I have to use unetbootin,

i have to create persistent usb ubunt 10.04

tried it a couple times, it boots normal, but changes or installed packages dissapear after reboot. going crazy here.

what is the trick with unetbootin persistent option? why it doesnt work???

Start over. It is less of a headache.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14912...b-flash-drive/

the reason why i want to use unetbootin is because of this, here is what i am trying to do.

1- create 2 ext2 partitions on 16gb usb drive.
2- to first one, create Backrack Live CD. (no persistent)
3- second partition, create Ubuntu persistent.

thats is exactly what i did but persistent ubuntu didint work becasue i couldnt edit syslinux.cfg file to add persistent line to the file where it says it is read only. i couldnt change the permission.

so in this scenario i have two unetbootin created Backtrack and Ubuntu Persistent on my USB right. in order to change the os from one to another, i was executing "sudo parted /dev/sdb set '#' boot on"

this works for me, no problems here. but persistent doesnt work.

so i am not sure if i could do the same thing for universal usb installer. I am not sure if i can do the same thing the same way???

i am also actually surprised that not many people are or have tried the same thing that i am doing. everybody is satisfied with multiple LiveCDs in usbs. but i need the persistent in ubuntu...

See pendrivelinux.com. They have a small installer that I like better than unetbootin.

I have stopped using those too. I just install the disto to a flash drive just like it was a normal drive. To be safe unplug your hard drive in case you make any mistakes if you want. Then the usb is a real drive except for the squash file system saving space. An 8G now can be used and can have a real kernel update.

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i need to do this because i want to start any machine with this usb drive, i thought with that direct installation, you can not start any machine becasue of the driver problems and everything. please correct me if i m wrong??? but here is the solution that i came up with anyway...

- i created a casper-rw partition seperate from home-rw partition.
- installed ubuntu live usb through unetbootin, after installation finished,
- edit the syslinux.cfg file from different OS because if you start it from the live usb you just created you can't overwrite that file.
- then starte it regularly from usb and when unetbootin screen comes and showing options press tab at Default and at the end of the code add persistent starting with space.

this worked for me. everything that i make even the settings stays the same, packages stays everything stays it is amazing.

what i m trying to do basically is by using unetbootin in the same flash drive have two things

1- persistent ubuntu
2- (not persistent) Backtrack Live

so in seperate partitions in the usb drive i individually created live Backtrack first then the Persistent Ubuntu.

If anybody knows a better of creating both OSs with given specifications in the same usb flash drive, please do let me know.

I know you can have many Live cd s in the same usb but i needed ubuntu persistent and actually work as persistent.

this was the solution that worked for me.

and jefro thank you for your response...

Back to pendrivelinux.com for one of ways to create a multiboot. Might work as iso based and persistent on one.

Usually you can use a menu or loader to select. The persistent is easier on one disto.

I doubt you need a partition unless you want to go with real installs.


A distro doesn't change by how it boots. Real or live usb install is the same driver selection.

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