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Introduction
It is possible to have Ubuntu or Kubuntu on a USB pendrive (AKA USB Stick or Thumb drive or Flash drive) or USB hard disk drive with persistent mode. This means that you can boot from a USB pendrive and keep customisations such as keyboard layout, numlock, preferences, additional packages saved on the pendrive. This can be done using linux or windows. You will need a USB pendrive of 1 GB or more. This page is written after having tested the instructions on a Peak III 1 GB pendrive. The preparation of the pendrive is explained using 'fdisk' because I had errors with 'gparted' and i could not give the partitions a volume name. I used Ubuntu to make the pendrive. In Kubuntu it is more or less the same. Where you see 'ubuntu' replace it by 'kubuntu'. I will mark the other differences.
If you are looking for help in putting the 'alternate' cd on a pen drive, then try the instructions here: . They're for feisty, but more or less work for gutsy too. Note that you may need to add "vesa vga=771" to the append= line in syslinux.cfg in order to get the installer to display properly.
Installing Ubuntu on USB pendrive using Linux
You can install Ubuntu on a USB pendrive using the Live CD, clicking in the "Install" icon and selecting your USB drive. From this moment, you can boot from the USB keydrive.
An alternative installation way follows:
Preparing the USB pendrive
Before spending hours and hours of trying to make this work, better read the comments at the end of this tutorial: especially the problem with "non persistence" in Feisty and (unfortunately) Gutsy Gibbons.
Good news! It IS possible to make Feisty persistent! These instructions are needed but not sufficient. Check this. Essentially, you need to decompress initr.gz (with gzip and cpio); edit the init file adding a case called 'persistent' (see details at the link) and recreate initr.gz. I guess that without this case, the 'persistent' passed in the syslinux.cfg is simply ignored. I got persistence at the first attempt. Elfantin
Making partitions
The preparation of the pendrive is explained using 'fdisk'. You could use 'gparted' or 'qtparted' as well. However I had errors with 'gparted' and I could not give the partitions a volume name. I tested 'qtparted' as well and it worked fine. You can install 'qtparted' under Ubuntu through synaptic although it is native to Kubuntu. Another issue in my case was that 'fdisk' recognised a fat32 filesystem as linux. So I checked it with gparted and it was OK.
Plug in the pendrive and check its device name:
mount
Assuming you have your Ubuntu set up to automatically mount your USB stick, this should show you what /media/pendrive or whatever it's called corresponds to on the device level.
Alternatively, you could run
sudo fdisk -l
but if you have multiple devices on your system, it will print a fair amount of fairly technical information.
We are going to suppose that its name is /dev/sdX where X is the disk device such as /dev/sda or /dev/sdc. Please be sure to use the correct number for X which matches the name you find for your pen drive. Double check it! [Note: on newer computers, which use serial ATA disks, /dev/sda is typically the main hard drive; do not overwrite this!]
Note: on some usb-sticks fdisk says "Note: sector size is 2048 (not 512)", in which case you may very well be out of luck trying to boot from it, see mailing list thread:
Now we are going to create 2 partitions: 1 partition of 750 MB with a fat32 filesystem and 1 partition with the rest of the pendrive space with volume name "casper-rw" and ext2 filesystem. The first partition will be made active.
Go in terminal and unmount the drive:
sudo umount /dev/sdX1
Fire up fdisk for the pendrive:
sudo fdisk /dev/sdX
This will give you the fdisk prompt. Look to what you have on the pendrive. Check if you have to backup the data you have on it. 'p' will print the content of /dev/sdX. If you have partitions on it remove them ('d', 'partition number'). Make partition 1: 'n' for new partition, 'p' to make it a primary partition, '1' to call it partition number 1, then just press enter to accept the proposed starting cylinder, '+750M' to make its size 750 MB. Then 'a' to make it the active partition. Set the file system of partition 1 to FAT: 't', then '1', then '6'. ( I already had partition 1 selected so for me it was just 't' then '6' -Jordan_U) Make partition 2: 'n' for new partition, 'p' to make it a primary partition, '2' to call it partition 2, then just press enter to accept the proposed starting cylinder, then press enter to accept the proposed ending cylinder. Save and quit fdisk with 'w' to write the new settings.
