How to run Linux from a USB stick - Step by Step
Do you have an extra USB flash drive laying around? I know I have a few that just sit there and take up space. I figured, why not put it to good use? I started doing some research and experimenting until I finally compiled some solid steps to setting up my extra USB drives for Linux. I couldn’t find an easy enough step-by-step solution to get this done, so I’ve decided to put this together myself. I had a few prerequisites though. I wanted to be able to:
1. Boot from the USB drive without installing over the existing hard drive
2. Customize my installation, install programs, set preferences and save a persistent profile so I could keep it updated with all of my favorites.
3. Take up as little space as possible. I only have 2 GB.
I shopped around at my options and applications. I needed something thin, but powerful. I will be installing Puppy Linux on a 2 GB USB Flash Drive, with some added extras. I know you can do it smaller, but I wanted lots of bells and whistles. Plus, Puppy is usually small enough to run completely in RAM, making it extremely fast.
First you’ll need to gather your data. I used unetbootin to install Puppy Linux to my flash drive. Make sure you don’t mind deleting everything on your flash drive first. Here’s my step-by-step:
1. Download and run unetbootin, I used the windows version.
I would suggest using the download Distribution method, but feel free to download the ISO separately and use the Diskimage ISO method. Click on the ‘Select Distribution’ drop down and choose Puppy Linux. On the bottom, pick your USB drive and Click OK. The latest version of Puppy will download and install to your USB drive. This is the easy part. Let it go until it asks you restart. At this point, you’ll be ready to boot from Linux, but you should do a little more work first so you don’t have to worry about it later. You should be able to open your USB drive, in My Computer, and see whole bunch of linux files there. You can freely add more files, but don’t touch any of the ones just created.
2. Download .pup applications
If you go to www.puppylinux.org you can go to the download section and get puplets and software for Puppy Linux. I would suggest waiting to get them once you are in Puppy, but you can see ahead of time what there is to offer. For now, just download what you want and copy to a folder on your usb drive. While you’re there, I would suggest getting some of he WIFI drivers that might not be as common as the ones already in Puppy. They are located under WIFI in the Software page. Don’t worry, Puppy has an application that can add/remove programs just as easily.
3. Reboot and boot to USB.
If your BIOS was made in the last 5 years, it should allow booting to USB. Simply press F10 or F12 (or whatever your POST screen says for Boot devices). You might have to play around in your BIOS to at least ask about USB. When you boot to the USB, you’ll start seeing a typical Linux boot screen. It will ask you about your keyboard and video settings…I just hit enter a few times and take the defaults. You are good to go and you are now running Linux.
4. Install network and other software.
When you first login to a computer using your USB drive, you have to configure a network profile. Click on the ‘connect’ icon on the desktop and click on Internet by network or wireless. Set up your default ethernet card, usually eth0, for Auto DHCP. This should allow you to at least connect to the internet. Next install the dotpup package manager so you can install your pre-downloaded .pup applications. Click on the ‘install’ icon on the desktop and on the bottom right package manger icon on the window that pops up. Scroll down the list for the ‘dotpuphandler*’ item and click once. It will ask you what location, just use the first liblio link. Once this is done, you can simply click on .pup files to install those applications. Now go ahead and install Firefox and all of your other add-ons from the install application. For Firefox, I am a firm believer in Foxmarks. It will synchronize all of your bookmarks as well as passwords across multiple computers - a great feature when you’re switching between your Linux and familiar desktops. You can continue to browse the installer for more programs like OpenOffice and more media players. You should also see a USB image on the bottom of your desktop screen that will map to your USB drive. At this point, you can open that up and double click on your .pup files you downloaded. They should all install flawlessly and you’ll have access to your programs.
5. Save your profile…It will automatically ask.
When you want to test out the persistence of your efforts, try to restart your computer. It should ask if you would like to save your settings to a .2fs file. MAKE SURE YOU SAVE IT TO YOUR USB and not your hard drive. Just walk through the menus and save your profile. Now, as long as Puppy finds that .2fs file when it boots, it will load it. By default, it’s around 512MB, so make sure your drive has enough room. You can also back this file up and move it to other devices if you want to deploy multiple copies. This is the only file required to carry around your entire profile.
There you have it. Pop in your drive in to your friend’s computer and dazzle them. It should boot from most modern computers, without modifying the local hard drive. Continue to install add-ons and configure to your liking. I’m pretty satisfied with Puppy. I tried the different Ubuntu flavors, but they were too large and much slower. I hope you enjoy and let me know if your install has any differences.
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