PDA

View Full Version : [ubuntu] Portable Ubuntu installation



hesjnet
January 28th, 2009, 01:09 PM
Hi guys. Recently I discovered that I could use an USB drive instead of a CD when installing ubuntu. It really surprised me how easy it was with Unetbootin! Earlier this week I discovered a new use for my Ubuntu USB: I could use it as an alternative to the slow and insecure WinXP installation on the computer at my university. Everything worked great out of the box with booting from the USB drive and the Internet connection worked automatically(which is the most important;)). I had to install flash support to get youtube working. I uninstalled a couple of programs to save space on my USB drive. No problem there either.

But what happened the next time i used my USB drive was the bit that puzzled me: I had to install the flash support all over again and all my previously uninstalled programs was back! I don't want to reconfigure my USB drive every time I use it and I would very much like to be able to carry around my user preferences and files.

I tried to create a new user(instead of the "Live session" user) but that didn't work. It still was back to square one at the next login.

I also tried to do a clean install from a live disc(CD-R) and use my USB drive as the installation destination, but this just messed up the grub settings on the computer I used( thanks to catlett for the good grub tutorial (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1308395&postcount=1))


Also, I've tried to google it, but either I'm a poor searcher or the answer to this is very complex because all the results I found about this was either very long or very advanced.


Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated:D.

bgerlich
January 28th, 2009, 01:19 PM
The easiest way is simply to unplug all hard disks while you install on USB. The effect of persistent install can be achieved also in many different ways: just search the net for "Ubuntu persistent USB install" and you will get a lot of results.

hesjnet
January 28th, 2009, 02:35 PM
Thanks for your help. I was wondering: wouldn't the installation still write on the MBR(Master boot record) and give me alot of headaches again?

Thanks for the search phrase. I was missing "persistent" ;)

I'll report back on how it worked.