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I had an issue with this that every time I saved my partition setup using 'w', I'd get an:
WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error22: Invalid argument. The kernel still uses old table. The new table will be available at the next reboot.
If this happens, and then checking with 'sudo fdisk -l' doesn't show the new partitions - here's a fix if you have a Windows OS, though I don't know why it works:
Do nothing else with the pendrive. Insert into Windows (mine was XP) and format with Disk Management and use FAT32. Now, 'sudo fdisk -l' should see the two partitions under the pendrive. -neverard
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I had the same error, using gparted instead of fdisk worked for me -Jordan_U
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Check the result:
sudo fdisk -l
You should see the 2 partitions with the first marked with a * because it is active.
If ubuntu mounted the partitions again you should unmount them:
sudo umount /dev/sdX1 sudo umount /dev/sdX2
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make sure (via fdisk -l) you created a w95/fat and not a linux partition, otherwise i was unable to boot from it!! (i had to use gparted to achieve this) - bernstein
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fdisk worked for me however - booted off CD - krishnan
there seems to be an incongruity: when you change the filesystem to FAT using option "t" the filesystem option "6" is FAT16. w95/fat32 is option "b". Which file system needs to be used? -rebelcat1
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Alternate partition layout
Please note that Windows will only mount the first partition of any removable media - which includes USB flash drives. While you can get around this, it requires some highly kludgy driver procedures, which you are unlikely to be able to pull off on any machine where you are not an admin.
In short, having the Ubuntu Live as your first partition reduces the utility of your USB stick for what is statistically it's most likely task - transferring files to and from Windows machines.
Partition 1 : FAT32, full size of stick minus 750M Partition 2 : FAT16, 750M (FAT16 because older versions of syslinux don't like FAT32)
Follow the instructions, but use /dev/sdx2 instead of /dev/sdx1, and make sure you make /dev/sdx2 bootable in fdisk.
For persistence, follow the instructions to create a loopback file at . This feature works fine from a loopback file inside a FAT32 filesystem, just as long as the file contains a supported unionfs filesystem like ext2.
Now you have (mostly) the best of both worlds.
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You can transfer files between Windows machines on the FAT32 partition
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You have a persistent Ubuntu thumb
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You can mount the FAT32 partition from a persistent Ubuntu boot (manually)
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You can enlarge or shrink your casper-rw partition without having to repartition your thumb, just make a new loopback filesystem, mount them both, and copy the files across.
If the persistent boot automatically mounted the root of the FAT32 filesystem as well as the casper-rw file, it would be ideal.
Formatting the partitions
We will now format the partitions by putting a filesystem on and giving them the name 'ubuntu' (or any other name you want) and 'casper-rw' (this name is MANDATORY, do not change other names and do not use capital letters):
sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n ubuntu /dev/sdX1 sudo mkfs.ext2 -b 4096 -L casper-rw /dev/sdX2
Mount the partitions on the pendrive. Take out the pendrive and put it back. Ubuntu Dapper or Edgy will mount the pendrive automatically if you have checked this option under System -->Preferences--> Removable media. Otherwise use 'mount':
sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /media/mountpointyouhave1 sudo mount /dev/sdX2 /media/mountpointyouhave2
On recent Ubuntu versions, the USB stick's partitions should simply appear under /media/ubuntu and /media/casper-rw if you have followed the proposed naming convention.
Installing Ubuntu on the USB pendrive
Download the Ubuntu image (for example, ubuntu-7.10-desktop-i386.iso) or put in the install CD if you have it. If you use the downloaded image you can access it as follows (supposing that the image is in the cuurent directory):
mkdir ubuntuCD sudo mount ubuntu-7.10-desktop-i386.iso ubuntuCD -o loop
You should now see the CD's icon on your desktop.
Open the CD's top-level folder and make sure that you see the hidden files too. (verify if View-->Show Hidden Files is checked).
