12.04 Live USB complains about lack of space on /

[spiritofcat]

I've downloaded the 64bit 12.04 LTS ISO and made a bootable USB drive with it using usb-creator as instructed here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick

After booting it up, I started customising and installing things such as Chrome, and Steam.

When I run Steam though, it tells me that I should a repository for video drivers, so I do, and then it tells me I need to update my packages, so I go to update, and Ubuntu tells me I don't have enough space on /

It's a 32GB USB stick that I'm using.
I set it to 4GB of documents and settings storage in usb-creator.
GParted tells me I have 25.11GiB unused in the FAT32 partition of the USB stick.
When I check the properties of the file system though, it only reports 113.4 MB of free space on /

What's the simplest way to make this live USB stick have access to all of the space available on the USB stick?
I'd like to keep it as a live USB stick so that I can use it to install Ubuntu on other computers easily.

Edit: I rebooted after posting this and it seems like all the changes I made were wiped. Chrome and Steam were not there, there was nothing in the downloads folder, etc.
If that's how live USB sticks work then I guess that isn't what I want after all.

What I want, is Ubuntu 12.04 running from a USB stick, with access to all the space on that USB stick and full control to customise the appearance and behaviour of the DE and install whatever programs I want that will fit in the space on that USB stick, and with an option to install Ubuntu 12.04 onto the machine that it's in.

What's the easiest way to achieve that?

[oldfred]

The live installer is the original ISO and you really cannot update any of the system as the install cannot be changed. With persistence you can then save some data and add some programs, but those would be reinstalled on every reboot as the original ISO is unchanged.
Pros & cons of persistence install over direct install to flashdrives - C.S.Cameron
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2133067
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1655412

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD/Persistence
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveUsbPendrivePersistent

But with 32GB, why not a full install and then from grub boot the ISO on another partition if you want to use the ISO to install.
With my 16GB flash drive I installed to a 8GB partition and have 8GB for data. In data partition I have a /iso folder for ISO including Ubuntu and several repair ISO like gparted, partedmagic etc.
With 8GB / I do not have a lot of room but it is functional. If doing a lot of updates you can just install to a larger root.

Your flash drive with a full install is just another hard drive, but not as fast depending on USB ports and speed of flash drive. I find my new USB3 flash drive is faster even on my old USB2 ports.


This will boot an ISO from a hard drive.
ISO Booting with Grub 2 from Hard drive - drs305
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/ISOBoot
Examples - you may copy & edit for your path & ISO version
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/ISOBoot/Examples
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1549847

[ubfan1]

Also the install media is FAT32, so the largest allowable file is 4G. If you have a "casper-rw" persistence file, that 4G is the max allowable for any modifications. The way around this limit is to have a (larger) partition, labeled "casper-rw" formatted ext2 or maybe ext4 without journaling. I agree with OldFred that a real install to the 32G stick is the way to go. There are techinques to speed things up, basically, moving as much as possible into memory, like /tmp, /var/log, browser cache, (and you can even set up users whose home directory is in ram)

[spiritofcat]

Thanks folks, sounds like a full install onto the USB stick is the way to go then.

Just to check that I've understood before I begin, my steps will be as follows:
1. Use another USB stick to do a full install onto the 32GB stick, but leave some space (how much?) for a separate partition to boot the ISO from for installation to other machines.
2. Follow the instructions here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/ISOBoot to set up ISO booting with Grub2
3. Then it'll all be done, and I can boot from the 32GB stick with a Grub2 choice between running the fully installed distro or running the ISO for try/install.

[sudodus]

I think your steps will work.

You can have a separate partition for the iso files, but you don't need it. They can be somewhere in the root partition.

There are more tips in this link https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick

[spiritofcat]

You can have a separate partition for the iso files, but you don't need it. They can be somewhere in the root partition.
Wonderful, even easier than I thought!