Can I convert a live Ubuntu USB to one with persistent memory?

I know there are other posts about how to create a live ubuntu usb with persistent memory - HOWEVER, there is no [question / answer] on how to convert a live (ubuntu) usb to one with persistent memory / storage. Is this possible?

asked Mar 16 at 11:55

Duncan

1532414

maybe it can help: askubuntu.com/questions/397481/…

– Sadegh 6khan
Mar 16 at 12:00

(**Summon sudodus)

– Emmet
Mar 16 at 12:05

add a comment |

asked Mar 16 at 11:55

Duncan

1532414

maybe it can help: askubuntu.com/questions/397481/…

– Sadegh 6khan
Mar 16 at 12:00

(**Summon sudodus)

– Emmet
Mar 16 at 12:05

add a comment |

asked Mar 16 at 11:55

Duncan

1532414

live-usb persistent

asked Mar 16 at 11:55

Duncan

1532414

asked Mar 16 at 11:55

Duncan

1532414

asked Mar 16 at 11:55

Duncan

1532414

asked Mar 16 at 11:55

Duncan

1532414

asked Mar 16 at 11:55

Duncan

1532414

maybe it can help: askubuntu.com/questions/397481/…

– Sadegh 6khan
Mar 16 at 12:00

(**Summon sudodus)

– Emmet
Mar 16 at 12:05

add a comment |

maybe it can help: askubuntu.com/questions/397481/…

– Sadegh 6khan
Mar 16 at 12:00

(**Summon sudodus)

– Emmet
Mar 16 at 12:05

maybe it can help: askubuntu.com/questions/397481/…

– Sadegh 6khan
Mar 16 at 12:00

(**Summon sudodus)

– Emmet
Mar 16 at 12:05

add a comment |

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

Changing Live Pendrive to Persistent Pendrive

That works with both BIOS and UEFI

Many people prefer a Persistent pendrive that will save changes.

Create a Live pendrive using Rufus or similar.

Boot the pendrive toram to make the drive editable, (press shift when booting, press Esc from language, press F6, press Esc, type {space}toram after "quiet splash ---", and press Enter.

Create a casper-rw file:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=casper-rw bs=1M count=512

sudo mkfs.ext3 -L casper-rw -F casper-rw

(where count=512 is persistence size, with max 4GB).

Move the new casper-rw file from home to the root of the Live Pendrive.

Edit /isolinux/txt.cfg, (for BIOS boot persistence) and /boot/grub/grub.cfg, (for UEFI boot persistence), add a space and the word "persistent" after "quiet splash ---".

Shut down and reboot the persistent drive.

It is also possible to turn a Live USB into a Full install USB which has some advantages, except it won't install Ubuntu: Can Ubuntu be installed to the pendrive it was booted from?

edited Mar 17 at 4:49

answered Mar 17 at 4:20

C.S.Cameron

4,94211029

Is ext3 required for a persistent? What does casper-rw have to do making it persistent? This is very interesting, I'd like to make a persistent USB myself for recovery tools but with a different FS and possibly even multiple distros. If I were to append toram to GRUB, would I be able to make a separate persistent partition that could auto install packages I've left in the persistent drive?

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 4:35

2

@avisitoritseems: The above assumes the drive is formatted FAT32. The casper-rw file is internally ext3 but exists in a FAT32 environment and can be seen by Windows. You can add as many distros as you have partitions, (using UNetbootin for Windows), but a persistent pendrive will use the first casper-rw file or partition it encounters on boot. Rufus and Startup Disk Creator do not allow persistent partitions, only the persistent files casper-rw and home-rw. mkusb would be a great base for what you want. You can also Full install as many OS as you have partitions without persistence problem

– C.S.Cameron
Mar 17 at 5:10

Apologies for the basic question, but what does mkusb do differently than simply making a ext4 partition with the unzipped ISO files and placing the .efi file in a FAT32 boot partition? I tried that just now and the bootloader wasn't able to find the kernel.