Copy the following folders and files to the 1st partition of your USB pendrive:
Folders: 'casper', 'disctree', 'dists', 'install', 'pics', 'pool', 'preseed', '.disk'
Copy the folder 'isolinux' to the pendrive but rename it to 'syslinux'
Rename the file 'syslinux/isolinux.cfg' to 'syslinux/syslinux.cfg' on the pendrive either by right clicking on it and selecting 'rename'.
You can also run the following commands in the terminal. If you copy/paste, take care to make your browser window large enough to not have accidental line breaks inserted. And remember to replace /media/ubuntu with /media/whatmountpointyouhave1 if you used a different name for the mount point.
Add the -v option to cp to get some progress indication. The casper/filesystem.squashfs file in particular is large, and takes a long time to copy.
cd ubuntuCD cp -rf casper disctree dists install pics pool preseed .disk /media/ubuntu cp -rf isolinux /media/ubuntu/syslinux cd /media/ubuntu/syslinux mv isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg
The FAT32 file system will not allow symbolic links to be copied over. You will get a warning about this, but it is harmless.
Making the pendrive bootable
We are going to install the linux bootloader 'syslinux'. This bootloader needs a configuration file which is 'syslinux.cfg'. This is the file we just made by renaming 'isolinux.cfg' from the installCD. However we have to modify this file. Open the file 'syslinux.cfg' from the pendrive with your favorite texteditor. For instance:
gedit syslinux.cfg
The following edits need to be made:
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Search and replace /cdrom/ with nothing
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Change the DEFAULT to something unique. Here, we use persistent, but it could be anything.
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Copy the first LABEL section, paste it in after itself, and make the following edits to the original:
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The LABEL argument should be changed to what you put in DEFAULT above
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The menu label should be changed to describe the option; Start Ubuntu in ^persistent mode would seem suitable, with a caret before the "p" to make it a shortcut key for this option
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The word persistent should be added into the append line (this is the crucial point!)
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The following is an example of what you might end up with, and should be current as of Gutsy.
DEFAULT persistent GFXBOOT bootlogo GFXBOOT-BACKGROUND 0xB6875A APPEND file=/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash -- LABEL persistent menu label Start Ubuntu 7.10 in ^persistent mode kernel vmlinuz append file=/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper persistent initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash -- LABEL live menu label ^Start or install Ubuntu kernel vmlinuz append file=/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash -- LABEL xforcevesa menu label Start Ubuntu in safe ^graphics mode kernel vmlinuz append file=/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper xforcevesa initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash -- LABEL driverupdates menu label Install with driver ^update CD kernel vmlinuz append file=/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper debian-installer/driver-update=true initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash -- LABEL oem menu label ^OEM install (for manufacturers) kernel vmlinuz append file=/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper oem-config/enable=true initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash -- LABEL check menu label ^Check CD for defects kernel vmlinuz append boot=casper integrity-check initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash -- LABEL memtest menu label ^Memory test kernel /install/mt86plus append - LABEL hd menu label ^Boot from first hard disk localboot 0x80 append - DISPLAY isolinux.txt TIMEOUT 300 PROMPT 1 F1 f1.txt F2 f2.txt F3 f3.txt F4 f4.txt F5 f5.txt F6 f6.txt F7 f7.txt F8 f8.txt F9 f9.txt F0 f10.txt
The menu choice called 'Persistent' was made the default so that when booting up you can just hit Enter to start your customized session.
You can also copy and paste this text as making a new file 'syslinux.cfg'.
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Kubuntu difference: text editor 'kwrite' instead of 'gedit'.
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Kubuntu difference: replace 'preseed/ltsp.seed' by 'preseed/kubuntu.seed'.
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Edgy difference: replace file=preseed/ubuntu.seed with preseed/file=preseed/ubuntu.seed
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Dapper difference: replace file=preseed/ubuntu.seed with preseed/file=preseed.lstp.seed
The last thing to do is installing the bootloader. Make sure you have the 'syslinux' and 'mtools' packages installed. The following command should be harmless if they are already installed.
sudo aptitude install syslinux mtools
(Or 'sudo synaptic' and select from the package list, or use 'apt-get').
