How to easily Install Ubuntu 8.10 in a USB/Flash drive from the Live CD

It's been quite sometime since I have visited the world of Linux. So here's a small tutorial I have pieced together to help you get started on having a Ubuntu Linux installion right on your USB/Pen Drive. This tutorial is very simple and lucid - the end of which it will enable the reader to install Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) into a USB flash drive / pen drive. It's basically having a Live CD installation in a USB drive.

I have also gone a step further to harness the the persistence or casper persistent feature that allows you to automatically save changes back to the thumb drive as you work, and then restore those saved changes upon subsequent boots - that's gonna be very useful for people on the move or people who change systems often.

Please Note that the final version of Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) will only be released on October 30th but you can download the beta version right now which is pretty close to the final version.

Before we get started, here are the list of things you will need to make an Ubuntu 8.10 USB installation:

• A working CD Drive and ofcourse - an Ubuntu 8.10 CD (in a moment I'll let you know how you can get a Ubuntu CD off the internet for free)
• An established internet connection - I would prefer a broadband one.
• and the Most Important - 2GB or larger USB flash drive (2GB+ if you want some special script to be installed too).
  

Here's how you can create an Ubuntu 8.10 flash drive automatically, without much hassles.
With this method, you must use a completely free 2GB or larger usb drive - anything lesser will cause problems in later stages.

• Now go ahead and download the latest Ubuntu 8.10 ISO and burn it to a CD.
• Next, restart your computer and boot from the Live CD you have created.
• Insert the 2GB+ USB flash drive.
• Open a terminal window and type the following into the terminal window:
  wget pendrivelinux.com/downloads/u810/u810.sh
chmod +x u810.sh && sh u810.sh

• From here on, just follow the onscreen instructions - that'll be a breeze (trust me).
• Once you have the complete installation of the script - reboot your computer and set your BIOS or boot menu to boot from the USB device.
• Volla - You now have a working Live Installation of Ubuntu Linux on a Pen Drive.