FOSSwire

Did you know that is ridiculously simple to install Ubuntu onto an external USB flash drive?

If you have a copy of the latest version of Ubuntu (at the time of writing that is 8.10), there is a very simple program that does it all for you.

You will need:

• An Ubuntu 8.10 CD (or ISO image if already installed)
• A USB drive with at least 700-800 MB free space

While you are booted into Ubuntu, go to System > Administration > Create a USB startup disk.

You'll need to choose the source disc image for Ubuntu. If you have your Ubuntu CD in the drive, this should appear in the list, so make sure it is selected. Alternatively, you can click 'Other' and specify where the .iso image of the Ubuntu CD is.

Next, plug in your drive and choose it as your destination drive (and double-check it's the right drive before going ahead).

You can also choose how much space will be reserved for saving data on the new drive, or turn data storage off (it will act just like the Ubuntu live CD).

That's it! Simply press Make Startup Disk and wait while the files are copied over.

On many modern PCs that are configured to allow USB boot, you should be able to just restart the machine with the USB drive plugged in and Ubuntu should boot straight from it!

It's a nice simple way to have a copy of Ubuntu in your pocket, wherever you go.

Tired of manually tweaking your GRUB menu.lst to add a new system, or even just change the theme, only to have your system not boot because you made a typo? Well, those days are over, or they can be, with Startup Manager.

Startup Manager, for Debian or a derivative (such as Ubuntu), allows you to load your GRUB menu into a simplified interface to edit, and then save it back when you are done.

Every option known to GRUB (and update-grub) appears to be available in this application. That includes everything from passwords, timeouts, and kernel limits, to colors, themes, and boot resolutions. As an added bonus, the bootup usplash theme can be edited.

That's all there is to it. The advantage of using a graphical interface for tasks such as this means that it impossible (hopefully!) to make a typo or syntax error in the file and have to boot into a CD to rescue the system. However, in the event that you do mess something up, Startup Manager also offers an option to create a rescue floppy. Sorry, no rescue CD, but for something like that you might try out the Ultimate Boot CD.

Just another application to make your life easier.

Last week, I covered how to use KGRUBEditor to re-order the boot menu you see at startup, so that dual boot users could move Windows to the top of the list if they would like.

It is also relatively simple, however, to manually reorder this menu by editing the configuration file of GRUB (that's the boot loader).

This tutorial will focus on Debian/Ubuntu, however these instructions should be able to be followed on any distribution (just ignore things about the automagic kernel list).

First of all, a word of warning. Editing configuration files can be a potentially risky business. Make sure you know what you're doing. You should also make a copy of the file /boot/grub/menu.lst and store it somewhere safe (you can restore it with a Live CD later if the worst does happen). If anything does go wrong, see the end of this post.

Right, let's get started. First of all, we need to open up the configuration file in an editor.

Assuming you're running GNOME, press Alt-F2 to bring up the Run Application window. Type gksu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst and click Run. Enter your password when prompted.

This will open up a text editor, with the GRUB configuration file ready to edit. So let's assume once again that you want Windows to be the default entry.

Scroll towards the bottom of the file, you should see a section similar to this:

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

Select this whole section and choose Edit > Cut.

Scroll back up to find a line like this:

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

Just after that line, but before BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST, use Edit > Paste to put the Windows entry above all the Ubuntu entries.

Save the file and quit the editor. Assuming you did the process correctly, when you reboot, Windows should be at the top of the list and the default boot option. To start Linux, simply press down once and then Enter!

If you did run into problems, you can restore the functionality of Windows by booting the computer with the Windows XP CD in, choosing to go into the Recovery Console and typing fixmbr at the prompt. Linux can then be fixed by re-running the GRUB install from a Live CD.