First you need to unmount your usb stick:
cd ~ sudo umount /dev/sdX1
This command will install the bootloader on your pendrive:
syslinux /dev/sdX1
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don't know why, but i had to use the -f switch (syslinux -f /dev/sda1) - bernstein
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same here - I had to use the -f switch - krishnan
syslinux complained it couldn't create LDLINUX.SYS, but it worked in the Windows version (see below) -
According to this page syslinux 3.35 should be used to get support for fat32, maybe that is the problem since edgy ships with 3.11. According to the changelog 3.35 only seems to introduce support for subdirectories.
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If you get the error:
sh: mcopy: command not found syslinux: failed to create ldlinux.sys
then you will need to install the mtools package.
Eject the pendrive:
eject /dev/sdX
Reboot on the pendrive, change some settings, reboot again and check if the changes are kept (persistence check).
So that is it.
Do not forget to check if the computer you are going to use the pendrive on boots USB devices first (look in BIOS settings). Enjoy (k)ubuntu whereever you go.
If you boot the pendrive and persistency works but when you log in to gnome you get a message saying that it couldn't write to .ICEauthority , then a simple fix is deleting .ICEauthority. You can automate that by doing this:
echo >> .bashrc echo "# This makes GNOME work" >> .bashrc echo "rm .ICEauthority 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null" >> .bashrc
Installing Ubuntu on USB pendrive using Windows
TODO This is not updated for Gutsy
Preparing the USB pendrive
Download a copy of the for USB drives, this utility makes it as easy to format USB pen drives as it is to format floppies.
Don't bother wasting your time with this HP utility - it is rather useless. You can format the entire drive as FAT32 using the built in windows format (right click on the drive and select format, make sure to select FAT32 as the FS type). I found no way to partition the drive in windows, not even with 's Partition Magic (which usually does everything you could want). Either boot off an ubuntu CD/DVD and follow the linux instructions, or if you can't do that, simply follow these instructions but use the whole flash drive for the live CD, then once you have booted from it, you can repartition and make the ext2 volume from within ubuntu itself. I simply pulled the flash drive out and re-inserted it - this ensures ubuntu is no longer using it. Not sure what the risks are - I didn't have any troubles, but perhaps you should do this at your own risk (or maybe somebody knows a safer way). If somebody knows a free utility which can partition a flash drive in winxp, please put it here!!! - mrwolf
Plug in your USB pen drive and use the HP format utility to format it with a FAT32 filesystem.
Using a partitioning tool, create two partitions. The first is formatted with a FAT32 filesystem and needs to be 750 MB. The second should occupy the remaining free space and should be formatted with the ext2 filesystem and is given the name "casper-rw". Note! Most DOS partitioning tools will create the partition name in uppercase (CASPER-RW). Since Linux is case-sensitive you need to do the formatting of the second partition in Linux. The persistent feature will not work if the partition name is in uppercase. See the Wiki for details.
Installing Dapper or Edgy on the USB pendrive
This is the same as described in the Linux section except for accessing the downloaded image. The way to do this is to mount the iso image file and copy the files that way. You can do this with NERO or . You might want to do it this way if you don't want to burn a CD.
Making the pendrive bootable
Go to and download a copy of syslinux-3.11.zip for Windows. Extract the zip file contents and move the extracted folder to your favorite location on your hard drive.
Open and edit the file syslinux.cfg as described in the Linux section.
Open a command prompt and change directory to the location of the syslinux folder. For example, if you placed the folder on your desktop then: cd C:\Documents and Settings\(your user name)\Desktop\syslinux-3.11\win32 (by the way you DO know that command prompt has command completion just like in Linux (start entering characters and then press the TAB key to complete the entry)).
Next write the bootsectors to the flash drive by entering the following command:
syslinux -maf X:
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where X: is replaced by the drive letter of your USB key. Be careful to pick the correct drive letter!
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This will write the Master Boot Record (MBR), as well as mark the partition active.