A USB bootable drive discards all modifications made at shutdown. Is there a way to save it? If possible, how will that affect a version installed on to a different hard disk using that USB drive?
This is a way to make a USB key with
Ubuntu prereleases installed on it
that you can update every day and not
have to break your existing install.
Step 1: Download the latest Daily Natty image
Go to this page and download an ISO
for your computer. It should be saved
to the Downloads directory on your
computer.
Step 2: Create the USB stick installation
Click System -> Administration ->
Startup Disk Creator. It looks like
this:
When you start the application, it will likely automatically find the ISO you downloaded, which is displayed in the top pane. If you don’t see it, click the Other button and go and select the ISO (typically in your Downloads/ directory in your home directory).
It is recommended you first erase your USB stick, so select it in the bottom pane and click the Erase Disk button. When this is complete, you can then use the slider underneath the Stored in reserved extra space slider to select how much disk space can be used for saving files, documents and other things. Depending on the size of your USB move the slider all the way to the right to use the maximum space available.
Finally, click the Make Startup Disk button and Natty will be installed to your USB stick.
Step 3: Boot into the Key
Now you need to boot from USB stick.
To do this you may need to enter your
BIOS to enable your computer to be
able to boot from the USB stick. When
this is enabled you will typically
need to hit a button when you boot to
see the BIOS’s boot menu and then you
can select the USB drive.
Ubuntu should boot and look and
function the same as usual, apart
from being much slower as you are
running from the USB disk.
Step 4: Update and Prepare the Key
Although you installed the latest
daily you should ensure it is up to
date, and you can do this with:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
From now on you can update the key
daily to keep it up to date. Now you
need to enable apport so that when
something crashes it can report it to
Launchpad:
Edit /etc/default/apport, set and set
enabled=1.
Step 5: Test and Report Bugs
If we don’t know about the bugs
our community can’t fix them!
Since the key can be updated you
merely need to update it before you
are ready to test and then try it on
as many pieces of hardware that you
can find. Since apport is set to
report crashers you can quickly start
finding hardware bugs.
Filing a bug
is simple. Just open a terminal and
run:
ubuntu-bug unity
The ubuntu-bug program zips up some
debugging data from your system and
will then fire up a page in your
browser where you can enter a bug
report. This will then provide
details of the problem to the Unity
developers to help fix the bug.
How to make a dedicated Unity USB Stick
Step 1: Download the latest Daily Natty image
Step 2: Create the USB stick installation
When you start the application, it will likely automatically find the ISO you downloaded, which is displayed in the top pane. If you don’t see it, click the Other button and go and select the ISO (typically in your Downloads/ directory in your home directory).
It is recommended you first erase your USB stick, so select it in the bottom pane and click the Erase Disk button. When this is complete, you can then use the slider underneath the Stored in reserved extra space slider to select how much disk space can be used for saving files, documents and other things. Depending on the size of your USB move the slider all the way to the right to use the maximum space available.
Finally, click the Make Startup Disk button and Natty will be installed to your USB stick.
Step 3: Boot into the Key
Now you need to boot from USB stick. To do this you may need to enter your BIOS to enable your computer to be able to boot from the USB stick. When this is enabled you will typically need to hit a button when you boot to see the BIOS’s boot menu and then you can select the USB drive.
Ubuntu should boot and look and function the same as usual, apart from being much slower as you are running from the USB disk.
Step 4: Update and Prepare the Key
Although you installed the latest daily you should ensure it is up to date, and you can do this with:
From now on you can update the key daily to keep it up to date. Now you need to enable apport so that when something crashes it can report it to Launchpad:
Edit /etc/default/apport, set and set enabled=1.
Step 5: Test and Report Bugs
Filing a bug is simple. Just open a terminal and run:
The ubuntu-bug program zips up some debugging data from your system and will then fire up a page in your browser where you can enter a bug report. This will then provide details of the problem to the Unity developers to help fix the bug.
Ubuntu Liveusb Wiki
I would caution against doing an update or upgrade on a persistent usb drive.
Maximum persistence size is 4GB and this can quickly be fill doing updates.
Upgrades are not possible as the kernel is located in filesystem.squashfs which is read only.
Once the casper-rw file is filled, the drive will not boot,
In this case the casper-rw file may be mounted and data removed from it.
Casper-rw partitions can be used for persistence size over 4GB.