boot

Hello
I have a couple of 4GB usb pen drives and a 16 GB ADATA one.

When I want to boot from the Linux I have installed in the pen drive, do I have to go to F2, enter the bios and set it to boot from USB or can I tap F12 and do it that way. I have used the 3 major installers, Linux Live USB installer, UNetbootin and USB Universal Installer and cannot get Ubuntu or any distro to boot from this drive. I have formatted it as FAT 32 not NTFS.

I had some success booting from the 4GB pen drives with some distros but not always.

I installed Zorin OS which was great but it started to ask for a password which was never mentioned in the process so I had to delete it.

The question is, am I booting wrong to be making so many errors? I have a Win 8.1 OS with 6 GB ram.

I have 3 4GB pen drives and a 16 GB drive. The 16 is an ADATA and the others are Sandisk.

All I want is a live USB with persistence for updates. I found Ubuntu the easiest and Zorin equal to it except for the password issue.

Thanks for any help.

Set the boot order in the BIOS to:

1st boot: USB

2nd boot: CD drive

3rd boot: Hard drive

* With no bootable USB connected and no bootable CD inserted, your computer will boot as normal to your hard drive.

* With no bootable USB connected but a bootable CD inserted, your computer will boot to CD

* With a bootable USB inserted your computer will boot to USB

And after a bootable usb  in the computer it will return to boot to normal hard drive, on the second boot with no usb in the pc or is another adjustment necessary?

And after a bootable usb  in the computer it will return to boot to normal hard drive, on the second boot with no usb in the pc or is another adjustment necessary?

No other other adjustment is necessary, the computer will boot to the hard drive if the bootable USB is removed.

Those three sequences I mentioned will always apply on every new boot or re-boot.

I understand that now.

May I ask, when I tap F12 as it boots up and  see usb then hit enter, I see usb in a blue box which has the boot options. I then hit enter after highlighting usb and it does boot from usb.  Is this not the same as going to F2  and changing it to boot from usb first?

I have learned how to do it your way for which I am grateful, but wonder if the procedure I outlined is basically the same.

I have issues after the boot takes place either with the pen drive, the way I should boot as you explained or the program I am using.

So for now, should my F12 be the same as F2 as long as the usb is recognized and it is booting?

Using F12 is my preferred method of booting to a CD/DVD or flash drive.

I have my BIOS boot order set to:

1. Hard drive

2. DVD

3. USB

This works best when booting from USB to install. If you have USB set as the first boot device, then it gets in a boot loop, or at least it does for me. Boots, I do the first part of an install. The system reboots and right back to the USB flash drive. If you set it up as I show, then use F12 (or whatever Fn key the manufacturer designates) you can boot from USB, do the first part of the install then on reboot, the hard drive takes over and completes. Otherwise I've  had to remove the flash drive after part 1 of the install then stick it back in once the hard drive has started booting. No big deal but if you're not paying attention it can mess you up.

 

Using F12 is my preferred method of booting to a CD/DVD or flash drive.

 

I have my BIOS boot order set to:

1. Hard drive

2. DVD

3. USB

agreed.

my reasons are it just saves a few seconds on boot because it doesn't have to search for any usb or optical drives before starting the boot from hard drive.

doesn't really make any difference tho F12 or F2 both achieve what you want.

F2 is to enter bios and set a fixed boot order which is used every time the pc starts.

where F12 is used to choose a temporary first boot device for that one time of starting the pc.

Forgot about that Terry. I see a slight improvement in boot time as well.

My boot order is the same as both of you.

I am glad I waited.

I will be back to find out why I am having trouble other than boot order when I can more specific.

Creating this Linux Live USB has been iffy.

Zorin was great on a 16 GB stick but it kept asking for a password that is only involved with a direct hard drive installation or with the paid version, in my opinion.

I got a s far as setting "auto log in but that locked me out. I wrote to them and they said a reply would be forth coming in 24 hours. That was three days ago.

Mint was on a 4 GB stick but there were errors I cannot remember.

Ubuntu needs a larger stick than I have other than the 16 GB ADATA which seems faulty.

I have tried to test it.

I need to buy a 10 GB stick for Ubuntu and try that.

I have used the 3 major installers  to no avail. I will let you know so others can create their own usb live stick.

Thank you for your very timely reply.

Peter

Peter,, can you post a link to the tutorial you are following? I'll give it a try and see what I get.

If none, can you write out the steps you are taking?

Rich

I appreciate that.

Insert the pen drive and format it. Open any of the 3 installers like UNetbootin or Live Linux USB installer.

Follow the prompts to select distro, format, check on the correct drive, allow for persistence about 1500 mb of the 16GB, and run the program.

Then  reboot and tap F12. It says a kernel is wrong or files are broken depending on the the installer. I was having luck with Zorin and the ADATA 16 GB and the 4GB and Mint but now none are working. I ran SFC + it is ok. It is as though my installer capacity or function is not working.

I will fill in more specifically if necessary although you may see my problem already.

Thank you for the reply.

I have tried about 30 times with different drives and distros. Ubuntu Zorin and Mint all work at one time although Zorin's password became a problem.

Thank you for your help.

Peter

don't confuse a live usb with an installation to usb.

the sticks you have already are plenty big enough for running ubuntu live cd with persistent files.

 

If I understand you, you want to know the differences between persistent USB and a full install USB.

Persistent Live USB: 2GB or more

First, Persistent Live USB takes less space.

