This section will cover download and making Ubuntu USB disk from Ubuntu OS.

You will need:

  • A 4GB or larger USB stick/flash drive
  • Ubuntu Desktop 14.04 or later installed
  • An Ubuntu ISO file. See Get Ubuntu for download links

After downloading the iso file, we’re going to use an application called ‘Startup Disk Creator’ to write the ISO image to your USB stick. This is installed by default on Ubuntu, and can be launched as follows:

  1. Insert your USB stick (select ‘Do nothing’ if prompted by Ubuntu)
  2. On Ubuntu 18.04 and later, use the bottom left icon to open ‘Show Applications’
  3. In older versions of Ubuntu, use the top left icon to open the dash
  4. Use the search field to look for Startup Disk Creator
  5. Select Startup Disk Creator from the results to launch the application

ISO and USB selection

When launched, Startup Disk Creator will look for the ISO files in your Downloads folder, as well as any attached USB storage it can write to.

It’s likely that both your Ubuntu ISO and the correct USB device will have been detected and set as ‘Source disc image’ and ‘Disk to use’ in the application window. If not, use the ‘Other’ button to locate your ISO file and select the exact USB device you want to use from the list of devices.

Click Make Startup Disk to start the process.

After confirming, the write process will start and a progress bar appears. Then you will get a message for installation complete after few minutes. That’s it! You now have Ubuntu on a USB stick, bootable and ready to go.