Can I make an existing Mint Live USB stick "persistant"?

[tinker123]

How can I created a Mint 19 Live USB stick with persistence?

Can I do it with a USB thumb drive that is only 4gigs?

I've seen a lot of suggestions for how to do it with Windows tools, but I don't have windows.

I tried using this lone document using all linux tools, but UNetbootin kept hanging at 51%. ( I upped the suggested sizes to accommodate the Mint 19 ISO ).

http://tuxtweaks.com/2014/03/create-lin ... -live-usb/

Thanks much for any help.

[redlined]

you can do it manually, using Disks or gparted to size down the partition your live installer is on, make a new fat32 partition (or ntfs if over 4GB) labeled as casper-rw and all- but it may be problematic and really is just simpler to redo the USB installer as it is (the original ISO can still be used, otherwise there is nothing saved nor special about the stick as it is).

and to do this I very highly recommend UUI from pendrivelinux, I use their Yumi tool to reliably create multi-live session USB, with persistence and it just works (not as much luck with other such tools available)

This talks about persistence, good read:
https://www.pendrivelinux.com/what-is-persistent-linux/

this is their UUI tool:
https://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal ... -as-1-2-3/

(read the whole page, it's a long one- but good infos)

Since UUI (and Yumi) are windows programs you will need either a win7+ computer to use, or some virtual machine (VBox, VMware, Qemu, Wine, etc). I used my LM19/win7 dualboot box to just run it on win7 and have not attempted from Linux nor VM. I did however try nearly every other package I could find to attempt from Linux and none worked for me (specifically multi-OS live session/installers with persistence, what could go wrong?!

you might find other posts in these forums on the topic, it comes up frequently, as well looking through the pendrive linked to packages: https://www.pendrivelinux.com/category/usb-creator/
they have some good write-ups and appropriate hat's off nods to other devs.

[tinker123]

redlined

I don't have access to Windows.

Can you suggest Linux tools making a Mint Live Persistent USB stick?

[pbear]

Hey tinker123, a few thoughts.

1. The linked article uses the LiveLinux USB Creator. That app was last updated in September 2015, last worked with Mint 17.2 and has since been abandoned by its developer. By all accounts, a great tool while it lasted, but no longer usable.

2. In Windows, the best persistence tool in my experience is PenDrive's UUI (see redlined's link). Personally, I found YUMI unreliable but YMMV. Doesn't much matter here, as you're not going to fit more than one persistent system on a 4 GB flash drive anyway. There also are a couple of good Linux apps, mkUSB and MultiSystem, but UUI is easier.

3. You erase a drive in Linux the same as in Windows, by formatting it. (Doesn't actually erase in either system, but deletes the file table which is functionally the same thing.) No need for that, though, as all the persistence utilities format as the first step. Regarding size, whether 4 GB (net about 2 GB for persistence) is large enough depends on what you want to do. Main advantage of persistence IMHO is that you can save settings, which takes very little space. So, in effect, you have a 2 GB budget. Spend on what suits your needs.

4. I'll emphasize that persistence isn't the same as an installed system. The live ISO isn't designed to be an operating system. It's intended for testing hardware compatibility and installing to that hardware. So while persistence is convenient for some things, full install to USB drive is much more robust. You'd need to buy another drive for that, preferably a hard drive as flash drives don't hold up long when used as operating systems (full or persistent) and yours isn't nearly large enough anyway, but they're not expensive. Keep the 4 GB as an emergency boot tool, which you should have anyway.

5. Be aware a USB system isn't as portable as you might think, as you can only boot on machines where the owner is willing to modify BIOS/UEFI. (Same as you did on yours.) Family and friends will let you do that (usually). Offices you're visiting, hotels, etc., generally will not.

[redlined]

Can you suggest Linux tools making a Mint Live Persistent USB stick?

Sadly I am stuck on that currently. It was some months back (no more than 6) where I attempted many Linux tools that even acknowledged persistence setups. multibootISO, liveUSB/Multisystem, xboot and another one or two in Linux just did not work (for me), Unetbootin started working for basic ISO to usb burn, but still requires manual partition and format+label for the persistence space. Windows tools sardu, lili and a couple others failed. Yumi and UUI just work, super simple and get it right every time.

If no windows is an option (inc vm/wine) then I'd consider give that first linux tool listed a try, LiveUSB/Install, in USB creator category I linked to. specifically, this article:
https://www.pendrivelinux.com/liveusb-i ... #more-5787

and see if this cross-platform python tool does the trick. This will be the one I give my next attempt with as I do not recall trying it before, at all. Want to try Debian9.7 and the soon to be released Kali linux 2019.1, so will start tinkering with this LiveUSB Install python tool now

also, If you want a go at it with tools already available in Linux Mint then it is possible as well! That guide you linked to gives overview, as is the good read from pendrive that talks about persistence in general. and using USB Image Writer (from menu) to burn the ISO to USB, then use Disks to resize ISO partition down to, say 2GB should be plenty (just a little elbow room for contents as they are), and format the rest ext2/4, label as casper-rw, and give it some live trial runs.

It is awesome to have a live session that keeps settings and configs, although not as cool/simple as just install LM to the thumbdrive, live w/persistence does have the benefit of using less space for OS, less writes to the USB stick, and being faster overall as ISO (OS) gets loaded into system ram- so pretty dang quick in general (as long as USB3, usb2 will be your thruput bottleneck, regardless how you use it).

Only concern is for a 4GB stick you won't get much extra life out of it. Even if you sqeeze 3GB persistence space out of it- that will fill quickly so consider find a 10-20GB stick, and definitely USB3 (including upgrade to USB3 on computer, if not have it already- because usb2 will the the death by slowness experience if not.

edit to add: +1 pbear response, with additional echo of points #4 and 5

[AndyMH]

For persistent usb sticks I use mkusb:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb