How to create a bootable Live Linux USB flash disk

Mar 15, 2010 | Comments 1

A live USB is a USB flash drive or a USB external hard disk drive containing a full operating system which can be booted. It i some what similar to Live CD. The main advantages of Live USBs are that it has the ability to save settings and permanently install software packages back onto the USB device. Live USBs can be useful tool for system administration, data recovery, or the testing of operating system distributions without affecting the the local hard disk drive.

Here we are talking about a tool which is Live USB creator is a cross-platform tool for easily installing live operating systems on to USB flash drives. It works in Windows and Linux. The Linux we use is Fedora. But you can use any Linux distribution for this purpose. I chose 4 GB USB drive so that you can get enough space to file system and other files

For Windows Installation

Download the installer here

If you excisting Live CD you can save time or the application itself download the image

For Fedora Install

# yum install liveusb-creator

execute the liveusb-creator tool (it must be started as root, in Linux):

# liveusb-creator

Here you can use an existing downloaded LiveCD, or the tool can download a Fedora image for you to burn. You can also download the Sugar on a Stick operating system, which is an educational Sugar environment for children to be able to boot any computer into their own personalized Sugar environment.

You can also tell the tool how much persistent storage to reserve on the USB stick. This space can be used to save files and make modifications to the LiveCD image, allowing you to boot and run Fedora with any changes you make.

Click the Create Live USB button. Make sure that the target device shows up properly; if it isn’t already selected, make sure you select the correct device (i.e., /dev/sdg1 on Linux or ‘E:’ in Windows). Another important thing is that the install is completely non-destructive, so the device can contain other data as well.

Once the Live USB Creator is completed, eject the USB drive, insert it and reboot the existing computer. Modify the BIOS or via boot selection at startup which device to boot from. Select the USB drive and watch Fedora booting.

Thats it. You have a Live Fedora USB stick in your hand !