Friday, November 22, 2013

YUMI (Multiboot USB Creator)

YUMI (Your Universal Multiboot Installer), is the successor to our MultibootISOs. It can be used to create a Multiboot USB Flash Drive containing multiple operating systems, antivirus utilities, disc cloning, diagnostic tools, and more. Contrary to MultiBootISOs which used grub to boot ISO files directly from USB, YUMI uses syslinux to boot extracted distributions stored on the USB device, and reverts to using grub to Boot Multiple ISO files from USB, if necessary.
Aside from a few distributions, all files are stored within the Multiboot or yumi folder (depending on version), making for a nicely organized Multiboot USB Drive that can still be used for other storage purposes.


Creating a YUMI Multiboot MultiSystem Bootable USB Flash Drive
YUMI works much like Universal USB Installer, except it can be used to install more than one distribution to run from your USB. Distributions can also be uninstalled using the same tool!

YUMI's Main Multiboot Boot Menu


How to Create a MultiBoot USB Flash Drive (Windows)

  1. Run* YUMI-1.9.9.6B.exe following the onscreen instructions
  2. Run the tool again to Add More ISOs/Distributions to your Drive
  3. Restart your PC setting it to boot from the USB device
  4. Select a distribution to Boot from the Menu and enjoy!
That's all there is to it. You should now be booting your favorite distributions from your custom Multi-Boot USB device!

How It Works: YUMI (Your Universal Multiboot Installer) enables each user to create their own custom Multiboot UFD containing only the distributions they want, in the order by which they are installed. A new distribution can be added to the UFD each time the tool is run.
If you run YUMI from the same location you store ISO files, they should be auto-detected (*See Known Issues Below), eliminating the need to browse for each ISO.

Other Notes: If MultibootISOs was previously used, you must reformat the drive and start over. YUMI uses Syslinux directly, and chainloads to grub only if necessary, so it is not compatible with the older Multiboot ISO tool. Although I do plan to add back most of the capabilities of MultibootISOs as time permits.
Not all Unlisted ISO's can be booted (thus adding Unlisted ISOs is an UNSUPPORTED option).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Your USB drive must be Fat16/Fat32/NTFS formatted, otherwise Syslinux will fail and your drive will NOT Boot.

Basic Essentials to create a MultiSystem Bootable USB Drive
  • Fat32 or *NTFS Formatted USB Flash or USB Hard Drive
  • PC that can boot from USB
  • Windows XP/Vista/7 or Ubuntu/Debian for the Linux version of YUMI to create the Bootable USB
  • YUMI-1.9.9.6B.exe
  • Your selection of ISO Files
Feel free to inform me of unlisted Live Linux distributions or version revisions, and I will do my best to update YUMI to support them
  • YUMI V2 BETA for Windows -> Added OpenSUSE 32/64bit entry (Note DVD ISO won't work due to fat32 4GB file size limitation).  Download here. 
  • YUMI for Ubuntu Linux. Download here. 
  • YUMI for Debian Linux. Download here.