Fatdog64 Linux is a small yet versatile 64-bit multi-user Linux distribution. Originally created as a "fatter" (=more built-in applications) derivative of. The ultimate list of the best lightweight Linux distros for 2017. Every distro has (extremely) low hardware requirements and it’s great for old computers. Live USB - Wikipedia. Puppy Linux, an example of an operating system for live USBs. ![]()
A live USB is a USB flash drive or external hard disk drive containing a full operating system that can be booted. Although they are closely related to live CDs in that they can be used in embedded systems for system administration, data recovery, or test driving, live USBs can persistently save settings and install software packages on the USB device. Many operating systems including Mac OS 9, mac. OS, Windows XP Embedded and a large portion of Linux and BSD distributions can run from a USB flash drive, and Windows 8 Enterprise has a feature titled Windows To Go for a similar purpose. Background[edit]Personal computers introduced USB booting in the early 2. Macintosh computers introducing the functionality in 1. Power Mac G4 with AGP graphics and the slot- loading i. Mac G3 models.[1] Intel- based Macs carried this functionality over with booting mac. OS from USB.[2] Specialized USB- based booting was proposed by IBM in 2. Reincarnating PCs with Portable Soul. Pads and Boot GNU/Linux from a Fire. Wire device.[3][4]Benefits and limitations[edit]Live USBs share many of the benefits and limitations of live CDs, and also incorporate their own. Benefits[edit]In contrast to live CDs, the data contained on the booting device can be changed and additional data stored on the same device. A user can carry his or her preferred operating system, applications, configuration, and personal files with them, making it easy to share a single system between multiple users. Live USBs provide the additional benefit of enhanced privacy because users can easily carry the USB device with them or store it in a secure location (e. On the other hand, a USB device is easily lost or stolen, so data encryption and backup is even more important than with a typical desktop system. The absence of moving parts in USB flash devices allows true random access avoiding the rotational latency and seek time (see mechanical latency) of hard drives or optical media, meaning small programs will start faster from a USB flash drive than from a local hard disk or live CD. However, as USB devices typically achieve lower data transfer rates than internal hard drives, booting from older computers that lack USB 2. Limitations[edit]Live. USB OSes like Ubuntu Linux apply all filesystem writes to a casper filesystem overlay (casper- rw) that, once full or out of flash drive space, becomes unusable and the OS ceases to boot. USB controllers on add- in cards (e. ISA, PCI, and PCI- E) are almost never capable of being booted from, so systems that do not have native USB controllers in their chipset (e. USB) likely will be unable to boot from USB even when USB is enabled via such an add- in card. Some computers, particularly older ones, may not have a BIOS that supports USB booting. Many which do support USB booting may still be unable to boot the device in question. In these cases a computer can often be "redirected" to boot from a USB device through use of an initial bootable CD or floppy disk.[5][6][7]Intel- based Macintosh computers have limitations when booting from USB devices – while the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) firmware can recognize and boot from USB drives, it can only do this in EFI mode. When the firmware switches to "legacy" BIOS mode, it no longer recognizes USB drives. Non- OS X systems may not be typically booted in EFI mode, notably Windows and Linux, and thus USB booting may be limited to supported hardware and software combinations, which can easily be booted via EFI,[8] however, programs like Mac Linux USB Loader can alleviate the task of booting a Linux- live USB on a Mac. This limitation could be fixed by either changing the Apple firmware to include a USB driver in BIOS mode, or changing the operating systems to remove the dependency on the BIOS. Due to the additional write cycles that occur on a full- blown installation, the life of the flash drive may be slightly reduced. This doesn't apply to systems particularly designed for live systems which keep all changes in RAM until the user logs off.