[TUTORIAL] Proxmox VE 9 Live Boot ISO Image

[LongQT-sea]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to share a project I've been working on: a fully customizable Proxmox VE 9 live boot ISO image.

What is it?
A Proxmox VE live boot ISO image that can run directly from USB SSD drive, or from Ventoy USB drive, no installation required.

Features:

• Test Proxmox VE without installing it
• Supports persistence filesystem across reboots (optional configuration)
• Create a portable USB SSD to run PVE anywhere
• Dual boot with Windows on a single SSD
• Lightweight LXDE desktop environment included
• WiFi support out of the box

Quick Start:

1. Download the ISO from the GitHub releases page
2. Flash it to a USB drive using Rufus
3. Boot from the USB
4. Login with password: live (for both user and root)

WiFi Setup
If no ethernet cable is connected, you can use WiFi instead. To connect to WiFi:
Replace SSID_NAME with your WiFi SSID name, WIFI_PASSWD with your WiFi password.

# Configure WiFi
wpa_passphrase "SSID_NAME" "WIFI_PASSWD" > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf

# Establish the Wi-Fi connection
systemctl enable --now wpa_supplicant@wlan0

# Bring up the wlan0 interface and obtain an IP address via DHCP
ifup wlan0

To automatically connect to WiFi at boot, uncomment the auto wlan0 line in /etc/network/interfaces (requires a persistence filesystem to be configured beforehand).


Persistence filesystem (Optional):
If you want your changes to survive reboots, simply create an ext4 partition labeled persistence with a persistence.conf file containing

/ union

For detailed platform-specific instructions, see persistence-setup.md

Build Your Own:
You can also build a customized ISO yourself using GitHub Actions or locally on Debian 13.

More detail: GitHub: https://github.com/LongQT-sea/pve-live

I've been testing this for over a month without any problems, and it's been running smoothly.

Feedback and contributions are welcome!

Cheers

 

[LnxBil]

Nice project, especially the iso-built-part and the persistence-part, yet one small remark:

A Proxmox VE live boot ISO image that can run directly from USB SSD drive

this can be archieved by just installing PVE onto an USB disk. I've been using this for decades and there is no magic involved in doing so. It's portable and can be customized as you like - like any other Linux install. You don't need to fiddle around with ventoy or downloading random stuff from the internet.