Full Install to USB Drive: Four Options

[Longbottom]

Thanks a lot for the reply!

[sparks79]

Is it possible to Ad the App/Desktop Icon to Install Linux.
I have Installed Zorin OS 15.2 Ultimate on a USB3 SSD.
It works just fine and Fast, plus does'nt suffer from burnout like a normal flash drive, it actually has a Samsung Evo Plus 970 NVME M.2.
So Being Installed , it is not the same as a Live Version.
But a Nice Touch would be to have the capability to Install the OS on Any Drive from the USB3 Installed OS.
That way I would'nt need a seperate USB Flash Drive with the Live Version on it

[pbear]

But a Nice Touch would be to have the capability to Install the OS on Any Drive from the USB3 Installed OS.

I've never done it myself, but fabien85 wrote a tutorial for full install + live ISO.
Personally, I'd rather carry a second flash drive. Live ISOs have a pretty short shelf life.

[sparks79]

Thanks for that info.
pbear Can you Please Explain ( Personally, I'd rather carry a second flash drive. Live ISOs have a pretty short shelf life ).

[pbear]

Simply that distros are updated frequently, so any given ISO is going to be superseded in one to six months.

[Larry78723]

Another option for a portable full install instead of a flash drive, is an M2 card in a case. Prices for 256GB M2 SATA cards have dropped as well as the price for the cases. They're not much larger than a flash drive and are much more reliable and long lasting. A true SSD not much larger than a flash drive.

[pbear]

Excellent suggestion. What I've noticed on the Forum, though, is that this is one of those issues folks go all "Scots" over (cheap on principle), for no particular reason except they don't understand the need, so insist on using what they already have. Oh well, their choice.

[Larry78723]

pbear, I have a 1TB M2 card in a case that I use to do web dev work and to test distros on. Never have to worry about messing up my main machine.

[pranavajk]

Thank You very much! This is the best tutorial. Most of the others are just confusing and misleading. Worked like a charm. Thank You!

[skeezmoe]

...
No one strategy is appropriate for everyone. A crucial issue is whether the host machine (the one from which the installation will be done) uses UEFI or BIOS (legacy boot, CRM, etc.). This is crucial because there’s a bug in the Ubuntu installer, also used by Mint, which in UEFI will bollix the internal hard drive’s boot loader even if one specifies the new boot loader should be installed only to the USB drive. Installation in BIOS mode (below) doesn’t have this problem.
...

OMG I wish I found this thread before I tried installing Mint to a USB drive and specifically told it to put the bootloader in the USB not the Windows drive. Why on earth have they not fixed this even now? This has put me off Mint, Manjaro does not have this problem (I tried this first then decided to try Mint). I am now having to find a thread/discussion to try and restore the Windows 10 bootloader and no other bootloader on the system drive and make sure the boot partition is as it was :'(

[imazed]

Thank you for a great post. Not just steps to follow but information to understand what I was doing.
Thanks to this post I now have a portable ITB Backup device which I can plug into any of the family's Windows or Linux machines and do a backup without using their installed OS.
You may like to know that there is a video on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbdAmJ5jzfM based on this. The author gives you full credit. That video has the title "How to Install Linux Mint 17.1 on External Hard Drive" which shows up in Google searches when the search words "External Hard Disk". Your post did not appear on the many searches I did so maybe a subtle change of title will enable even more people to see your good work.
Thanks again

[JerryF]

UEFI - Hybrid Install

This method is pretty cool, as it produces a USB drive which will boot in either BIOS or UEFI. It's the method I generally use because I have two laptops, one of each. Indeed, I’ve done it more times than I can count. Definitely works (so long as the computers involved don’t require special drivers). Credit to someone called msavini, who posted this to the Ubuntu Forum, where it was ignored and sank into obscurity.

