boot

@Rich =Your trying what I am doing is very helpful and the reports are of great help to me. Please let me know about any other attempts. Thanx for hanging in.

@terry - Your post was long and some of it above my head. I did make a Puppy Linux but found it too hard compared to Ubuntu. I thought experimenting with different distros was the only way to find out which to use. As I said Zorin was great except for the password issue which I think is a way to get one to pay or is a glitch. Mint is not that easy.  Ubuntu is my level but I cannot seem to recreate it. I did not know it would be so hard to remake again or I would not have removed it. Don't forget you are a pro with this and I am learning as I go along.

There is something wrong with my pc or me which I readily admit to.

**I happen to be on my wife's laptop for the last week as we are on vacation and the only success I had was at home on my desktop before we left. I am behind my router at a hotel.

I am going to try to do this without the router.

i think the problem is your trying to over think things peter and are making it seem more complicated than they are/should be.

from a windows pc.

all you need to do is download the ubuntu live cd iso.

download and use linux live usb creator

start the startup disc creator needed to put the iso file on the 4gb usb stick, select the 4gb usb stick as disk to use

slide the slider where it say the documents and settings will be saved in the reserved extra space all the way to the right using up the full 4Gb usb sticks space.

make the startup disc.

or download the unetbootin for windows and select persistence.

far as i know peter that's all you need to do to have a live usb stick with persistent file storage on a 4gb usb stick.

now just plug it in boot the laptop/pc use the F12 option to boot to the ubuntu live usb stick and away you go.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

THERE IS NOTHING ELSE YOU NEED TO WORRY ABOUT SECURITY WISE so don't go trying to over think or complicate things now you have a running live usb stick with persistent file storage.

ALSO note the usb stick is not meant to be used as your normal desktop, yes use it to do "sensitive pcing" but after that's done then just reboot and use your normal operating system.

if you really want to run a secure linux operating system which you can keep updated then using a usb flash memory stick is NOT the way to go, they wear out much to quickly with all the writes and are also way slow.

for that easiest way is to buy a dedicated usb3 hard drive like this :- http://www.amazon.com/WD-Passport-Essential-WDBACY5000ABK-WDBACY5000ABK-NESN/dp/B008C4KNOO/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_15?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1396963502&sr=1-15&keywords=usb+hard+drive

use the ubuntu live usb stick you've created to do a full install to the new external hard drive, making sure it's bootloader is put on it too and not on the hard drive in the laptop/pc.

ok not going to be as fast as if installed onto the internal hard drive if you don't have usb3 ports but it will also not wear out like the usb flash memory stick does.

this then should be able to be used anytime you want to run the linux operating system in exactly the same way you've been using the live usb memory stick on both your laptop and pc.

i caveat to that tho is if you install any proprietary software like graphics drivers then it may not work as you expect on the/any other device. for example if the pc had nvidia graphics card and you install the nvidia driver then when you try and use it on the laptop the laptop may have intel/ati graphics so the nvidia drivers won't work. now it may not boot to a desktop like you expect and leave you at a command line, try booting back on the desktop again tho and it would work as expected.

it may just boot regardless too tho, i know i've swapped and booted suse linux hard drives around without any problems even when i had installed proprietary drives for one machine that the other machine didn't have and it still worked just fine.

 

which I think is a way to get one to pay

one last thing peter, you've mentioned paying for linux os in a number of your topics now, so please understand linux NEVER needs paying for.

if you are told you need to pay to use a linux os then you are being ripped off plain and simple.

terry

I will write when I get home and try this w/o the motel and router etc.

I have read your note thoroughly and am doing exactly as you say.

I will keep this message of yours and when home and after another try, I will let you know what happens.

I know there is nothing else you can do - I would just be appraising you.

I understand all you said and am appreciative.

ok, no probs.

one last thing i know security is your biggest concern, so first never use a public wifi connection to do anything "sensitive"

now if you go the live usb route with persistence then when you use the live usb always check your browser is the latest version, update it if it's not.

go directly to the needed site and do your banking or online shopping, nothing else no general web browsing first or going from a banking site to a shopping site for example.

once done banking/shopping clear all browser history/cookies etc and close the browser.

exit the live cd and reboot your pc

use your usual os for everything else you want to do on the internet.

if you go the direct install to the external hard drive route, then just use it like any other os, keeping everything updated.

with banking and online shopping tho like the live cd i'd always recommend opening the web browser go directly to the banking/shopping site, do your business, then clear all history and cookies, shut down the browser.

after that you can open the browser again and just carry on doing what you like as normal.

After removing the router from the motel hookup I was able to install Puppy on a 4 GB pen rive with no persistence for the first time in 20 tries. I then tried  Ubuntu with the 16 GB and it failed.

I'll be home tomorrow and I'll bet the router was one problem and the 16 GB adata was no good -we will see.

After getting home and using my desktop and gateway etc. Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS  installed to the 16 GB drive well and was running perfectly with firewall, time, Firefox etc.

I clicked updates whch ended up with a bunch of script on the reboot page and it froze.

I had to hard boot so I removed that from the drive.

Would 13. be a better choice?

Because I began this thread I thought it appropriate that I close it.

I finally installed Ubuntu 13.10 on the 16 GB stick with persistence and have rebooted several times.

All is working well; time, internet, printer etc.

I remember what a help section of Linux had said, that if you cannot install a distro to either try again or switch to another one.

In my case it was a matter of firewalls, isps and other factors as I was on vacation most of the time. As soon as I came home, all worked out. I do not know why 12.04 only worked once but am relieved that 13.10 seems to now be stable after rebooting.

Thank you all for helping me struggle to achieve this goal.

Peter