Want to create a bootable .iso of entire system on a stick

It's not quick...but this should help you:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=688872

Good luck!

Hi :)

Wow! That is a very ambiguous question!! There are so many different possible answers depending on what you really want to achieve here and depending on what you have done already.

In a worst case scenario i would recommend trying this
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD/Persistence
Although this is only relevant if you are only running a LiveCd session. You will notice this help page is a little old as it seldom gets used so much nowadays i think.

As Derek suggested it is possible to create your own personalised LiveCd. 2 different methods here
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomization
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomizationFromScratch

Hopefully you have fully installed Ubuntu properly to an external hard-drive in which case the whole question has been automatically solved for you already or perhaps just needs a little nudge.

Please help us by getting to a command-line
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal#Starting%20a%20Terminal
and copy&paste with the mouse or type in

sudo fdisk -l

where " -l" is a lower-case " -L" and sudo will ask for your normal user password, not your SuperUser/Root one. It wont give you any stars as you type in an attempt to keep even the length of your password secret :) Please copy&paste the output from that command into here so we can have a better idea of how Ubuntu is already setup on your machine

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Per your request:

bruce@bruce-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for bruce:

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd0f4738c

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3060 24579418+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3061 7296 34025670 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 3061 4276 9767488+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6 4277 6708 19535008+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 6709 7296 4723078+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
bruce@bruce-laptop:~$

I already have a fully installed 9.10 on my laptop (a dual boot set up with XP) and a LiveCD copy on the memory stick in case I need to reinstall. The memory stick version is bootable and I have used it to reinstall Linux once, just to test it.

What I want to do is replace the LiveCD version on my memory stick with my "custom" version with desktop changes, preferences, etc. i.e., create a new .iso directly from my HDD and move it to my memory stick.

It would be NICE if somehow any changes I make to Linux on my HDD were automatically reflected on the memory stick version (assuming I always had the stick mounted). I remember reading something about Casper-cow that somehow accomplished that in previous versions of LiveCD???????

I used to be a Unix system administrator and am in the process of moving to Linux. I hope to start helping people move away from MS and into Linux. Any comments on that possibility would be appreciated. (yes, I know that's a question for another string, but . . . . . .)

Thanks for your replies.

Hi :)

There is absolutely no problem with posting a shed load of different questions in here and also no problem with esoteric or vague questions either.
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion

Also try posting to
http://www.linuxquestions.org
which is an excellent general linux forum covering many different distros. I suspect that your previous experience with Unix probably means you are a bit more advanced with most of this than most of us answering questions although there are quite a lot of very advanced/skilled people in both forums too. Please be patient with the rest of us tho!

So, you want to be able to boot-up off either the hard-drive or the usb stick and use the same /home partition? You want to be able to use that usb stick to boot up other machines retaining the changes you made on the main machine while the main machine can also boot-up independently of the usb stick?

I have vaguely heard of something called Casper through one of these links
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomization
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomizationFromScratch

I think that your question is not as trivial as i was hoping tho! I was hoping that you could simply set the /home partition to be on either the hard-drive or the usb-stick and then have both bootups using the same /home. I am now wondering if we can do something clever(ish) with the bios booting up grub from the 1st hard-drive when the usb stick is not present and from the usb-stick when it is... But this wouldn't allow the usb to boot up the identical system on another machine. Perhaps something to do with synchronising the hard-drive with the usb-stick?? I am not sure about either plan, sorry

Hopefully someone will appear with better plans soon!

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi,

To do what you want to do, I think you'll have to get away of your live USB and transform it as a usb drive for syncing with your hard drive installation.

In this case you would need, IMHO, to do a basic install of the same version of Ubuntu to your USB stick (so it should be like a 8 GB USB stick at least)

Once installed, you would need do one syncing between your root system and your target system on the USB stick. And then later everytime when necessary do the syncing operation.

There are some links that hints to possible solutions here:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/sync-a-usb-flash-drive-with-hd-folders-possible-522875/

http://klingspor-thueringen.de/usbsync/

One alternative would be to just do an image backup of your Ubuntu partition on the HD by booting with a live CD and installing partimage so that you could backup an image of your whole system on a USB drive, if what you wanted was just to backup your system in case of HD failure and to be able to restore it without the hassle of installing everything again.

http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page

Regards

Thank you both for your ideas. I will investigate both more fully and maybe mix-and-match some to see what happens.

