Bootable Linux USB stick: Difference between revisions

# we use Fedora 23 (and higher) because its hardware support is very good. We always use the 64bit distro.

# The stick can be booted on MacBooks as well (press the <code>alt</code> key at the boot sound); their hardware works well with Fedora. For Windows clients (press F11 or F12 or sometimes F9 or F10 for the boot menu; if that does not work press F2 or DEL for the BIOS menu and change the boot order), one has to make sure that "fast boot" (or "fast startup") is disabled (or Shift is pressed while shutting Windows down), and sometimes <code>powercfg -H off</code> (as Administrator in a console window) is additionally required; otherwise the USB stick may not boot. Occasionally we find a computer that does not boot from the stick because the BIOS screen can not be reached (due to unknown BIOS password; happens with machines belonging to institutions which administer them centrally) or some such, but 19 out of 20 work as they should.

# we just install CCP4 and whatever else we need (XDS, Phenix, Chimera, ..), and then dd or ddrescue (on a machine with USB3 ports) an image of that stick to all other sticks.

# any number of bells and whistles could be added to this, like clients sending their hostnames to a server after booting, and accepting updates by rsync.