Installing Ubuntu to a USB drive

Posted by Carl Smotricz on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Carl Smotricz
Published on 2009-12-29T15:30:43Z Indexed on 2010/04/13 10:43 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 458

Filed under:

ubuntu

|

usb-flash-drive

|

usb-boot

I'm having a rough time getting Ubuntu to run from a 250 GB USB hard drive.

I booted Ubuntu 9.10 from a CD and ran the regular "install" to the attached USB drive. I used the "advanced" option on the drive partition question to put the boot loader on /dev/sdb (the USB disk) but when I boot the machine it doesn't recognize there's a boot loader on the USB drive (it offers to boot from 2 other devices but not the USB disk).

I also tried booting from the Ubuntu CD and using usb-creator-gtk to set up the USB drive. Seems to me this is meant to work with flash drives. I got a bootable USB disk but it looked and worked like the CD, i.e. it gave me options of "live CD" operation, installing, memtest, etc. That's not the way I want to run the system.

Some help in installing Ubuntu, bootable into a "full" running system on my USB drive would be appreciated.

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about ubuntu

Cannot update, apt-get cannot fetch index files

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.10 from the iso 'ubuntu-11.10-desktop-amd64.iso'. I installed this in VMWare Fusion 4.1.1 running on OSX 10.7.3. When setting up the VM, I allowed easy install to take care of creating my user and installing VMWare tools. No problems during installation, everything… >>> More
'sudo apt-get update' error on Ubuntu 12.04

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
When I type in 'sudo apt-get update' I get this mohd-arafat-hossain@TUD:~$ sudo apt-get update [sudo] password for mohd-arafat-hossain: Ign http://bd.archive.ubuntu.com precise InRelease Ign http://bd.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates InRelease Ign http://bd.archive.ubuntu… >>> More
Opening Skype, Opera, OpenOffice logs me off

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
Whats common among Skype, Opera, OpenOffice in Ubuntu ? Whenever I open these applications I get logged off and shows back me the login screen. This started happening since the 10.10 upgrade. Forgot to mention : Yes, its x64.Each time I open these applications, the UI shows and then crashes. I… >>> More
Update information outdated

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a warning triangle that my update information is outdated, the last update was 12 days ago. I use Ubuntu 11.10. A run of sudo apt-get update produces the following output: Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net oneiric InRelease Ign http://de.archive.ubuntu.com oneiric InRelease … >>> More
ubuntu/apt-get update said "Failed to Fetch http:// .... 404 not found"

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi all, I'm trying to run apt-get update on ubuntu 9.10 I've configured my proxy server and I can access the internet without any problem: /etc/apt# wget "http://www.google.com" Resolving (...) Proxy request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 292 [text/html] Saving to: `index.html' 100%[=================================================================================================================================>]… >>> More

Related posts about usb-flash-drive

16GB Usb Flash Drive shows as 16MB and is unusable

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
i have a sandisk Cruzer 16GB usb flash drive but it started to show up as 16MB. and i cant use it , it tells me that i need to format the drive or "Please insert a disk into drive X" does anyone have any recommadation for any software so i can check the flash drive? Edit: i cant format it since… >>> More
How to boot Linux from a 16gb USB flash drive

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm trying to install Linux on a single partition of a USB flash drive that's larger than 4gb. The first place I went to is http://pendrivelinux.com. I can follow these instructions for installing Xubuntu 9.04 perfectly, which unfortunately break down when I try to scale it up beyond 4gb. There… >>> More
Create a Bootable Ubuntu 9.10 USB Flash Drive

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
The Ubuntu Live CD isn’t just useful for trying out Ubuntu before you install it, you can also use it to maintain and repair your Windows PC. Even if you have no intention of installing Linux, every Windows user should have a bootable Ubuntu USB drive on hand in case something goes wrong in Windows… >>> More
Create a Persistent Bootable Ubuntu USB Flash Drive

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
Don’t feel like reinstalling an antivirus program every time you boot up your Ubuntu flash drive? We’ll show you how to create a bootable Ubuntu flash drive that will remember your settings, installed programs, and more! Previously, we showed you how to create a bootable Ubuntu flash drive that would… >>> More
How does a hard drive compare to Flash memory working as a hard drive in terms of speed?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Some experiment I did with hard drive read/write speed was 10MB/s write and 40MB/s read, and with a USB Flash drive, it can be 5MB/s write and 10MB/s read. Also, if I put a virtual hard drive .vhd file in a hard drive or in a USB Flash drive and try a Virtual Machine using it, the one using the hard… >>> More