Thanks again for your time.

I'm going to mark this "solved", but if you think of something else, please don't hesitate to respond again.

Best of luck.

Bruce

Hi :)

I am not sure if the plans are 2 separate plans or if it's all the same plan but if you want to try to help people migrate away from Windows then there are some good guidelines from other people that have done this sort of thing
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows

Personally i have found the standard LiveCd impresses people, especially if they see that it hasn't changed anything on their machine. The official Cds from Shipit are often treated with more respect than home-made Cds so it is worth having a few of those to share around
https://shipit.ubuntu.com/
Also if someone creates a personalised Cd then it does not have the right to wear the official logo and may not be entitled to proper official support. A lot of magazines make their own LiveCd of Ubuntu and then stick their own logo on it. I would find and read up about the GPL licence if you plan to go this route. It's an interesting read anyway imo
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

However you might also find it worth exploring around DistroWatch as a large number of derivatives have built up their own support and it is quite possible that someone has already taken the direction you want to go in a bit further than your current plans. I find the "Readers Comments" section very helpful for asking questions of that sort.
http://distrowatch.com
Also it is a great idea to explore the LiveCd sessions of a number of other distros anyway just to help you see the differences and similarities. I still haven't looked beyond the eye-candy of a lot of these but that has given me some insight already.

Another good general linux forum is
http://www.linuxquestions.org
which covers many different versions of linux and may be able to advise about which distros might already have exactly what you need.

Of course there is unlikely to be a better way of learning than trying things out for yourself before exploring other distros. Ultimately there are so many different ways of doing things in linux but only 1 way is 'right'. Your own path is the best way, or in my case my neighbours way until i try it and then realise that i was better off first time.

Great to see someone keen to join in with all this! I hope it all goes well :) I am looking forwards to some interesting questions in here now :)
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi again :)

Err i really should say that where i have encountered difficulties helping people migrate away it s because of 3 main reasons

1. People prefer to complain about a thing not doing what they want rather than trying out something else that might just work better.
2. Often people prefer "Freedom FROM choice" rather than "Freedom OF choice" (& then they can complain about their lack of freedom)
3. "Linux is only for geeks". Since you have touched a linux Cd and said the word "linux" you are now a geek and therefore clearly from the area of the map that simply says "There be dragons"

What people seldom seem to understand is that geeks are sexy and cool, at least the stereo-type portrayed in the media. So being a geek is desirable? So why not pick-up a linux cd and say the word "linux" in order to join the club? With this type of bizarre stereo-typing i feel that the term "geek" has been somewhat downgraded which i think is a shame on the one hand but on the other it makes me a geek so therefore i must be interesting and sexy? Hmmm, stretching things a bit too far there i think!

The main thing that seems to block people is mis-representation by certain people/companies with a vested interested in maintaining the status-quo because they make a lot of money from Windows insecurities. This is known as FUD which = Misinformation leading to Fear Uncertainty & Doubt. Since linux does not have a central company with teams of lawyers fighting against blatantly untrue slander we will just have to accept this and stand back smugly. After all our systems work without hours and hours of maintenance over the longer-term and we are not forced into constant hardware upgrade cycles. The people that fight so hard to stay with Windows are so just stand back and let them keep on suffering.

Errr, i hope that helps you avoid the problems i have faced!
Regards from
Tom :)

Thanks very much for your extensive comments. They are very helpful. I
will take a look at all of those resources.

I agree with your FUD and the complaining issues. but I think that once
the snow ball gets rolling down the hill, things might change. MS has
become a big, slow, dysfunctional company. I think it's only a matter
of time before they make themselves expendable.

I have found some "holes" that concern me about taking Linux
prime-time, but I think it's getting close to being supportable, if not
marketable. It is said that luck is when opportunity meets
preparedness. I'm hoping to be prepared, even if it takes a while.

