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Hannu
Asked: 2024-01-09 21:27:39 +0800 CST

Tinkering with "writable" in "Try ubuntu"-mode on 20.04 Desktop install media

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After booting the install media, going into "Try mode"

In a naive move I reformatted the "rewritable" partition to FAT, from ext4(?), expecting it to still work in the same manner (for general data storage).

It was not that easy...

As I boot /dev/sdb3 gets mounted at /var/crash, which is writable as I do sudo -i only.

Any tips on how to restore "writable" for the intended use, AND keep FAT32/VFAT/exFAT as type?

Is there a viable (easy?) way to tinker with the iso9660 image to get this working?

From another Linux (a VM!) with the USB-stick inserted I see:

enter image description here

... gparted tells that /dev/sdb is an iso9660 image, and shows nothing inside it,

... using fdisk,

$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
...

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 14.93 GiB, 16008609792 bytes, 31266816 sectors
Disk model: Cruzer Blade    
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x405a23c7

Device     Boot   Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *          0  8498951  8498952  4.1G  0 Empty
/dev/sdb2       5717156  5725283     8128    4M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sdb3       8499200 31266815 22767616 10.9G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Command (m for help):
boot

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Nobody has an answer to this?
    So let me present what I found to be "working".

    1. Use e.g. Balena Etcher to create the Ubuntu install media
      (on an USB-stick I presume here)
    2. Before you boot the stick, use e.g. fdisk to add a single partition
      in the free space after the image you just wrote to it.
      .
      NOTE: gparted displays the CD image, not the partitions
      -- thus rendering the partion creation impossible!
    3. Now boot, then look for the additional partition, format it, and to make it read and writable on virtually any OS; use e.g. FAT32.

    There may be other filesystems that will work for you. I'm inclined to stay with the simple ones, in hope to have less problems that way.

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