Lubuntu 11.10 from USB - how to?

[I2k4]

I've been experimenting with Ubuntu and most recently Lubuntu for nearly a year. I've just moved from Persistent Live USB Lubuntu 10.10 to 11.10 on my higher spec Dell laptop.

But I've found the Persistent Live installs of Lubuntu 10.10 to be unstable, they start out great but over a couple of months seem to lose functionality, suddenly demanding passwords, or Synaptic PM "disappears" and won't open, or they lose access to the HDD on the computer.

At this point, I'm still not interested in putting Lubuntu on my hard drives, but would be very interested in "for dummies" instructions to do a regular installation on a USB thumb drive instead of Persistent Live USB. I've read posts that indicate this is doable, but clicking that "install" icon on the desktop I haven't figured out how to begin an install to anything other than the HDD. Any guidance to a good "how to" or step by step for installing Lubuntu on USB would be appreciated. Thanks.

[wolfen69]

dd if=lubuntu.iso of=/dev/sd[x]

Be very careful with this command, and make sure /dev/sd[x] is the correct drive. And make sure the name of the iso matches correctly. Just put the lubuntu iso in your home folder before running command. This will give you a "live cd" on your usb drive.

[kemtnbkr]

If I understand what you're wanting to do correctly, it seems to me you'll either need 2 USB drives, or a USB drive and a Live CD. (Your 'install' drive should be ~10G or more, 5G absolute minimum IMO). Boot into the live USB/ liveCD session, and start the install tool. I've never tried this, but there should be a way to install to your USB drive as a 'hard drive'; let it autopartition the drive, and MAKE SURE to select your USB drive as the drive to install GRUB on. (I made the mistake of selecting my external HD the first time I installed).

I think this will give you what you're looking for; you'll just have to either modify your BIOS startup device order, or select the USB from the startup device menu (as I'm sure you know having run it this way before).

Be warned; I am mostly a n00b and have never tried this method myself; again, MAKE SURE you are installing to the correct USB drive; if it doesn't work you can try something else. Just don't break anything else trying it.

[tartalo]

I tried a regular installation in a pendrive but it was painfully slow, the transfer rate of a pendrive is not comparable to a regular hardrive.

Live CDs are faster because they are loaded to memory. I can't find the link but someone in ubuntuforum wrote a hack that converted the regular installation to a "live" image (sorry for the inexact terminology), but he abandoned the project after buying an external SSD.

If a personalized live image can help there are some tools:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/remastersys.html
http://uck.sourceforge.net/

Debian Live project has some nice tools too, see chapter 7 of the manual:
http://live.debian.net/manual/en/html/live-manual.html

[I2k4]

Thanks for responses. I blundered into Lubuntu's wizard during the live USB boot process, instead of using the desktop icon after booting to run live - it provides a choice of installation to another USB thumb drive instead of the HDD. No idea how well it will work out, but will deal with any issues elsewhere, and consider this "solved".

[kemtnbkr]

Hey I2k4, if you're still here, I just found a thread that is a tutorial for what I was describing before. More in depth than mine of course: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1650699

[amjjawad]

This is how to install Lubuntu in general: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lu...tallingLubuntu

Follow the same but make sure to choose the correct drive (USB-Drive instead of your internal HDD) from the list which will show up after you choose "Something else":



Please Note:
1) Your USB-Drive will NOT be /dev/sda

2) Please don't install GRUB2 (Lubuntu Boot Loader) to sda but instead install it to the MBR of your USB-Drive (say for example /sdb). That will leave your internal HDD untouched.

I'll include another link. I know, I need to update my guide on the wiki and maybe include howto install to USB section but I'm too busy these days with some projects.

This will help you to understand the concept of installing to USB Drives: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1650699

[amjjawad]

Hey I2k4, if you're still here, I just found a thread that is a tutorial for what I was describing before. More in depth than mine of course: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1650699

I see you beat me to it

[I2k4]

Thanks for the further comments. I succeeded in creating a USB install using Lubuntu's wizard, but didn't realize that it would create a GRUB booting menu on my HDD. I still don't quite understand how to avoid that, though I see some of you know about it and tried to help.

I googled around to see about getting rid of GRUB, but only found directions for people who have Windows CD/ROMs while my netbook has one of those recovery partitions and no disk.

As GRUB is there every time I boot, I dropped the USB install idea and created a small partition on my netbook HDD for Lubuntu so now am a proud, if accidental, Lubuntu/W7 dual-booter. If dual boot proves out over time (it's a new thing for me) I might stick with it and even install on my main PC.

[amjjawad]

Thanks for the further comments. I succeeded in creating a USB install using Lubuntu's wizard, but didn't realize that it would create a GRUB booting menu on my HDD. I still don't quite understand how to avoid that, though I see some of you know about it and tried to help.

One way to tell whether GRUB was installed on your HDD or your USB's MBR.
Just unplug your USB, reboot and if GRUB will show up, it means it's installed on your HDD.
I don't recommend that way. In my guide, I have explained how to avoid that and what's the alternative approach

Read it and if you have any question, I'm here

I googled around to see about getting rid of GRUB, but only found directions for people who have Windows CD/ROMs while my netbook has one of those recovery partitions and no disk.

Check my previous paragraph.
Yes, there is a way to get rid of it in case it's causing problems but if it's working just fine, why not keep it?
Don't worry, myself and some good friends are good with GRUB so we'll help

If dual boot proves out over time (it's a new thing for me) I might stick with it and even install on my main PC.

I have another guide for Dual-Booting. Whatever you need in Dual-Booting, let me know because that's my area too