[TUTORIAL] Live USB of several ISO images with Ventoy

[AZgl1800]

After I copy the LMDE iso to the Ventoy USB, can I boot LMDE and install it on the USB and save files in LMDE after it is installed, all on the USB?

not on the same stick.....
think about it, you can't over write the boot stick with the DE....

you can use the .iso on Ventoy, to make an install on a separate USB stick,
but it will be slower than mud in February.

[Wibol]

I imagine it is possible (I haven't tried it), but installing Mint's GRUB will overwrite the Ventoy bootloader and you won't be able to use it anymore. In addition you must leave at least 20 GB of free space at the end of the Ventoy stick to be able to install on it. To do this you must follow the tutorial procedure and once the GUI is launched, open the menu 'Option / Partition Configuration / Preserve some space at the end of the disk'.

ventoy-preserve.png (12.93 KiB) Viewed 3430 times

But remember that the Ventoy bootloader will be destroyed. I think it is better to install Mint on a different stick.

[OunceofCommonSense]

Has anyone managed to get persistence working on Ventoy. I used the Ventoy's sites directions and no dice. I tried Mint XFCE19.1 which I thought was supported. Also tried Mint cinnamon 21. The opening menu shows persistence on the menu options but in practice it doesn't seem to retain any changes on reboot.

[linux-rox]

My experiences with Ventoy persistence have been hit-or-miss, mostly miss. I don't bother any more. If I want a persistent drive, I create it separately. And have moved to using a full install USB drive as my repair tool, so don't bother much with persistent drives either.

[AZgl1800]

I have always considered flash drives as "tools",
not to be used as an OS medium...
therefore, Persistence to me is a fool's playground...
not worth the effort for something that is so flaky

My Ventoy is filling up enough, with just the various utilities and .ISOs that I have on it. to just carry one little item in my pocket and be able to help a friend with their PC is magic

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I have always considered flash drives as "tools",
not to be used as an OS medium...
therefore, Persistence to me is a fool's playground...
not worth the effort for something that is so flaky

My Ventoy is filling up enough, with just the various utilities and .ISOs that I have on it. to just carry one little item in my pocket and be able to help a friend with their PC is magic

Forgive my curiosity,. but what all do you have on your Ventoy disk? These are what I have:

Foxclone
GParted Live
Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.3
Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.1
Rescuezilla 2.4.1 (need to delete)
Rescuezilla 2.4.2

[AZgl1800]

I have always considered flash drives as "tools",
not to be used as an OS medium...
therefore, Persistence to me is a fool's playground...
not worth the effort for something that is so flaky

My Ventoy is filling up enough, with just the various utilities and .ISOs that I have on it. to just carry one little item in my pocket and be able to help a friend with their PC is magic

Forgive my curiosity,. but what all do you have on your Ventoy disk? These are what I have:

Foxclone
GParted Live
Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.3
Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.1
Rescuezilla 2.4.1 (need to delete)
Rescuezilla 2.4.2

all of the above plus password tools for Windless,
except for Rescuezilla which I don't like.
LM 20.3 LM21.2 LM 19.3 Cinnamon only, natch
I can't find the dang flash drive, hope it didn't fall in the trash basket, which is way too near my side table...

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I have always considered flash drives as "tools",
not to be used as an OS medium...
therefore, Persistence to me is a fool's playground...
not worth the effort for something that is so flaky

My Ventoy is filling up enough, with just the various utilities and .ISOs that I have on it. to just carry one little item in my pocket and be able to help a friend with their PC is magic

Forgive my curiosity,. but what all do you have on your Ventoy disk? These are what I have:

Foxclone
GParted Live
Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.3
Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.1
Rescuezilla 2.4.1 (need to delete)
Rescuezilla 2.4.2

all of the above plus password tools for Windless,
except for Rescuezilla which I don't like.
LM 20.3 LM21.2 LM 19.3 Cinnamon only, natch
I can't find the dang flash drive, hope it didn't fall in the trash basket, which is way too near my side table...

Anyone else want to chime in with what they keep on their Ventoy disks?

[Pierre]

an ISO copy of LinuxMint 21.0

an ISO copy of windows-10


the usb stick isn't big enough, for much else.