[9] A write- locked. SD card (known as a Live SD, the solid- state counterpart to a Live CD) in a USB flash card reader adapter is an effective way to avoid any duty cycles on the flash medium from writes and circumvent this problem. The SD card as a WORM device has an essentially unlimited life.An OS such as Linux can then run from the live USB/SD card and use conventional media for writing, such as magnetic disks, to preserve system changes; see persistence (computer science).Various applications exist to create live USBs; examples include Rufus, Fedora Live USB Creator, UNetbootin.Win. To. USB, Win.Disk. Imager, and YUMI, which works with a variety of distributions. . A few Linux distributions and live CDs have ready- made scripts which perform the steps below automatically.In addition, on Knoppix and Ubuntu extra applications can be installed, and a persistentfile system can be used to store changes. A base install ranges between as little as 1. Mi. B (Tiny Core Linux) to a large DVD- sized install (4 gigabytes). To set up a live USB system for commodity PC hardware, the following steps need to be done: A USB flash drive needs to be connected to the system, and be detected by it. One or more partitions may need to be created on the USB flash drive. The "bootable" flag must be set on the primary partition on the USB flash drive. An MBR must be written to the primary partition of the USB flash drive. The partition must be formatted (most often in FAT3. A bootloader must be installed to the partition (most often using syslinux when installing a Linux system)A bootloader configuration file (if used) must be written. The necessary files of the operating system and default applications must be copied to the USB flash drive. Language and keyboard files (if used) must be written to the USB flash drive. USB support in the BIOS' boot menu (although there are ways to get around this; actual use of a CD or DVD can allow the user to choose if the medium can later be written to. Write Once Read Many discs allow certainty that the live system will be clean the next time it is rebooted.)Knoppix live CDs have a utility that, on boot, allows users to declare their intent to write the operating system's file structures either temporarily, to a RAM disk, or permanently, on disk and flash media to preserve any added configurations and security updates. This can be easier than recreating the USB system but may be moot since many live USB tools are simple to use. Full installation[edit]An alternative to a live solution is a traditional operating system installation with the elimination of swap partitions. This installation has the advantage of being efficient for the software, as a live installation would still contain software removed from the persistent file due to the operating systems installer still being included with the media. However, a full installation is not without disadvantages; due to the additional write cycles that occur on a full installation, the life of the flash drive may be slightly reduced. To mitigate this, some live systems are designed to store changes in RAM until the user powers down the system, which then writes such changes. Another factor is if the speed of the storage device is destitute; performance can be comparable to legacy computers even on machines with modern parts if the flash drive transfers such speeds. One way to solve this is to use a USB hard drive, as they generally give better performance than flash drives regardless of the connector. Windows[edit]Although many live USBs rely on booting an open- source operating system such as Linux, it is possible to create live USBs for Windows by using Diskpart[citation needed] or Win. To. USB.[1. 0]Examples of Live USB operating systems[edit]Beleni. X: Customized Open. Solaris installs including live CD and live USB.[1. Debian officially supports a Debian live project providing live images for its stable releases, with a choice of several desktop environments. Fedora (with Fedora Media Writer)Gentoo Gentoo USB Live. Haiku: the Installer tool installs the operating system onto a hard disk or a USB Live indifferently. Knoppix, one of the first live Linux distributions. Mac OS X (Intel): The Intel versions of Mac OS X can be booted off any USB file system including (but not limited to) USB flash drives. Open. BSD[1. 2]Open. Make a Live USB to Boot From a USB Drive: 1. Steps (with Pictures)The photo above is the logos of the three most popular Linux distributions available: Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and Debian. So, in order to run an operating system, we need to know which one to use. If you have one, skip this step (or don't, whatever). I grabbed the list of 3 of the some of the most popular Linux flavors, as determined by Distro. Watch. Here'sa link to that list. Linux Mint. This is one I've wanted to try for a while, so it's one of the systems you'll see me add. It features a clean desktop, and is designed to be a more compatible version of Ubuntu. It works right out of the box with many features pre- installed, so there is little setup necessary. The official webpage for this project can be found here. Ubuntu. This is the Linux flavor that I mostly use and am familiar with. It has a large amount of compatible software and a sleek, modern looking interface. It has a large number of tools pre- installed, but you'll find the rest very easy to install through the Ubuntu Software Center, a sort of App Store featuring thousands of compatible softwares. The official webpage for this project can be found here. Debian. Debian includes a massive amount of packages that come with it (2. A massive amount of operating systems have sprung forth from Debian, so it's another one that's worth looking into. I'm curious about it as well, so it's another I'll be downloading. It's not quite as beginner- friendly, and you'll need to understand how a computer works. The official webpage for this project can be found here.