Linux on a stick

Before setting up my new server, I decided to prepare a USB drive with an Ubuntu Live installer.

There are numerous advantages over a CD. A USB drive can easily be carried around, e.g. on a keychain, so we will always have access to our Ubuntu Live system. Updating it is as easy as copying the new version to the drive. There is no need to burn a new CD. The particular setup I used also allows for modifications to be saved to the drive. It's no longer necessary to change the keyboard settings everytime the system is booted. Even more important is the ability to install additional software on the stick. This allows us to use it as a rescue system in situations where there is no Internet access available but special software packages or drivers are necessary to access the crashed system.

Basically, I just followed the guide "A better way to create a customized USB drive with Ubuntu Live on it". Please take note of the comment at the bottom of the page as I encountered the same problem and had to use menu.lst instead of grub.conf for it to work. I only deviated from the guide in one way: I reserved most of the space of the USB drive for an encrypted filesystem. But this will be a topic for another article.

There is also an automated way to install Ubuntu on the USB drive, but then the whole space of the drive is used with no option to add an encrypted partition later on.