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Put Windows to the Most Appropriate Use: Create a Bootable USB Stick with Ubuntu 10.04

Posted by linux97 on · 22 comments
LXer Linux News; By David Underwood 		Mail this story
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LXer Feature: 01-May-2010

The following steps provide two methods of putting the fresh new release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) on a USB stick. The first method will create a bootable USB stick with a live version and the second process will create a live version with persistence. Both methods are an excellent way to always have your favorite Ubuntu system and software with you at all times and it makes for one of the simplest ways to conduct an install to a hard drive.

First you need a linux image to put on your USB drive. You can obtain the latest Ubuntu file from this location. http://releases.ubuntu.com/lucid/ Unless you have some specific reason to choose differently, choose the Ubuntu Desktop 10.04 LTS (32 bit) file.

Next you need a windows program to allow you to create a bootable USB stick with your new distribution. You can find it here. http://www.pendrivelinux.com/using-unetbootin-to-create-a-li... The UNetbootin file will step you through the process. If you chose the .iso version from above, then all you need to do first is click on the box on the right side across from "ISO" and point to the .iso file you previously downloaded. Next, simply verify that UNetbootin has selected the correct USB stick—if not, just point it to the correct one, and then click OK.

When UNetbootin finishes, if you want to immediately try out your new stick on the same computer, just choose reboot now and make sure your system is set to boot from the USB drive in the system BIOS or by choosing F12 or whatever is the appropriate key for your system to allow you to decide the boot sequence. If you are not going to use the same machine to try out your new USB stick, then just choose exit and remove the USB stick for later use. Congratulations! You are now through and should have a bootable USB stick for installing Ubuntu on computers or just for testing to make certain it will work on various configurations before installing.

If you want to create a persistent, bootable USB stick. You will need to use Linux Live USB creator which can be found here. http://www.pendrivelinux.com/linux-live-usb-creator/ If you plan on using Ubuntu 10.04, be sure you download version 2.5 of Linux Live USB Creator since it has been updated to include the new LTS release. Once you download and extract the file, just double click on the executable file (LiLi USB Creator.exe) and follow the instructions.

The first step is to choose the USB stick you wish to use, just like in the first part of this howto. Next you choose the file to use and since it is an .iso, if you have been following these instructions, you would click on that icon and point it to the appropriate file. Once it has verified the distribution, you will be able to choose how much space to allocate to persistence. Your maximum persistence size is 4000 mb since this is a limitation of the FAT32 file type. The larger you make the persistence area, the more sofware and/or updates you can install to keep your USB stick system up-to-date.

Next you must choose whether to hide created files, whether to format the USB stick as FAT32, and whether you want to be able to run your new distribution within windows in a virtual box environment. In my case, I checked all three boxes. The last thing to do after you have answered all the questions is click on the lightning bolt and wait. You will be given feedback in the bottom box relative to what is happening along with an approximate time until complete.

For this test, I used a PNY 8 GB memory stick and found that the estimate of + or - 15 minutes to format the persistence file (I used a file size of 3950 MB) was ultra conservative. It really took nearly an hour. I don’t know if it is because of the file size or if this is just a slow USB stick.

You should now have a USB stick with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS that is persistent. Better yet, if you clicked all the options as I did, you can also run your new linux distro on windows in a Sun Virtual Box environment. Virtual Box is installed on the USB drive and if, when you plug it into a USB port it does not automatically boot from the autorun file, you can view the files on your USB stick and double click on Virtualize_This_Key.exe to start it. The USB stick did not automatically run on my Windows box but once I double clicked on the file above, everything worked as it should. Sun Virtual Box will be launched on your Windows machine and your new linux distro will appear within Virtual Box.

One word of caution, you are advised to plug the USB stick into a port on the computer rather than into the monitor or a multi-port USB adapter. Also, keep in mind that neither of these options; running the live USB stick created with UNetbootin, running the live and persistent USB stick created with Linux Live Creator, nor running within Virtual Box will be anywhere near as fast as if you have Ubuntu installed on your hard drive. Having said all that, it is still great to be able to carry a complete operating system and software around in your pocket in case the urge to use linux becomes just too strong to resist! You can read more detail about UNetbootin and Linux Live USB Creator at the URLs listed above.