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 5:14

1

Mkusb makes a UEFI boot partition, BIOS boot partition, ISO9660 OS partition, ext2 casper-rw persistence partition and NTFS data partition that Windows can also use. Mkusb uses grub2 as a bootloader, (sdx3), the path to the kernel is found there.

– C.S.Cameron
Mar 17 at 5:22

How would one manually edit a grub2 conf prior to use to point the path to the kernel? What I am considering is using Rufus to create a Windows install USB, then installing rEFInd to the boot partition with modified .efi files to point to each unix distro for a multi-tool of installs.

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 5:35

|
show 3 more comments

If you have a live (live-only) Ubuntu USB drive, there should be nothing saved in it. An exception would be if Ubuntu was extracted from the iso file into a file system (for example FAT32), and in that case you might have some files saved there, and they should be copied to some other drive or to a location in the internet cloud.

So there is no system-specific 'custom' file in your live Ubuntu USB drive, and therefore no need to convert it. Instead you can make a fresh installation of a persistent live system into your USB drive. You can also consider upgrading to a fast USB 3 pendrive (or even a USB SSD).

mkusb is a tool that can create a persistent live drive and use the whole drive. It creates several partitions, including a casper-rw partition with the ext4 file system for persistence. It can also create a usbdata partition with the NTFS file system for exchange of data with computers running Windows. See the following links,

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

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/persistent

answered Mar 16 at 13:48

sudodus

25.6k33078

Thank you for your help and time - greatly appreciated.

– Duncan
Mar 18 at 10:58

add a comment |

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2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

Changing Live Pendrive to Persistent Pendrive

That works with both BIOS and UEFI

Many people prefer a Persistent pendrive that will save changes.

Create a Live pendrive using Rufus or similar.

Boot the pendrive toram to make the drive editable, (press shift when booting, press Esc from language, press F6, press Esc, type {space}toram after "quiet splash ---", and press Enter.

Create a casper-rw file:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=casper-rw bs=1M count=512

sudo mkfs.ext3 -L casper-rw -F casper-rw

(where count=512 is persistence size, with max 4GB).

Move the new casper-rw file from home to the root of the Live Pendrive.

Edit /isolinux/txt.cfg, (for BIOS boot persistence) and /boot/grub/grub.cfg, (for UEFI boot persistence), add a space and the word "persistent" after "quiet splash ---".

Shut down and reboot the persistent drive.

It is also possible to turn a Live USB into a Full install USB which has some advantages, except it won't install Ubuntu: Can Ubuntu be installed to the pendrive it was booted from?

edited Mar 17 at 4:49

answered Mar 17 at 4:20

C.S.Cameron

4,94211029

Is ext3 required for a persistent? What does casper-rw have to do making it persistent? This is very interesting, I'd like to make a persistent USB myself for recovery tools but with a different FS and possibly even multiple distros. If I were to append toram to GRUB, would I be able to make a separate persistent partition that could auto install packages I've left in the persistent drive?

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 4:35

2

@avisitoritseems: The above assumes the drive is formatted FAT32. The casper-rw file is internally ext3 but exists in a FAT32 environment and can be seen by Windows. You can add as many distros as you have partitions, (using UNetbootin for Windows), but a persistent pendrive will use the first casper-rw file or partition it encounters on boot. Rufus and Startup Disk Creator do not allow persistent partitions, only the persistent files casper-rw and home-rw. mkusb would be a great base for what you want. You can also Full install as many OS as you have partitions without persistence problem

– C.S.Cameron
Mar 17 at 5:10

Apologies for the basic question, but what does mkusb do differently than simply making a ext4 partition with the unzipped ISO files and placing the .efi file in a FAT32 boot partition? I tried that just now and the bootloader wasn't able to find the kernel.

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 5:14

1

Mkusb makes a UEFI boot partition, BIOS boot partition, ISO9660 OS partition, ext2 casper-rw persistence partition and NTFS data partition that Windows can also use. Mkusb uses grub2 as a bootloader, (sdx3), the path to the kernel is found there.

