UNetbootin

[ichase]

Greetings,As I have continued to read and research all things Linux. (No......I'm no where close to reading it all ), I came across a program that comes with some distros including Parted Magic. It's called UNetbootin. Has anyone used this program yet?From what I have read, I could use this program to install multiple distros on an external HDD. Which for me would be great considering I can use my laptop at work (not on the Government network) to play with multiple distros without installing to it. (Can't, belongs to the company) This is also great, considering as you may have read in another post, I do not have much to any time at home to learn.I know Frank Golden posted about how to run multiple distros on an external CD. I truly appreciate him doing that. I am sure his way is quite easy, but for someone as novice as myself, it actually looked confusing. :)And as I have also mentioned that I would love to learn much about CLI, I can appreciate a GUI program that may assist with this task.So, if you have used this program before, I did attempt it but it did not work. May have been my fault. (OK....More than likely my fault )I would love to hear what you think and if it was quite easy for you.All the best,Ian

Edited December 6, 2010 by ichase

[securitybreach]

Umm, I use Unetbootin all the time and I have never heard of it being able to install multiple distros on a harddrive. The function of unetbootin is to create bootable Live USB drives from an iso file. I do not believe there is any other functionality built into the application. Well it also allows you to download the iso from the application but thats it.http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

UNetbootin can create a bootable Live USB drive, or it can make a "frugal install" on your local hard disk if you don't have a USB drive. It loads distributions either by downloading a ISO (CD image) files for you, or by using an ISO file you've already downloaded.

NOTE: Frugal (or poor man's) install just copies the files on the CD to the hard drive and then you can use a bootloader to load it. So maybe that is what you mean.

[Frank Golden]

Greetings,As I have continued to read and research all things Linux. (No......I'm no where close to reading it all ), I came across a program that comes with some distros including Parted Magic. It's called UNetbootin. Has anyone used this program yet?From what I have read, I could use this program to install multiple distros on an external HDD. Which for me would be great considering I can use my laptop at work (not on the Government network) to play with multiple distros without installing to it. (Can't, belongs to the company) This is also great, considering as you may have read in another post, I do not have much to any time at home to learn.I know Frank Golden posted about how to run multiple distros on an external CD. I truly appreciate him doing that. I am sure his way is quite easy, but for someone as novice as myself, it actually looked confusing. :)And as I have also mentioned that I would love to learn much about CLI, I can appreciate a GUI program that may assist with this task.So, if you have used this program before, I did attempt it but it did not work. May have been my fault. (OK....More than likely my fault )I would love to hear what you think and if it was quite easy for you.All the best,Ian

As Josh notes Unetbootin is only for creating Live USB flash devices of various Live CD distros.It cannot do multiboot setups on an external drive.BTW, If you have a Win 7 .iso Unetbootin can be used to create a USB flash based Win 7 install disk.There is a program called Multisystem that can install many Linux Live distros on a USB flash drive.http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/07/easily-...boot-usb-stick/Follow the instructions to install in Ubuntu.With a Fat 32 (a must) formatted flash drive you can install a bunch of different Live distros on a suitably sized flash drive.Format the drive using Windows first, then plug it in in Ubuntu (where you installed Multisystem) and start MultisystemIt's located at Applications>Accessories>Multisystem.Highlight the drive and click validate.To create multiboot Live distros drag and drop your different Live distro .iso's to then space provided in the Multisystem window.Do this one at a time, waiting for Multisystem to complete each time.When done booting to the thumb drive will offer a boot menu that can be used to select the Live distro you want to boot.This only allows multibooting Live distros, none will be persistent but will allow you to try various distros with you hardware etc.Running a Live distro from a USB device is much quicker than from a Live CD.Almost as quick as if it were installed on your HDDActually Multisystem does allow one distro to be persistent.Again this is not the same as "permanently" installing a Linux distro on an external drive.

