Creating and installing Multiple Distros in to USB / Pendrive involves two parts:-
"After googling around for few days i found this useful script from www.multicd.tuxfamily.org. Multicd.sh is a shell script written by maybeway36 which enables two or more Live Linux distros / utilities to be able to boot from single CD/DVD. It is really very simple to create multi Live Linux distro in a single disc. Create a folder in your home folder and name it as multicd
. Put all the live Linux iso images along with multicd.sh script inside multicd folder. Close the window. Open terminal and give the following commands
cd multicd
chmod +x multicd*.sh
sudo ./multicd*.sh
Above commands will execute multicd.sh. While executing, this script will download few packages from Internet and make a new iso image called multicd.iso for you inside multicd folder. Check the size of multicd.iso image file. If it exceeds more than 700 mb then you must insert DVD to write it. Choose burn image option from your favorite image burning software to write multicd.iso file. Upon reboot, with the CD/DVD present inside CD/DVD drive, new GRUB will display list of live distros available in the disc. Choose your favorite one to login...
Note: When you download any Linux iso image from internet it will look like this "ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386" but this has to be renamed as ubuntu.iso (inside multicd folder). Presently this script supports 20 live distros. List of Live Linux distros supported in this script are given below (and the names accepted by this script are on the right side of each distro)."
There's a list of distro's on the blog page.
- Installing Multiple Live distro in to a USB / Pendrive.
UNetbootin
allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions without burning a CD. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. You can either let UNetbootin download one of the many distributions supported out-of-the-box for you, or supply your own Linux .iso file if you've already downloaded one or your preferred distribution isn't on the list.
Support amongst others: Ubuntu (and official derivatives) 8.04 LTS 9.10 10.04 LTS 10.10 11.04 Daily CD Images, Fedora 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, Rawhide and lots lots more.
If you look at them image you can choose distro's or download ISO's yourself and add them or add a custom. And you can set this up on a hard disc or a USB flash drive.
![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/q0yai.png)
I hope it is enough information but there is a lot more info on this blog.
Best Answer
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:
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:
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.