David M Williams
Monday, 04 May 2009 08:15
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
The first thing you will likely notice is that the Ubuntu Netbook Remix image is an .img file, not a more conventional .iso disk image. That’s because it is larger than a regular CD but at the same time not large enough that a DVD image was desired. Under the hood, the .img file really is a disk image.
If you want you could rename the file extension from .img to .iso and then open it and manipulate it like you would any .iso file. You can even follow the instructions I gave
to make a bootable USB disk out of the Windows 7 .iso image and it would work just fine.
However, let’s leave it as an .img file. If you’re using Linux already then you can just install the package usb-imagewriter and use it to write the image file to your USB stick.
I’ll give you two options; the first is the simplest, but advanced users might like a bit more control.
For most of us, download and run the program
Win32 Disk Imager. This is a very straightforward and simple tool that, as you might expect, burns image files onto USB sticks. Browse to the image file you downloaded and choose the right drive letter for your flash disk and click the Write button.
Done!
You can now boot any netbook – indeed, any computer – from your USB stick. Go give it a try!
If you want to try out Linux first you’ll see one of the menu options when you start up is to just try out Linux. You can be assured this will not harm your netbook’s hard drive in any way. Once you reboot you are back into Windows or whatever you had.
When you are ready, you will see that the next menu option allows you to install Ubuntu Netbook Remix – and once you’ve done it, your netbook will be snappier than you previously remembered.
If you’ve followed the above step, you’re done! For those interested in how they can exercise more control over the image writing process, here are some advanced, command-line, instructions.
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