[kwlug-disc] question -- booting from multiple ISOs in USB stick?

[B.S.]

Are any of these persistent? i.e. you can make changes, create documents, etc., and when you shut down the state is written back to the stick?

Not meaning to hijack the thread, but ... IIRC, all this stuff reacts differently on external drives (which behave exactly like internal drives, but slower?), than on sticks, it seems.

So, if you used a small, 2.5", usb powered, external drive, would your life be easier? Perhaps even an SSD, for speed / robustness? e.g. Could use standard grub / multiple partitions?

- not suggesting not using .iso's, for space concerns.

Mind you ... you could also default install an iso to a partition, given the larger space of drives over sticks, and grub would just let you go to the desired partition of that moment. (And give you persistence, for that matter. Create a 'data' partition, and each os could mount it, and you'd have persistent docs/files across OS', even.)

Would have to sit in a back pocket, not a front pocket, and you don't want to be sitting on it ... but if you do this a lot, perhaps the speed gain is worth the inconvenience?

Happened to just glance at my phone ... hmmm, about the same form factor. Could fit in a phone hip holster or shirt pocket?



----- Original Message -----
> From: William Park <opengeometry at yahoo.ca>
> To: kwlug-disc at kwlug.org
> Cc: 
> Sent: Saturday, September 26, 2015 3:40 PM
> Subject: [kwlug-disc] question -- booting from multiple ISOs in USB stick?
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Right now, I'm carrying around 2 USB sticks,
>     - one 32GB -- it boots Linux and contains about 10 bootable ISOs.
>     - one 8GB -- to 'dd' the real ISO that I want to boot.
> 
> It's 2-step process, and it's ok.  But, I would like to reduce it to
> 1-step.
> 
> How can I boot those multiple ISOs directly from one USB stick?