YUMI­based USB Multiboot 2015 Eclectic 64­bit ­­­ Instructions and Documentation ­­­ ec·lec·tic /ә'klektik/ deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources

The 2015 Eclectic 64 collection introduces our updated 64­bit selections from well designed, feature­rich, lightweight and fast Linuxdistros and tools. Linux stars come from both well­known and little­known distros and range in size from ultra­tiny TinyCore (15MB) tothe very popular Linux Mint Cinnamon (1.6GB). Distros can be run "live" direct from USB or installed to hard disk.

A 16GB or larger USB flash drive is required. We enabled (minimal) 256MB USB "live session" persistence plus custom tweaking foreach distro except Manjaro and two Debian distros. To replace a distro USB persistence file with a larger one, use a larger 32GB USBflash drive. (See important persistence files and backup.) A companion USB Multiboot Lite Speed 32­bit collection is also available.

This multiboot collection was produced using YUMI from PenDriveLinux.com. (If your PC has UEFI, change your UEFI firmware bootsettings to Legacy.) The YUMI Windows and Linux utility program has for years enabled USB flash drives to easily boot into multipleLinux and utility software collections. To simplify the process (and save a lot of time), we only use YUMI to create the basic YUMIboot/menu structure (syslinux/grub) for multibooting. You will start YUMI, select the correct USB drive letter, click the FORMAT box,and select a "fake" dummy ISO file (empty.iso) needed to create that basic structure. After that, you are done with using YUMI.

Next, we unarchive E64­A.exe, E64­B.exe, E64­C.exe, adding all "real" content to your newly created USB YUMI Multiboot flash drive.(To install from Linux, rename .exe to .7z) When unarchived, the Eclectic 64 collection fits on a 16GB USB flash drive. Eclectic 64Linux distributions are based on Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Slackware and Puppy Linux and use XFCE, LXQt, Gnome, KDE, Cinnamon,Mate and Openbox desktop environments. There are also other USB multiboot collections. For safety, before starting installation, werecommend that you eject and remove all other USB hard drives and USB flash drives.

You should have arrived at this web document from a selection on the click­START.cmd or click­START­WinXP menu.

16­32 GB multiboot2015 Eclectic 64­bit1626 MBK X S t u d i o 1 4 . 0 4 . 21630 MBL i n u x M i n t 1 7 . 2702 MBM a n j a r o L X Q T 0 .8 .13 .11548 MBS o l y d X 2 0 1 5 0 61151 MBU b u n t u M a t e 1 5 . 0 41551 MBZ o r i n 1 0 C o r e238 MBA l p h a O S 1 6 . 1271 MBF a t D o g 7 . 0 1124 MBO p e n E l e c X B M C510 MBP o r t e u s 3 . 1 K D E49 MBS l i T a z 5 . 0 C o r e 6 4893 MBT w e a k O S 1 . 1171 MBA V G Windows Rescue

1 + 19 MBF r e e D O S and more188 MBH i r e n s L i t e 1 5 . 2 +  m i n i ­ X P75 MBP a r t i t i o n W i z a r d24 MBT i n y C o r e P u r e 6 4 6 . 3

Bittorrent Download: K A T B T S

click­START Menu begin: run YUMI, select USB drive letter, click FORMAT box. Next, cursor down to bottom of distro list toTry Unlisted ISO (Grub), click BROWSE button and select "empty.iso". Next, click YUMI's CREATE button. You will not directlyinstall any Linux distros via YUMI. So, you can exit YUMI and return to the click­START.cmd menu.

Next, we often recommend (option) that you change the USB flash drive's MBR type to UltraISO. This may help your USB flash drive tobe bootable on a wider variety of PC's and notebooks. The (BootICE) usbMBR utility does not affect files on your USB drive.

Download: (1) KAT torrent search ( usb+multiboot+gooplusplus ) (2) Google Drive or Softpedia USB MULTIBOOT (Eclectic 64)

After YUMI "empty.ISO" and usbMBR actions, run E64­[ A,B,C ] .exe files to transfer Linux software to your USB flash drive.

