I am running Kubuntu 17.04 from a USB drive. Since I don't have a PC of my own, I was wondering how can I save changes that I make in my live session, since starting from scratch is starting to get really annoying each time I run on a different PC. Thanks for your help.
You need to create a "Persistent" Live USB. A persistent USB contains a partition where you can save your data, and it will also save changes you make to your Ubuntu.
An excellent tool is mkusb.
Install it using the following.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mkusb/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mkusb mkusb-nox usb-pack-efi
Instructions for using mkusb are here.
Prepare your USB
- Launch guidus from launcher
- w Wipe a drive
- 1 wipe 1 (the first) Mibiyte
Install Ubuntu
- Launch guidus from launcher
- Select i Install (make a boot device)
- Select p 'Persistent live' - only Debian and Ubuntu
Select your USB device (like "sdb" or "sdc")
Select msdos GPT
Select usb-pack-efi (default grub from ISO file). Note, this is for EFI boot.
Select percentage of USB that you want to use for persistence.
- Select Go
- Click OK to the grub-pc error
- Click OK to ... must be fetched from the iso
Create an Admin User
Once you've created your persistent Live USB, you might want to create a new user for your persistent iso, and grant the user sudo (admin) and other privileges:
sudo adduser <user>
sudo usermod -a -G adm,dialout,cdrom,floppy,sudo,audio,dip,video,plugdev,users,lpadmin,sambashare <user>
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Persistence works on many other distros, not just Debian / Ubuntu. Persistence, however, is not a substitute for an install and is good for saving basic settings, wireless passwords, and perhaps installing a few packages. It will fail if you run
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
multiple times. If you want to save data I highly suggest making a separate data or home partition on the usb. – Panther Oct 29 '17 at 1:43 -
Minor point but the question is about Kubuntu and so GDM and some other "GNOME" elements may not apply. – DK Bose Oct 29 '17 at 2:20
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