securitybreach 11,284 Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 I’m just boring, I install Archlinux on everything. Link to post Share on other sites
raymac46 2,754 Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 I'm down to (blush!) 4 distros but in my defense 3 of them are either Debian or based on Debian. Arch is just too much fun to give up, although I wouldn't want to install it for the grandkids until my geeky grandson gets a bit older. Link to post Share on other sites
abarbarian 3,405 Posted September 17, 2020 Author Share Posted September 17, 2020 I am a tad busy at the moment so am only running two distros. Boring old Arch and boring old MX-19. Boring as in rock steady with no glitches to fix , yawn yawn yawn. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
abarbarian 3,405 Posted January 12 Author Share Posted January 12 This is not an article on a distro but it may be of some interest to folk distro hopping or folk wanting to try out several live os's. Create A Bootable USB Drive By Simply Copying The ISO To The USB With Ventoy (Linux And Windows) Quote Ventoy is a fairly new open source tool to create bootable USB drives using Linux or Microsoft Windows ISO files. You install this tool to a USB drive, then simply copy some ISO files to the USB drive and you can boot from it with no other changes (so without having to reformat the USB drive every time you want to create a bootable USB drive, and without having to extract the ISO file contents). The application is available for Microsoft Windows and Linux. It has a graphical user interface on Windows only; on Linux you'll need to use it from the command line. When copying multiple ISO files to the USB drive, Ventoy provides a menu on boot from where you can choose which ISO to boot. You can even create a multiboot USB drive by adding ISO files for some Linux distributions and Windows ISO files on the same USB Quote How to create a bootable USB drive with persistence using Ventoy When you create a regular Linux live USB, you can install software, download files, make changes to the system, and so on, but all of these changes are lost after a reboot. A persistent live USB allows saving any changes you make to the live system, so they are still present the next time you boot to it. Ventoy supports creating bootable USB drive with persistence support. Among the Linux distributions for which Ventoy supports persistence are Ubuntu, MX Linux, Linux Mint, Elementary OS and Zorin OS, although more probably work, but haven't been tested. Generally, any Linux distribution based on Ubuntu should work. Ventoy has some pretty neat features and is a most interesting tool. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
wa4chq 398 Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 12 hours ago, abarbarian said: This is not an article on a distro but it may be of some interest to folk distro hopping or folk wanting to try out several live os's. Create A Bootable USB Drive By Simply Copying The ISO To The USB With Ventoy (Linux And Windows) Ventoy has some pretty neat features and is a most interesting tool. Hey abarbarian....tnx for the info about Ventoy. Interesting tool. I'll have to give it a try. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
securitybreach 11,284 Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 So I am just curious, since you can do that anyway on window and (some) linux distros, what does it actually offer? When we make image sticks at work, we just delete the files and copy the new image extracted to the drives. They usually work fine that way. Sometimes, you may have to format them but usually not. Link to post Share on other sites
securitybreach 11,284 Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 2 minutes ago, securitybreach said: So I am just curious, since you can do that anyway on window and (some) linux distros, what does it actually offer? When we make image sticks at work, we just delete the files and copy the new image extracted to the drives. They usually work fine that way. Sometimes, you may have to format them but usually not. Ok, never mind. I didn't notice the persistent features and such Quote When you create a regular Linux live USB, you can install software, download files, make changes to the system, and so on, but all of these changes are lost after a reboot. A persistent live USB allows saving any changes you make to the live system, so they are still present the next time you boot to it. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
wa4chq 398 Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 Looks like you can also have multiple distros instead of just one. I have a few distro's on a thumb drive....it's like Christmas when I get them out and boot up....I don't remember what's gonna pop up cuz I never label 'em....lol Link to post Share on other sites
