Creating a bootable Xubuntu flash drive using Windows 10

Creating a bootable Xubuntu flash drive using Windows 10

Prepping the Flash Drive and Installing Xubuntu

  1. Boot up your computer and open the web browser of your choice
  2. Goto xubuntu.org and download the 20.04 LTS (“long term support”) release. (This version of Xubuntu is current and stable, and considered “enterprise grade”; it is scheduled to continue to enjoy full support and updates until 2025, and critical security updates until 2030.) You’ll want the file that ends in “.iso“; it’ll be 1 or 2 GB. Save it to your Desktop so that it’s easy to find later.
  3. Goto https://rufus.ie/ and download “Rufus” (This is the software we’ll use to make the USB flash drive bootable; there are many similar programs. Most should work just as well.)
  4. Plug in your USB flash drive and run Rufus
    1. In the “Device” drop down menu chose your USB thumb drive
    2. In the “Boot selection” drop down menu chose “Disk or ISO image (Please select)“
    3. Click the “SELECT” button and choose your “Xubuntu” ISO (it will have a name like “xubuntu-20.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso”)
    4. For “Persistent partition size” give yourself several GB (e.g., when using an 8GB drive I chose 4GB)
    5. (optional) If you are using an old USB drive that’s been used for other projects, it may have “bad blocks” that will trip you up later. As a precaution, tick the final checkbox next to “Check device for bad blocks” and leave the drop down menu at “1 pass”. Note that checking this option can massively increase how long it takes to make the drive, adding an hour or more to the Rufus’s total run time.
    6. Leave all the other settings as they are
    7. Click “START” and be prepared to wait; this step can take an hour or more.
      1. Rufus may open an error window that says “Download required” in order to fetch some up-to-date libraries. Click “Yes“.
      2. Rufus will almost certainly warn you that you are about to format your USB flash drive. Click “OK“.
  5. Once Rufus finishes, it’s time to test your Xubuntu flash drive:
    1. With the USB flash drive still plugged in, restart your computer and set your BIOS / “Boot Menu” to boot from the USB device. (You’ll need to follow the manufacturer instructions to do this; usually you get to the the boot menu by restarting your computer while holding down ESC or DEL or F10 or something, and then following the instructions on screen to switch to booting from USB).
    2. Once Xubuntu loads, a big “Install” dialogue box will pop up (don’t worry, it isn’t really “installing” anything on the computer). Just click “Try Xubuntu” (the dialogue box might refer to your USB flash drive as a “CD”—just accept that; volunteers did all this!)
    3. Poke around for a bit and familiarize yourself with Xubuntu. You’ll want to find the Web Browser and Terminal Emulator (click on the mouse icon in the upper left corner and look under “Favorites“).

All done! You’re ready for the next step. Go back to the “Install PyCKBot” section of Software and carry on.