Thursday, June 4, 2009

Run Ubuntu In Windows OS Using Portable Ubuntu

Linux Distro’s started Live-Cd’s which was a functioning Linux OS that could be booted into right from your CD, without the need for anything to be installed and without disturbing the base OS or boot loader.Now it’s the next level of portability of carrying your Ubuntu Linux Disto right in your USB Drive and start using it as any other portable application.

The major disadvantage of a LiveCD is that the data and settings cannot be saved and are lost when you shut down the OS, but with Portable Ubuntu all the data is saved in your USB Drive.

Portable Ubuntu for Windows is a Ubuntu system running as a Windows application, that’s built with the Colinux Kernel, Xming X server and Pulseaudio server for Windows.

How To Use Portable Ubuntu :

  1. Download Portable Ubuntu and Extract its contents to a folder
  2. Navigate to the same folder in dos (command prompt) as an administrator and enter “run_portable_ubuntu” and press enter “Enter”. or double click the “run_portable_ubuntu.bat” file in the same folder.
  3. Now after a few seconds you will observe a menu with Applications, Places, and System.(See Image below), from which you can execute all possible functions that are possible from Ubuntu.The menu is the same you would find in Ubuntu on the desktop, on the top.


Check out this video, showing Portable Ubuntu in action.

Features :

  1. No Installation.
  2. Can run and store all settings/data right on your USB Drive.
  3. All changes and settings are saved, so you can have fully working Unbutu on the move which would not be possible with a Live CD.
  4. Can run Windows and Ubuntu simultaneously.
  5. Access Windows files in Portable Ubuntu using the file browser from “Places” menu.
  6. No need of virtualization tools like Virtual Box, or VMWare.

Note : The password for the Portable Ubuntu pubuntu user is 123456 which you would need for using sudo or gksu applications (Administrative/System tools).

To change the default password,

  1. Open terminal and type “passwd” and change the default password.
  2. To change root password type “sudo passwd root”.

I’ve shared many portable applications that could be carried in your USB drives,and Portable Ubuntu seems to be the best of them and also the largest in size.

The Download is around 439 MB and on extract can take upto 1.9 GB.

Download Portable Ubuntu

Check out the Documentation for more details on how to use.

Source : GHacks

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