unetbootin- How do I create a single USB stick with 2 live CD options?
Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
unetbootin- How do I create a single USB stick with 2 live CD options?
I don't know if what I want is even possible,
but I want to create a single liveUSB device that gives me the option of running/installing 12.04, OR running PartedMagic.
I only have one flash drive at the moment, and I'm trying to save a little money and a little clutter.
I just successfully created a 12.04 live USB on a 14gb flash drive, then got this idea.
If there's a way to just add PartedMagic, I'll do that, but if not,
I'll just format the drive, and install both on it at once.
Anyone got any advice?
There are several methods to do this. I'm sure others will chime in with their own preferred method, but here are some options to consider. The manual method will take a bit longer. The multiboot creators are GUI based and pretty much do all the heavy lifting for you, but they can also be hit-and-miss in certain cases.
Check out Easy2Boot v1 (free s/w). This makes a multiboot USB flash drive that you just drop any live iso to and it will just work!
All you need is a grub4dos USB flash drive (2013 version of grldr).
Then add any linux ISO you like to the \mainmenu folder once you have copied the Easy2Boot v1 files to your USB drive.
99% of linux ISOs just work. You must test from a real system not a VM though (it may or may not work under a VM).
If just using it to test linux ISOs (and not Windows install ISOs) then you can use either a flash drive or a hard disk.
Sure, bit Yumi and others like XBoot need to know what the ISO is and you have to run Yumi every time to update the USB stick and create new menu entries. Every time new linux releases come out, these tools have to be updated and replaced. Easy2Boot works with (almost) any linux live ISO and once you have added the Easy2Boot files, you just copy the linux ISOs to the USB stick or delete them from the USB stick whenever you want, at any time in the future. Easy2Boot is just a set of files which grub4dos boots to, not a utility. Easy2Boot does not know what the ISO is, it just maps it to a partition so that linux will 'see' it when the protected-mode kernel boots - it is entirely version/sku/flavour agnostic.
I got Multiboot to work and put my chioce of distros on my flash drive, no Problem.
(Multiboot's interface is butt-ugly to me, but it Works, and that's what counts, right?)
Took a while for me to get back to this thread, got sucked right into another project, but thanks for the help!
You can use Grub2 as a bootloader on the flash and boot numerous distributions by simply copying the iso file of the distribution to the / of the partition. This works with pretty much any Ubuntu derivative and Parted magic works also. You can find a number of posts on this at the Ubuntu forums by searching 'boot an iso file from grub12'.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.