Because Ubuntus goal is easy, yes you can be advanced but easy is priority and dd is 'hard' in a sense depending on how you look at it. I think it would be better to diagnose the grub problems and go that route making the installer error free. On May 16, 2012 10:31 PM, "Akkana Peck" <<a href="mailto:akkana@shallowsky.com">akkana@shallowsky.com</a>> wrote: > > Ben Greear writes: > > > > I have been having issues trying to do a persistent-usb image for > > Ubuntu 12.04. > > I got it working once on Oneiric, but only on a multi-distro USB > stick using grub, with a separate partition for casper, like this: > <a href="http://shallowsky.com/blog/linux/install/ubuntu-persistent-live-cd.html">http://shallowsky.com/blog/linux/install/ubuntu-persistent-live-cd.html</a> > I've never had any luck on either O or P in getting a single-boot > USB stick to be persistent. > > I'm currently setting up some USB sticks to use in a classroom/workshop > setting, with everybody booted from the same image. After wasting > most of a day trying to make persistence work, it occurred to me to > wonder why I was doing all that work: for a USB stick, why not just > install Ubuntu to the stick, and have a normal install that saves > whatever changes you make? No need for overlays like casper, just > install to a normal filesystem on the USB stick. > > So I tried it. The grub install failed the first time so I had to > re-run it (be careful that you're installing grub to the USB stick, > not to your hard drive) but otherwise it seems to work fine so far. > I've installed several extra packages on it, customized the user > theme and added a few programs and icons. It seems like a much > easier solution than fighting with the undocumented casper > persistence stuff. > > Ubuntu should consider shipping a filesystem image that can be dd-ed > to a USB stick, in addition to the CD ISO iamges that require > special magic to be made persistent. It would make it so much easier > to introduce newcomers to Ubuntu. > > ...Akkana > > -- > Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list > <a href="mailto:Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com">Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com</a> > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss</a>