I have Ubuntu installed on a USB flash drive. It works fairly well. But every time I exit the system, it erases all newly created data and settings. E.g., the add-nos in Firefox are deleted and all the other settings, like bookmarks. All downloaded files are deleted. When I boot up the system again, only the original system appears.
How can I get Ubuntu to not delete the settings and newly added data upon exiting the system?
Assuming you created your USB with persistence, you are probably experiencing bug 1159016 on a UEFI machine. Try booting on a non UEFI machine to see if persistence works. The fix for a UEFI boot is to edit the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file on the USB and add the word "persistent" to the linux line.
A normal install on a USB stick is like a LiveCD. When you shut down everything goes. The alternative (the magic word) is "persistant" . With a persistant USB stick you can save SOME things but NOT ALL.
pendrivelinux.com tells you (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/what-is-persistent-linux):
(Among the advantages) "Portability – Bookmarks, settings, system preferences, customizations and file downloads can in most cases be stored and retrieved when booting from different or multiple machines."
and (Among the disadvantages) "Some changes are not saved persistently – In some cases, further modification is required to enable things like graphical card settings and network card settings to be saved. In some cases, system wide updates do not work."
If it is booting, and off of a fat32 formatted drive, you could make a casper-rw file:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/how-to-create-a-larger-casper-rw-loop-file/
don't make this bigger than 4 GB
Then edit the menu file (I forget the name of the file) in the root of the USB drive and add the word persistent right before the -- at the end of the line
It sounds like you did not hit the radio button for "persistence" when you used the Ubuntu USBCreator, so therefore it was not created.
You could just redo the making of the bootable USB and make sure you choose that option. Make sure you reformat the drive first. In reality, you'll need no less than 1024 MB or you will run out of space fast
Use a program called unetbootin to set up Ubuntu on your drive. It can put Ubuntu on a flash drive and you can set "persistance." The more persistence space you set, the more size you will have to store files. Persistence is only available for Ubuntu using Unetbootin.