[securitybreach]

That is a pretty nifty tool Frank, thanks for posting about it

[Frank Golden]

That is a pretty nifty tool Frank, thanks for posting about it

I've used it to create a Multiboot USB of Clonezilla Live, Parted Magic, Gparted, SystemRescueCD, Easy Peasy, Ultimate Edition 2.6 & 2.8, Mint 10, Ubuntu 10.10 and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.That's 11 distros.This is on a 16 GB drive, I have room for many more.

[vonbiber]

I have several linux live systems installed on usb sticks (slax, pmagic, RIPlinux, ...). I like slax the best because of its modules system.I have 3 systems installed on my hard drive: slackware 12.2, slackware 13.0, and slackware 13.1I use grub as a boot loader.There's a (linux-type) partition (/dev/sda10) (with no system installed) that serve as a repository for downloads, etc.That partition hosts the live systems.Whenever I want to test a new live system I follow these steps: 1. check the contents of the iso file, its tree structure. 2. I copy certain files and folders, sometimes modifying the relative location of certain files (e.g., vmlinuz). 3. Then I adapt the menu entry (syslinux type) to a grub entry.Here's an example for slax, and RIPlinux. This is the tree structure on the partition /dev/sda10:boot/ slax/: initrd.gz vmlinuz rip/: kernel32 kernel64 rootfs.cgzslax/: basically all the contents of the slax folder in the iso file (e.g., base/, modules/, optional/, rootcopy/, ...)Here's an example of a slax entry

title slax 6.2.0 (PAE, RAM, CLI)root (hd0,9)kernel /boot/slax/vmlinuz vga=791 ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw \	copy2ram noautoinitrd /boot/slax/initrd.gz

rip32

title rip 32 bit (CLI)root (hd0,9)kernel /boot/rip/kernel32 vga=791 nokeymap root=/dev/ram0 rwinitrd /boot/rip/rootfs.cgz#title rip 32 bit (X)#root (hd0,9)#kernel /boot/rip/kernel32 vga=normal xlogin nokeymap root=/dev/ram0 rw#initrd /boot/rip/rootfs.cgz

rip64

title rip 64 bit (CLI)root (hd0,9)kernel /boot/rip/kernel64 vga=normal nokeymap root=/dev/ram0 rwinitrd /boot/rip/rootfs.cgz#title rip 64 bit (X)#root (hd0,9)#kernel /boot/rip/kernel64 vga=normal xlogin nokeymap root=/dev/ram0 rw#initrd /boot/rip/rootfs.cgz

[ChipDoc]

I downloaded and tried Unetbootin after reading this thread this morning and I really liked it. It works really easily and does exactly what it says it does. But that wasn't actually what I wanted. I wanted to install a distro that's configured onto the stick. I tried doing it with Foresight, just installing direct from the LiveCD onto the flash stick but it didn't want to cooperate. It seemed to install all right, but something got confused and the video didn't work. But there's a fresh version of Foresight coming out soon; I'll try it again then. Maybe I'll try it with a smaller distro just as a proof-of-concept.

[sunrat]

Maybe I'll try it with a smaller distro just as a proof-of-concept.

aptosid has a menu option under System>install-aptosid-to-USB , I'm sure some other distros do as well. Puppy is another I've tried that works particularly well, and it certainly qualifies as a "smaller distro". I have used Unetbootin successfully in the past, just can't remember which distros.

[zlim]

Boot multiple distros http://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-multiple...-multiboot-usb/ChipDoc, use this to get Foresight http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb...-easy-as-1-2-3/Once you have the installer menu, if Foresight is not in the list, scroll down and "other distros" should be an option.I've used this and have 5 pendrives with different distros on each. My latest was MintLinux 10 with persistance. I did get frustrated, not with the USB stick but with Mint. I downloaded a different theme and can't figure out how to use it because it doesn't appear in the FF menu under themes.It is my lack of experience with a gnome interface I guess because I've never had a problem installing my theme in a distro before.

