Portable Linux

Project Description

Project resources

• Documentation
• Releases
• Issue tracker
• Contact address
• Code repository

Portable Linux lets you convert your removable drive into a Live, bootable Linux, so you can run your favorite Linux distribution with your favorite settings, anywhere in the world.  Unlike the competition, Portable Linux can:

1. Save disk space and use your removable drive as usual: The live removable drives created by this program let you use the remaining disk space on your removable drive to store and transport files between Windows, Mac and Linux computers, as usual.  Since it uses a Live CD, you save valuable disk space on your removable drive.
   
2. Remember your customizations: What's more, if your distribution supports persistence, the files and settings you edit on your live Linux distribution are persisted across reboots.
3. Install any distribution, on any distribution: Unlike the competition, it runs on any Linux distribution.  On top of that, you can install not just Ubuntu, but any distribution that uses Casper as its LiveCD technology.  So if you have Fedora and want to create a live removable drive with Debian, no problem, Portable Linux can do it.
4. Rescue systems and run other OSes: Since it uses GRUB (the GRand Unified Bootloader), you can:
• easily add memtest86+ and MS-DOS to it (handy for those BIOS updates),
• boot a Linux or Windows machine with a damaged MBR (master boot record), then subsequently repair it,
• boot any operating system installed in any of the disks in your computer; and even
• boot your Linux operating system using the root partition on your hard disk.
  
5. Access all your files saved on the USB drive: Finally, you can access the area used to store your files just fine from within your Linux distribution.  In that manner, you can create your live Linux distro, install a couple of codecs and applications on it, put a bunch of MP3s or movies in it, and you've got a complete multimedia center on your pocket!

After creating your live removable drive with Portable Linux, don't forget to read the Questions and tips section on this Web site!

Distributions that yo can install to your removable drive include all the Ubuntu variants and any distribution that uses Casper as its live bootstrap mechanism.

This project originated in the tutorial A better way to create a customized USB drive with Ubuntu Live on it.

How to install Portable Linux on your computer

Simple.  Any of these will work:

• Recommended for Fedora and Red Hat:
  Set up The missing RPMs repository on your machine and then install Portable Linux using your distribution's software manager.
• Recommended for Ubuntu and Debian:
  Add our Personal package archive to your APT configuration, and then install Portable Linux using your distribution's software manager.
  
• Install the dependencies manually and then use the packages provided in the download area.
  
• Install PyGTK+ on your distribution, install Mencoder, then get the source release from the releases page.  You can run the program from the uncompressed package, or you can install it using the Python's distutils instructions.
  

Self-Certification

[ ] Internationalized

[ ] Unit tests

[ ] End-user documentation

[ ] Internal documentation (documentation, interfaces, etc.)

[ ] Existed and maintained for at least 6 months

[X] Installs and uninstalls cleanly

[ ] Code structure follows best practice