Ubuntu Live to ext2 USB

[zardoz1971]

Problem is as follows.

I have a 16 GB pendrive. FS is ext2. My wish is:

1. Install Ubuntu 10.10 Live on that partition
2. Make it persistant
3. Make it bootable

Basicly what I need is what many USB live creators can give me but only on FAT FS. But I need this installation on ext2 completly. If it's possible, bare in mind that I'm noobie so please be gentle.

TIA

P.S. Don't suggest FAT installation with ext2 as second partition. I know how to do that but that's not what I want.

[rokytnji]

I would first make a small pendrive of Ubuntu Live as my installer pendrive. I would boot it and then insert the 16 gig drive. I would then run the installer on the live usb and point the installer to the pendrive.

I would tell the installer to use ext2 file system. Label it as /. Flag it as boot. I would not make a /swap.

I've done this before over a year ago but not with Ubuntu. But with AntiX.

Yet Another Technology Site: Install AntiX 8.2 Final on External Flash Drive

[sgosnell]

Do you really need a liveUSB? In most cases you're better off doing a full install to the USB drive, giving you a complete Linux system on a flash drive. I've done many that way, usually on an SDHC card, but also on USB flash drives. The only reason for a liveUSB installation is for trying and eventually installing Linux on another computer. If you just need to run Linux on different computers by booting from the flash drive, a full install is the way to go. You can use any filesystem you want - ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, etc, whatever Linux supports, it's your choice.

[zardoz1971]

I read on some forums that if you do full install on flash drive it does more writing (so pendrive lives shorter) and that it's slower. True or not?

[sgosnell]

Not true. The writing will be the same, or perhaps less. The life of the drive isn't really a consideration, though, because it will be obsolete long before it's worn out. I still have several small drives and SD cards that work fine, although they're several years old, but I don't use them because they're too small for any practical use. A 16GB drive seems fairlly large now, but in a couple of years it will be obsolete, although still working. It will take years of constant writes/erase/writes to wear one out, and you won't be writing constantly. Don't worry about it.

[zardoz1971]

Thanks for help. I decided to buy external drive. Installed Ubuntu. It works perfectly for now. I hope in time I will transfer Ubuntu to internal disk, and Windows7... well... you know...