[ChipDoc]

Boot multiple distros http://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-multiple...-multiboot-usb/ChipDoc, use this to get Foresight http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb...-easy-as-1-2-3/Once you have the installer menu, if Foresight is not in the list, scroll down and "other distros" should be an option.I've used this and have 5 pendrives with different distros on each. My latest was MintLinux 10 with persistance. I did get frustrated, not with the USB stick but with Mint. I downloaded a different theme and can't figure out how to use it because it doesn't appear in the FF menu under themes.It is my lack of experience with a gnome interface I guess because I've never had a problem installing my theme in a distro before.

Thanks for the tip, Liz! And don't fret about that Mint menu; it got me pretty confused for a while too. Try Menu/Preferences/Appearance and you should be able to adjust your themes from there. At the bottom of the window is an "Install" button which will let you find that theme you downloaded and set it up. It's probably hiding in the /Downloads folder.

[zlim]

It isn't my Mint theme that is the problem. I've already swapped out the default desktop. It is a FF extension (themes) that I can't figure out to even show so I can select it to replace the default FF theme. I downloaded - twice. I managed to see where it was placed within Mint but I have no idea how to get FF to mention it in the list of themes.

[ChipDoc]

Sorry but I can't help you with that one; I bailed on Firefox years ago. But there are lots of users out there and I suspect well hear a solution shortly. That's the really cool thing about BATL - everyone seems to be into helping!

[abarbarian]

It isn't my Mint theme that is the problem. I've already swapped out the default desktop. It is a FF extension (themes) that I can't figure out to even show so I can select it to replace the default FF theme. I downloaded - twice. I managed to see where it was placed within Mint but I have no idea how to get FF to mention it in the list of themes.

If it is "a FF extension (themes)" then you find it in FF at the top of the page, TOOLS-ADD_ONS-THEMES.

[Frank Golden]

Boot multiple distros http://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-multiple...-multiboot-usb/This is for multibooting Live distros like the Multisystem tool I mentioned earlier.I don't know why a full install couldn't be accomplished on a USB thumb drive using a Live CD's install feature.Simply point the install script to the thumb drive and have it create GRUB on the host machine's HDD.Of course it can only be used on the host machine it was created with.

[sunrat]

I don't know why a full install couldn't be accomplished on a USB thumb drive using a Live CD's install feature.Simply point the install script to the thumb drive and have it create GRUB on the host machine's HDD.

Certainly possible. I've installed sidux (now aptosid) to a USB key and put GRUB on the key itself. Use the computers initial boot select menu to choose the boot device. By partitioning the USB key (or you could do it on a USB HD) you could add multiple OSs and modify the USB's GRUB to boot them.If the USB key is not inserted, the computer will boot to it's normal default, and you could boot the key from any computer with a boot device select menu, which is pretty much all recent ones.

[securitybreach]

Certainly possible. I've installed sidux (now aptosid) to a USB key and put GRUB on the key itself. Use the computers initial boot select menu to choose the boot device. By partitioning the USB key (or you could do it on a USB HD) you could add multiple OSs and modify the USB's GRUB to boot them.If the USB key is not inserted, the computer will boot to it's normal default, and you could boot the key from any computer with a boot device select menu, which is pretty much all recent ones.

Hmm I might have to try that out sometime. I got an extra 8gb usb drive not doing anything but collecting dust.

[Frank Golden]

Certainly possible. I've installed sidux (now aptosid) to a USB key and put GRUB on the key itself. Use the computers initial boot select menu to choose the boot device. By partitioning the USB key (or you could do it on a USB HD) you could add multiple OSs and modify the USB's GRUB to boot them.If the USB key is not inserted, the computer will boot to it's normal default, and you could boot the key from any computer with a boot device select menu, which is pretty much all recent ones.

