Bootable USB

A Bootable USB is a USB drive that has a mini operating system on it. Just enough of one to allow you to boot.

Creating

1. Download an iso to ISO-PATH. An iso is the raw 1s and 0s of the entire operating system: you can find it by searching the internet for "\<distro> download".

2. Flash the iso to a USB drive. NOTE: etcher is easier than the below methods, but it sends tracking requests to various sites including google-analytics (source).

   • If on Windows use a program called "rufus"

   • If on Mac or Linux

     1. Open Terminal as administrator

     2. Find the drive path of the drive you wish to write (sudo fdisk -l can help with this)

     3. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE CORRECT DRIVE

     4. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE CORRECT DRIVE AGAIN

     5. Execute sudo dd if=ISO-PATH of=DRIVE-PATH status=progress

Terminology Notes:

Installation Media

A way to install another operating system, sometimes a Live USB.

Live USB

A bootable operating system that you can preform normal tasks in. This does not store the files you create, much like a guest session. Can be used for recovery and trying out distros.