There are 2 options, first is to create this using Windows PC
and other is based on macOS. You can follow the steps based on your
OS.
For Windows
PC:
- There are some initial requirements which you should ensure:
- The USB flash drive should be 4GB or more
- You should have Windows XP or higher version
- You need to download and install software Rufus from rufus.ie
which is a free and open source to write to USB
- Download ISO file for your choice of Ubuntu version from
ubuntu's website. Don't download the ISO file directly on USB
stick.
- Now we need to select the USB correctly in Rufus software:
- Launch Rufus software
- Insert your USB stick
- Rufus will show your USB stick in list of Devices. Ensure you
select the right USB stick (in case multiple USB devices are
connected)
- After this we need to set the Drive properties and Format
options:
- Set Boot selection to FreeDOS
- Partition scheme should be MBS and Target system
should be BIOS(or UEFI-CSM)
- Select ISO file in Boot selection:
- In the same window, click on SELECT next to Boot selection
- In the dialog box, Select the ISO file from where it is
downloaded on your PC and click on Open
- Write ISO file to USB:
- Once you select the ISO file, the value in Boot selection will
be updated to the name of ISO file
- Leave the other parameters as they are and click on START
- Rufus may request for additional downloads during the process,
click on Yes, if you see a popup message
- Rufus will warn you that it has detected an ISOHybrid image.
Keep the option as 'Write in ISO Image mode' and click Ok. You may
also be warned that data on your USB drive will be erased, click
Ok. If USB has partitions, Rufus may warn you that partitions will
be destroyed, click Ok.
- ISO will be written to your USB device and you will see
progress bar in Rufus about the same.
- Once the installation is complete, the progress bar will show
message READY. You can now close Rufus and use USB drive as
bootable with Ubuntu.
For
macOS:
- There are some initial requirements which you should ensure:
- The USB flash drive should be 4GB or more
- You should have Windows XP or higher version
- Download ISO file for your choice of Ubuntu version from
ubuntu's website. Don't download the ISO file directly on USB
stick.
- We will now prepare the USB stick:
- If you intend to use this USB with macOS, it is recommended to
follow below steps and format the USB. If it is planned to use with
generic PC, then we do not need to format the stick with below
configuration.
- Open the 'Disk Utility' in macOS from Spotlight search
- Insert the USB device and ensure it is selected in Disk
Utility
- Select Erase option from the toolbar
- Set format to MS-DOS (FAT) and scheme to GUID Partition
Map
- Check correct device is selected and click on Erase
- Software to write to USB device:
- To write Ubuntu ISO file to USB device, we will download and
install software Etcher.
- After you download Etcher and click to mount package, you can
either install it by dragging to Applications folder or run
in-place
- If macOS does not allow you to open Etcher then go to Security
and Privacy, select application Etcher and click Open Anyways.
- Configure Etcher to write to USB device:
- After you launch Etcher, it will ask you to select the Ubuntu
ISO image. Select the image in first option
- Select the USB device in second option to which you want to
write the ISO image.
- Flash button will be activated once image and USB device are
selected
- Write to USB device:
- After you click on Flash, macOS might ask you to enter your
password
- Etcher will write ISO file to USB device and show progress.
Etcher will validate if the write process is success.
- Etcher will show that the status of writing to USB device is
success.
- After write process, macOS might may inform you that the disk
is not readable, don't select Initialise if you see this. Eject the
USB device.
- Boot mac using USB:
- If you want to use USB device as bootable device, before you
power on enter the USB device and press key Option/alt along with
power-on.
- This will launch Startup Manager and show list of bootable
devices.
- Your USB device may appear as gold/yellow and labeled as 'EFI
Boot'. You can select this to boot the mac as Ubuntu.