securitybreach 11,284 Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 15 minutes ago, wa4chq said: Looks like you can also have multiple distros instead of just one. I have a few distro's on a thumb drive....it's like Christmas when I get them out and boot up....I don't remember what's gonna pop up cuz I never label 'em....lol Ah that is nice, cool Link to post Share on other sites
abarbarian 3,405 Posted January 13 Author Share Posted January 13 18 hours ago, securitybreach said: So I am just curious, since you can do that anyway on window and (some) linux distros, what does it actually offer? Quote Features 100% open source Simple to use Fast (limited only by the speed of copying iso file) Can be installed in USB/Local Disk/SSD/NVMe/SD Card Directly boot from ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files, no extraction needed No need to be continuous in disk for ISO/IMG files MBR and GPT partition style supported (1.0.15+) x86 Legacy BIOS, IA32 UEFI, x86_64 UEFI, ARM64 UEFI supported UEFI Secure Boot supported (1.0.07+) Persistence supported (1.0.11+) Windows/Linux auto installation supported (1.0.09+) FAT32/exFAT/NTFS/UDF/XFS/Ext2(3)(4) supported for main partition ISO files larger than 4GB supported Native boot menu style for Legacy & UEFI Most type of OS supported, 600+ iso files tested Linux vDisk boot supported Not only boot but also complete installation process Menu dynamically switchable between List/TreeView mode "Ventoy Compatible" concept Plugin Framework Injection files to runtime enviroment Boot configuration file dynamically replacement Highly customizable theme and menu USB drive write-protected support USB normal use unaffected Data nondestructive during version upgrade No need to update Ventoy when a new distro is released Ventoy home site I gave it a quick try out, downloaded .iso's and copied and pasted to a Ventoy usb stick, Arch Fedora SOS Fenix They booted to a useable live os. Porteous KDE Pepermint OS Did not boot at all. Slacko Puppy Booted but quit with errors. It was just a quick test run. Seems like a neat tool and easy to set up and use. I already have MX on a usb as an emergency tool so it may not be much use to me but it will make trying out some os's a lot easier. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Bookmem 86 Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 2 hours ago, abarbarian said: Ventoy home site I gave it a quick try out, downloaded .iso's and copied and pasted to a Ventoy usb stick, Arch Fedora SOS Fenix They booted to a useable live os. Porteous KDE Pepermint OS Did not boot at all. Slacko Puppy Booted but quit with errors. It was just a quick test run. Seems like a neat tool and easy to set up and use. I already have MX on a usb as an emergency tool so it may not be much use to me but it will make trying out some os's a lot easier. I must be doing something wrong. I used my Mint 20.1 box to create a 16gb persistance.dat file and placed it and the Mint 20.1 iso files on the Ventoy 64gb USB drive. Also made the ventoy.json file on the USB drive. But when I boot the from the USB, instead of the persistance menu, my only option is to boot the iso file. Link to post Share on other sites
abarbarian 3,405 Posted Friday at 01:04 AM Author Share Posted Friday at 01:04 AM On 1/13/2021 at 7:30 PM, Bookmem said: I must be doing something wrong. I used my Mint 20.1 box to create a 16gb persistance.dat file and placed it and the Mint 20.1 iso files on the Ventoy 64gb USB drive. Also made the ventoy.json file on the USB drive. But when I boot the from the USB, instead of the persistance menu, my only option is to boot the iso file. Never tried to do that as I am busy doing a fresh Arch install. This link may help you, https://ventoy.net/en/plugin_persistence.html 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Bookmem 86 Posted Friday at 05:48 PM Share Posted Friday at 05:48 PM (edited) 17 hours ago, abarbarian said: Never tried to do that as I am busy doing a fresh Arch install. This link may help you, https://ventoy.net/en/plugin_persistence.html Got it working!!! Turns out the problem was that the presistence.dat file was in the root directory and I needed to create a /ventoy folder and move it there. Now I have the choice of booting with or without persistence. edit: Ooops! It was the ventoy.json file that had to be moved, not the persistence.dat. Edited Friday at 06:48 PM by Bookmem 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites
securitybreach 11,284 Posted Friday at 06:45 PM Share Posted Friday at 06:45 PM Great Link to post Share on other sites
abarbarian 3,405 Posted Saturday at 01:22 AM Author Share Posted Saturday at 01:22 AM 7 hours ago, Bookmem said: Got it working!!! Neat, I may give that a go myself now I know it works well. Link to post Share on other sites
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