[all41]

ventoy.png (27.31 KiB) Viewed 3195 times

[AndyMH]

That is a very old foxclone

[all41]

That is a very old foxclone

So easy to fix though.

vt.png (30.01 KiB) Viewed 3180 times

[AZgl1800]

that is what I really like about Ventoy,
near instant upgrades are so easy to replace older applications

[all41]

that is what I really like about Ventoy,
near instant upgrades are so easy to replace older applications

Yep. I just updated a couple more --tnx for reminder AndyMH.
I could do all this using Multisystem but it took forever

[Maxwell-J]

that is what I really like about Ventoy,
near instant upgrades are so easy to replace older applications

+1000

I use a 64GB Stick and keep lots of img/iso on it, docs to bee printed, LM Updates and more

[rickNS]

Has anyone managed to get persistence working on Ventoy. I used the Ventoy's sites directions and no dice. I tried Mint XFCE19.1 which I thought was supported. Also tried Mint cinnamon 21. The opening menu shows persistence on the menu options but in practice it doesn't seem to retain any changes on reboot.

Yes I have,(as of Mint 21) and it works, here is a copy of my "simple" .json

Code: Select all

{
    "persistence" : [
        {
            "image": "/linuxmint-21-mate-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.dat"
        }
    ]
}

I will say it seems that the instructions are not exactly completely. Like many things on the internet they seem to assume that you know some certain things.

Like, you must create the "persistence.dat" file first, and that commands must be run from within the directory where ventoy is downloaded.
On top of that it seems as of now anyway that the helper website,
http://127.0.0.1:24681
is down, and has been for at least a day ? anyone ?

[jackkileen]

Yes I have,(as of Mint 21) and it works, here is a copy of my "simple" .json

Code: Select all

{
    "persistence" : [
        {
            "image": "/linuxmint-21-mate-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.dat"
        }
    ]
}

I will say it seems that the instructions are not exactly completely. Like many things on the internet they seem to assume that you know some certain things.

Like, you must create the "persistence.dat" file first, and that commands must be run from within the directory where ventoy is downloaded.
On top of that it seems as of now anyway that the helper website,
http://127.0.0.1:24681
is down, and has been for at least a day ? anyone ?

Still can't get to that page. The Ventoy Persistence Plugin page doesn't really explain how to generate the persistence data file.
https://ventoy.net/en/plugin_persistence.html

[linux-rox]

The Ventoy Persistence Plugin page doesn't really explain how to generate the persistence data file.

Sure it does. See Section 4, Backend Image File. You can either download a blank file or create one using a script (provided).

[jackkileen]

Sure it does. See Section 4, Backend Image File. You can either download a blank file or create one using a script (provided).

Yeah I should have stated I'm not clear on how to create the json file and how to locate and use/link both to make persistence work.
I DLed a "pre-created" dat file (persistence_ext4_4GB_casper-rw.dat) which I hope is the correct file.

Just put a persistence data file in the 1st partition and tell Ventoy by the json configuration, and that's all.
Recommend to use VentoyPlugson, a GUI ventoy.json configurator. Refer VentoyPlugson

VentoyPlugson
2.2 How to start —— Linux
1. Open teminal and run sudo bash VentoyPlugson.sh /dev/sdX
2. Open your browser and visit http://127.0.0.1:24681
Here you should replace /dev/sdX with you Ventoy USB device name, for example /dev/sdb /dev/sdc

2.3 How to use
Directly set the configuration in the web page, ventoy.json will be automatically generated and saved immediately after your change.

[jackkileen]

I can confirm what rickNS stated above that persistence works with Ventoy which is really a nice feature!
I followed this tutorial to make it work... https://ostechnix.com/create-persistent ... -in-linux/

This is the json file I created/used, using rickNS's json he created as a template.
I created the persistence.dat file using the tutorial in the link above.

Code: Select all

{
    "persistence" : [
        {
            "image": "/linuxmint-21.3-cinnamon-64bit-beta.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.dat"
        },
        {
	    "image": "/MX-23.1_x64.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.dat"
	}
    ]
}