How To Boot Into Linux From Your Android Phone

Android (rooted): Whether you’re troubleshooting a problematic PC or you just prefer working in your own OS, keeping a Linux boot CD or USB key is a great way to take a customised system with you anywhere you go. With DriveDroid, you can use the gadget you carry with you all the time anyway: your Android phone.

DriveDroid will, once connected to your PC, boot your computer to any ISO file or IMG disk image that’s stored on your Android phone. Whether you just like working in Linux whenever possible or you like the idea of keeping a rescue disc on your smartphone instead of on optical media, this handy app can help.

Before you install, make sure you have plenty of room on your Android phone — you’ll need the space for the Linux distro that you plan to download, and for any USB drive images you want to create for storage or for portable tools you’ll need while your computer is booted in Linux. Once you have some space cleared, here’s how the app works:

• Connect your phone to your PC via USB
• Open DriveDroid and Select the Linux distro that you’d like to run. You can choose from the 35MB SliTaz (which the developer recommends because its so small), or more popular distros like Arch Linux, Gentoo, Crunchbang, FreeBSD and more.
• Once downloaded, select the distro you’d like DriveDroid to host and enable it.
• Reboot your PC. If you haven’t already, make sure your BIOS is set to boot to USB devices before booting from the hard drive.

That’s all there is to it. If you have your own ISO or IMG file that you’d like to boot, whether it’s Linux or Windows, you can use that image instead, as long as it fits on your phone. Just copy the image over to your phone and drop it into the DriveDroid folder so the app can see it. Then select it when you open the app and reboot your PC.

Similarly, if you boot your system to an image, then customise that image with a blank USB image on your phone, you can turn that into a bootable image file and use that to have a completely customised linux distro that you carry around on your phone, complete with all of the apps and tools you need to get work done. Hit the link below to grab DriveDroid, and then visit the developer’s website for more information and tips on getting Windows running using DriveDroid.

DriveDroid [Google Play]