HOW TO Avoid Wubi & Install Ubuntu on USB Drive

[amjjawad]

Note that I also linked to the interview with Agostino Russo about Wubi installs in my thread.

Personally, I would rather see people using Ubuntu on a dedicated partition.

But, since there is Wubi I also think it is our duty to help those users as best we can.

Many of them eventually install Ubuntu on the hard-drive too thanks to the wubi migration thread put together by bcbc.

I don't know anything about that interview until I saw the link here.

Everyone here is trying to help. Everyone has his/her own style.
I do have a personal opinion about Wubi but that has nothing to do with writing this guide. As I keep mentioning, I did this to help new comers.
It's their call to take Wubi's Route or not.
Also, it's kind of 2 in 1 guide.

Now, you posted your link. I guess the picture is complete.

[presence1960]

True and not true.

There is now somewhere for both Wubi users and forum regulars to turn to for help with Wubi installs.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1639198

Thanks for the link. I will try to make use of it. Since I do not use wubi (I did try it for a while to gain some experience) I am hard pressed to help those who post about problems with wubi.

[Rubi1200]

Thanks for the link. I will try to make use of it. Since I do not use wubi (I did try it for a while to gain some experience) I am hard pressed to help those who post about problems with wubi.

You are more than welcome

I also do not use Wubi (or Windows for that matter), but I saw so many posts from people experiencing problems that I decided to put something together.

Apparently, it has helped already judging by the number of views as well as responses I have received by PM.

[h4ckluserr]

I went the WUBI route. Let me describe why. This is my own personal experience.

Being a gamer, I am primarily on Windows. However, I have a USB drive which I carry an ubuntu install, a couple of my primary games, and a couple other windows registry free games that I can transport. all of which run under WINE. This is great when I boot into my personal computer(windows 7) and can run everything I need.. and then when I travel to a seperate work site, I carry one laptop, and just boot into Ubuntu when I want my own setup/games/applications/tools. I can't go Linux full time due to having incompatibility with games. WINE is awesome, but one update to WoW that causes incompatibility and my primary game is down.

I have run into a seperate issue. my linux partition(WUBI albeit) is 30gb. I can't seem to get the other 270GB to mount since I updated to 10.10. it's weird. I think this setup is going to be my solution. by creating a third partition that will be Fat32.

[Sail323]

Your guide was very helpful. I'm posting this from my new 4GB USB flash drive installation of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

I have a 80GB hard drive in a SATA/ USB 2.0 enclosure. Will the same process work with this drive? Can I put the bootloader on this drive and boot from it as I do from the USB flash drive?

[amjjawad]

Your guide was very helpful. I'm posting this from my new 4GB USB flash drive installation of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Thank you and I'm glad you have installed Ubuntu on an USB Drive

I have a 80GB hard drive in a SATA/ USB 2.0 enclosure. Will the same process work with this drive? Can I put the bootloader on this drive and boot from it as I do from the USB flash drive?

Yes, you can follow exactly the same process. Nothing will change except for the space. I mean, you have 80GB instead of 4GB.
I've done that before with a 20GB IDE HDD. I think it was my Samsung IDE HDD.

As for the boot loader, in this guide, I'm trying to avoid installing it in the MBR of the main HDD. Why? because in this guide, I'm not trying to do any changes to the main HDD.
In other cases, mostly GRUB will be installed in the MBR of the main HDD.
It depends on what you want. If this is a temp installation (same as this guide) then GRUB2 should be installed in the MBR of the USB Drive NOT the internal Main HDD.
If this is an installation that you'll keep for ... say 6 months then you could install in the MBR of the main HDD "or" in the MBR of the USB Drive. Your call

[h4ckluserr]

This guide confirmed my theory and worked perfectly. I'm currently sitting on a seagate 320gb drive. Broken up as shown. Making one change to support my personal needs of this drive.

30GB -> ext4
4GB -> Swap(overkill I know.. but I'd rather have to much than to little)
the rest -> FAT32

Other than that, following these directions line for line worked.

Also, there is only one modification for 10.10(if you so wish to add/modify your original post). In Step4 you get a direct drop down to pick where to load your bootloader. it's still "/dev/sdb" and you do not pick which loader, it just goes with GRUB2.

Fantastic write up, thank you.

[amjjawad]

This guide confirmed my theory and worked perfectly. I'm currently sitting on a seagate 320gb drive. Broken up as shown. Making one change to support my personal needs of this drive.

30GB -> ext4
4GB -> Swap(overkill I know.. but I'd rather have to much than to little)
the rest -> FAT32

Other than that, following these directions line for line worked.

Glad to know it worked for you

Also, there is only one modification for 10.10(if you so wish to add/modify your original post). In Step4 you get a direct drop down to pick where to load your bootloader. it's still "/dev/sdb" and you do not pick which loader, it just goes with GRUB2.

Yes, I'm aware of that and thanks a lot for the reminder
I'm trying to focus on 10.04 because it's LTS (Long Term Support) in all my guides so far. I might update that in the near future or just add a link or an image to show that.

Fantastic write up, thank you.

Appreciate that, thanks a lot

[Mamacia]

Newbie here. Looking forward to using Ubutnu 10.10 and would like to do this install. However am not getting any images on Windows 7. Am I the only one?

[Mamacia]

Me again. I am one of the unfortunates with a black screen at startup wishing to use your USB method to run Ubutnu. I have found a resolution to the problem, but it begins "At the install screen ..." I have yet to see the install screen.

In my attempts to install Ubutnu 10.10, I have gotten as far as setting BIOS, step 6 in your tutorial, but have not seen the GUI Desktop you refer to in step 12.

Here is what I have found to "cure" black screen (edited by me.) Wondering how this would fit into your USB install: (OR perhaps you know a different way?
Ubuntu 10.04 “Lucid” Blank Screen at Startup : Workaround

There have been a number of reports regarding blank screens at startup pre and post installation on the new Ubuntu 10.04 “Lucid” release. It seems there are some incompatibilities with some video drivers, particularly (not surprising) some ATI and nVidia. Also in the mix are some older Intel cards. This post outlines a workaround you can try in order to get your video working properly again.
Booting from CD: This section outlines how to workaround the video issue while booting from the CD. Your mileage may vary, depending on your video card, but hopefully this steers you in the right direction:

1. At the install screen press ‘F6‘ and insert xforcevesa
2. On first boot after install, press e to edit the GRUB menu.
3. Using the arrow keys to navigate, delete quiet and splash and again insert xforcevesa
4. Press Ctrl and X to boot.

The suggested options that I have found are hardware specific. Here is a list:

• Older Intel video card: i915.modeset=1 or i915.modeset=0
• nVidia: nomodeset
• Generic: xforcevesa

Hopefully one of these options will get you up and running. Keep reading now to make these changes persistent!


GRUB: You’ll want to change these settings in GRUB so they’ll automatically be applied on each reboot. To do so, follow the steps below:

1. Edit the /etc/default/grub file. You will need Admin privileges to do so (sudo)
2. Find this line: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”
3. Replace with: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash xforcevesa”

For example, if I had an older Intel model, my GRUB configuration would read:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash i915.modeset=1″

Save your changes and you should get proper graphics on each reboot.
UPDATE: Based on a lot of user feedback I am reminded that you need to run ‘update-grub’ after you make changes.


Thanks much in advance for any help you can offer. I am really looking forward to be able to use Ubutnu.

I've got Windows 7