Ubuntu – How to create a Debian/Fedora live USB on Ubuntu 17.10

debianfedoraisolive-usbstartup-disk-creator

I tried to use Startup Disk Creator, but it seems that it can only create Ubuntu live disks. Is there any software that can help me create live USB disk for any .iso files? Please also mention how to use that software or provide a link to the guide of using that software.

Best Answer

You can use mkusb in Ubuntu to create USB boot drives for all the major linux distros. And you can use it in many other linux distros to create Ubuntu boot drives. The standard method clones the iso file to a live-only system on the target drive using dd under the hood. mkusb 'wraps a safety belt' around the powerful but dangerous dd tool.

See this link,

help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb

sudo add-apt-repository universe  # only for standard Ubuntu

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mkusb/ppa  # and press Enter
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mkusb mkusb-nox usb-pack-efi

There is a list of tested operating systems,

Linux distros where mkusb works

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Trouble making a Live USB with Debian ‘Sqeeze’

You can also use dd.

First, find out what the USB drive is called with sudo fdisk -l, then unmount it, then run

sudo dd if=/path_to_iso/ubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386.iso of=/dev/sdX

the /dev/sdX part is whatever fdisk had shown, usually /dev/sdb or dev/sdc.

Example

Here is the output of sudo fdisk -l showing my USB drive:

Disk /dev/sdc: 256 MB, 256900608 bytes
60 heads, 27 sectors/track, 309 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1620 * 512 = 829440 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00040358

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1         310      250879    b  W95 FAT32
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(31, 59, 27) logical=(309, 43, 18)

What we need is the device name, which in this case is /dev/sdc. You may have it designated differently,for example /dev/sdb or /dev/sdd (!/dev/sda is usually the hard drive, so don't use it!).

Lets assume that the ISO I want to write to that USB drive is in the Downloads folder in my home directory.

sudo dd if=Downloads/ubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386.iso of=/dev/sdc

The command will write the contents of the ISO image to the USB device.

live-usb – How to Create Bootable USB from Pre-installed Ubuntu

Disclaimer: Creating a bootable USB without using the downloaded ISO but the pre-installed Ubuntu is a little complicated for new users. If you want that, see the answer below. This answer gives two simpler alternatives.

Make a standard bootable Ubuntu USB from within pre-installed Ubuntu (simple)

Frist, check the installed version of Ubuntu by opeining a terminal (press Ctrl+Alt+T) and type lsb_release -a.

Note down the version number and OS Type (32bit or 64bit).

Second, download the ISO from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop, by selecting the appropriate version.

Third, insert an USB drive (4GB or greater for Ubuntu, 2GB or greater for Lubuntu, Xubuntu).

The Startup Disk Creater takes two inputs, the location of the ISO file and the location of the USB drive.

Fourth, point the Startup Disk Creater to the ISO and the USB drive.

See the help on Create a usb stick on ubuntu for a simple set of instructions.

Also see a more detailed instructions on USB stick creation

Remastersys does not exist anymore.

The next section is obsolete.

Make a custom bootable backup Ubuntu USB from pre-installed Ubuntu (Complicated)

First, Add Remastersys source information to Software Center. Open Software Center and click on “Edit” and select “Software Sources.”

Select the “Other Software” tab at the top and you need to click the “Add” button, and copy and paste this:

deb http://www.remastersys.com/ubuntu precise main

And then click “+Add Source”, then click "Close" and completely close out of Software Center.

Add the PGP key for the Remastersys repository, in Terminal (press Ctrl+Alt+T) copy the two lines below one line at a time and paste (press Ctrl+Shift+V) in Terminal:

wget -O - http://www.remastersys.com/ubuntu/remastersys.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update

Second, install Remastersys. Open Software Center and search for and install remastersys.

Third, run Remastersys. Click on "Backup" and wait a long time till it finishes creating the ISO file.

Fourth, create startup USB following instructions above.

More detailed information and some qualifications on how to do this is here. Hope this helps.