Enjoy the irony! You have just put Windows to its most appropriate use; creating a linux system!

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Comments (22)

2 earlier comments in the full thread.

azerthoth ·
You didnt seriously suggest taking a third party script and run it as a matter of course?
tracyanne ·
Yes. Download it and read it if you don't think it's kosher.
gus3 ·
As the script author also advises.
mortenalver ·
The script writer assumes, probably correctly, that users will be insterested in moving the window buttons back to the right corner. I wonder how many percent of Ubuntu users will move them back? And how many percent of those who know how to move them, will move them back?
gus3 ·
Well, since it's a shell script, if one can read the script to verify it, one can also comment-out any of the general categories of actions. It's fairly well-commented.
devnet ·
Download 3rd party software to make Ubuntu run better? WTF?

that's like the cr@p Microsoft is trying to get me to do after I install Windows! I'd rather not have to run a 3rd party script or program after I install anything to make it operate as it should. This just goes to show me that Ubuntu is NOT for new users.
gus3 ·
"To make Ubuntu run better" is the operative phrase there. As opposed to "cr@pware that takes CPU time and memory, phones home, and is impossible to remove" which is the case with Windows.
jdixon ·
> ...that's like the cr@p Microsoft is trying to get me to do after I install Windows!

As I noted in an earlier thread, apparently Canonical is serious about replacing Microsoft on the desktop.
azerthoth ·
So not only did it ship broken, but it's also incomplete. The upshot of this is to break every known security measure to not only add functionality but add outside uncontrolled repositories as well by running a third part script. While the script is fairly well commented, its also heavily obfuscated due to the zenity flotsam.

The whole basis of trust on this is, that in theory, someone who can and has read it says do it, to someone who may not be able to read it. Which devolves to noob A telling noob B & C to run it.

It's not just bad practice, it's $COLORFUL_INVECTIVE irresponsible.

and all in the name of 'We can cover up it's shortfalls and failings thusly'. Pathetic is the word thats wandering through my head right now.
gus3 ·
Quoting:While the script is fairly well commented, its also heavily obfuscated due to the zenity flotsam.
If security is endangered by obscuring activity in Zenity calls, then the Slackware installer must be broken by design. After all, Pat Volkerding uses the "dialog" program extensively, with very similar syntax.

There's more to fear from Debian's SSL snafu, than from using Zenity in a script.
azerthoth ·
Didnt say that it was unreadable, I use (x)dialog myself. Just that removing that fluff means first knowing that it is fluff when reading a script.
helios ·
Just that removing that fluff means first knowing that it is fluff when reading a script.

Which brings us back to the question...how dedicated is Canonical in bringing the new user to Linux? Hacking a script? Geek please. Most people wouldn't know how to make it executable. Not to mention opening it up and checking the hooks and calls for security reasons. But I wander from the original topic.

Like I've never done that before....
tuxchick ·
helios, again you assume that all new Linux users are computer novices. Tisn't true! The MS/Apple worlds are full of advanced users and programmers who do not blanch at the notion of actually having to type or read something. We need to present the whole picture. If we sell Linux as Fisher Price, then we'll only attract preschool-level users.
dinotrac ·
TC -

I'll go one step further. Truly new users are not a huge problem. The bigger problem is users who have learned something else and are pre-conditioned to a certain way of doing things.

I've gotten reasonably comfortable with Macs, but...the first time? Sheesh. The "computer for the rest of us" was the computer that told me to shove it up my anal region.
tuxchick ·
True, dino, though even there generalizations don't hold up. My first ever PC was a Mac. It was fun, but even without a frame of reference the more I got into it the more I wished for something else. Then I got a Windows 3.1/DOS 5 machine. A fabulous education in workarounds and fixing junk, and unlike the Mac lots of hardware fun. But still itchy and inadequate. Then Red Hat 4 or 5 came into my life, and it made sense. Somebody screwed up somewhere, by that time I should have been a wizened Unix geekbeard instead of a computing noob.
gus3 ·
TC with a beard?