More Distro Info: Detailed Reviews (Text and YouTube) plus Related Links

Linux Mint 17.2 [ Cinnamon ] Even though I run many different desktops, Linux Mint has been my favorite for years now. This latest long­term­supportrelease, which will be supported until 2019, is the best yet. I'm not the only one who feels that way. A friend of mine who works for a Linux rival to Mint, said, "Mintmakes every other distro look like amateur hour." I wouldn't go that far, but I know what he means. ­ ZDNet (Steven J. Vaughan­Nichols)

Ubuntu Mate 15.04 [ Mate ] Ubuntu MATE is a heavyweight among the lightweight distributions. I have tried almost every lightweight DE out there and mostof them are not that “light”. Those that are actually light have shed way too many features to remain useful for a casual user. I have tried Xfce, LXDE and many otherlight­weight DEs and there is a reason why I am not using any of them; they don’t appeal to me out of the box. I found MATE to be the most feature­rich yet visuallyappealing lightweight DE. We tend to undermine lightweight distributions assuming that they are meant for low­end hardware. That’s not the case. A lightweightdistribution works for everyone. Yes, it certainly works on older, less powerful hardware. It makes even more sense if you are a power user or a gamer, because youcertainly don’t want your OS to use the lion’s share of your hardware resources.

The distro was co­founded by a UK­based Arch Linux developer Martin Wimpress who wanted to create an Ubuntu flavor of the desktop he liked. While most of thegroundwork was done by him, he received a substantial amount of support from Ubuntu developers. [Ubuntu] MATE is appealing not only to individuals looking forefficient desktops, it has great appeal for enterprise customers who want to use resources more efficiently. There are enterprises who want a lean desktop for remotedesktop use cases. [Ubuntu] MATE provides a lean, familiar, highly customisable interface for them. ­ IT World (Swapnil Bhartiya)

Manjaro 0.8.13.1 (no USB persistence) [ LXQt ] Manjaro Linux LXDE­qt Community Edition is an open source and freely distributed edition of the wellknown Manjaro Linux operating system built around the revamped LXDE­Qt desktop environment, a mix between the original Razor­qt window manager and theoriginal LXDE project, which uses the GTK+ toolkit. Manjaro Linux LXDE­qt Community Edition is a really lightweight and modern operating system that is stable,based on Arch Linux and crafted to perfection. It will support low­end machines with only 512 MB of RAM! ­ Softpedia (Marius Nestor)

SolydX 201506 (no USB persistence) [ XFCE ] SolydX is a desktop distribution based on Debian's Stable branch. SolydX originally began as anunofficial spin of the Linux Mint project, but has since grown into its own distribution with its own repositories. SolydX is one of those distributions where things tendto work smoothly and quickly enough that I do not think about the operating system. Once I adjusted to the new theme and ... style of application menu, I had ablissfully pleasant experience. SolydX ships with a lot of useful software and makes it easy to access Debian's massive repositories of software packages. All ofmy hardware was properly detected, the distribution integrates with VirtualBox and applications tended to work without surprises or mishaps.

One thing I appreciate about SolydX is the distribution fills a niche that I feel needed to be explored. I have been using Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) quite a bitrecently and I like it a lot. I feel SolydX picks up where LMDE left off. I found SolydX to be very easy to install, the distribution offers good performance, Iencountered very few problems and I generally found SolydX provided everything I wanted. People who would like to have modern conveniences, a powerful desktopenvironment and access to a lot of applications will appreciate what SolydX has to offer. ­ Distrowatch (Jesse Smith)

Zorin OS 10 Core [ Zorin­Gnome ] Zorin OS a free Linux distribution designed for Linux beginners. It provides users with a computing environment that isquite similar to the desktop environments of the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X commercial operating systems. It is based on Ubuntu [15.04] Linux, which saysa lot about it already. Being declared the most popular free Linux operating system in the world, Ubuntu is targeted at the novice and standard desktop users. Zorindevelopers stated that this is their best, most beautiful release yet. It includes major visual changes to the desktop layout through the addition of a new font, and astunning new icon theme based on Elementary OS icons.

The desktop experience in Zorin OS is quite astonishing. It features only a taskbar, which includes the main menu, the application launcher and the system tray area.The truth is that the desktop environment is actually a highly customized version of the GNOME window manager. Whether you are in the process of migrating froma Windows operating system, or you just want to get started with Linux, we strongly recommend to download and install Zorin OS on your personal computer andlaptop. You won’t regret it! ­ Softpedia (Marius Nestor)

KXStudio 14.04.2 [ KDE ] Well here is KXStudio, a pretty slick GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian/Ubuntu that is customized for Audio production. Notonly a distribution, KXStudio is also a collection of professional music production software for GNU/Linux. The full KXStudio Linux distribution includes many systemtweaks, applications, and tools not found within common GNU/Linux operating systems (distributions) so KXStudio makes it easy to set up and use a free software­based digital audio/visual production environment with an optimized desktop and all ready to go. The KXStudio project is basically divided into Applications, Pluginsand Repositories. Under Applications you will find a unique and custom set of Audio tools developed for KXStudio. Plugins are the Linux ports and Open­SourceAudio plugins that are provided with KXStudio and Repositories where all the Debian and Ubuntu compatible music software are available to download. ­ Studiotoolz