This is almost exactly how I have 6 distros installed on my 1 TB external drive that's why I figured it should be possibleto do the same with a USB thumb drive.My 1 TB drive sits in a USB connected docking station that is switched off most of the time and plugged in always.I've used one of the installed distros on my main drive and the MBR of the main drive to host the GRUB boot menu.This avoids having to access my BIOS boot order when I want to boot an external distro.When I add a distro to the external drive I prevent install GRUB to the external drive partition I'm installing the distro onand then add an entry to the GRUB menu on my main drive.As long as the external drive is powered up when I start my computer I can boot any of the external distros usingmy GRUB boot menu.I've modified the fstab file on my external distros to use the 4 GB swap partition on my main drive.I think I'll try this on a spare Flash drive.

[sunrat]

This avoids having to access my BIOS boot order when I want to boot an external distro.

I wasn't suggesting to modify the BIOS boot order. Most modern motherboards have a feature where you can press a key during POST and it displays a "Select Boot Device" menu. I think mine is F8.

[ichase]

I did try out the "Multiboot" and was able to put Puppy, Kaspersky Rescue, Parted Magic, Mint 10, Trinity Rescue, and wanted to put Clonezilla but it did not recognize the ISO I had? This is on an 8 GB stick and except for my Video not working in Puppy, it worked great. :)Thank you very much for sharing that Link Liz :)Have not given up on using the external HD to put multiple distros. But will need more time to take care of this. Now let me ask a question. I understand what you are saying Frank in regards to having GRUB on the main internal drive so that it will look for your USB HD. Now, is it possible to put GRUB on the external and install multiple distros (Not Live but full install) on it and select from BIOS boot to USB? This would be great if you want to bring your distro's with you to run on any computer that can boot to USB. Now, also with that being said, I would imagine that if this were possible and you moved the external from 1 computer to another, you would have to manually set up hardware IE Video, Wifi etc or would it (in most cases) recognize the current hardware of the computer you are booting it from?All the best,IanI think sunrat pretty much answered the above question. Is this a relatively easy process?

Edited December 9, 2010 by ichase

[Frank Golden]

Now, is it possible to put GRUB on the external and install multiple distros (Not Live but full install) on it and select from BIOS boot to USB? This would be great if you want to bring your distro's with you to run on any computer that can boot to USB.

Yes it's possible but you would not be able to use it on any other computer except for the machine used to create the bootable external drive.The hardware wouldn't match.If the computer were the exact same make/model with identical hardware then maybe.

Now, also with that being said, I would imagine that if this were possible and you moved the external from 1 computer to another, you would have to manually set up hardware IE Video, Wifi etc or would it (in most cases) recognize the current hardware of the computer you are booting it from?

It probably would be a Royal PITA.To do this for the machine you will be using the external distros on it's just a matter of pointing the distro installers to the partition on the external drive you want to install to and then in the advanced GRUB config tab let the installer installGRUB to the MBR of the external drive.When you start your machine you would then do whatever is needed to boot the external drive and there should be a GRUB menu to choose from.I just tried installing Ububtu 10.04 LTS to an external USB flash drive, while it installed OK it wouldn't boot, no error messages or anything. Edited December 9, 2010 by Frank Golden

[Frank Golden]

I wasn't suggesting to modify the BIOS boot order. Most modern motherboards have a feature where you can press a key during POST and it displays a "Select Boot Device" menu. I think mine is F8.

Mine is F 12 and that is what I meant.

[Frank Golden]

Tried installing Ubuntu Lucid on an 8 GB flash drive, wouldn't boot, no error messages.

[Frank Golden]

I did try out the "Multiboot" and was able to put Puppy, Kaspersky Rescue, Parted Magic, Mint 10, Trinity Rescue, and wanted to put Clonezilla but it did not recognize the ISO I had? This is on an 8 GB stick and except for my Video not working in Puppy, it worked great. :)Thank you very much for sharing that Link Liz :)Have not given up on using the external HD to put multiple distros. But will need more time to take care of this. Now let me ask a question. I understand what you are saying Frank in regards to having GRUB on the main internal drive so that it will look for your USB HD. Now, is it possible to put GRUB on the external and install multiple distros (Not Live but full install) on it and select from BIOS boot to USB? This would be great if you want to bring your distro's with you to run on any computer that can boot to USB. Now, also with that being said, I would imagine that if this were possible and you moved the external from 1 computer to another, you would have to manually set up hardware IE Video, Wifi etc or would it (in most cases) recognize the current hardware of the computer you are booting it from?All the best,IanI think sunrat pretty much answered the above question. Is this a relatively easy process?

