Persistent Installation to USB Stick

I want to carry around a persistent installation of Ubuntu on a USB stick with all my favourite bits of software. What's the simplest way to do this?

From ubuntu Max Power

• Use the USB Startup Disk Creator. It's sitting in System > Administration.

  There are options for persistence at the bottom.

  jfmessier : Keep in mind that this will create a startup disk, along with persistent space, but the core package resides in a compressed file system. This means that any update is downloaded separately, and the original package, which remains in a read-only file system, is never deleted.

  Max Power : I'm not sure I understand. Does this mean I can't remove packages, or just that removing a package will not free up space?

  jfmessier : It means that the original package remains in the compressed file, while the updated one is the one now pointed to once it is installed. After this, all further updates would overwrite this update, but the original package fro the squasfs file will keep consuming storage space.
  From Oli

• The Ubuntu distro (and derivatives, such as JoliCloud) can fully install on a removable media. The thigs to remember are :

  • BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP Did I say BACKUP ?
  • Start the installation from a live-booted CDROM, or start-up USB disk
  • Upon selection of the hard dis, select ENtire disk, and select the appropriate device for your to-be-used USB disk. If you only have one hard disk, your selection would be /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc. Make sure you select the right one. Check this by the brand name and size shown.
  • Go ahead with the default other options or whatever you may wish
  • On the last screen, where you have the summary, click Advanced.
  • Select to install grub on this same /dev/sdb that you selected for the disk to ERASE.

  This last step is very important, as the installation of GRUB is always on /dev/sda by default, even if you install the actual OS on another device. I lost a couple of hard disk content with such mistake. Mo data lost, I had backup. Just lost time.

  But this solution will give you a fully installed Ubuntu, which will behave just like the one on your internal hard disk.

  A friend was telling me (and I verified) that using this will take few seconds more to bit than the startup disk. However, your file system is fully read/write, and there is no compressed file system that will become outdated.

  From jfmessier