It can get a bit buggy on the USB, although it really is there just so you can test and install it on the machine. I prefer running it from a live DVD myself if I'm needing to use the live mode for whatever reason.

And if you do want to save your sessions, you need to set it to persistent mode and tell it how much space you want to use on the stick, which is a clear option on LiveUSBcreator (link in my last post)..

Setting persistence is really good, as it will let you save stuff - documents, installs, tweaks, etc. - but it will definitely shorten the life of your stick. It's pretty damn useful though, as you could then plug it in to any computer that will take it (almost all modern computers) and you will have your desktop there.

One thing though when using it in live mode, is that the admin/root account isn't password protected, which could potentially leave your computer wide open, so it would be wise not to store any personal info, etc. etc., blah blah.

Yeh I set that option so it used up most of the memory stick..... but it still didn't save my session. Dunno why.... I seem to remember it had taken me all day to figure out how to use a computer without any OS installed on it so I'd probably had enough by then!
It is potentially very handy to have your whole desktop just on a usb.... that really appealed to me.
linux is great for just surfing and any 'office' type stuff..... but I need Windows or Mac OS for music software. The Linux stuff is pretty bobbins to say the least...

Space Bandit wrote:
You can run just about any OS from a USB stick, including windows, thats not something unique to Linux.
Theres music software for Linux too btw! Audicity for example. No doubt WINE would run windows music editors under linux anyway, the only hassles it has are with the latest directx stuff.

If you want to try out various operating systems then just use a vm on your desktop
www.virtualbox.org

Space Bandit wrote:
Basically, as andyh said regarding the USB, although it's got its own risks if you're going to install a dodgy copy of Windows, which is why Linux is the way forward. I have seen people selling USB's with Windows pre-installed for around £30 but can't for the life of me remember where, although Google is your friend! It might also have something to do with the health of your USB as you said it kept crashing? You might also want to try lowering the persistence to maybe 1GB and try that, but it honestly does sound like your USB is on its way out.

And there are plenty of music making apps for Linux, but in comparison to the likes of Ableton, they are bobbins, although huge strides are being made in all of the Linux compatible wares. I did once get Ableton running under wine, but it wasn't anywhere near the same.

But yeah, try another USB if you have one

I've just used vm's and never looked back tbh, I dunno why ppl bother with live usb's.

NB: You can even download images of pre-configured virtual machines and just start them up in virtualbox-
virtualboxes.org/images/

Doddle, lol

No cd needed, no usb needed, no need to even install the OS or configure it all etc.

Set the network to bridged adapter in promiscious mode, job done.

Turn the vm on and off at will, use windows at the same time and just minimize the vm window, if you wanna do backups just copy the vm disk file, total no brainer imho.

Cheers Andy, had never come across the list of pre-configured images before.

Excellent link

mild_peril wrote:
I don't need Linux anymore tbh, it was just to sort the Mrs's laptop out for a bit as she didn't have an OS. The USB stick is fine, it just started to fail to boot after a while of using Linux so I had to keep reinstalling it on the stick. I tried out some of the music software on Linux but wasn't impressed. I read up about using Wine to run Cubase etc but it seemed like only certain versions of it would work. Not much point when it works happily on my Windows & Mac anyway! I look forwards to any development with the music software though.... it seems like they are quite a way off yet though to get to the standards of Pro-Tools etc.

The music software won't be catching up any time soon, simply because they're free programs and don't have an army of paid workers working on the projects. But it's always very handy to have a live version or two kicking about, just in case your Windows box goes down and you need to rescue your hard drive - or even if you've got an old computer lying about that you thought may be broken.

Space Bandit wrote:
Its basically because cubase will need some libraries (.so under linux, dll in windows) to run properly.
I've no doubt its possible IMHO.

You might find this website useful too btw, regardless of what OS you use, for example-

alternativeto.net/software/cubase/

andyh wrote:
Pretty cool site cheers.

I'm locked out of my laptop... the keyboard stops working when I get to the password bit. If I boot Linux from a usb is there a way I can get files off the hard drive before I try reinstalling the os?

No need to do all that.

www.hirensbootcd.org/

Prob solved. Just blank the password and away ya go.

Ofc it might be a stuck service thats causing the freeze up at login, most likely culprit is a recently added driver, no rollback to choose at F8?

andyh wrote:
cheers I'll give that a go but will doing that make windows recognise the keyboard?
I don't think I get any other options apart from boot menu & safe mode before it gets to the password.
Can I get into the hard drive using Linux? I just want to grab a few files off it before doing a clean install.... dodgy copy been giving me grief!

Yep just about any linux live cd will allow you to see the windows drive.

You might also just have a hardware problem btw, loose ribbon cable under the keyboard perhaps.
Does a USB keyboard work?

The keyboard responds up until I get to the login. So since it works in dos I'm presuming it's to do with Windows.
Sorting out the bootable usb now after loads of fannying about. Feckin computers!

Its a service thats crashing then, rollback with F8 on boot would cure it

Tried that but still no cigar.
Windows is the only thing showing in the boot menu as well so I can't even get Linux going! ffs!
I can't see any other way of getting it going... if I take the hard drive out will it automatically try to boot from other disks?

Space Bandit wrote:
Change the boot order to CD first in the BIOS?

andyh wrote:
It won't let me enter it!
This is determined to do my head in!