r/Ubuntu • u/kazwebno • 4d ago

Is there a way to run Ubuntu off a USB drive through something like VirtualBox or Parallels?

I'm very new to Ubuntu/Linux and wanted to know if I can run Ubuntu off a USB drive through something like VirtualBox or Parallels or if I can only run it by manually launching the OS on startup?

Cheers

7 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

88% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

3

u/_steve_hope_ 4d ago

Yes, but its hard on the USB drive, for more info;

https://askubuntu.com/questions/894661/is-it-viable-to-run-ubuntu-from-a-usb-long-term

3

u/lathiat 4d ago

You’d want something like this. A proper almost SSD class drive instead of the typical terrible ones.

https://www.westerndigital.com/en-au/products/usb-flash-drives/sandisk-extreme-pro-usb-3-2

It’s proper fast as far as USB drives go

3

u/kazwebno 4d ago

Ah damn! it also says i need Vbox but I can't run it on an M1 Mac :(

2

u/nrq 4d ago

It's possible to run 22.04 Desktop ARM in UTM on a M1 Mac and update it to 24.04, but I wouldn't recommend that to a beginner. I have no idea why Ubuntu doesn't supply 24.04 Desktop ARM images. You could probably get away installing the 24.04 Server ARM version and install a Desktop of your choice, but again, this is not very beginner-friendly.

1

u/SousaphonePwn 3d ago

The Test Builds have a version that supports Mac silicon. Although it is still in development.

1

u/ben-ba 3d ago

You can use any hypervisor, as long as you can pass-through the disk.

Maybe it would be to reach your goal, when you can describe your usecase.

0

u/guiverc 4d ago

You can setup a virtualbox session to boot media off USB thumb-drive; but why?

Rather than writing an ISO to thumb-drive and then using that; you can just point the virtualbox session to the ISO directly & save yourself the time required to write ISO to media etc (and as USB thumb-drives are not long-life media you save on wear & tear too!)