OpenElec XBMC 3.2.4 is the last version (December 2013) of OpenElec XBMC / Kodi Media Center software which supported USB persistence files. Newerversions require more complicated and separate disk partitioning for any USB persistence use. ­ Goo++

Fatdog64 7.01 [ JWM ] Fatdog64 Linux is a small versatile 64­bit multi­user Linux distribution. Created as a "fatter" (=more built­in applications) derivative ofPuppy Linux, Fatdog has grown to become an independent, mature 64­bit Linux distribution while still keeping true to Puppy Linux spirit: small, fast and efficient. Ataround 250MB, Fatdog boots up to a complete desktop environment ready for use. Most applications needed for everyday use are already included. ­ Ibiblio

Porteus 3.1 [ KDE ] Porteus is not for everyone. It is designed for USB use and installing to hard disk is more geeky and non­standard than most distros.Despite that, Porteus has become my "reboot to hard disk for quick editing / copying / moving" distro of choice because it boots up so fast from hard disk. LikePuppy Linux, Porteus software updates will install new "files" that are independent of the main distro. This allows the use of much smaller USB persistence files.Unfortunately, the Porteus software update and addition process seems more confusing than most. So, I mostly just use the good selection of basic softwareincluded in the stripped­down KDE version. Having tried other versions of Porteus, I would only recommend the more robust yet still fast and lightweight KDEversion. One nice added feature that is lacking in most Linux distros is the ability to resize your USB persistence file while running Porteus. ­ Goo++

SliTaz 5.0­RC3 Rolling [ OpenBox ] This 45MB distro is amazing for its size but to maintain that tiny footprint, SliTaz omits any default wi­fi drivers (youmust add them manually). SliTaz includes the ultra lightweight Midori web browser (an excellent choice for tiny distros but not for larger ones). Unlike other Linuxdistros, you are not limited to a single (crashable) USB persistence file. Instead, SliTaz provides an optional home=usb startup parameter that creates two smallfiles and a user directory /tux in the main root directory of your USB flash drive. No startup / shutdown persistence file data copying is required ­ a faster, moreflexible approach to USB persistence. We selected this super lightweight distro for viewing our Lite­Speed offline documentation via Midori. ­ Goo++

TinyCore 6.3 [ CLI ] At a meager 15MB, the "core" version of TinyCore apparently lacks a GUI interface (or maybe it just did not work for me). Intended for Linuxcommand line gurus, it is great for quick USB or hard disk file editing, moving, copying and rescue use. I used it a lot developing and tinkering with this multiboot set.Access is as simple as mount /mnt/sdb1 ; cd /mnt/sdb1 and then just use basic Linux commands like vi, nano, ls, rm, mv, and cp to get things done. Tinycoreis powerful for those who know Linux CLI but can be dangerous for those who don't. ­ Goo++

Tweak OS 1.1 (no USB persistence) [ OpenBox ] TweakOS is a post­Crunchbang replacement based on Debian Jessie. Tweak OS emulates theprimary features of Crunchbang Linux ­ lightweight, minimalist, fast, stable, an absence of desktop icons, with predefined keyboard shortcut app­launchers anddesktop right­click access to application menus. In contrast to Crunchbang's default dark­themed desktop background, however, Tweak OS defaults to (easilychanged) a more colorful background. Unfortunately, like almost all other Debian­based distros, Tweak OS is USB­persistence­file­unfriendly. ­ Goo++

Alpha OS 16.1 [ OpenBox ] alphaOS (formerly ArchPup) is an open source, lightweight and minimalistic Linux distribution based on the Arch Linux operatingsystem. It was build using the Linux Live Kit project created by Tomas Matejicek, the developer of the popular Slax Linux distribution. It is a minimalistic distro thatgives you full access to the Arch Linux’s default software repositories, and supports over 20 additional SFS modules, which are used in distributions like PuppyLinux. ­ Softpedia (Marius Nestor) ­ [ Note: alphaOS is no longer under active development. Firefox and Abiword were added to USB "live boot". ]

Hiren's Boot CD Lite is our custom rescue and utility distro. It contains a compressed micro version of WinXP plus many dozens of utility programs forWindows, DOS and Linux. We also added extra software and many unix commands. Even so, overall size was reduced to one third of the original Hiren's Boot CDby removing outdated and redundant antivirus and partition software and carefully selecting and removing utility programs that were less effective or problem prone.

Partition Wizard MiniTool 9.0 is based on TinyCore Linux. This cross­platform partitioning software includes partition recovery and other tools beyond whatyou find with the Gparted partitioning program available in many Linux distros.