– C.S.Cameron
Mar 17 at 5:22

How would one manually edit a grub2 conf prior to use to point the path to the kernel? What I am considering is using Rufus to create a Windows install USB, then installing rEFInd to the boot partition with modified .efi files to point to each unix distro for a multi-tool of installs.

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 5:35

|
show 3 more comments

Changing Live Pendrive to Persistent Pendrive

That works with both BIOS and UEFI

Many people prefer a Persistent pendrive that will save changes.

Create a Live pendrive using Rufus or similar.

Boot the pendrive toram to make the drive editable, (press shift when booting, press Esc from language, press F6, press Esc, type {space}toram after "quiet splash ---", and press Enter.

Create a casper-rw file:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=casper-rw bs=1M count=512

sudo mkfs.ext3 -L casper-rw -F casper-rw

(where count=512 is persistence size, with max 4GB).

Move the new casper-rw file from home to the root of the Live Pendrive.

Edit /isolinux/txt.cfg, (for BIOS boot persistence) and /boot/grub/grub.cfg, (for UEFI boot persistence), add a space and the word "persistent" after "quiet splash ---".

Shut down and reboot the persistent drive.

It is also possible to turn a Live USB into a Full install USB which has some advantages, except it won't install Ubuntu: Can Ubuntu be installed to the pendrive it was booted from?

edited Mar 17 at 4:49

answered Mar 17 at 4:20

C.S.Cameron

4,94211029

Is ext3 required for a persistent? What does casper-rw have to do making it persistent? This is very interesting, I'd like to make a persistent USB myself for recovery tools but with a different FS and possibly even multiple distros. If I were to append toram to GRUB, would I be able to make a separate persistent partition that could auto install packages I've left in the persistent drive?

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 4:35

2

@avisitoritseems: The above assumes the drive is formatted FAT32. The casper-rw file is internally ext3 but exists in a FAT32 environment and can be seen by Windows. You can add as many distros as you have partitions, (using UNetbootin for Windows), but a persistent pendrive will use the first casper-rw file or partition it encounters on boot. Rufus and Startup Disk Creator do not allow persistent partitions, only the persistent files casper-rw and home-rw. mkusb would be a great base for what you want. You can also Full install as many OS as you have partitions without persistence problem

– C.S.Cameron
Mar 17 at 5:10

Apologies for the basic question, but what does mkusb do differently than simply making a ext4 partition with the unzipped ISO files and placing the .efi file in a FAT32 boot partition? I tried that just now and the bootloader wasn't able to find the kernel.

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 5:14

1

Mkusb makes a UEFI boot partition, BIOS boot partition, ISO9660 OS partition, ext2 casper-rw persistence partition and NTFS data partition that Windows can also use. Mkusb uses grub2 as a bootloader, (sdx3), the path to the kernel is found there.

– C.S.Cameron
Mar 17 at 5:22

How would one manually edit a grub2 conf prior to use to point the path to the kernel? What I am considering is using Rufus to create a Windows install USB, then installing rEFInd to the boot partition with modified .efi files to point to each unix distro for a multi-tool of installs.

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 5:35

|
show 3 more comments

Changing Live Pendrive to Persistent Pendrive

That works with both BIOS and UEFI

Many people prefer a Persistent pendrive that will save changes.

Create a Live pendrive using Rufus or similar.

Boot the pendrive toram to make the drive editable, (press shift when booting, press Esc from language, press F6, press Esc, type {space}toram after "quiet splash ---", and press Enter.

Create a casper-rw file:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=casper-rw bs=1M count=512

sudo mkfs.ext3 -L casper-rw -F casper-rw

(where count=512 is persistence size, with max 4GB).

Move the new casper-rw file from home to the root of the Live Pendrive.

Edit /isolinux/txt.cfg, (for BIOS boot persistence) and /boot/grub/grub.cfg, (for UEFI boot persistence), add a space and the word "persistent" after "quiet splash ---".

