Thursday, November 1, 2012

How to create a bootable USB for installing Linux distros

There are too much Linux distros to try and we don't want to burn our DVD's for each one.

Here is how to create a bootable USB drive for installing or trying any Linux distro. Works for all distros including Ubuntu, LinuxMint, ArchLinux, Fedora and all others that you can imagine. That's a guaranteed method.

From Linux - Easy as 1, 2 and 3

I will do this from Ubuntu, but you can do same steps on your distro. It doesn't matter.

1- Insert your USB drive.
2- Open terminal and type command below.
3- sudo dd if=[your iso] of=/dev/sd[letter of usb drive]

example: 

sudo dd if=/home/burak/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdb

If you can't find which letter is your USB drive, use "Disks" app for Ubuntu or "Gparted" for other Linux distros.






From Windows

There are a few usefull tools to create bootable USB linux drives from Windows. But I like and recommend you using "Universal USB Installer". Because it's very easy to use, safe and updated regulary.

  1. Download "Universal USB Installer" from here.
  2. Open it after download and click next.
  3. Choose your Linux distro from list.
  4. Choose your USB drive and tick "format". (You will lose all data on USB drive.)
  5. Wait for program to finish its work and enjoy your usb drive Linux.

Fix slow wireless internet problem on Ubuntu, Linux Mint etc.

Since first day that I update my Ubuntu 10.10 to 11.04, I noticed my WiFi is very horrible. I can connect any network. But it's very slow. I can't browse any website or if I can - it just takes 30+ seconds. But my WiFi works normal on Windows. Tried bunch of methods from internet and nothing fixed this issue.

I'm using an Acer Aspire 5720G and iwl4965 network card.

After challenging this issue for days and hours, managed to how to fix it.

Solution is replacing default "network-manager" with "wicd". After doing this, my connection was full speed again!

This method also works with all LinuxMint and Ubuntu variants just like Kubuntu, elementary OS and all other Ubuntu based distros.


How to fix it? 

  1. Open Terminal and type commands below.
  2. sudo apt-get install wicd
  3. sudo apt-get remove network-manager-gnome network-manager
  4. Open wicd from programs menu and connect your network.
  5. Enjoy full speed internet again on your Ubuntu!