(At one point I had said that Linus had started this directly- I was incorrect, thanks Kevinf. So that's the top three most popular, but here's a few that are worth a mention because even though they aren't as popular, they still have a large follower base and have something that sets them apart. If your favorite isn't here, convince me of its uniqueness and I'll add it. Puppy Linux- This one is a basic desktop, but what makes it special is that despite having a lot of great features, it is very small, and crams itself into the RAM of your computer (allowing for very fast responses from the programs). The official webpage for this project can be found here. Zorin OS- This is a great choice for Linux beginners and those interested in getting started with a new operating system- that's what its designed for. It also allows you to run Windows programs, which is found in many Linux flavors, but Zorin does it without having to download anything.Don't assume that jsut because it's designed with beginners in mind that it's a dumbed down version of anything, however. Updating Datagridview From Another Form Cms . This is still a powerful and sleek operating system. The official webpage for this project can be found here. Kali Linux- Remember how I said a lot of OS's have sprung from Debian? This is one of them. It's used for penetration testing, and leads the field in this area. If you don't know what that is, this is useless to you. The official webpage for this project can be found here. Ubuntu. Gnome- Ubuntu used to have a very windows- ish feel to it, but then it changed. This operating system is basically the same as Ubuntu, with all the same great features, but keeps the old look and feel. The official webpage for this project can be found here. Tails Linux- An acronym for The Amnesiac Incognito Live System, this is the program used by informants and reporters around the world to keep themselves from being snooped on. Tails uses a system in which it makes sure not to keep a record of what you are doing, and uses TOR for web browsing. As soon as you shut it down, it forgets everything you've done. Thanks to these and other anonymity techniques, this OS has been gaining a lot of popularity. The official webpage for this project can be found here.(Please be warned- I have received reports that visiting this site will put you on an NSA watchlist. This is most likely connected to the fact that it was used by Edward Snowden, as well as other informants and reporters, to conceal their location, identity, and communications. Thanks for the notice, Mark Rehorst!)Gentoo Linux- This is one geared towards hardcore Linux users who know what they are doing. If you want a nice, fast desktop, and you are familiar with Linux, give this one a go. The official webpage for this project can be found here. Here are a few recommended by the comments of other readers: Lubuntu Linux- Lubuntu is flavor of Ubuntu, and is meant to be lightweight, usable by the normal PC owner, and able to run on just about any specs. The official webpage for this project can be found here. Thanks to Instructables user Cheapo for this suggestion. Fedora Linux- According to a Guru I know, Fedora stands out because of all the tools it offers for programming and compiling code, which has made it popular among the Linux community. It sounds easy to set up, yet very powerful and tinkerable. Fedora tends to do its best to be at the cutting edge of software and technology. The official webpage for this project can be found here. Open. SUSE- Another one recommended by the Guru, this is an operating system that stands out because of its ruggedness. This platform seems to be very difficult to crack, and is good for servers. As he put it, "If I want to make a solid Linux box, I'm going to use Open. SUSE." The official page for this project can be found here. Porteus- This is a lightning- fast Linux distro designed to be fast, easy, and bootable from a USB drive. It boasts a 1. 5 second startup time, and remains a modern and desktop. It is also compatable with most any system thanks to its simplicity, and can even be loaded into the RAM for an even faster loading time. The official page for this project can be found here. Thanks to Instructables user Arochester for this suggestion. There are hundreds of more versions of Linux, many worth checking out- these are just a tiny amount.
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