Howto: Fedora® LiveUSB

What is a LiveUSB?

It is a condensed (Live image) version of Fedora® you can install to a flash drive. You can then boot to Fedora from the flash drive on any computer. You can also install Fedora to any system from the LiveUSB.

There is an easy to implement option. This may be a great way for you to try Fedora without installing it to your computer.

I even carry Fedora in my pocket on a LiveUSB. It weighs a lot less than my laptop. When you boot a LiveUSB stick it does not install any files on the computer’s hard drive(s).

You will need the following:

A flash drive. Preferably an 8G or larger unit but a 4G unit will work. 2G and smaller not recommended.
The LiveUSB utility from the Fedora web site.
A Live image of the version of Fedora you wish to use.

1) Determine whether you would prefer the 32 bit version or the 64 bit version. If you are going to use the LiveUSB as your OS in your pocket the 32 bit version is a better choice. You can use the 32 bit version on just about any computer on the planet. The 64 bit version will not work on older computers.

2) Determine which Desktop manager you would prefer. KDE and Gnome are the standard desktop managers and I prefer KDE.

3) Download the appropriate Live image. Save it to a hard drive.

4) Download and install the LiveUSB creator tool.

5) Use the LiveUSB creator tool to install the live image to your flash drive. Be sure to include a 1024MB or larger overlay.

Here are the various downloads:

Fedora KDE Live Images

Fedora KDE 32 bit Live Image
Fedora KDE 64 bit Live Image

Fedora Gnome Live Images

Fedora Gnome 32 bit Live Image
Fedora Gnome 64 bit Live Image

LiveUSB creator

LiveUSB Creator for Windows
LiveUSB Creator for Fedora – Use yum or yumex to install the liveusb-creator package.