Shut down and reboot the persistent drive.

It is also possible to turn a Live USB into a Full install USB which has some advantages, except it won't install Ubuntu: Can Ubuntu be installed to the pendrive it was booted from?

edited Mar 17 at 4:49

answered Mar 17 at 4:20

C.S.Cameron

4,94211029

Changing Live Pendrive to Persistent Pendrive

That works with both BIOS and UEFI

Many people prefer a Persistent pendrive that will save changes.

Create a Live pendrive using Rufus or similar.

Boot the pendrive toram to make the drive editable, (press shift when booting, press Esc from language, press F6, press Esc, type {space}toram after "quiet splash ---", and press Enter.

Create a casper-rw file:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=casper-rw bs=1M count=512

sudo mkfs.ext3 -L casper-rw -F casper-rw

(where count=512 is persistence size, with max 4GB).

Move the new casper-rw file from home to the root of the Live Pendrive.

Edit /isolinux/txt.cfg, (for BIOS boot persistence) and /boot/grub/grub.cfg, (for UEFI boot persistence), add a space and the word "persistent" after "quiet splash ---".

Shut down and reboot the persistent drive.

It is also possible to turn a Live USB into a Full install USB which has some advantages, except it won't install Ubuntu: Can Ubuntu be installed to the pendrive it was booted from?

edited Mar 17 at 4:49

answered Mar 17 at 4:20

C.S.Cameron

4,94211029

edited Mar 17 at 4:49

answered Mar 17 at 4:20

C.S.Cameron

4,94211029

answered Mar 17 at 4:20

C.S.Cameron

4,94211029

answered Mar 17 at 4:20

C.S.Cameron

4,94211029

Is ext3 required for a persistent? What does casper-rw have to do making it persistent? This is very interesting, I'd like to make a persistent USB myself for recovery tools but with a different FS and possibly even multiple distros. If I were to append toram to GRUB, would I be able to make a separate persistent partition that could auto install packages I've left in the persistent drive?

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 4:35

2

@avisitoritseems: The above assumes the drive is formatted FAT32. The casper-rw file is internally ext3 but exists in a FAT32 environment and can be seen by Windows. You can add as many distros as you have partitions, (using UNetbootin for Windows), but a persistent pendrive will use the first casper-rw file or partition it encounters on boot. Rufus and Startup Disk Creator do not allow persistent partitions, only the persistent files casper-rw and home-rw. mkusb would be a great base for what you want. You can also Full install as many OS as you have partitions without persistence problem

– C.S.Cameron
Mar 17 at 5:10

Apologies for the basic question, but what does mkusb do differently than simply making a ext4 partition with the unzipped ISO files and placing the .efi file in a FAT32 boot partition? I tried that just now and the bootloader wasn't able to find the kernel.

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 5:14

1

Mkusb makes a UEFI boot partition, BIOS boot partition, ISO9660 OS partition, ext2 casper-rw persistence partition and NTFS data partition that Windows can also use. Mkusb uses grub2 as a bootloader, (sdx3), the path to the kernel is found there.

– C.S.Cameron
Mar 17 at 5:22

How would one manually edit a grub2 conf prior to use to point the path to the kernel? What I am considering is using Rufus to create a Windows install USB, then installing rEFInd to the boot partition with modified .efi files to point to each unix distro for a multi-tool of installs.

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 5:35

|
show 3 more comments

Is ext3 required for a persistent? What does casper-rw have to do making it persistent? This is very interesting, I'd like to make a persistent USB myself for recovery tools but with a different FS and possibly even multiple distros. If I were to append toram to GRUB, would I be able to make a separate persistent partition that could auto install packages I've left in the persistent drive?