Best of luck in your efforts.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Tue, Feb 23, 2010 2:32 am
Subject: Re: [Question #101912]: Want to create a bootable .iso of
entire system on a stick

Your question #101912 on yelp in ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/yelp/+question/101912

Tom posted a new comment:
Hi again :)

Err i really should say that where i have encountered difficulties
helping people migrate away it s because of 3 main reasons

1. People prefer to complain about a thing not doing what they want
rather than trying out something else that might just work better.
2. Often people prefer "Freedom FROM choice" rather than "Freedom OF
choice" (& then they can complain about their lack of freedom)
3. "Linux is only for geeks". Since you have touched a linux Cd and
said the word "linux" you are now a geek and therefore clearly from the
area of the map that simply says "There be dragons"

What people seldom seem to understand is that geeks are sexy and cool,
at least the stereo-type portrayed in the media. So being a geek is
desirable? So why not pick-up a linux cd and say the word "linux" in
order to join the club? With this type of bizarre stereo-typing i feel
that the term "geek" has been somewhat downgraded which i think is a
shame on the one hand but on the other it makes me a geek so therefore i
must be interesting and sexy? Hmmm, stretching things a bit too far
there i think!

The main thing that seems to block people is mis-representation by
certain people/companies with a vested interested in maintaining the
status-quo because they make a lot of money from Windows insecurities.
This is known as FUD which = Misinformation leading to Fear Uncertainty
& Doubt. Since linux does not have a central company with teams of
lawyers fighting against blatantly untrue slander we will just have to
accept this and stand back smugly. After all our systems work without
hours and hours of maintenance over the longer-term and we are not
forced into constant hardware upgrade cycles. The people that fight so
hard to stay with Windows are so just stand back and let them keep on
suffering.

Errr, i hope that helps you avoid the problems i have faced!
Regards from
Tom :)

--
You received this question notification because you are a direct
subscriber of the question.

Hi :)

I think there are a few blockers to widespread mainstream adoption of linux. Games Industry seems to insist on using DirectX rather than OpenGl. Also some hardware manufacturers, particularly in multimedia areas seem to find difficulty in allowing their products to be used by linux or even Mac users. One properly funded OpenSource driver could cover entire product lines across all of linux & Mac with all the security and widespread bug-testing done through our established channels.

Clearly companies are not going to continue to cut themselves out of rapidly growing markets indefinitely and some notables, such as nVidia, Ati, Dell, Asus and others have been beginning to realise the increasing profitability of the linux markets. Ghandi said “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Linux desktop is an adventure that gives people "Freedom of choice" but many people do not want any of that preferring "The Emporer's New Clothes". Don't worry about the ones that prefer to remain limited, just enjoy the people that do sparkle

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi :)

Have you been able to test the new Ubuntu 10.04 before it gets officially released?
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/testing/lucid/beta1
Trying it as a LiveCd or as an extra dual/multi-boot would be ideal. Developers and everyone are keen to try to iron out any problems before 10.04 gets officially released so you might find faster & more effective answers to your bug reports which would make 10.04 work better on your system for you

Thanks and regards from
Tom :)

 Thanks for the info. I'll give it a try.

I don't know why I didn't hear about this response earlier. May I did, but just didn't recognize the email?????????

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom &lt;<email address hidden>&gt;
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Thu, Apr 8, 2010 9:44 am
Subject: Re: [Question #101912]: Want to create a bootable .iso of entire system on a stick

Your question #101912 on yelp in ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/yelp/+question/101912

Tom posted a new comment:
Hi :)

Have you been able to test the new Ubuntu 10.04 before it gets officially
released?
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/testing/lucid/beta1
Trying it as a LiveCd or as an extra dual/multi-boot would be ideal. Developers
and everyone are keen to try to iron out any problems before 10.04 gets
officially released so you might find faster & more effective answers to your
bug reports which would make 10.04 work better on your system for you

Thanks and regards from
Tom :)

--
You received this question notification because you are a direct
subscriber of the question.

=

Hi :)

I sometimes find my spam filters on my email manage to filter out the especially important messages along with the usual tons of spam. In Launchpad it is better to follow the links to visit the thread rather than rely solely on email. It is also easier to follow the train of thought and/or timelines that affected people's advice

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)