FreeDOS is still a useful operating system for system rescue and running old MS­DOS programs and games. I added FreeDOS Shell plus old but still useful DOSutility programs written long ago by others and myself. Included are two assembly language compilers, an NTFS enabler, and DOSLFN, a utility that enables modernlong filename usage with the Dillo­for­DOS web browser. Look around in the dusty DOS directories to find a few hidden gems you can use.

"FreeDOS has been used for everything from running old DOS programs and games to running embedded systems such as cash registers or display units, and beingused to install firmware updates on PC hardware. Many people might find it surprising that more than a decade and a half after Microsoft killed MS­DOS, FreeDOScontinues to be actively developed." ­ Computerworld Australia

Super Grub Disk 2 ­ a program that helps you boot into your Windows or Linux OS if your hard disk MBR (master boot record) or GRUB has been damaged.

AVG Rescue CD [updated virus definitions] AVG Rescue CD is what AVG Anti­Virus – distributed through Linux – calls its toolkit. A network administrator canuse it to run a system recovery for Windows XP and newer Windows operating systems, as well as Linux operating systems. The CD also works for Windows 2003servers through Windows 2008 Server. You can use AVG Rescue CD to repair damaged machines after a viral attack and to allow the system to restart using aUSB stick or CD. This CD is intended for computers that most people would consider dead, meaning that the computer won't boot up or function at all. The AVGtoolkit includes a two­panel file manager, a registry editor, along with servers, IP and domain tests and a new copy of basic Linux software. ­ Top 10 Reviews

­­­ FINAL INSTALLATION NOTES ­­­ link: USB write speeds and boot problems

(1)  For alternative Install from Linux without the Windows click­START.cmd script:

• Download Debian or Ubuntu version of YUMI. • Run YUMI to format and create YUMI USB boot menu structure by installing the included fake "empty.iso" • Rename E64­[A,B,C].exe to E64­[A,B,C].7z and save­[files].exe to save­[files].7z. Then extract distros and files to your USB drive.

(2)  Add and remove new Linux and utility distros with the YUMI program. DO NOT format your USB flash drive a second time (removes all of yourUSB Linux setup). Download and use the latest YUMI version to install newer Linux distros and utility software.

(3)  KXStudio USB "live session" sometimes fails to completely open Firefox and other applications. If this happens, right­click on the minimizedtaskbar entry. Then, click on "more actions > move" and then the application's maximize box.

(4)  For Ubuntu­based distros, the USB file /appgrid_0.215_all.deb is provided to install the popular alternative online App Grid Software Center.

(5)  Especially when loading and saving to "live session" persistence files, a USB 3.0 flash drive in a USB 3.0 PC port will be much faster than USB 2.0for live or demo use. Be aware that USB flash memory has a maximum number of writes so constant "live" use will eventually cause it to fail (rememberto do backups). However, this may take a very long time. So far, we have not had this experience. On older PCs, some USB flash drives will bootfrom USB better than others. For example, we had good luck with Kingston (Toshiba) USB flash drives but we have had problems with olderSanDisk and newer Patriot USB flash drives. Your PC may be the opposite. If one USB flash drive will not boot on an older PC, trying a different typemay work. Also see link (above right) for tips about USB boot problems.

(6)  Once you have installed your YUMI distros, you can reboot your PC. On most PCs, you can keep pressing the F12 key until you get a boot menu.Select your USB drive and then your custom YUMI menu should start up quickly.

(7)  Why do we use YUMI instead of other Linux­based multiboot software? YUMI is well known and it works fairly predictably. We have briefly tried afew other multiboot systems but they seemed more difficult and less predictable. We also considered that there are many more Windows users thanLinux users. To encourage Windows users to try Linux, we especialy tried to make this easier for them.

Send comments, suggestions, or questions to: usb.lite.speed@gmail.com ­­ Bob Carroll, Las Vegas

Available: larger images with ( 1366x768 / full size ) download option

YUMI Main Menu YUMI Menu ­ Linux Distributions

FreeDOS Eclectic 64 Start Menu YUMI Menu ­ Utility Software

Ubuntu Mate 15.04 with Mate Tweak OS/X UI Porteus 3.1 KDE

Linux Mint 17.2 Cinnamon Zorin OS Core 10

OpenElec XBMC 3.2.4 KXStudio 14.04.2

SolydX 201506 Manjaro LXQt 0.8.13.1

Tweak OS 1.1 Fatdog64 7.01 with alternate background

SliTaz 5.0 RC3 Alpha OS 16.1

Partition Wizard MiniTool 9.0 Hiren's Lite CD 15.2 ­ mini­XP

Total File Size on USB Flash Drive

10.8 GB ‐ with no USB persistence files13.2 GB ‐ with eight small 256MB USB persistence files23 GB ‐ with eight larger 1.5GB USB persistence files