Installing Kubuntu On Multiboot USB Flash

[Guest]

Hello All -

I'm very experienced in Windows, but fairly new to Linux distros. I've been using Kubuntu for about a month now and love it.

Currently, I have created a little project that I'm trying to introduce Kubuntu to and need some help.

Using a program named WinSetupFromUSB, I have created a flash drive which contains Windows XP, 7, 2003, and 2008 setup discs as well as a couple of boot cds. Once you boot to this flash, a GRUB menu appears, you choose what you want to boot to / install / run, then it does it!

I've got all of the windows setup stuff (used AIO methods to save space) as well as Acronis and UBCD all working fine on it. All of the data for this project is on one partition on the USB stick as well.

What I'm trying to do is to add an option to it to where I can boot to Kubuntu 10.04 and still have persistant changes just like it was running from a standalone drive or USB. I'm sure this would be easy if I just added the LiveCD image with WinSetupFromUSB and booted directly to the image from the GRUB menu, but don't know if the changes would save.

I tried to create a new partition for Kubuntu, but messed it up too so before trying again, thought I'd post here. I'm no pro at GRUB or Linux commands so instead of posting this and have linux commands thrown at me, I put it in newbie.

FYI
WinSetupFromUSB = http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/1204...musb-with-gui/

My Flash Drive = 32G Kanguru USB/eSata Flash
3 Partitions - 8G for WinSet Stuff - 6G for Kubuntu (if needed) - 18G for Assortment of files / utilities that I use

Thanks for your help!

[67GTA]

Re: Installing Kubuntu On Multiboot USB Flash

The setup you have is a little confusing. I've never used WinSetupFromUSB, so I'm not sure what controls the boot menu. That being said, you can install Kubuntu to a partition on the USB stick just like it was a regular hard drive by booting the live CD on a PC and choosing the USB stick partition instead of the PC HDD. That way it will be truly persistent, and boot on almost any PC. When you get to the last screen of the installation, click the advanced button, and you can set grub options. Choosing the USB stick will install grub to the USB stick and not mess up the PC's boot menu. This is where things get foggy for me. Not being familiar with your setup, I'm not sure Kubuntu's grub will add your other programs to the menu (probably not). It might be possible to add Kubuntu to your existing grub menu if you can find out what currently controls it. It is usually not a problem to manually add a grub entry. I would poke around about WinSetupFromUSB and see if you can figure out how the menu is created, and that it is actually grub and not syslinux, lilo, or some other boot loader.