Ventoy, the Ultimate flash booter

[jeffreyC]

Just when I thought I was done distro hopping...

[pierro78]

hey there, it s my first post in the forum although I ve been using MX linux for about a year or more ... so hi everybody ! :)

I noticed ventoy gives you persistence (without having to do any configuration) when you use .img files : https://www.reddit.com/r/FydeOS/comment ... ready_etc/ (I understand a .img file is seen like a drive with writable partition(s) inside, allowing for persistence ...)

... I am wondering if other people also noticed this interesting ventoy behaviour with .img files ?
... maybe it would be interesting to create a good .img file with mx linux that you can boot on different PCs ??
(but I guess maybe the .img file could grow unneededly too large (with some "holes" in it) so maybe a "compaction" tool could be useful ? ... but how would somebody run this "compaction" tool ? ...)

thanks folks for your feedback :)

[pierro78]

... maybe it would be interesting to create a good .img file with mx linux that you can boot on different PCs ??

looks like you can boot the cloudready/fydeos .img only on uefi bios ... this limitation is apparently not there with .vhd images : https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_vtoyboot.html ... I think I am going to try the .vhd MX linux image first ...

there s also the beginning of a small discussion with u/adrian_mxlinux on https://www.reddit.com/r/MXLinux/commen ... ?context=3

[pierro78]

I made the MX linux .vhd file following https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_vtoyboot.html , and it's working great on my different machines ! (UEFI or legacy BIOS ...) ... very convenient to carry your PC/environment on your keychain

[Adrian]

there s also the beginning of a small discussion with u/adrian_mxlinux

Well... that's me. Great you found a solution with .vhd, I will try it too, looks like a great thing to have around. How big did you make that file?

[pierro78]

there s also the beginning of a small discussion with u/adrian_mxlinux

Well... that's me. Great you found a solution with .vhd, I will try it too, looks like a great thing to have around. How big did you make that file?

I made it 32GB but then I realized it was too big because I have some "32GB" usb sticks which are actually smaller ... and it also takes longer to create or transfer ...

[Adrian]

OK, very cool, easy to make. I just tried a vmdk (VMWare format that is not even listed on that howto page) and that works too. Even more I installed it encrypted so if I lose my flashdrive nobody can get easily to what I have there. I think we'll need at some point an option to install from an installation -- for now the installer supports only installing from live environment, it would be nice to have a clone option that would be enabled automatically if you launch the installer from an installed system.

[oops]

FI: ... A lighter tool already exist, and I use it with success inside MX19 or antiX19 ... it is: python3-multibootusb_9.2.0-1_all.deb

What is multibootusb?

MultiBootUSB is a cross platform* software/utility to create multi boot live Linux on a removable USB disk. It is similar to UNetbootin but many distros can be installed, provided you have enough space on the disk. MultiBootUSB also provides an option to uninstall distro(s) at any time, if you wish.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/multib ... 2.0/Linux/

[pierro78]

FI: ... A lighter tool already exist, and I use it with success inside MX19 or antiX19 ... it is: python3-multibootusb_9.2.0-1_all.deb

What is multibootusb?

MultiBootUSB is a cross platform* software/utility to create multi boot live Linux on a removable USB disk. It is similar to UNetbootin but many distros can be installed, provided you have enough space on the disk. MultiBootUSB also provides an option to uninstall distro(s) at any time, if you wish.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/multib ... 2.0/Linux/

looks like you can only boot (installation) media with this tool (without persistence) (in order to install an OS somewhere else ... or to use a tool like "clonezilla" ...)

you can easily boot multiple persistent OS (iso with added persistence, .img or .vhd files (even windows is supported but I was nt able to make it work)) from a ventoy USB drive ...

[oops]

... Yes, I can use as liveCD/liveUSB or to install ... my practice for a persistence way is to use a frugal install, or the MX tool for that.