Must... purge... mental... image...

GAH!
tracyanne ·
Quoting:The MS/Apple worlds are full of advanced users and programmers who do not blanch at the notion of actually having to type or read something.


The number that actually use, and somehow enjoy, using the Microsoft command line, astounds me.
techiem2 ·
Quoting:The number that actually use, and somehow enjoy, using the Microsoft command line, astounds me.


Yeah....after you use *nix for a while and have to sit down and work on a Windows box you sit there going "ugh...I could do this is 5 seconds on my *nix command line...but Windows doesn't have that in cli or gui...." or "oh right....I can't do that in the Windows cli...their version of the command is broken"

tracyanne ·
@techiem2 I've been trying to get a bloke to move to Linux. He almost exclusively use the Windows Command line on his computer, hates menus. But somehow he finds the Linux CLI scary?
hkwint ·
Quoting:The bigger problem is users who have learned something else and are pre-conditioned to a certain way of doing things.


Yo talkin' to me man!

Indeed, I've been installing XP for more times than I have fingers and toes together, and the first thing to do after installing XP is running some 'tweak uitls'. You know, some scripts to make XP behave less misserable. Away with the Teletubbie-mountain, back to classic start menu, fix the annoying SMB-bug in the register, show file-exts by default, make the darn' warnings about 'system files' go away, that kinda' things. Install usefull stuff like OOo, Opera and Phoenix (later Firefox). And add anti-bactereal layer: SpyBotSD, WinWasher, Lavasoft, what-have-you, the whole myriad pandora plethora of usual cruft fitted all together nicely on my must-not-loose CDROM.

So, then I installed (Open)BSD, it was done, and I didn't know how to proceed. Luckily, there was 'afterboot(8)' telling how to proceed. And 'root' received a mail (a freakin' sendmail installation configured & working right out of the box!). NetBSD was even better, because it just had a guide, and if you followed the whole guide, you had done the whole setup at the end.

Then I went to Linux, and I was in a shock. There was no afterboot. No tweak-utils. No 'follow-this-guide-and-you're-set-and-done'. OK, there are nice Gentoo guides, but they take ten years of reading.

After two years of extensive 25h-a-day usage and after the dust settled down Linux wasn't all that bad. Most configuration was done by hand, which was the best way to make sure I knew what was going on. I was in control. I was the allmighty master! Of course, because after all, I had an enabled (!) root account on my box. Written the 'sudoers' file by hand - from scratch brain processed config-gore from bare EBNF!

But darn, it took a long time. OK, most of it was working 10x as fast as I got (any) BSD working, but compared to Windows, hell, this was working! I was glad I was so ill at the time I couldn't make it to college, and in fact, I couldn't make it far beyond the screen of my computer.

However, most people don't want to be in control (hence why public transport is much more successful than cars, isn't it?). They don't want to waste time on understanding what's going on.

They want stuff working and done. Yesterday!

And they want purple.

_________

So what are my thoughts about the issue at hand? I dunno, I'm not a Debian user, though I do have my own Debian VPS now (joined the cozy family at last!)

"It should provide a GUI with access to a repository of repositories. And it should support recipes to install non-free stuff like VMWare".

I understand, to a certain degree, Ubuntu already has these features. So it's not as medieval as I first thought. After all, I have already been bashed for supposing you had to hunt down VMWare on the Wirld Wild Web, shoot it, skin it, roast it and install it without cutlery.

Apart from that, they should work on getting these patent-crocks settled. Move Canonical to Tadzjikistan or Somalia, the only countries without ties to the WTO as far as I understand. Run it from there, just take Mint and distribute it from outside the WTO (and ACTA for that part). Sabayon and Mint get away with it. Duh, they're making less money than Microsoft in the blink of an eye. On Gentoo it's easy to install Free Software exactly in the same (transparent) way as VMWarez and other proprietary stuff, so there's no reason Ubuntu should be failing.
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