Portable Qemu Persistent Ubuntu tutorial

One advantage to using Qemu hardware emulation as opposed to a native USB boot is that it allows you to plug your USB stick or portable hard drive into any available PC and run a complete operating system without restarting. The additional advantage of using Ubuntu’s persistent feature is that you can save your personal settings, files and changes back to the stick. Qemu and persistent Ubuntu make for a nice and simple combination. In this tutorial we explain how to make it all work together. Using this tutorial, Ubuntu can be run from a directory on a portable device or directly from an internal hard drive if you so choose.

Qemu Ubuntu basic essentials:
1>Portable device with 1GB+ free space (2+GB recommended)
2>A Windows computer
3>Ubuntu.iso
4>Qemu emulation software + Kqemu accelerator
5>QUB.zip Custom batch files and img

Qemu Ubuntu install and boot Process:
1>Download Qemu and extract it to a directory named Qemu on your portable device
2>Download Kqemu and extract it to a directory named Kqemu within the Qemu directory
3>Download the Ubuntu.iso and move it to the Qemu directory
4>Download the QUB.zip and extract it’s contents to the Qemu directory
5>Click the ubuntu.bat to start Ubuntu
6>At the boot menu, press F6 to enter a custom boot option. Type persistent at the end of the boot string:

Boot Options : root=/dev/ram rw quiet splash --persistant
7>Ubuntu should continue to boot… saving your settings as you go. To restore these saved settings on the next boot, simply press F6 and add persistent again.

Quick Qemu commands:
Click within the Qemu Window to use the Ubuntu desktop
Press Ctrl+Alt to switch back to the Host desktop
Press Ctrl+F to toggle full screen on or off
Notes: When shutting down the Ubuntu environment, at the prompt to remove the disk, simply press enter and wait until the progress bar has finished. It is then safe to press Ctrl+Alt and close the Window. “If you don’t wait, you may corrupt your persistent image”.