An extremely easy way to create a multi-boot flash drive for Debian / Ubuntu

    • Is there an extra flash drive on hand?
    • There is a desire to have a convenient tool for combating computer-systemic diseases?
    • Don't want to drag a stack of discs?
    • Do you use Debian or its granddaughter Ubuntu, or maybe they are on a virtual machine carefully created in advance?
    • Love the GUI where they really are?


    I'll tell you about LiveUSB Multiboot. This is an open-source program (for GPLv3), which makes it easy and simple to create a bootable USB flash drive and throw a couple of images with everything you need so that you can start from it on occasion and not suffer from wearing and burning discs.
    In this topic, I will describe my impressions of the program found in the comments on the expanses of Habrahabr. I could not find the author of the comment again yet, but I am sincerely grateful to him =) So far this is the easiest way to make a bootable USB flash drive, and even with a GUI.
    It just so happened that I bought Kingston DT100G3 for 16 gigabytes, succumbing to a low price, USB 3.0 and a brand that personally did not give me glitches. Well, I bought it. Turned in his hands. I started thinking why I need her. I thought: “Ah, I’ll find application, in extreme cases - I will wear films” and forgot. And in the evening I had to install Windows XP on one computer. And then there was an ambush - it turned out that there were no free computers with CD burners in the reach zone. More precisely, they were, I just was very lazy and wanted to solve the problem without getting up from a chair and without running into the next room. A flash drive was at hand, and so my ass escaped moving in space ...
    And what to do with this flash drive? I heard about a bunch of programs with a convenient GUI for Windows, but I couldn’t put the same XP into the multi-boot at the same time on a working Debian computer - when marking up a disk, I selected XP and 7 under the partition for a long time ... Logically, unfortunately. I found out that XP cannot be put on a logical partition much later = (So I scored it - I somehow manage without Windows, but I need a way ...
    Although, I'm dumb! Under Linux, there should be a lot more ways to do this a priori. And it was worth driving something like “boot linux flash drive” into the search for Habr - and the counter showed a lot of results. Well, I started wielding with the middle mouse button, choosing from the headers which one would be better. So, this is a console, then a console ... PenDriveLinux is a good thing, but I have to install Windows from a USB flash drive, but nothing is said about it. And here in one of the comments I found a link to, unfortunately, a little lost its relevance tutorial on the Multiboot LiveUSB program. There was a link to the main page of the project - and that was enough.

    What do you need to install?


    sudo apt-add-repository 'deb http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot all main'
    wget -q http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot/multisystem.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add - 
    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install multisystem 
    #Только для Debian
    sudo usermod -a -G adm "$SUDO_USER"


    Then we look for this program in the menu and run.





    Program interface


    The curve interface is partially uncomfortable, but does not interfere with the program. At least that’s my impression. You cannot resize a window - and this is rather inconvenient, all elements are of fixed sizes. If you select non-French or non-English interface languages, then the positions slide, the buttons disappear and other horrors happen. BLOOD GUT INTERFACE GATHERED . True, it is treated by switching to another tab and vice versa =)

    But Drag & Drop images are supported, and this is somewhat convenient thing.

    Program work


    The program does not crash and even works with most of all images. It works simply - according to the white list of images, i.e. refuses to fill in those for which she does not have installation instructions. It should be noted that the whitelist is quite large, and a replacement for almost all tools can be found by choosing any other drive. However, the whitelist was hidden far from the efforts of the authors, on the initially hidden button block.





    Downloaders and image hosting


    • Main Loader - GRUB2
    • If it is impossible to download something via GRUB2, another bootloader is written to the USB flash drive, which (apparently, as conceived by the authors) should be guaranteed to be compatible with this program. There are Syslinux and Grub4DOS for this.
    • Apparently, the authors of the program did a good job on compatibility. From the logs, errors and nuances of the work, you can understand that it sets certain principles of behavior when installing different images - the same detection of suitable bootloaders and so on. This is definitely more reliable than the method of the "famous Russian scientist Tyk."
    • Yes, you can download different versions of Linux. Now I have on this flash drive Knoppix, Debian in two versions, Puppy and Backtrack.
    • Yes, you can download different versions of Windows. I have Windows 7, XP-Rus and XP-Eng.
    • Each image is either lovingly unpacked into its own separate daddy on a USB flash drive, or it simply pops up in the form of iso onto the same USB flash drive - there are such a minority, still there should be speed, and in the case of reading iso from a flash drive to memory in order to boot from this iso , performance is somehow not observed =)


    Little things

    • The program kindly asks us to download some proprietary parts solely for our convenience.
      For example, without Firadisk.img, the same XP will not want to be installed at all. It happens that there.
      However, it was not without something funny. The program asks you to download the WinServer 2003 SP1 distribution package so that you can cram XP onto a USB flash drive - about 5 files are needed. Yes, the image at the click of a button sways from nowhere, weighs about a gigabyte and all that is needed is a couple of files from this image. I downloaded, of course, but WTF stayed. I understand that WTF should be towards licenses and all that ...
    • NOT? TRY THE ZAKA4ATB MEMT3CT! It is already there, as standard with any flash drive that is susceptible to the destructive effects of Multiboot. So that.


    Pros:
    • Versatility - almost anything on one flash drive
    • Convenience - almost anything, on one flash drive ;-)
    • It works stably, does not crash
    • It is regularly updated, in any case, I get constantly popping up message-requests from update-notifier about multiboot =)


    Minuses:
    • You cannot set your own title for GRUB. It’s inconvenient when there are two XP images that differ in the installation language — the headers are different, and the chance of getting into the right one when booting from a USB flash drive is 50 to 50.
    • Interface glitch
    • White-list, which sometimes glitches and does not skip the image of the same XP, slightly modified by NLite or manually, and the changes affected only the file internals (hash sums of files that are not particularly significant for downloading?)


    Why only Ubuntu / Debian?

    Yes, it's just that the program page claims compatibility with Debian & Ubuntu. I have not tried anything else - I rarely use other distributions. If someone suddenly realizes that the program is compatible with his distribution kit, write in the comments.

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