5/20/2015 Installation/FromUSBStick ­ Community Help Wiki Partners Support Community Ubuntu.com Page History Login to edit Search Installation/FromUSBStick Outline Contents The general procedure to install Ubuntu (or Ubuntu flavour, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, 1. Outline Xubuntu, ...) from a USB flash drive is: 2. Introduction 3. Prerequisites 1. Acquire the correct Ubuntu installation files ('the ISO') 4. Creating a bootable Ubuntu USB flash drive from 2. Put Ubuntu onto your USB flash drive Ubuntu 3. Configure your computer to boot from USB flash drive and boot from it 1. Install and run Startup Disk Creator alias usb­creator 4. Try Ubuntu (Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, ...) before installing it 2. Unetbootin 3. mkusb ­ dd image of iso file to USB device 5. Install Ubuntu to your internal drive (hard disk drive or solid state drive). safely 4. Booting USB drives with grub2 and iso files 'grub­n­iso' 5. Booting USB drives with grub2 and Introduction installing tar files 'One Button Installer' 5. Creating a bootable Ubuntu USB flash drive from Ubuntu can be installed from a USB flash drive. This may be necessary for Mac OSX netbooks and other computers without CD drives and is handy for others because 6. Creating a bootable Ubuntu USB flash drive from a USB flash drive is so convenient. Also, you can configure Ubuntu on the USB Windows flash drive to save changes you make, unlike a read­only CD­ROM drive. 1. Linux Live Usb Creator 2. Unetbootin Booting from a USB flash drive created with usb­creator alias Startup Disk 3. Win32DiskImager Creator and mkusb will behave just as if you had booted from the install CD. It 4. Booting USB drives with grub2 and iso files 'grub­n­iso' and 'One Button Installer' will show the language selection and then the install menu, from which you can 7. UEFI install Ubuntu onto the computer's hard drive or launch the LiveCD environment. 1. Stable portable systems ­ good for USB Other utilities, e.g. Unetbootin, may create slightly different boot drives or if on sticks UEFI might not work at all with Debian iso files due to a bug 2. Creating an EFI­only image 3. Ubuntu single boot in UEFI mode Note: This article uses the term "USB flash drive" alongside USB stick, USB 4. Portable installed system booting from UEFI drive, USB device, USB pendrive and thumb drive. and BIOS 8. Booting the Computer from USB 1. Chainloading Prerequisites 9. Alternative methods 1. PLoP Boot Manager 2. Installing Ubuntu directly on a USB flash To create a USB installation device, you will need: drive 3. Create Bootable USB Manually a 2 GB USB flash device/drive/stick. If the iso file is smaller than 1 GB, it 10. Known Issues is possible to use a 1 GB USB device, at least with some of the methods. 11. See also Files on this USB device will be erased, so backup the files you want to keep before making the device bootable. Make sure this USB device is properly formatted and mounted. an Ubuntu flavour ISO file (see GettingUbuntu to download it) Notes about speed The most common USB ports and USB flash drives work according to the USB 2 standard. Booting from USB 2 from a live drive is faster than from a corresponding CD/DVD disk. Standard USB 2 flash drives have rather slow flash hardware, with read and write speed much slower than the transfer speed of USB 2, so it is worth checking if the speed is specified. USB 1.1 is also possible to use, but it is very slow, slower than a corresponding CD/DVD disk. Hardware according to the USB 3 standard is much faster than USB 2. So if you have a USB 3 port and a USB 3 flash drive, booting and running will be as fast as from an internal drive (SATA or IDE) or an external eSATA drive. And a USB 3 flash drive has much faster flash hardware, and it is usually specified. The market changes quickly, so it is worth checking on the internet, which brand and model to select to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick 1/9 5/20/2015 Installation/FromUSBStick ­ Community Help Wiki get the best buy 'today'. USB 3 flash drives are much faster than USB 2 flash drives also in USB 2 ports, because the flash hardware is not limiting the transfer speed. For the same reason a USB connected HDD is also much faster than a USB 2 flash drive. USB 2 flash drives are particularly slow when there are many small files to read and write. This makes then very slow when running persistent live systems and 