Install Ubuntu 8.10 to a Flash Drive from the Live CD

Create a Ubuntu 8.10 Persistent flash drive using the Live CD. This tutorial will enable a user to install Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex to a USB flash drive while booted from the Live CD. In addition the persistence or casper persistent feature (via a separate partition) will be utilized to automatically save changes back to the thumb drive as you work, and then restore those saved changes upon subsequent boots.

Please Note: The following tutorial utilizes a separate ext casper-rw partition instead of a loop file. The process enables the user to have a partition that is larger than the 4GB fat32 file size limit for saving and restoring changes.

A very nice USB Installer is now included on the Ubuntu 8.10 CD, Please use this > USB Ubuntu 8.10 Flash drive installer instead (If your USB Stick is 4GB or Less)

Ubuntu 8.10 USB installation essentials

Working CD Drive and an Ubuntu 8.10 CD
Established internet connection
1GB or larger USB flash drive (2GB or larger for script installations)

Create Ubuntu 8.10 flash drive automatically

With this method, you must use a 2GB or larger thumb drive.

1. Download the Ubuntu 8.10 ISO and burn it to a CD
2. Restart your computer, booting from the Live CD
3. Insert a 2GB or larger USB flash drive
4. Open a terminal and type the following into the terminal window:

wget pendrivelinux.com/downloads/u810/u810.sh

chmod +x u810.sh && sh u810.sh

Follow the onscreen instructions
Once the script has finished, reboot your computer and set your BIOS or boot menu to boot from the USB device

Create Ubuntu 8.10 flash drive manually

Download the Ubuntu 8.10 ISO and burn it to a CD
Restart your computer and boot from the Ubuntu Live CD
Insert a 1GB or larger USB flash drive
Open a terminal window and type sudo su
Now type fdisk -l to list available drives/partitions (note which device is your flash drive Example: /dev/sdb). Throughout this tutorial, replace all instances of x with your flash drive letter. For example, if your flash drive is sdb, replace x with b.
Type umount /dev/sdx1
Type fdisk /dev/sdx
- type p to show the existing partition and d to delete it
- type p again to show any remaining partitions (if partitions exist, repeat the previous step)
- type n to make a new partition
- type p for primary partition
  - type 1 to make this the first partition
  - hit enter to use the default 1st cylinder
  - type +750M to set the partition size
  - type a to make this partition active
  - type 1 to select partition 1
  - type t to change the partition filesystem
  - type 6 to select the fat16 file system
- type n to make another new partition
- type p for primary partition
  - type 2 to make this the second partition
  - hit enter to use the default cylinder
  - hit enter again to use the default last cylinder
  - type w to write the new partition table
Type umount /dev/sdx1 to unmount the partition
Type mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n ubuntu810 /dev/sdx1 to format the first partition
Type umount /dev/sdx2 to ensure the partition is unmounted
Type mkfs.ext2 -b 4096 -L casper-rw /dev/sdx2 to format the second partition
Remove and re-insert your flash drive (if prompted that a new medium has been detected, select to open in a new window and click ok)
Back at the terminal, type sudo apt-get install syslinux mtools
Type syslinux -sf /dev/sdx1
Type cd /cdrom
Type cp -rfv casper dists install pics pool preseed .disk isolinux/* md5sum.txt README.diskdefines install/mt86plus /media/ubuntu810
Type cd /media/ubuntu810
Type cp isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg
Type rm text.cfg
Type wget pendrivelinux.com/downloads/u810/text.cfg
Reboot your computer and set your system BIOS boot priority to boot from the USB stick