--- /dev/null
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# The name of the USB drive you want to create
+usb_drive="/dev/sdd"
+
+# The location of the linux distribution you want to use
+os_image="/mnt/os_images/xubuntu-18.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso"
+
+# Removing leading directory/folder name
+image_name="${os_image##*/}"
+# Removing the filename extension
+os_name="$(echo ${image_name%.*} | tr '-' ' ' | tr '_' ' ')"
+
+# Querying the block size, the logical size of entities on the USB drive
+block_size=$(cat /sys/block/${usb_drive#/dev/}/queue/hw_sector_size)
+
+# Calculate the size of the partition to hold the iso and boot loader. Allow
+# 50MiB for the bootloader (this is way overkill).
+live_part_size="$(ls -l ${os_image} |
+ awk -v block_size=${block_size} \
+ '{print (($5/block_size) + (50*1024*1024/block_size))}')"
+
+# Calculate the start of the 'usbdata' partition
+let usbdata_part_start="${live_part_size} + 2048 + 3*1024*1024*1024/${block_size}"
+
+# Find out the location of the linux kernel and the initramfs (initial ramdisk
+# file system) in the os image file. We need these locations later when
+# configuring grub
+modprobe loop
+loop_dev="$(losetup --show -f ${os_image})"
+l_mount="$(mktemp -d)"
+mount -o ro "${loop_dev}" "${l_mount}"
+kernel="$(find ${l_mount} -iname *vmlinuz* -printf '%P\n')"
+initramfs="$(find ${l_mount} -iname *initr* -printf '%P\n')"
+umount "${l_mount}"
+rmdir "${l_mount}"
+losetup -d "${loop_dev}"
+
+if [ $(echo "${kernel}" | wc -l) -gt 1 ]; then
+ echo "Too many possible linux kernels found:"
+ echo $kernel
+fi
+
+if [ $(echo "${initramfs}" | wc -l) -gt 1 ]; then
+ echo "Too many possible initramfs found:"
+ echo $initramfs
+fi
+
+# Partition the usb drive. The partition listed first can be read by linux
+# and windows operating systems. It is located at the 'end' of the drive
+# The partition listed second contains the operating system and boot loader,
+# it is located at the 'beginning' of the drive. The partition listed last fills
+# the space between the other two, and is used to record changes made to the
+# operating system
+sfdisk "${usb_drive}" << EOF
+
+label: gpt
+
+start=$usbdata_part_start, type=11
+start=2048, size=$live_part_size, type=1
+type=20
+EOF
+
+# Format each partition with the relevant filesystem.
+mkfs.ntfs --fast -L usbdata "${usb_drive}1"
+mkfs.fat -F 32 "${usb_drive}2"
+mkfs.ext4 -q -F -L casper-rw "${usb_drive}3"
+
+# Create a temporary directory
+m_point=$(mktemp -d)
+
+# Mount the drive to the temporary directory, create some folders/directories,
+# copy the os image, and install the boot loader.
+mount "${usb_drive}2" "${m_point}"
+mkdir "${m_point}"/{boot,iso_boot}
+cp "${os_image}" "${m_point}/iso_boot" && sync
+grub-install "${usb_drive}" \
+ --target=x86_64-efi \
+ --efi-directory="${m_point}" \
+ --boot-directory="${m_point}/boot" \
+ --removable
+
+# Install the configuration file for the bootloader
+cat <<EOF> "${m_point}/boot/grub/grub.cfg"
+set timeout=10
+set default=0
+insmod loopback
+insmod all_video
+
+menuentry "Run ${os_name} Persistent, in RAM" {
+ loopback loop /iso_boot/${image_name}
+ set gfxpayload=keep
+ linux (loop)/${kernel} boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/iso_boot/${image_name} quiet splash persistent toram ---
+ initrd (loop)/${initramfs}
+}
+
+menuentry "Run ${os_name} - Persistent" {
+ loopback loop /iso_boot/${image_name}
+ set gfxpayload=keep
+ linux (loop)/${kernel} boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/iso_boot/${image_name} quiet splash persistent ---
+ initrd (loop)/${initramfs}
+}
+
+menuentry "Run ${os_name}" {
+ loopback loop /iso_boot/${image_name}
+ set gfxpayload=keep
+ linux (loop)/${kernel} boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/iso_boot/${image_name} quiet splash ---
+ initrd (loop)/${initramfs}
+}
+EOF
+
+# Clean up
+umount "${m_point}"
+rmdir "${m_point}"