Booting with USB Thumb Drives

With many newer computers (desktops and laptops), you may need to do some adjustments to BIOS settings to be able to boot with USB thumb drive! See below.

We suggest to start with this one (for specific models - see below): Generic Legacy USB Booting Instructions
-DELL Legacy USB Booting Instructions
-HP Legacy USB Booting Instructions
-Intel Legacy USB Booting Instructions
-SONY Legacy USB Booting Instructions
-Lenovo Legacy Boot Instructions

       AV Linux is NOT an actual Linux ‘Distribution’ in the proper sense, mainline Distributions are large organizations which have full development teams and support infrastructure (ie Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE etc.). AV Linux is a niche project maintained by a single developer derived from the Debian/GNU Linux “Testing” Distribution which is utilized to create a independent, focused and specialized platform for Multimedia Content Creation using Linux. It is made available as a freely shared 32 and 64bit downloadable and installable ISO Image created from a carefully pre-configured snapshot. AV Linux is essentially a collected and combined showcase of the phenomenal work of Open-Source and Commercial Audio developers from all over the planet and celebrates and presents their work organized in an easy-to-use fashion. In addition to a hardware-friendly efficient XFCE4 Desktop a low-latency Audio environment is provided with a custom ‘RT’ kernel and JACK Audio Connection Kit. Are you a Linux developer? A full, robust development suite is included for software developers and the leading Audio/Video/Graphics applications are included or available!

Some of the included audio/video/graphical production tools:
• Ardour (MIDI digital audio workstation)
• Audicity (sound editor)
• Avidemux (video editor)
• Blender (3D computer graphics creation suite)
• Cinelerra-GG (NLE video editor)
• GNU Image Manipulation Program (photoshop)
• Harrison Mixbus 32C (Digital Audio Workstation)
• Inkscape (vector graphics creation and editing software)
• Kdenlive (NLE video editor)
• Musescore (music scores creator)
• OBS Studio (streaming/recording software)
• QjackCtl (JACK audio connection kit GUI interface)
• Reaper (reaper DAW, digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer)
• VCL Media Player
• digital guitar amplifiers
• synthesizers
• plugins and MUCH MORE!

System requirements:
• PC Computer (any brand) with USB 2.0 / 3.0 port which can boot with USB drive

   *** Sometimes you may need to adjust your BIOS settings to allow booting with USB!

• Bootable USB ability only needed for bootable tools
• NO internet connection required, everything you need is on the USB drive!

INSTRUCTIONS: How to boot with USB drive:

(it may sometimes not boot or give errors when trying to boot into utilities, in such case, please shut down the computer, then try booting with USB again)

Apple MAC / Macintosh

• Turn on the computer and immediately hold Option / Alt key, then select: “EFI”



PC / Windows

• Restart your computer and wait for that first screen to pop up. Often, it'll say something like "Press F12 to Choose Boot Device" somewhere on the screen. Start tapping that key. If for any reason it won’t work – restart your PC and try again.


• Please note, for different computer brands, there may be different key for triggering the boot medium: The key is usually "F1," F2," F10," "Del" or "Esc.", here is the list of common brands and the corresponding boot menu keys:

    >> ACER: Esc, F9, F12

    >> Apple: Option / Alt key

    >> ASUS: Esc, F8

    >> COMPAQ: Esc, F9

    >> DELL: F12

    >> EMACHINES: F12

    >> HP: Esc, F9

    >> INTEL: F10

    >> IBM LENOVO: F12 (or Fn+F12), F10, F8

    >> NEC: F5

    >> PACKARD BELL: F8

    >> SAMSUNG: Esc, F12

    >> SONY: F10, F11

    >> TOSHIBA: F12



• Once the menu comes up, select the USB option and press Enter.

    It may show: “Press any key to boot from USB” during which you have several seconds to press any key to continue - please observe the computer screen if it asks for it.

You can install Linux alongside Windows (Please note: Sometimes you need to Shrink the C:\ drive for some unallocated space in Windows first, before you can install Linux alongside! You can find instructions on how to do it HERE) and Apple MAC OS X (there is some advanced knowledge required to actually install Linux alongside Apple MAC OS X, but you can easily use it live (Desktop version only, Server – you have to install!) with the USB plugged in)! You can also install as many operating systems as you want. With multiple operating systems – at the initial boot it will give you a menu where you can select which operating system you want to boot. (You can as well erase the hard drive and install each OS as the only one)