Extremely simple way to create a multiboot flash drive for Debian / Ubuntu

• Is there an extra flash drive on hand?
• There is a desire to have a handy tool to combat computer-systemic diseases?
• Do not want to drag a stack of disks?
• Do you use Debian or its Ubuntu granddaughter, or maybe they are on a virtual machine, carefully created in advance?
• Love GUIs where they really are?

I'll tell you about LiveUSB Multiboot. This is an open-source program (under GPLv3), which allows you to easily create a bootable USB flash drive and throw a couple of images with everything you need, so that you can start from it and not suffer from wearing and recording discs.
In this topic, I will describe my impressions of the program found in the comments in the open spaces of Habrahabr. I could not find the author of the comment again yet, but I am sincerely grateful to him =) So far this is the easiest way to make a bootable USB flash drive, and even with the GUI.
It just so happened that I bought the Kingston DT100G3 for 16 gigabytes, yielding to a low price, USB 3.0 and the brand, which I personally did not fail. Well bought. He turned in his hands. Began to think why I need it. I thought: “Ay, I will find a use, as a last resort - I will wear films” and forgot. And in the evening I had to install Windows XP on one computer. And then the ambush - it turned out, there are no free computers with CD-writing drives within reach. More precisely, they were, just I was very lazy and wanted to solve the problem, not getting up from the chair and not running into the next room. There was a flash drive at hand, and so my ass avoided moving in space ...
And what to do with this flash drive? I heard about a bunch of programs with a convenient GUI for Windows, but on a Debian work computer, I couldn’t put the same XP in a multiboot at one time — when I partitioned a disk I allocated it to XP and 7 for a long time ago ... Logical, unfortunately. I found out that XP cannot be put on the logical partition much later = (So I scored on it - I somehow do without Windows, but I need a way ...
Although I'm stupid! Under Linux, a priori there should be a lot more ways to do this. But it was enough to drive something like “bootable linux flash drive” into Habr's search - and the counter showed many results. Well, I began to wield with the middle mouse button, choosing from the headings, which would be better. So, this is a console, then a console ... PenDriveLinux is a good thing, but I have to install Windows from a USB flash drive, but nothing is stated about it. And then in one of the comments I found a link to, unfortunately, the tutorial of the Multiboot LiveUSB program, which has lost its relevance. There was a link to the main page of the project - and that was enough.

What you need to install?

')

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot all main' wget -q http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot/multisystem.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add - sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install multisystem #  Debian sudo usermod -a -G adm "$SUDO_USER" 

Then look for this program in the menu and run.

Program interface

The interface of the curve is partially inconvenient, but it doesn’t interfere with the program operation. At least that's my impression. The window cannot be resized - and this is quite inconvenient, all elements of fixed sizes. If you select a non-French or non-English interface, the positions slide, the buttons disappear, and other horrors happen . The intestinal blood interface has opened . True, it is treated by switching to another tab and back =)

But Drag & Drop of images is supported, and this is in some way a handy thing.

Work program

The program does not crash and even works with most of all images. It works simply - according to the white list of images, i.e. refuses to fill in those for which she does not have instructions for installation. It should be noted - the whitelist is quite large, and the replacement of almost all tools can be found by choosing any other drive. However, the white list was hidden by the efforts of the authors, on the initially hidden block of buttons.

Loaders and image placement

• Main Boot Loader - GRUB2
• If it is impossible to download anything via GRUB2, another bootloader is written to the USB flash drive, which (apparently, as planned by the authors) should be guaranteed to be compatible with this program. For this there is Syslinux and Grub4DOS
• Apparently, the authors of the program have worked well on compatibility. According to the logs, errors and nuances of the work, it can be understood that it sets certain principles of behavior when installing different images - the same detector of suitable loaders and so on. This is certainly more reliable than the method of "the famous Russian scientist Tyk."
• Yes, you can download different versions of Linux. I now have Knoppix, Debian in two versions on this flash drive, Puppy and Backtrack.
  
• Yes, you can download different versions of Windows. I have Windows 7, XP-Rus and XP-Eng.
  
• Each image is either lovingly unpacked into its own daddy on a flash drive, or simply popped in the form of iso on the same flash drive - such a minority, yet the speed should be, and in the case of reading iso from a flash drive into memory in order to boot from this iso , speed somehow not observed =)

Little things

• The program kindly asks us to download some non-free parts for our convenience only.
  For example, without Firadisk.img, the same XP will not want to be installed at all. It happens that already there.
  However, it was not without something funny. The program asks you to download the WinServer 2003 SP1 distribution kit so that XP can be pushed onto the USB flash drive - you need about 5 files. Yes, the image by pressing the button swings from nowhere, weighs about a gigabyte and all you need is a pair of files from this image. I downloaded, of course, but the WTF remained. I understand that WTF should be in the direction of licenses and all that ...
• NOT? TRYTESB ZAKA4ATB MEMT3ST! It is already there, in standard delivery with any flash drive that is subject to the ravages of Multiboot. So that.

Pros:

• Versatility - on almost one flash drive almost anything
• Convenience - almost anything on one flash drive ;-)
• It works stably, does not crash.
• Regularly updated, in any case, I constantly get message-requests from update-notifier about multiboot =)

Minuses:

• You cannot set your title for grub. It is inconvenient when there are two XP images that differ in the installation language - the headers are different, and the chance of getting into the right one when booting from a USB flash drive is 50 to 50.
• Interface buggy
• White-list, which is sometimes buggy and does not skip the image of the same XP, slightly modified by NLite or manually, and the changes affected only the file interior (hash sums of files that are not particularly significant for the download?)

Why only Ubuntu / Debian?

Yes, just on the program page declared compatibility with Debian & Ubuntu. I have not tried anything else - I rarely use other distributions. If someone suddenly realizes that the program is compatible with its distribution, write in the comments.