Install Linux on a USB disk with Unetbootin

UNetBootIn allows you to create a bootable USB disk from the network or from a bootable CD, DVD, harddisk or image. Here is how you do it:

install unetbootin

• download unetbootin from http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net
• install some dependencies, in this case for SUSE Linux:

yast -i libpng12-0-32bit p7zip

• open a console, make the downloaded file executable, e.g.:

cd
cd Downloads
chmod 777 unetbootin-linux-575

insert your USB stick

• open a console as root and clear your syslog:

dmesg -c

• insert your USB stick
• find out what device has been attached by reading the syslog, e.g.:

# dmesg
[22005.395073] sd 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
[22005.397312] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdi] 15858688 512-byte logical blocks: (8.11 GB/7.56 GiB)

in this case an 8 GB USB stick has been inserted and become known as /dev/sdi

use unetbootin

• start unetbootin:

cd
cd Downloads
./unetbootin-linux-575

• select which distribution you want to have installed on what disk: