Then Kubuntu will be installed to the flash drive with GRUB in the MBR of the flash drive and so is bootable. Since this kind of installation is a regular installation, you may also run Adept to get the updates, just as you always do.

[andybleaden]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

will give that a try although called a few favours as a result of this. Interesting though about mbr bootloader thing.

Will perhaps try it whilst at home on my kubuntu pc and then there is not so much hassle!

I had to go with a reinstall as it has all sorts of login things at work and I did not have a clue it was the bootloader and I had no external internet access.

However will give it another go as the pen drive thing has been a little faulty as of late and is hard to up date for some strange reason and like others I have been getting errors with initramfs again which sticks at busybox

[andybleaden]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

by the way ....

if I were to be stupid enough ( yes I am !) to want to dual boot on the work pc is there a risk free way of splitting the partition of the hdd and having a windows option at boot...never done dual boot before with windows.
I need to know what happens and when as our windows loads automatically and then the security thing kicks in...ie login in to work system.


So I assume I can at install choose how much drive to use for kubuntu. I do not know what happens next...do I press escape at the grub point and choose windows from a list...will it be there in a list next to my windows options?

[Qqmike]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

This is tough because in your case, you do * not * want to mess up the Windows bootloader which is already installed to the MBR of that drive. If you just run the Kubuntu installer, it WILL overwrite the MBR with GRUB.

How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0
SECTION 6: Windows topics
--- Special Situations
-- How to avoid installing GRUB to the MBR of your Windows XP drive

But, you may not like the choices given there.

And, there are ways to keep the Windows bootloader NTLDR and to edit it to include Linux, BUT, again, in your case, it's probably best not to mess with that Windows work-installation.


btw, also in SECTION 6:
SECTION 6: Windows topics
--- XP
Installing XP & Kubuntu: How to set up dual booting


The flash drive would have been a good choice. Install GRUB only to the MBR of the flash drive.

[toad]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

Okay, hit me for suggesting this, but if M$ is the sacred cow and you are not confident with messing around with the menu.lst/partitioning then I'd go for a wubi install.

[andybleaden]

Re: Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

nah...it will not let me do it...it here have blocked installing inside windows...stops them getting dodgy programmes all over the place...shame really