Creating Live USB for Ubuntu 12.10

Ubuntu 12.10 supports the creation of live usb. It provides us with two methods for creating usb. The creation of the live usb is supported by Linux mint 13, Debian, etc. Live usb is the very essential option for the users of tablets, laptops and notebooks. A live USB is an usb drive that contains a full operating system which can be booted. Live USBs are similar to live Cd's and have the ability to persistently save settings and permanently install software packages back onto the USB device. Like live CDs, live USBs can be used in embedded systems for recovery of data or the testing of operating system distributions without committing to a permanent installation on the local hard drive. Many operating systems including Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, Microsoft windows XP and many of the distributions of Linux can also be used from a USB flash drive.

How to make USB Flash Drive?

Mount your usb. Open the terminal and identify your usb device by the following command.

            df -h or df

The path which is highlighted in the figure is the path where the usb is mounted for my file system.

Fig1: Recognition of the USB

The Linux users are recommended to format the usb as ext4,fat32.We have to change the name of the usb i.e. /dev/sdb1 and follow the below steps to format the usb as ext4.

            sudo unmount /dev/sdb1

            sudo mkfs.ext4/dev/sdb1

Users can also format it as FAT32, using these commands:

sudo unmount /dev/sdb1

sudo mkfs.vfat/dev/sdb1

Now remount your usb.

Following are the ways to create a live Ubuntu USB.

1. Startup Disk Creator

If you are the users of Ubuntu, you can simply use Startup Disk Creator to create a live USB. Via Unity Dash (search lens), search and open Startup Disk Creator:

Fig.2: Utility dash

Now click "others" option and select the Ubuntu 12.10 iso file, then click "Make Startup Disk":

Fig.3 : make startup disk

(2) Make a Live USB through The Terminal:

In the terminal, run this command to create a live usb for Ubuntu 12.10:

sudo dd if=/Ubuntu-12.10-desktop-i386.iso of=/dev/sdb1 bs=1M

Points to be remembered:

1) /path/to/Ubuntu-12.10.iso --> Replace it with the full path to Ubuntu 12.10 iso image.

2) /dev/sdb1 --> replace it with the name of your USB drive.