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 4:35

2

@avisitoritseems: The above assumes the drive is formatted FAT32. The casper-rw file is internally ext3 but exists in a FAT32 environment and can be seen by Windows. You can add as many distros as you have partitions, (using UNetbootin for Windows), but a persistent pendrive will use the first casper-rw file or partition it encounters on boot. Rufus and Startup Disk Creator do not allow persistent partitions, only the persistent files casper-rw and home-rw. mkusb would be a great base for what you want. You can also Full install as many OS as you have partitions without persistence problem

– C.S.Cameron
Mar 17 at 5:10

Apologies for the basic question, but what does mkusb do differently than simply making a ext4 partition with the unzipped ISO files and placing the .efi file in a FAT32 boot partition? I tried that just now and the bootloader wasn't able to find the kernel.

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 5:14

1

Mkusb makes a UEFI boot partition, BIOS boot partition, ISO9660 OS partition, ext2 casper-rw persistence partition and NTFS data partition that Windows can also use. Mkusb uses grub2 as a bootloader, (sdx3), the path to the kernel is found there.

– C.S.Cameron
Mar 17 at 5:22

How would one manually edit a grub2 conf prior to use to point the path to the kernel? What I am considering is using Rufus to create a Windows install USB, then installing rEFInd to the boot partition with modified .efi files to point to each unix distro for a multi-tool of installs.

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 5:35

Is ext3 required for a persistent? What does casper-rw have to do making it persistent? This is very interesting, I'd like to make a persistent USB myself for recovery tools but with a different FS and possibly even multiple distros. If I were to append toram to GRUB, would I be able to make a separate persistent partition that could auto install packages I've left in the persistent drive?

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 4:35

@avisitoritseems: The above assumes the drive is formatted FAT32. The casper-rw file is internally ext3 but exists in a FAT32 environment and can be seen by Windows. You can add as many distros as you have partitions, (using UNetbootin for Windows), but a persistent pendrive will use the first casper-rw file or partition it encounters on boot. Rufus and Startup Disk Creator do not allow persistent partitions, only the persistent files casper-rw and home-rw. mkusb would be a great base for what you want. You can also Full install as many OS as you have partitions without persistence problem

– C.S.Cameron
Mar 17 at 5:10

Apologies for the basic question, but what does mkusb do differently than simply making a ext4 partition with the unzipped ISO files and placing the .efi file in a FAT32 boot partition? I tried that just now and the bootloader wasn't able to find the kernel.

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 5:14

Mkusb makes a UEFI boot partition, BIOS boot partition, ISO9660 OS partition, ext2 casper-rw persistence partition and NTFS data partition that Windows can also use. Mkusb uses grub2 as a bootloader, (sdx3), the path to the kernel is found there.

– C.S.Cameron
Mar 17 at 5:22

How would one manually edit a grub2 conf prior to use to point the path to the kernel? What I am considering is using Rufus to create a Windows install USB, then installing rEFInd to the boot partition with modified .efi files to point to each unix distro for a multi-tool of installs.

– avisitoritseems
Mar 17 at 5:35

|
show 3 more comments

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

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/persistent

answered Mar 16 at 13:48

sudodus

25.6k33078

Thank you for your help and time - greatly appreciated.

– Duncan
Mar 18 at 10:58

add a comment |

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

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/persistent

answered Mar 16 at 13:48

sudodus

25.6k33078

Thank you for your help and time - greatly appreciated.

– Duncan
Mar 18 at 10:58

add a comment |

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

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/persistent

answered Mar 16 at 13:48

sudodus

25.6k33078

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

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/persistent

answered Mar 16 at 13:48

sudodus

25.6k33078

answered Mar 16 at 13:48

sudodus

25.6k33078

answered Mar 16 at 13:48

sudodus

25.6k33078

answered Mar 16 at 13:48

sudodus

25.6k33078

Thank you for your help and time - greatly appreciated.

– Duncan
Mar 18 at 10:58

add a comment |

Thank you for your help and time - greatly appreciated.

– Duncan
Mar 18 at 10:58

Thank you for your help and time - greatly appreciated.

– Duncan
Mar 18 at 10:58

add a comment |

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