One can create a non-persistent Live USB with a 1GB USB drive. To create a persistent Live USB you would need a slightly bigger one, say 2GB.

Second, Persistent Live USB can be used for installation.

A persistent Live USB is essentially a copy of the installation DVD. The files in the original ISO remains as is. Updates and future installations are saved in the space designated for keeping the changes. Say, you update Firefox. in a normal installation the old one is replaced. In persistent installation the old one stays as is, the newer version is located in the persistent virtual disk (within the USB) taking up extra space and sometimes creating problems, for example for kernel updates. Now if you install Ubuntu from this persistent copy into another hard drive the original version of Firefox in the DVD image will get installed.

Booting a persistent Live USB gives the students access to the "Install Ubuntu" icon on the desktop. Students can "accidentally" start the install process and delete the contents of the hard drive.

Third, Persistent Live USB is less secure.

There is no login process in the Persistent Live USB. The default user has admin rights and does not need a sudo password to exercise it. This means, a malicious studnet can boot a persistent USB of another student and easily access stored documents, uninstall or reconfigure applications etc.

Fully installed Ubuntu in an USB: 8GB or more

First, Installation takes more space than keeping the image of the installation DVD, about 5GB.

Once installed, the system can be updated, and customized. Uninstalling unneeded software will free up space.

Second, Hardware on which the full install is created is important.

The Live DVD image in the persistent USB is created with compatibility with most computers in mind. However, once installed on a specific hardware, the installation gets a bit customized for the specific components. This is important particularly if the computer has some parts that require proprietary drivers. Once these drivers are installed, the USB may not work on computers that do not have those specific hardware. Conversely, if the installation is done on a computer that does not need any proprietary drivers, that specific installation may not work on the machines that do need them.

Therefore, if the goal is to use the USB in different computers, a persistent Live USB may be a better choice than a full installation.

Third, Full installation is more secure.

Creation of an user ID and a password is required during installation. This password is needed for any administrative action. One can also set it up to require the password at login.

Also see Difference between LiveCD, LiveUSB, full-install, and persistence?

http://askubuntu.com/questions/295701/what-would-be-the-differences-between-a-persistent-usb-live-session-and-a-instal

as for the zorin asking for a password all the time, that sounds to me like you did an install to usb and is exactly what i'd expect it to do any time your trying to do something that needs root privileges because that is the correct procedure and one of the main reasons linux is considered more secure than windows. nothing can just make changes without you knowing about it and why you need to enter the password, either that or it was a login password so nobody except you can use the usb stick and access your files without the password.

either way it is good security that you needed to enter a password.

I have read a lot of this.

I am doing what I think I should. Are you saying my pc is getting "used to" certain settings and no longer responds as it should?

As said there is a lot of writing on the web about the password issue with Zorin for example.

I know the persistent drive is less secure but can get updates etc.,.

I am trying to create a live usb pen drive that will allow me to be a little more secure when  I do sensitive pcing.

I am a slow typer so cannot respond to all you said. I do know about it but am at a 'standstill'.  Perhaps my pc has been tainted by the attempts with the installers. I have performed maintenance on the machine.

I will keep trying and when home will engage my desktop.

Thank you

Well, just tried creating a bootable Zorin 8.0 flash drive.

It created fine using USB Universal Installer 1.9.5.1.

It will not boot on my UEFI/GPT system. I can select it from the F12 boot menu but it just blips a few times then boots Windows 8.

I set it to CSM mode and disabled Secure Boot, no joy.

I'll try booting it on my Win 7 Laptop and see what happens.

Edit: No good, won't boot there either. Downloaded the latest UUI, 1.9.5.2 and will try again. If it still doesn't work I'll try Puppy Linux as I only have a 4GB flash drive to play with at the moment.

 

Are you saying my pc is getting "used to" certain settings and no longer responds as it should?

no idea how you got to that conclusion but pc's don't "get used" to anything, they do exactly and only what they are told to do.

 

I am trying to create a live usb pen drive that will allow me to be a little more secure when  I do sensitive pcing.

any and all live distro's will do that, so don't see what was wrong with the puppy linux live usb you'd created and was using.

usually the whole point of using a persistent file system or installing to a usb drive is for portability of your personal files along with an os to access them from.

personally peter if i were you i'd go back to using the puppy live usb drive but this time when you come to leave the os select the persistent file option instead of the save nothing option and it will then save any changes you've made just make sure to save the files to the puppy usb drive and not the pc's hard drive.

 

Perhaps my pc has been tainted by the attempts with the installers. I have performed maintenance on the machine.

the installers shouldn't "taint" your pc unless you told them to make changes/install to your hard drive. be especially wary of where it's going to put any boot loaders.

any maintenance you've done also shouldn't make any difference to running a live/installed usb stick either.

 

I know the persistent drive is less secure but can get updates etc.,.

you can install some updates (not sure about kernel.) with any live cd/usb stick and if you want to save them instead of running the updates again next time you used the live distro then yes i think a persistent file system will save them for you, never done it this way myself tho.

just remembered you were using a ubuntu/mint live cd/usb stick last because that distro found and you were able to use your printer where with puppy you wasn't able to.

which leaves me to ask if you want persistent files why you didn't create the ubuntu/mint live usb stick with a persistent file system (might even be default and it does this anyway.)? your 4Gb usb stick is plenty big enough for that.

this link should explain and help you do what i think your aiming for :- http://www.maketecheasier.com/persistent-live-usb-vs-full-install-usb/