Multiple "Live CD" USB

[monkeybrain2012]

http://liveusb.info/dotclear/

I have made many live usbs with multiple boot with this nifty tool. Only catch is that if you have multiple OSes only one can be made persistent, it seems.

[DigitalNoise]

http://liveusb.info/dotclear/

I have made many live usbs with multiple boot with this nifty tool. Only catch is that if you have multiple OSes only one can be made persistent, it seems.

Yes, that would be the MultiBoot that I can't seem to get to work - it installs the OS's fine, but it can't seem to make the drive bootable for some reason. Or at least that's what it looks like. And there's essentially no documentation for it either - or at least none that I've been able to find in english.

[C.S.Cameron]

Are you using MultiBootUSB or MultiSystem?

MultiBootUSB can be obtained from here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/multibootusb/files/

[monkeybrain2012]

Yes, that would be the MultiBoot that I can't seem to get to work - it installs the OS's fine, but it can't seem to make the drive bootable for some reason. Or at least that's what it looks like. And there's essentially no documentation for it either - or at least none that I've been able to find in english.

What OSes are you putting in there? I have made multi boot usbs with Debian, *buntu, different flavours of Fedora and all work fine (except Fedora 18, if enable persistence then the live user see a screen asking for password so cannot get to the desktop)

You may be doing something wrong, because if you run the install script properly then you don't have to manually add the repo to the sources list. By the way which version of Ubuntu are you using? I haven't used it in 13.04 yet.

[DigitalNoise]

Are you using MultiBootUSB or MultiSystem?

MultiBootUSB can be obtained from here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/multibootusb/files/

MultiSystem, sorry. I have MultiBootUSB, but had the same problem - couldn't/wouldn't read the boot loader from the USB.

[DigitalNoise]

What OSes are you putting in there? I have made multi boot usbs with Debian, *buntu, different flavours of Fedora and all work fine (except Fedora 18, if enable persistence then the live user see a screen asking for password so cannot get to the desktop)

You may be doing something wrong, because if you run the install script properly then you don't have to manually add the repo to the sources list. By the way which version of Ubuntu are you using? I haven't used it in 13.04 yet.

I'm currently using Linux Mint 15 RC 64-bit. As I said, when I run the install script, it pops open the "Software Sources" application but gives no indication of what I'm supposed to do; when I close the application the script errors out with "xterm". Now, this could be related to using Linux Mint, but since I can't get the Live USB to boot so I can try other distros, much less install them...

As for what I'm trying to put on the USB to boot from:

• archlinux-2013.05.01-dual.iso
• crunchbang-11-20130506-amd64.iso
• linuxmint-13-cinnamon-dvd-64bit.iso
• linuxmint-13-mate-dvd-64bit.iso
• linuxmint-13-xfce-dvd-64bit.iso
• linuxmint-14.1-cinnamon-dvd-64bit.iso
• linuxmint-14.1-mate-dvd-64bit.iso
• linuxmint-14-xfce-dvd-64bit.iso
• linuxmint-15-mate-dvd-64bit-rc.iso
• lubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64.iso
• Peppermint-3-20121105-amd64.iso
• ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso
• ubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64.iso
• xubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso
• xubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64.iso

[oldfred]

I just add boot stanzas like this to grub.
This works for me, but I have my files in a gpt partitioned drive, so I have to add that insmod and I have nVidia so I have to add nomodeset. This particular entry is my hard drive hd2 and partition 4 (hd2,4).

menuentry "Ubuntu 13.04 Raring ISO 64bit" {
    set isofile="/iso/raring-desktop-amd64.iso"
    insmod part_gpt
    loopback loop (hd2,4)$isofile 
    linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz.efi file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile nomodeset
    initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

[DigitalNoise]

I just add boot stanzas like this to grub.
This works for me, but I have my files in a gpt partitioned drive, so I have to add that insmod and I have nVidia so I have to add nomodeset. This particular entry is my hard drive hd2 and partition 4 (hd2,4).

menuentry "Ubuntu 13.04 Raring ISO 64bit" {
    set isofile="/iso/raring-desktop-amd64.iso"
    insmod part_gpt
    loopback loop (hd2,4)$isofile 
    linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz.efi file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile nomodeset
    initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

My grub.cfg file has entries like that. It's more like whatever is supposed to be in the MBR of the USB device isn't actually there - I've done the whole sudo grub-install routine and pointed it at the right place, but when I boot and tell it to look at the USB... it doesn't find anything (apparently), so it skips it and goes on to my normal grub install that lets me boot into Linux or Windows.

[sudodus]

Maybe the problem is not the USB boot drive, but your computer.

1. Have you booted your computer from a unetbootin USB boot drive?

2. What computer is it? Is it a new one with Windows 7 or 8 and UEFI?

3. Or is it an old one, that cannot boot from USB?

4. Have you set the computer to look for USB before the internal HDD at boot?

5. Is there a hotkey to press, so that you get a meny of devices to boot from?

6. Or have you forgotten to install the boot-loader? If you use grub2, what I call the 'grub-n-iso' method, you install grub and the boot-loader to the USB drive, and then edit .../boot/grub/grub.cfg (on the USB drive) to fit your iso files.

[DigitalNoise]

1) Yes, that's how Linux Mint 15 RC 64 bit got installed (what I'm using now).

2) No - the motherboard is about 5 years old, the other OS is Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

3) Boots from USB just fine, see #1

4) Yes.

5) Yes.

6) See my previous replies - I've installed grub to the USB drive multiple times; doesn't seem to do anything. QEMU boots the USB drive, but in practice the system won't boot from it. I suspect something is missing.