Create multi boot USB stick/hard disk with whole iso/s on vfat/fat32 partition keeping existing data untouched.
Note: File size greater than 4G is not usable on vfat/fat32 partition so the live CD/DVD iso file should not exceed this limit.
Note2: Install 32bit/x86 iso on the stick first if creating multiboot with both x86 and x86_64 arch images.
Note3: Requires: syslinux, qemu-img and dd_rescue/ddrescue installed on the system running this.
Copy live-fat-stick to /usr/bin/ and chmod +x /usr/bin/live-fat-stick
Run this command as root (su -, not sudo) live-fat-stick isopath stickpartition e.g.: live-fat-stick /home/geeko/openSUSE-Edu-li-f-e-12.2-1-i686.iso /dev/sdXY
To add various distribution iso to the stick, run the following:
For openSUSE: live-fat-stick --suse /path/to/openSUSE-filename.iso /dev/sdXY
For openSUSE with persistence : live-fat-stick --suse-persistent /path/to/openSUSE-filename.iso /dev/sdXY
For Ubuntu clones : live-fat-stick --ubuntu /path/to/ubuntu-filename.iso /dev/sdXY
For Ubuntu clones with persistence : live-fat-stick --ubuntu-persistent /path/to/ubuntu-filename.iso /dev/sdXY
For Mint: live-fat-stick --mint /path/to/mint-filename.iso /dev/sdXY
For Fedora: live-fat-stick --fedora /path/to/fedora-filename.iso /dev/sdXY
For iPXE: live-fat-stick --ipxe /path/to/ipxe.iso /dev/sdXY
For isohybrid: live-fat-stick --isohybrid /path/to/isohybridimage.iso /dev/sdX
isopath should be full absolute path of iso image and the device should be actual partition on the stick like /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdc1,/dev/sdc2...
The stick partition has to be vfat/fat32 format if the image is not isohybrid.
Persistent option requires minimum 500M free space on the USB device apart from the spare needed by iso image. To allocate more space for cow file use cowfile variable like this example: "export cowsize=1000M" before running the script
Please note that using isohybrid option will remove all existing data on the USB device and create new partitions. Also note that /dev/sdX is used
Run live-fat-stick -l(or --list) to list the possible usb storage devices available.
openSUSE users can install it via 1-click from here: http://software.opensuse.org/package/live-fat-stick
Create multi boot USB stick/hard disk with whole iso/s on any partition supported by grub2 keeping existing data untouched. This tool uses grub2 instead of syslinux to achieve the same goal as live-fat-stick.
Note: File size greater than 4G is not usable on vfat/fat32 partition so the live CD/DVD iso file should not exceed this limit. Use any other grub2 supported filesystem if the iso file exceeds this limit.
Note2: Install 32bit/x86 iso on the stick first if creating multiboot with both x86 and x86_64 arch images.
Note3: Requires: grub2, qemu-img and dd_rescue/ddrescue installed on the system running this. On Ubuntu grub-pc-bin package is also needed.
Run this command as root (su -, not sudo) live-grub-stick isopath stickpartition e.g.: live-grub-stick /home/geeko/openSUSE-Edu-li-f-e-12.2-1-i686.iso /dev/sdXY
To add various distribution iso to the stick, run the following:
For openSUSE : live-grub-stick --suse /path/to/openSUSE-filename.iso /dev/sdXY
For openSUSE with persistence : live-grub-stick --suse-persistent /path/to/openSUSE-filename.iso /dev/sdXY
For Ubuntu clones : live-grub-stick --ubuntu /path/to/ubuntu-filename.iso /dev/sdXY
For Ubuntu clones with persistence : live-grub-stick --ubuntu-persistent /path/to/ubuntu-filename.iso /dev/sdXY
For Mint: live-grub-stick --mint /path/to/mint-filename.iso /dev/sdXY
For Fedora : live-grub-stick --fedora /path/to/fedora-filename.iso /dev/sdXY
For iPXE: live-grub-stick --ipxe /path/to/ipxe.iso /dev/sdXY
For isohybrid : live-grub-stick --isohybrid /path/to/isohybridimage.iso /dev/sdX
Standard openSUSE DVD or NET installation iso can also be written with --suse option when used with live-grub-stick, openSUSE DVD on non-vfat partition and NET installation on vfat parition.
isopath should be full absolute path of iso image and the device should be actual partition on the stick like /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdc1,/dev/sdc2...
The stick partition has to be in a format supported by grub2 and the OS image if the image is not isohybrid.
Persistent option requires minimum 500M free space on the USB device apart from the spare needed by iso image. To allocate more space for cow file use cowfile variable like this example: "export cowsize=1000M" before running the script
Please note that using isohybrid option will remove all existing data on the USB device and create new partitions.
Run live-grub-stick -l(or --list) to list the possible usb storage devices available.
openSUSE users can install it via 1-click from here: http://software.opensuse.org/package/live-grub-stick
Simple zenity/kdialog based GUI that runs live-fat-stick or live-grub-stick script
Copy live-usb-gui to /usr/bin/ and chmod +x /usr/bin/live-usb-gui Copy live-usb-gui.desktop to /usr/share/applications/ and update-desktop-database -q this should make Live USB GUI show up in desktop menu.
On Ubuntu or distributions that do not have xdg-su, change Exec=xdg-su -c "live-usb-gui" to Exec=gksudo "live-usb-gui" in live-usb-gui.desktop. Use any xdg-su equivalent command available.
Run this command without any options as root from terminal (su -, not sudo) or Alt+F2 and xdg-su -c "xterm -e live-usb-gui"
For iso images processed with isohybrid such as openSUSE installation DVD and UEFI boot support and any other Linux distributions select "isohybrid" from distribution selection dialog. This will erase all the data from the USB stick.
Standard openSUSE DVD or NET installation iso can also be written with --suse option when used with live-grub-stick, openSUSE DVD on non-vfat partition and NET installation on vfat parition.
Please note that USB created using isohybrid mode will be wiped out completely and will not be usable from Windows OS, so back up the data from the USB stick before hand.
openSUSE users can install it via 1-click from here: http://software.opensuse.org/package/live-usb-gui
Note: Requires: live-fat-stick or live-grub-stick, zenity/kdialog, syslinux and dd_rescue installed on the system running this.
It is possible to boot multiple distributions and iso images from same device, should work with all recent distributions' live iso images. Fedora iso is not copied when live-fat-stick is used but is extracted, when live-grub-stick is used all isos are copied.
You are welcome to fork and submit patches for your distro if it is not supported by this script :)
Cross platform alternative with GUI to these tools: https://github.com/mbusb/multibootusb
Have a lot of fun...