The Ubuntu based Multisystem will install Clonezilla and all the stuff you mentioned.http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/07/easily-...boot-usb-stick/

[sunrat]

Now, also with that being said, I would imagine that if this were possible and you moved the external from 1 computer to another, you would have to manually set up hardware IE Video, Wifi etc or would it (in most cases) recognize the current hardware of the computer you are booting it from?

It would be somewhat dependent on the hardware of the different computers particularly with wi-fi and video cards. With udev now configuring a lot of the hardware at boot time it would probably work a lot of the time, although that's only a theory.That said, a while ago I changed the motherboard, CPU and memory in my main system and Debian booted from the old HD like nothing had changed at all. So I guess the bottom line is YMMV, but try it. It may work fine or it may be better to just put the live system on the USB drive and have a separate data partition on it, or use a live distro that allows persistent settings.

[ChipDoc]

I don't know why a full install couldn't be accomplished on a USB thumb drive using a Live CD's install feature.Simply point the install script to the thumb drive and have it create GRUB on the host machine's HDD.Of course it can only be used on the host machine it was created with.

I was figuring on installing GRUB to the outboard drive, but I haven't actually done this yet so I don't know if it'd actually work. I'll let you know when I get to it.

[ichase]

I was figuring on installing GRUB to the outboard drive, but I haven't actually done this yet so I don't know if it'd actually work. I'll let you know when I get to it.

Look forward to hearing how it goes Paul. When I can get the time, the 250 GB external HDD is just waiting to be used for multiple FULL linux distros. I did get my hands on another lappy, HP model with 2 Gigs of Memory and an 80 GB HD. Currently has Win XP Home on it........BUT.........NOT FOR LONG!!!!!!! Think I have convinced mama bear to give me a little time here and there for testing (it's "testing" and not "Playing") :hysterical:I now have 9 different ISO's on this 8 GIG flash drive using "MultiBoot". Mostly ones for maintenance IE Kaspersky, SystemRescue, Memtest86, Trinity Rescue, Parted Magic etc as well as Puppy, Mint 10 and Ubuntu 10.10 Gnome. Everything works great except for Puppy Linux that will not support the video card in my work lappy. Going to research that one a little bit. And still have only used less than 5 GIGS!!!!!!Ian Edited December 10, 2010 by ichase

[ChipDoc]

Think I have convinced mama bear to give me a little time here and there for testing (it's "testing" and not "Playing")

Ask her if "cooking" should be considered "playing" or "performing an enjoyable but necessary task"... on second thought, better not ask her that!

I now have 9 different ISO's on this 8 GIG flash drive using "MultiBoot". Mostly ones for maintenance IE Kaspersky, SystemRescue, Memtest86, Trinity Rescue, Parted Magic etc as well as Puppy, Mint 10 and Ubuntu 10.10 Gnome. Everything works great except for Puppy Linux that will not support the video card in my work lappy. Going to research that one a little bit. And still have only used less than 5 GIGS!!!!!!

I was wondering how big my /home was. I backed up 158 gigs this morning, but it trimmed down to 25 gigs once I deleted the photo archives I'd imported into the main system. I'm certain I can install a good distro on a thumb drive and boot from it. Down the road I'd like to install many whole distros on the 250 gig outboard drive and be able to boot through GRUB on it. I'll keep you posted. I go into work tonight and that's where I do most of this stuff - where I can use the lickety-split connection!

