Basically the question is is it possible????
Good Day Everyone:

Here is what I want to do, iso's ready and waiting to be installed after your help here hopefully.

I have a external hdd that I want to use it for Ubuntu and Backtrack together.

I need a Backtrack 5 in there as a Live CD so the settings of the Backtrack goes back to its original settings every time that I start it. In addition, I want to have Ubuntu installed in there as well but NOT as a Live CD perhaps as a Persistence Ubuntu so the folders and packages that I install stays there all the time. However, I also want both OS to be bootable in any machine. You guys know what i mean, start it from usb and there you go u have two OS to chose from.

The external HDD is big enough no problem with that.

So since I want to dual boot them together, I am not sure which OS i should install first on the harddrive. When the computer is starting I want to plug that usb HDD, and start the machine from the external then choose in Grub either the Live CD or Ubuntu. I will use that external in different machines all around.

Thats basically what I am planing on doing. I am not sure if it is possible to dual boot a Live CD Backtrack and Ubuntu Persistence on the Grub I have never done it before.

Please let me know if you have any detailed information I can post here in no time.

I appreciate your help in advance. Hopefully I can figure this out

Thank you....

Here is what I was thinking with my limited knowledge.
I was thinking of formating the HDD and creating two partitions right at the beginning. Then in one of those partitions

I would think it is possible as long as you have a menu as the frontend to control what gets booted.

Here are two tools that might help.

xboot & sardu

There are many more utilities out there, these are just two that come to mind.

I'd do a real install of dual boot instead.

i ll give it a try to xboot and sardu. i was trying some stuff but no luck so far. we keep here posted. thank you for your reply

I have two problems with the real installation.

1- if I do a real install of the both OS, I dont think I can boot any machine with the external. I want to able to boot any machine when i put the external. Please correct me if I am wrong.

2- I dont want to mess up the Backtrack's settings. I want Backtrack to be as quite as it gets when it boots every single time.

I ll try the tools suggested here then lets see what happens. Thank you.

nope it didnt work. tried many different ways. with xboot it creates the live cds but i can not make the ubuntu persistent then.

So if anyone has an idea how to
1- install Backtrack as Live CD (Live CD only, No Persistent)
2- install Ubuntu as "Persistent" Live CD or as if you were installing into a real HDD (I want to be able to edit files)
3- They should be able to dual boot from the External HDD that I am trying to install into.

Yes you can install to a usb just as a real drive. Use uuid to get past the boot order changing sdx names.

You would have to set all settings on a real install in any case.

ok the only solution that i could find to this problem is divide the usb hdd to two partitions, by using unetbootin create a live backtrack on one partition then create a persistent ubuntu on another partition but at the boot time you can not choose in between. so lets say you boot it from a usb hdd, then which ever partition has the boot flag associated starts. lets say it is set to ubuntu. if you want to change it to backtrack, at ubuntu you have to use parted /dev/sdX set Y boot on command in terminal then restart and backtrack opens since it has the boot flag. there are several problems with this the first and most important problem is persistent ubuntu doesnt satisfy me. for example i change settings in ubuntu persistent and when i reboot those settings are gone.

however, i have been working on this task for so long but now i give up and just use it like this. I tried to use grub which didnt work for some reason because grub and unetbootin dont like eachother since they overwrite eachother. what i did was i did a full install of ubuntu on one partition and backtrack live in the other partition but then the grub disappeared. I didnt think this task of having ubuntu fully installed and backtrack live on the same usb hdd would be that difficult but for now this is the solution that i m going with. anybody has better idea let me know.i hope this helps to other people as well.

The difference between a USB install of Ubuntu (and most other distros), and installing it to the USB drive, is that the normal USB versions simulate the CD, and can boot in different PCs. Installing a distro to a USB simulates normal installation to a hard drive, and loses portability (it works in the machine in which it is installed, but may/will not boot in other hardware setups). Fcukinyahoo may have been successful by changing the order of installation - Backtrack (or other distro) first, then Ubuntu, because Ubuntu's install does a nice job with grub, and adds the other distro(s) to it's boot menu. But this method comes with the limitation above; it will only work on the installed PC or identical hardware.
Sardu (windows) and Multisystem (linux) are similar programs which allow one to install multiple distros to a USB, but they don't come with the persistence to install extra packages and customizations.
It is possible to add "persistence" but that is another dissertation.