Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive, How-To

[andybleaden]

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.

The last option is the only one I guess until I get pen drive live system working properly again

[Qqmike]

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

Continues to be an active bug-thread, some guys seem to be making a career of it:.
casper-rw fs not cleanly unmounted on persistent live USB shutdown
(two duplicates)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...rt/+bug/125702
The /etc/init.d/casper file also needs patching,

[Qqmike]

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

A reference to tuck away ...
Forgot how this was relevant recently (D.K. above?), for Apple:
http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2006/tn2166.html

Technical Note TN2166
Secrets of the GPT

"Apple has switched to a new disk partitioning scheme known as the GUID partition table, or GPT. This new scheme offers a number of advantages over the previous scheme, but it also presents some new challenges. This technote describes GPT in general, and gives some specific details about how Apple uses GPT.

"You should read this technote if you're writing software that interacts with Apple's implementation of GPT. Specifically, this technote is vital if you're writing a disk utility for Mac OS X, or trying to run some alternative operating system, like Linux, on a Macintosh computer."

[DeathKitten]

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

So here's a thought that occurred to me... Does it matter what file system the CASPER partition uses? Like, could I have it formatted FAT32, so that it's usable on OS X and Windows machines without having to boot into my live system?

I apparently did something wrong when I attempted to set the live drive up the first time, and it won't boot at all, so I'm going to have to reattempt the set up and will be able to experiment. However, after getting stuck with no drive to dump files on a couple times now, I was hoping that I could set up the drive to work for random file storage in addition to the live drive task.

If no one else has experience with this, I will likely attempt it at some point anyways, but it may be a while before I can test it because I don't seem to have access to many computers with the ability to boot from USB. Grr.

[dibl]

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

@DK, I think you need to keep the casper partition ext2 format like Mike says, as well as the Linux partition.

BUT, here is a very cool way to set up a USB stick:

Use GParted, and make 3 partitions on it. But first, do the math -- you need 1G (1024M) for casper, and you need prolly 2G (2048M) for the Linux files that you'll extract from the CD, so that leaves "X", the remaining amount of space on your USB stick. So, use GParted and make your FIRST (leftmost on the graphic) partition "X"GB in size, then the second is 2GB (for the Linux OS), and the third is 1GB (for casper). Format the FIRST partition FAT32, and this will be the shared data partition that any PC or Mac can read. Set up Grub to point to the Linux installation on partition #2, and follow Mike's instructions for casper and extracting the Linux files and all of that.

Doing it this way, you'll have a USB stick that can:

(a) serve as a normal data storage/transfer memory stick, or
(b) boot Linux from partition #2 and do whatever you need to do running in "Live CD" mode, with persistence. Note that the booted Linux can also make use of the FAT32 partition, after it is mounted.

[pastyM]

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

I think I might have missed something here but I am stuck at setting up the GRUB to the MBR every time I try using the root (hdb,0) command I get "Error 23: Error while parsing number"

[Qqmike]

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

"Error while parsing number"

That's because the device notation is not correct:

This is correct form:
root (hdx,y)

For example
root (hd1,0)


You might want to (also) try usb-creator which does all this automatically. Mentioned in the how-to somewhere.

[pastyM]

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

I have tried it with that notation I have even tried it with root (sdb,0) (that is what my computer sees it as) I just keep getting error message after error message. I would love to use usb-creator but I can not find it on my computer and my package managers are not working (part of the reason why I am even trying this) so any other advice would still be nice.

[Pillage Idiot]

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

You need to use grub commands.
What you are trying to use is what the linux system sees.

sdb is your second hard drive, therefore your grub command to write to the mbr is boot (hd1,0) as grub numbers the disks from 0.

[tomcloyd]

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

@DK, I think you need to keep the casper partition ext2 format like Mike says, as well as the Linux partition.

BUT, here is a very cool way to set up a USB stick:

Use GParted, and make 3 partitions on it. But first, do the math -- you need 1G (1024M) for casper, and you need prolly 2G (2048M) for the Linux files that you'll extract from the CD, so that leaves "X", the remaining amount of space on your USB stick. So, use GParted and make your FIRST (leftmost on the graphic) partition "X"GB in size, then the second is 2GB (for the Linux OS), and the third is 1GB (for casper). Format the FIRST partition FAT32, and this will be the shared data partition that any PC or Mac can read. Set up Grub to point to the Linux installation on partition #2, and follow Mike's instructions for casper and extracting the Linux files and all of that.

Doing it this way, you'll have a USB stick that can:

(a) serve as a normal data storage/transfer memory stick, or
(b) boot Linux from partition #2 and do whatever you need to do running in "Live CD" mode, with persistence. Note that the booted Linux can also make use of the FAT32 partition, after it is mounted.

This just doesn't work for me (running KB 9.04). Twice I've carefully set up my 4GB flash drive as indicated, using gparted, and marked the second partition as "boot". Usb-creator insisted both times on using my 753 KB partition 1 as boot, thus subverting the whole plan. I'm abandoning at this point. Don't have to chase weasles.

[dibl]

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

@Tom, I hear your frustration -- it can be that way.

I used "Step 1" here, not usb-creator:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3089474.0

But, as I wrote for DK, it finally dawned on me that Windows will only read the "first" or "left-most" partition on a USB stick, so that is where you can have some general data storage, on a FAT32 partition, with the Linux OS on the second partition and the casper-rw on the third partition. So, you install Grub on the MBR of the memory stick as explained, and then you adjust Mike's instructions to use /dev/sdx2 for the OS and /dev/sdx3 for the casper-rw. The /boot/grub/menu.lst file needs to be edited to point to the bootable kernel on /dev/sdx2, rather than the first partition. That's the gist of it -- not sure I can do any better than Mike at the step-by-step.

[tomcloyd]

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

Thanks, dibl, for the quick response. Will give it a whirl when I get a moment. Much appreciated.

t.

[dibl]

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

Hey, Tom, one other thing. I always "dd" my USB stick to make sure the MBR is zeroized, before I try installing anything.

1. Make double-damned certain that you know which device is the USB stick with

sudo fdisk -lu

2.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdf bs=512 count=1

(if your USB stick is /dev/sdf -- adjust as needed)

then proceed with Mike's instructions.