Full Linux USB Install

There are several ways to enjoy your favorite flavor of Linux, one of my favorite ways is on USB. One problem with popular USB installs is that they are all based of the Live CD concept. Persistence addresses some of the usability issues, but many still find these installs lacking.

Persistence in reference to Linux USB installs, simply means that you can save your data a feature not available to Live CD users. The way this is achieved is through an added partition but requires a third party installer and you are limited to whatever distribution the installer was intended for. Other limitations like the inability to update your applications or the system itself, furthermore its not possible to download more applications.

There is another alternative however and that is the Full Install. In essence we install any version of Linux directly to the USB drive without third party installers just as you would to a Hard drive, with some minor modifications of course.

In this article we will walk through the steps of installing Fedora 14 onto a USB drive. Though keep in mind there are likely other distributions that this method works with, the steps may be slightly different. Generally the older the distribution the less forgiving it will be.

There is one theoretical disadvantage to the full USB install and that is that it is not completely portable like the Live USB install. That being said the following method Ive developed using both Ubuntu and Fedora seems to circumvent this issue.

Required Items

 * Fedora 14 Live CD
 * 8 GB+ USB flash drive
 * The main PC you intend to run it on

Step 1. Boot From Live CD

 * 1) Power on your PC and let it Boot.
 * 2) Install the Fedora 14 CD.
 * 3) Restart the PC, leaving the CD inserted.
 * 4) Interrupt the start-up using the F12 Key.
 * 5) Select Boot from CD-ROM or similar.
 * 6) Click the auto-login.

Step 2. Install to Hard Drive
On the desktop you will see an icon to "Install to Hard Drive" In our case this will be the USB flash drive. 
 * 1) Double-Click Install To Hard drive icon
 * 2) Select English
 * 3) Select "Basic Storage Device"
 * 4) Accept the default "localhost.localdomain"
 * 5) Accept the default "America/New York" timezone.
 * 6) Root password should be specified by instructor. I use "password"
 * 7) Select "Use all Space"

Select Storage Device

 * 1) Choose your USB device from the list and move it to the install target list.
 * 2) Check the Boot loader button on your device and click next.