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Ravan
Asked: 2015-10-06 03:37:42 +0800 CST

How to create an bootable .iso file from Ubuntu Live USB?

  • 772

I have an Ubuntu 14.04 Live USB (32 GB).

  • Is it possible to create a bootable .iso file from the Live USB ?

how can I create a bootable ISO?

live-usb

3 Answers

  1. It should be enough to just cat the device. If your USB is, for example, /dev/sdb, you can do:

    cat /dev/sdb > foo.img

    to restore the image to a USB disk, do:

    cat foo.img > /dev/sdb

    Note that this approach will create an image file as large as the drive itself, even if the drive is almost empty. If the drive is not 100% full and you only want an iso of the used space, use genisoimage (install it with apt install genisoimage) instead:

    genisoimage -o foo.iso /path/to/usb/mount/point
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  2. I found a tool called Pinguy Builder which creates .iso from within the operating system.

    Pinguy Builder will create an installable ISO of your current system.

    You can burn this ISO to an USB drive or write it directly to a DVD.
    The DVD/USB is bootable and so can then be booted from any PC.

    Depending on what option you choose you can determine what type of ISO will be created.

    If you pick “Dist”, it backups the whole system but excludes your home folder.

    If you pick “Backup”, it backups the system and will include your home folder.

    References :

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/pinguy-os/files/ISO_Builder/

    How to launch Pinguy Builder on Ubuntu?

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  3. At this date, your tools for creating a bootable ISO in Linux include Systemback, Clonezilla, Distroshare, and possibly a few paid alternatives that I have not tried (e.g., TeraByte, PowerISO). I am still hoping to find a way to do it with dd.

    There are many detailed tutorials for the ISO process in Systemback and Clonezilla. I have found Systemback much more user-friendly. It has been forked within the past year or two, and even the older version works for me on Ubuntu 21.04. But Clonezilla seems to be much more enduring and widely known. You may want to try a few different tools and see which works best for you, or at least view a few different tutorials.

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