====== Bootable USB Key ====== It's almost unavoidable to use a LiveCD or Live USB key when working on Linux since most all system install processes involve starting your machine from a LiveCD or Live USB key. Though once you're environment is up and running, it becomes unusual to imagine booting from an external device. But it's sometimes necessary to do so, mostly when you're facing //serious// problems ! To create such a //Live//, bootable key, a few applications can be used, we'll talk about: * Tuxboot * YUMI * LiveUSB Install ----- To backup your partition(s) using Clonezilla, you first need to create a bootable USB Key using [[http://tuxboot.org/|Tuxboot]], the first step being to [[http://sourceforge.net/projects/tuxboot/files/latest/download?source=files|download Tuxboot]] to your hard disk drive. By default it will probably be downloaded to your "Downloads" folder. So open this folder, right (ctrl) click on the "tuxboot-x.x.src.tar.gz" file you just downloaded and choose "Extract Here" from the pop-up menu. You now have a "tuxboot-x.x" folder in your Downloads folder. === Install Tuxboot === Well here we are, I told you you'd have to use the command line in LMDE ;-) Tuxboot requires the "libqt4-dev" package to be installed, so open a Terminal window and type the following commands: <code> sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install libqt4-dev </code> Now lets make (compile) the Tuxboot program, still in the Terminal window, type: <code> cd ~/Downloads/tuxboot-X.X ~/Downloads/tuxboot-X.X/INSTALL </code> Where X.X correspond to the version you downloaded (the folder name)\\ In my case it was tuxboot-0.6 You now should have an executable called "tuxboot", in the previously selected folder (~/Downloads/tuxboot-X.X). == Store Tuxboot in Your Applications Directory == Tuxboot provides an easy way to create bootable USB Keys of Clonezilla, GParted, DRBL, Cloudboot or Tux2Live whenever you'll need one, it is thus wise to store it for future use in your applications directory.\\ Once again, in the Terminal window, type the following command: <code> sudo cp ~/Downloads/tuxboot-X.X/tuxboot /opt/ </code> == Create a Shortcut in the Menu == As Tuxboot was not installed but rather downloaded, extracted and built, it will not automatically appear in the "Menu". If you'd like to be able to access it from the Applications List, please read this trick: [[tricks:application-shortcut|Create an Application Shortcut in the Menu]]. === Create The Clonezilla Live Key === First, you'll need a bootable USB Key, please refer to [[applications:disk-utilities#GParted - Gnome partiton editor|GParted]] section of the wiki if you don't know how to do that. <WRAP tip> From my experience, ext2/3/4 and fat32 are usable formats for a boot partition.\\ Oddly enough, turning the boot flag on a USB Key hosted partition made it unavailable at the desktop level, thus unaccessible to Tuxboot. What I had to do was first create the partition WITHOUT the boot flag, burn the ISO through Tuxboot, then turn the boot flag on. </WRAP> Launch Tuxboot by opening the "Menu" on the bottom left of your screen and selecting the "Computer" option. Double click on "File System", then double click "opt". You should see the "tuxboot" executable: double click on it. You will be prompted to enter your administrator password. Check the available Drives at the bottom of the application's window:\\ SCREENSHOT Insert the USB Key that will host the Clonezilla installation, switch the "type" menu to "Hard Disk" and back to "USB Drive", then check for the new entry in the Drive menu and select it:\\ SCREENSHOT <WRAP important> Make sure you select the entry corresponding to the USB Key that you just plugged as you will need to boot from it later on. </WRAP> Make sure that "clonezilla_live_stable" is selected in the "On-Line Distribution" selector. Click the "Update" button and select the appropriate version for your hardware architecture (mine is amd64).\\ Click the "OK" button to start the bootable key creation process. When the process has finished you are proposed to restart your computer... Do so.\\ At restart select the USB Key as your boot device and you should enter the text interface of Clonezilla === Using Clonezilla === It is of little interest to replicate here the whole Clonezilla documentation. Therefore, you are invited to consult it's documentation at the following address: [[http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live-doc.php]]\\ <WRAP info> One thing to note is that when you'll be using the Clonezilla Live CD (USB Key), the environment that will be available to you is text only, so do not hope to have access to a web browser or anything close. The best option (when possible) is to have a second computer, or tablet, next to you to consult the documentation while using Clonezilla itself. </WRAP> ==== YUMI Boot ==== As I was planning to reorganize my HD prtitions, a terrible mistake made me erase the first 90MB of my main hard disk :-( The last backup I had date back 8 days (yes I know, I know...). Although I was certain that all my work files were untouched on the, unfortunately, now unusable hard disk, I couldn't reach it because I only have the possibility to plug one drive at a time... The only possible solution, in that situation, was to be able to boot from a USB Key, mount my nfs share and have the //broken// HD plugged in. Then, using rsync, backup my "latest" /home partition to the nfs share.\\ Although it would certainly have been possible to do all this by "simply" using the Linux Mint Live Key we already used, I decided to explore some other options, as there are a lot of Linux distributions specificaly aiming at being used as "Live" solutions. An easy way to create a multiboot USB Key is given by YUMI, download it here: [[http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/YUMI/debian/yumi_0.0.1-1_all.deb]] Once downloaded, double click on the yumi_0.0.1-1_all.deb file. The Package Installer program will invite you to **Install Package**, click the button... Done. You now have the YUMI application available under the "System Tools" applications menu. === Creating a Bootable USB Key === The YUMI application will ask for your root password upon startup.\\ It sometimes will also notify you of unmounted partitions that need to be mounted before it can operate.\\ In some situations [[applications:disk-utilities#GParted|GParted]] might be required to acces the key, as if it has the boot flag set, a partition mostly cannot be mounted right in the desktop environment. Just out of curiosity I tried the 4MLinux distribution.\\ **Note:** I had to "zero out" my previously Linux Mint Live USB key to be able to boot from it anew from a YUMI install. <wrap important>ONCE AGAIN BE VERY CARREFUL WHEN USING dd AS IT WILL WIPE OUT ALL DATA ON THE TARGET - of= !</wrap> <code> sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc bs=1024 </code> Take out / re-insert the key.\\ Use YUMI to create a bootable key. ==== LiveUSB Install ==== One last alternative I want to present you for creating a Live USB key is LiveUSB Install: [[http://live.learnfree.eu/]]. It offers a very wide choice of distributions to burn to your key.