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Making an installable linux on a flash drive

Discussion in 'General Linux Discussion' started by adamjohnson, Oct 11, 2016.

  1. adamjohnson

    adamjohnson New Member

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    I bet this question has been beat to death but maybe I'm not looking for the right question.

    When I get a new distro of linux (say Debian 8) and burn the ISO to a CD/DVD I get a bootable, installable disk. This also is the same from things like SystemRescueCD -- which I use extensively.

    But if I try to do the same with a flash drive, I get some menu system that Unetbootin installs, that is hit or miss useable. To this date I've yet to get a bootable flash drive that actually /works/ reliably from a flash drive. So I'm assuming that Unetbootin doesn't work, and I've not found any thing that works from linux.

    So is there a way to make a flash-drive version like you get on a CD/DVD? Ultimately there won't be CD/DVDs so is there a solution that works?
  2. Gizmo

    Gizmo Chief Site Administrator Staff Member

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    I've not had a need to make a bootable USB flash drive, but have you tried using a tool like RUFUS?
  3. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Sounds like you just want a "live disk" with Mint or Ubuntu on a USB flash drive.
    This is the only way I will install Linux on any computer. I never use CD's or DVD's anymore

    If you are in Windows, use Universal USB installer

    In Mint I just download the Linux ISO, right-click it and select "Make bootable USB"
  4. Gizmo

    Gizmo Chief Site Administrator Staff Member

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    .....or you could just right-click and select "Make bootable USB". LOL. I'm so used to doing things the old way that sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees. :rolling:
  5. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Yeah, that is new in Mint 17
    I was using Windows to create Mint USB bootable flash drives because I didn't know how to do it in Linux.
    Then I noticed that right-click menu and it works perfectly. Its actually easier than the Windows Universal USB installer.
  6. Daerandin

    Daerandin Well-Known Member

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    You can also use the dd command, but it is a command that must be used with responsibility as mistyping could lead to completely wiping your hard drives (I'm not kidding). On the plus side it will create a bootable USB from a live iso image with a single command.

    If you want to try out the dd method just ask and I can walk you through it.

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