Hello,
my question, is there any way of doing live, bootable USB with my built-in settings? I mean, "live session user" with changed theme, icons etc
Yes; with persistence.
Change Ubuntu with Zorin:
2 Likes
You beat me answering this question.
I wonder whether permanent install on a USB key has any advantage over a Live USB with a persistent partition.
But, with persistence I would need to change this settings every time I make bootable pendrive. I need to do many of them
Now I understand your situation.
If that is the case, you could install Zorin on another USB key - I think you would be happy to use USB key larger than 32/64 GB depends on how much personal files you want to store on it.
2 Likes
No, you wouldn't. Persistence means that it retains the settings after reboot.
If I understood correctly, I think you'd want to create many custom bootable Zorin USBs with your configuration. Then I'd say your only option is to get the Zorin Source code, edit the install script so that your customizations are installed on the machine and then you have to compile it into a an iso file and you can write that to as many USB images as you'd want.
3 Likes
I'm not sure you understand my situation. I need to burn like 30 flash usb drives with live linux. This way, with persistent I have to set my own settings on every of this pendrives
3 Likes
Ah, yes, I misunderstood. I thought you meant "many of them - reboots".
Please see Taha_mcp's response, in which case.
Yes! That's the case
The process sounds a bit daunting but I don't think it will be much of a challenge. Depending on your customizations, you'd probably only want to add some scripts that run on boot to automatically install all your customizations.
2 Likes
Yes, but I still want to use this pendrives in live mode, not to full install Zorin on them. Is there any way of doing this?
Orrr if that is time consuming, a better and easier alternative is to make one usb with persistence and then you can clone that USB drive. That way, you only do the setup once, but you can copy it to as many USBs as you like.
2 Likes
If that is the case, you can make a master USB with a customization. Then use Gnome Disks to create disk image. Then use whatever the USB writing software (Mintstick is my favourite) of your choice to copy this image as many USB keys you need.
3 Likes
Great, thanks for help!
But next question is, I want to use this pendrive on many(!) laptops, there would be my script for diagnosing laptops (cpu name, stress test, ram size, harddrives, camera, keyboard test etc). Do linux write any other data to persistence when booting in new device? Or this is not a problem and only my settings will stay in persistence? Btw. sorry for my english, its poor
1 Like
If you mean that whether Linux(Zorin) will write some log data to the persistent storage, then I'd say probably yeah. However, I'm not 100% sure. But could you elaborate more on your issue? You are worried that private analytical data on one computer could be potentially viewed on another computer?
1 Like
No, that's not a problem. In my job, I need to diagnose almost 100 laptops every day, I'm curious if there won't be any errors if that many various laptops write something on this USB key persistent memory.
1 Like
Another question.
Are those laptops are identical?
Bland new?
Or are you trying to salvage a troop of used laptops for charity?
1 Like
Not identical, various brand, used and new. My company is computer repair store
I'm not really sure. But I'd say try it. Create a persistent USB with your settings and then also install and App that you can use to see if anything has been written on the disk or not. I think an App that uses RSYNC will suit your needs. So with an app like timeshift, you can see if it writes anything to the USB. With timeshift, you can make a scan of the whole USB drive and then after you ran your software, you can use it to see what files have changed.
1 Like