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How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive

MultiSystem is a tool that allows you to boot multiple live CDs and ISOs from a single USB flash drive. It works by installing GRUB2, SYSLINUX, and GRUB4DOS on the USB drive to enable booting of different operating systems. To use it, download MultiSystem and your desired ISO files, then run the MultiSystem installer. You can then add ISO files to the USB drive by dragging them into the MultiSystem interface. This allows booting directly into various distributions like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian and others from a single USB drive.

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113 views8 pages

How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive

MultiSystem is a tool that allows you to boot multiple live CDs and ISOs from a single USB flash drive. It works by installing GRUB2, SYSLINUX, and GRUB4DOS on the USB drive to enable booting of different operating systems. To use it, download MultiSystem and your desired ISO files, then run the MultiSystem installer. You can then add ISO files to the USB drive by dragging them into the MultiSystem interface. This allows booting directly into various distributions like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian and others from a single USB drive.

Uploaded by

Vivek Kumar
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash

Drive

Ever get the urge to try out a bunch of Linux distros at once? Maybe you’re hosting a Linux
installation party. Here’s an easy way to get a bunch of Live CDs working from a single thumb
drive.

10 Distributions, You Say?

MultiSystem is a really easy tool made to run on Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distros that you can
use to play with various LiveCDs at once, or to create the ultimate recovery device. If you don’t
use Ubuntu, you can use an Ubuntu Live CD to install MultiSystem so that you can create your
super live USB drive without having to run Linux as your main OS.

It’s best to download your ISOs ahead of time, and select a USB drive large enough to house
them all. I actually went with an 8 GB SD card (used via a USB adapter). Here are some of the
popular and interesting distros I used.

 Ubuntu, a very novice-friendly and popular distro that’s widely used


 Kubuntu, a KDE-oriented version of Ubuntu.
 Linux Mint, another novice-friendly distro that aims to get more usable out of the box. It is also
100% compatible with Ubuntu packages.
 Linux Mint Debian Edition, like Linux Mint except it’s 100% compatible with the Debian testing
build.
 Debian, one of the older and more central distros out there. It has both a “stable” build and a
“testing” build.
 Fedora, which used to be RedHat and is another big distro. It aims at power, and has several
“spins”, which aim to work out of the box for different purposes.
 Fuduntu, A Fedora-based distro with some important optimizations for netbooks, like adding
Fewt’s Jupiter tool and moving /var to a ramdisk.
 Slax, which is based on simplicity and up-to-date software, but also the ability to run smoothly
on older hardware, just like its Slackware roots. It uses modules instead of installed software to
make this easy.
 OpenSUSE, an easily-configurable distro that has been around for quite a while.
 BackTrack, a distro aimed specifically at penetration testing. Great for testing how secure your –
or your friend’s – network really is.

There are plenty of other amazing distros that work great, such as Arch, Slackware, ZenWalk,
Cent OS, etc., but work best when installed. If you want to find more Linux distributions, check
out DistroWatch.com, and you can also take a peek at MultiSystem’s Compatibility Page for
more ideas.

Installing MultiSystem

Head over to the MultiSystem Download Page, and grab the installation script. The website is in
French, but if you’re not comfortable there’s a translate option on the right, s’il vous plaît.

Next, open up terminal and change to the directory where you downloaded your file. Mine is in
the “Downloads” directory:

cd ~/Downloads/

Uncompress the script with the following command:

tar -xvjpf install-depot-multisystem.sh.tar.bz2

Next, we need to run it:

./install-depot-multisystem.sh

You’ll see a small windows pop-up and ask you for your password, like so:
Just pop that in and you’ll be good to go!

Making Your Super Live USB Drive

You’ll find the tool in Applications > Accessories > MultiSystem


Let’s take a look at the Selection window.
Before we start, let’s make sure it’s updated to the latest and greatest. Click the update
button. You’ll see another window pop up and look like this:
Enter your password when prompted and watch it do its thing. When it’s done, it’ll return to the
Selection window, and you can select your USB drive from the list at the bottom. Click
“Validate” and you’ll see the main window pop up.

Just drag and drop an .ISO file into the highlighted area to add it to your USB drive. You’ll see a
window pop up with file progress.
Once it’s done, just lather, rinse, and repeat. Upon booting from your device, you’ll see a
veritable plethora of options.
Some Technical Details

Essentially, MultiSystem downloads and installs GRUB2 to your USB drive, along with
SYSLINUX and GRUB4DOS. These are tools that allow the booting of multiple OSs in various
ways. It then takes care of creating the proper entries for each bootloader and copying the files
over to your USB drive.

Support isn’t limited to Linux. It supposedly works with Windows ISOs and XBMC, as well as
other utilities like Hiren’s BootCD, since it uses SYSLINUX in addition to GRUB2 and
GRUB4DOS. Your mileage may vary from update to update, though. Share your experiences in
the comments!

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