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Flashdrive Linux Saves the Day

Posted by russhollander on · 12 comments
RussellHollander.com; By Russell Hollander 		Mail this story
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I never go anywhere without a bootable Linux flashdrive. The fact that Linux is so portable is one of my favorite things about it.

As I have mentioned previously on this blog, I never go anywhere without a bootable Linux flashdrive. The fact that Linux is so portable is one of my favorite things about it. I have at various times kept Fedora, Linux Mint, and Puppy on my flashdrive, but for the last couple months, my mobile distro of choice has been Knoppix.

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Comments (12)

ComputerBob ·
Linux on a flashdrive really did save the day.
jdixon ·
> Do you carry around a Linux flashdrive everywhere you go?

Anywhere I have my laptop with me. I keep a couple of bootable usb drives in the carrying case (currently I believe I have Slax, Ubuntu, Mint, Clonzilla, and UBCD4Win).

However, my experience with ClamAV has been 50/50. It seems to miss a lot of newer viruses.
Bob_Robertson ·
One of the guys I work with has beaten me utterly. He has a flash drive with 6 different boot modes, 4 linux, one Windows rescue, and one which he says "is good for cracking".

My PCLinuxOS real install on an 8G thumbdrive just doesn't seem so gnarly any more. Pout pout.
jdixon ·
> He has a flash drive with 6 different boot modes,

I've looked into doing that, but the largest USB drive I have is 4 GB, which would limit me to about 3 modes, and it just hasn't seem worth the effort when I have several 2GB and 4GB ones lying around.
lcafiero ·
There, there, Bob_Robertson -- that 8G drive still seems pretty gnarly to me.

This is a great story. I have several thumb drives, most of them with Live CD versions of the latest major distros, but I have them because I've used them to install or "try them out." After this article, I am thinking seriously about carrying a Knoppix USB drive in case of emergency.
vainrveenr ·
Quoting:I've looked into doing that, but the largest USB drive I have is 4 GB, which would limit me to about 3 modes, and it just hasn't seem worth the effort when I have several 2GB and 4GB ones lying around.


Although one could conceivably use the instructions at Pendrivelinux's 'Boot Multiple ISO from USB via Grub2 using Linux' found at http://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-multiple-iso-from-usb-via-grub2-using-linux/ for containing and multibooting the following liveCD distros within just one of those "4GB ones [USB drives] lying around"::

* Knoppix 6.7.1, 700MB-sized ISO, latest DistroWatch info at http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=06886

* SystemRescueCD 2.3.0, 347MB-sized ISO, latest DistroWatch info at http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=06814

* Finnix 102, 114MB-sized ISO, latest DistroWatch info at http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=06802

* Ultimate Boot CD 5.1.1, 360MB-sized ISO, latest info at its mainsite http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

* Parted Magic 6.7, 179MB-sized ISO, latest DistroWatch info at http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=06916

* Incognito Live System 0.8, 581MB-sized ISO, latest DistroWatch info at http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=06899

* Linux Portable Security 1.2.4, 316MB-sized, latest DistroWatch info at http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=06901

This would yield a useful liveCD mix of bootable Utility, SysAdmin/Rescue and Privacy distros taking up less than 2.5GB, and yet still leaving well over a full GB free on just a SINGLE 4GB USB drive!

Perhaps the effort spent to create such a useful liveCD IS worthwhile for some people, no ??





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jdixon ·
> Perhaps the effort spent to create such a useful liveCD IS worthwhile for some people, no ??

I'm sure it is. If it weren't, there wouldn't be a number of howto's on the subject floating around. It just hasn't been for me. There's even at least one tool for doing so: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

Added:

Actually further checking on the pendrivelinux site reveals there are currently four competing multiboot creators. In addition to yumi, there are the following:

Sardu: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/sardu-multiboot-usb-creator-win... Xboot: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/xboot-multiboot-iso-usb-creator... and Multiboot: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/multiboot-create-a-multiboot-us...

Only the last seems to work from Linux, however. The rest seem to be Windows programs.
penguinist ·
Now, for the next step, someone (vainrveenr, are you listening) should put together an image that can simply be dd'ed to a flashdrive. Now that would be a time saver.
vainrveenr ·
Quoting:Actually further checking on the pendrivelinux site reveals there are currently four competing multiboot creators. In addition to yumi, there are the following:

Sardu: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/sardu-multiboot-usb-creator-win... Xboot: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/xboot-multiboot-iso-usb-creator... and Multiboot: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/multiboot-create-a-multiboot-us...

Only the last seems to work from Linux, however. The rest seem to be Windows programs.
OTOH, UNetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/) seems to support similar multiboot creation using both Windows and Linux.

Before UNetbootin, and perhaps occuring around the same time as the first Pendrivelinux USB-multiboot instructions, were the efforts of such multiboot "distros" as Billix (http://billix.sourceforge.net/) and Ultilex (http://ultilex.sourceforge.net/).

In any case, it is possible to take out the previous suggestion of using the 360MB-sized Ultimate Boot CD 5.1.1, include a few further SysAdmin/Rescue distros to create a useful liveCD/liveUSB mix, and yet still leave over a full GB of free space on that same 4GB USB drive. This by replacing the non-GPL'd Ultimate Boot CD with the following ::

* Trinity Rescue Kit 3.4, 146MB-sized ISO, latest DistroWatch info at http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=06232

* RIPLinuX 13.5, 158MB-sized ISO, latest DistroWatch info at http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=rip

* PloP Linux 4.1.2, 673MB-sized ISO, latest DistroWatch info at http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=06834



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ComputerBob ·
Quoting:OTOH, UNetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/) seems to support similar multiboot creation using both Windows and Linux.


It used to be possible to do that (for someone who was willing/able to manually edit grub and/or other files), but does the UNetbootin site say that it supports multiboot creations? I've seen articles in the past in which people claimed to have done it with UNetbootin, but I think I also read something awhile ago that said that something changed, and it didn't work any more.
jdixon ·
> ...but does the UNetbootin site say that it supports multiboot creations?

Not on their home page, no. I don't think it ever has.
techiem2 ·
Right now most of my flash drives boot System Rescue CD, I keep a few burned CDs of it in my toolkit, as well as the windows boot repair discs. I have a few various other distro and utility discs in cases in my backpack.

However, I'm waiting for my funded isostick ( http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elegantinvention/isostic... ) to get built and arrive so I can thin out the collection I carry a bit. :)

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