Linux USB Boot – How to Boot Linux from USB Pendrives

bootlinuxusbusb-flash-drive

Booting a Linux system off USB Pendrives is one of my favorite things.

On a laptop we have the following advantages,

  • The Harddisk can be shutdown and that reduces power consumption (hdparm)
  • The system heats lesser and the fans are triggered less frequently
  • The system can take more shocks (a bumpy backseat taxi ride)

With old workstation hardware,

  • Can be used for quick testing of the hardware platforms
  • Linux (Ubuntu these days) works quite well with most hardware
  • One Downside: Many old motherboard BIOS do not support a USB boot

I have preferred a USB "boot-stick" to a LiveCD in most cases.

Questions.

  1. What other advantages and problems have you seen or anticipate with USB booted Linux?
    • What is your choice of Linux for this purpose?
    • Would you suggest ext4 or something more proven/stable for a linux usb-boot?
    • Do you often find USB drives getting corrupted?
    • Do you partition your USB drives?

Recent install guide reference,
Ubuntu Karmic Koala Encrypted Flash Memory Installation (edited July 22 2009).

This install guide is for installing Ubuntu 'Karmic Koala' in a USB flash memory stick with
the LUKS encrypted ext4 file system by running the Ubuntu Karmic Koala 'Alternate CD'.

Best Answer

When booting of USB media, I would be careful of the following:

  1. Swap, unless you need it, save the writes of the flash
  2. Keep the filesystem slim, turn off SELinux/AppArmour unless you need it
  3. Tune the journaling and cache settings to get better performance

I have a USB key that I use to boot all my systems, it contains the kernel and bootloader with configurations for machine. I also keep the encryption keys for my hard-disks on it.

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