[securitybreach]

I now have 9 different ISO's on this 8 GIG flash drive using "MultiBoot". Mostly ones for maintenance IE Kaspersky, SystemRescue, Memtest86, Trinity Rescue, Parted Magic etc as well as Puppy, Mint 10 and Ubuntu 10.10 Gnome. Everything works great except for Puppy Linux that will not support the video card in my work lappy. Going to research that one a little bit. And still have only used less than 5 GIGS!!!!!!Ian

Great job Ian

[ichase]

Ask her if "cooking" should be considered "playing" or "performing an enjoyable but necessary task"... on second thought, better not ask her that!

I think you are right Paul. "Better not ask that one"

I was wondering how big my /home was. I backed up 158 gigs this morning, but it trimmed down to 25 gigs once I deleted the photo archives I'd imported into the main system.

What program are you using to back it up? Either I am guessing the photo archive was huge or your backup software does a very good compression.

I'm certain I can install a good distro on a thumb drive and boot from it. Down the road I'd like to install many whole distros on the 250 gig outboard drive and be able to boot through GRUB on it. I'll keep you posted. I go into work tonight and that's where I do most of this stuff - where I can use the lickety-split connection!

I am able to do quite a bit from work, even more on days like today when the boss is not in the office. SSShhhhhhhhhh Sounds like we are looking at doing the same thing with the same amount of space. With 80 Gigs in this HP Lappy, I can easily duel boot 2 distros (Got to think of which ones I want) Probably going with Mandriva 2010.1 KDE and PCLOS 2010.11 KDE then look closely at Frank's guidance on how to set the GRUB config on the internal so that it will give me the option of booting from the external upon boot up with a really large selection of Distro's to play with then.

Great job Ian

Thanks for the encouragment Josh

[Frank Golden]

Ask her if "cooking" should be considered "playing" or "performing an enjoyable but necessary task"... on second thought, better not ask her that! I was wondering how big my /home was. I backed up 158 gigs this morning, but it trimmed down to 25 gigs once I deleted the photo archives I'd imported into the main system. I'm certain I can install a good distro on a thumb drive and boot from it. Down the road I'd like to install many whole distros on the 250 gig outboard drive and be able to boot through GRUB on it. I'll keep you posted. I go into work tonight and that's where I do most of this stuff - where I can use the lickety-split connection!

Paul, I tried installing Ububtu 10.10 on a USB flash drive (Sandisk 8 GB Titanium).It seemed to install ok with GRUB on the install partition but it wouldn't boot.I get a pretty boot menu (GRUB 2) but selecting the new Ubuntu 10.10 install results in a blank screen.No error messages etc.Same when I create an entry in my main drive boot menu.I've tried every combination including editing the fstab of the new install.No dice.Good luck with your efforts.As to installing multiple distros on a USB HDD, well I've done that.I ignore the GRUB installed in the external drive and instead create entries in the grub host distro for my main drive.As long as the external drive is plugged in and powered up when I start my systemI can select the externaldrive distro I want to boot from the main drives boot menu.This way I don't have to press f 12 during post and select the external drive.Of course you can install on the external drive and instruct the installer to place GRUB on the external drives MBR.Every time you install a new distro instruct the installer to install GRUB to the external MBR.This should ensure that the new menu will have all the previous installs listed because the GRUB setup is supposed to locate all the other OS's and create entries for them all.Since you are using GRUB 2 on your main drive (Ultimate Edition 2.8 right) then I don't see why you couldn't manuallyinstruct GRUB from UE 2.8 to scan your system and create a new menu that includes all the new distros on your external drive.I haven't really made any attempt to understand the new GRUB but I bet there is a CLI command or three that will do that.My main drives GRUB is hosted by my Intrepid Ubuntu install so I know how to manually create entries in Intrepids /boot/grub/menu.lst. file.I have entries in that file for Win 7 and 5 Linux distros on my main drive plus the 6 on my external drive.Everything can be booted from there.I guess I'll have to investigate (ugh) Grub 2 further.