Booting from USB

[logan01]

Oh good. I figured it was the site and not the member time zone setting. Glad to see you're back in the U.S.

[Qqmike]

Fixed that!

[logan01]

The subtle point is this: You really don't have to actually do anything now with any USB. Just read the above, imagine it, mentally run a simulation in your brain of you doing stuff with these USBs. That oughta do it. Even saves money, not having to buy anything. It's hot here, really hot ...

You're hitting my big button. I love visualization. If your up in the badlands, why does your "local time" show you overseas?

[Qqmike]

The subtle point is this: You really don't have to actually do anything now with any USB. Just read the above, imagine it, mentally run a simulation in your brain of you doing stuff with these USBs. That oughta do it. Even saves money, not having to buy anything. It's hot here, really hot ...

[logan01]

Um, thanks.

[Qqmike]

And the usual related logistics (= monkey-motion) applies.

Say your live USB is sdb. In your live session (coming from the sdb USB) you insert your "data" USB, say it is sdc.
When you are done with the live session, try to safely remove sdc, using the usual "device-notifier" widget-whatever in the tray.

Fall back option: You end your live session, but for some reason you do not safely remove the data USB sdc.
You have selected "exit" from the K-Menu or whatever menu.
You wait until you see the message on the screen saying, Please remove your USB and hit return to continue.
When you see that message, you remove sdb.
You can leave your data USB, sdc, inserted.
Your PC re-boots to whatever OS you wish to boot to.
sdc is still plugged in: it shouldn't affect any of your booting because it is only a data USB, there is no MBR, EFI, or booting mechanism on it.
And then, whenever you want, you can remove that sdc, preferably by a "safely remove" action, but it is probably already safe to just pull it (unless some OS mounted it, inadvertently).

[Qqmike]

if push comes to shove, save a download to a usb

Yep. Just determine which USB is the USB being used to save such data (during your live session), especially if your live session is coming from another USB.

In live session
run
lsblk
study it;
insert another USB (your "data" USB) into your PC/laptop;
run
lsblk
study it;
and that should tell you which USB is which.
Or, do some-such monkey-motion to accomplish same.

[logan01]

Oh, if push comes to shove, save a download to a usb. That's why you get paid the big bucks. Thanks.

[Qqmike]

Am I dreaming this up; seems like I recall something like using "live" that downloads aren't allowed or something like that. True?

If I understand this right ...
In a live session, IME, you can download anything and use it in that live session. E.g., in a live session, you could download GParted Live iso, burn it to CD or make a live USB with it (using, say, dd), and it would all work great. Or download anything you want while in your live OS session, use it as you wish, or save it to one of your disks and/or to a CD and/or to a USB that you inserted while in that live session. Or, use something like Muon or another software management tool to download programs to use while you are in your live session (and it will all be gone after you exit your live session). Is this what you mean?

As for Unetbootin, we have discussed this many times around here. Many of us--including SteveRiley--have concluded that there are too many reports of problems with it. Even the Ubuntu help site on burning has made comments and cautions and warnings about it. Thus, we use the no-brainer dd (but you must correctly identify the target output file, "of=...", and you can do that using lsblk, fdisk or gdisk).

[logan01]

Yes, it defaults to "Try"

Do you prefer the dd command as opposed to just using "Unetbootin"? No chance in getting commands wrong with the Installer Unetbootin, which is available in the Software Manager. Some distro's don't even need to be downloaded, just chosen from the Unetbootin Installer.

I'll need to become familiar with Unetbootin. No knowledge. I used the dd command based on the guys helping me however, based on their input, I proceeded with caution. Glad I did. I found 2 separate errors I had made in that long dd string. Results might have not been too cool.

[Nasty7]

Now that I think about it, unlike when I did a "live" Ubuntu prior to becoming a Kubuntuite, Mint didn't offer "try / install. I reckon it defaults to "try".

Yes, it defaults to "Try"

Do you prefer the dd command as opposed to just using "Unetbootin"? No chance in getting commands wrong with the Installer Unetbootin, which is available in the Software Manager. Some distro's don't even need to be downloaded, just chosen from the Unetbootin Installer.

[logan01]

Now that I think about it, unlike when I did a "live" Ubuntu prior to becoming a Kubuntuite, Mint didn't offer "try / install. I reckon it defaults to "try". There's an install option on the desktop however. Hope I can hide / remove it so there's no inadvertent install process started. Am I dreaming this up; seems like I recall something like using "live" that downloads aren't allowed or something like that. True?

[logan01]

Yippee! Here I am using the Cinnamon stick. Pretty cool (for me). Took us less than a week. Not bad for me. Perhaps a record? Ain't it perdy?

[logan01]

So hope you're saying that message atop Dolphin is likely to be ignored (by me)? Hope so. I also downloaded Mint 17.3 KDE which will go on another flash drive. Thanks.

[elijathegold]

You can't safely remove because it hasn't been mounted yet. I had a similar issue with a BunsenLabs USB key which wouldn't mount even after I unplugged it and plugged it in again. It still successfully installed the OS on my oldest machine though.