'installed systems' (installed in the normal way, but to a USB drive). Also the lifetime (number of write operations on a memory cell) is much higher with the high quality hardware in USB 3 flash drives. But still, you should use noatime in fstab and use swap only for extreme situations to avoid excessive wear. A LED (light emitting diode) helps you avoid unplugging the USB flash drive too early (while it is saving data from the buffers in RAM), and decreases the risk of corrupting the file system. Flash drive tests are described by C.S.Cameron in this link, post #5. See also the following links Link to USB 3.0 Flash Drive Speed Tests Link to USB 2 and USB 3 speed tests for installers Conclusion Standard USB 2 flash drives are good for normal live systems. Typically the speed is between 4 and 20 MB/s. USB 2 flash drives work, but USB 3 drives (or USB 2 HDDs) are recommended for persistent live systems and 'installed systems'. In the beginning of 2014, it seems that there are no really fast pendrives below 16 GB. Notes about size 1 GB is enough for a live USB flash drive made from a 'CD size' iso file. But unless you already have a 1 GB drive, you are recommended to get one with at least 2 GB, hence the general recommendation above. 2 GB is enough for 'CD size' iso files as well as many but not all 'DVD size' iso files. If you want a persistent live system with a decent size casper­rw storage, you need at least 4 GB (2 GB is possible, but might soon run out of space). If you want an installed system you need at least 8 GB (4 GB is possible with Lubuntu, but might soon run out of space). In the beginning of 2014, it seems that there are no really fast pendrives below 16 GB. If you want a fast system, install it into a pendrive that performs well in a test, even if it is 'bigger than necessary'. Notes about bootability Most but not all USB pendrives are reliable for booting, even many of the slower ones, and they are much cheaper, and should be OK particularly for regular read­only live drives (without persistence). Some computer hardware and some operating systems have issues with certain ports. And some USB pendrives just have issues also. Some of them cannot be used for booting. They are made to be mass storage devices, and have not exactly the same electronics and firmware. Some USB pendrives and computers 'do not like each other'. The pendrive might boot another computer, and the computer might boot from another pendrive (everything else being the same). This is a link to test by Pendrivelinux including bootablility of USB flash drives. This test was made a few years ago. The cheap and slow Sandisk Cruzer Blade, 4GB, can be added to the list of reliable pendrives for booting. I have used it extensively for years and it has failed only once (chainloading from Plop in a very old computer). This link shows a bootability test in January 2014. Some pendrives that did not work are shown in this link. This user is not the only one who likes 32GB Sandisk. The flash hardware This link to a post by DuckHook in the Ubuntu Forums describes how a flash drive works, and how it can fail, first getting read­only, then totally 'bricked'. The following link describes different hardware problems and what can be done to repair a USB stick/pendrive/flash drive http://www.wikihow.com/Repair­a­USB­Flash­Drive. Look for the tips and warnings! Creating a bootable Ubuntu USB flash drive from Ubuntu Install and run Startup Disk Creator alias usb­creator You can find usb­creator­gtk in the Unity Dash by typing "Startup Disk Creator" (Ubuntu Desktop) or usb­creator­kde in K­Menu­­ >Applications­­>System­­>Startup Disk Creator (Kubuntu). If it is not there, then you can install it using the Synaptic Package Manager or Ubuntu Software Center https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick 2/9 5/20/2015 Installation/FromUSBStick ­ Community Help Wiki Insert and mount the USB drive. Inserting the USB drive should auto­mount it. Start usb­creator. It looks like this in 13.10: in the top pane of usb­creator, pick the .iso file that you downloaded. if the .iso file isn't listed, click "Other" to locate and select the .iso file that you downloaded. Alternately, if you have a CD or DVD­ROM with the Ubuntu version you want to install on the USB flash drive, insert it in your CD­ ROM drive and usb­creator can use that. It is not necessary to erase the USB flash drive, however it is advisable that you do so.