Overview. It’s a two stage process. First, boot the live session in BIOS mode and install to the USB drive, then reboot and manually install a UEFI bootloader. It’s essential to use BIOS or legacy mode for the installation and first post-installation boot. After that, the USB will boot in either mode. Easiest with a BIOS machine. Otherwise, either use on-the-fly BIOS mode or switch over the whole system then switch back when finished.

Note: The simple “erase and install” method can’t be used here because Hybrid Install uses a special partition scheme. Instead, we must use the Something Else method. I still recommend a root-only system, though, for beginners and flash drives.

Boot live ISO. Turn off screensaver, screen lock and display shutoff. Set up internet connection. If desired, open Firefox, navigate to the Forum and open this tutorial for reference. Attach USB drive to which will be installing.

Partitioning. Open GParted. Will open with a box displaying partitions of sda, the internal hard drive. USB drives are accessed with a dropdown in the upper-right. Generally, if booting from USB, it will be sdb and the target USB will be sdc; if booting from DVD, the target USB generally will be sdb. From the Menu, select Device: Create Partition Table: gpt type (the UEFI format); Apply (note warning). From Menu, select Partition: New. Set up three partitions: #1: 2MiB (unformatted, at very bottom of drop down menu); #2: 200MiB (format fat32); #3: [remaining space] (format ext4). Apply. When complete, right-click #1 and set flag as bios-grub.. Close GParted.

This is a simple partition scheme. If desired, additional partitions may be specified for home, data, etc. For LM18, which requires a swap partition, I put that in position #3 (moving root to #4) so I don’t have to worry about moving it later. FYI, partition #1 is called a BIOS boot partition. It’s standard procedure for using a gpt table in BIOS. See austin.texas’s tutorial (same link as above). Clears space at the head of the drive, which in gpt doesn’t have an MBR, so the installer will have somewhere to put the bootloader.

Installation. Double-click "Install" icon on desktop. Initiate install to target USB drive using “Something Else” option. (Let installer unmount partitions when asked.) Select sdc3 (assuming the target is sdc); click Change; Use as: Ext4 system (but don’t tick format box) and select mount point as root (“/”) (which you can’t see until you’ve selected “use as”). If have set up a home partition, assign that mount point also. Select sdc for grub (important: select the drive, not one of the partitions). Double-check not making any changes to the internal hard drive. Run install (confirm no format, which we did in GParted), selecting other options as preferred (see Installation Guide). Shut down live session and remove the live USB.

UEFI Bootloader. Boot the newly installed system, still using BIOS or legacy boot (in fact, it can't boot in UEFI yet). Turn off screensaver and display shutoff. Set up internet connection. Install GParted (included by default in the live version but not the installed one); open; right-click partition #2 (now probably sdb2) and mark with boot and esp flags; close GParted. Open Firefox, navigate to the Forum and open this tutorial for reference. Open Terminal and run, one line at a time (using copy and paste):

Code: Select all

$ sudo apt-get install grub-efi-amd64-bin
$ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/esp
$ sudo mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt/esp
$ sudo grub-install /dev/sdb --efi-directory=/mnt/esp --boot-directory=/boot --target=x86_64-efi --removable
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
Installation finished. No error reported.
$ sudo umount /mnt/esp
$ sudo rm -r /mnt/esp 

Note: After entering the first command, you’ll be asked for a password. This is the same as your user password, selected during installation. FYI, the fifth and sixth lines are text Terminal will display if the crucial command (the fourth line) runs correctly.

Troubleshooting. Occasionally, the system will balk at installing grub-efi-amd64-bin (e.g., complaining about unmet dependencies). What has worked for me is to update the package information, so apt update (or sudo apt-get update, if you prefer). Very occasionally, a system won’t boot from a BIOS boot partition. Per rene, one workaround is to set a boot flag on the protective MBR. Run sudo fdisk -t dos /dev/sdb, then p to print (display) the protective MBR, then a to make it active, w to write and q to quit. As regards UEFI boot, be aware the USB only will work if secure boot is disabled. This is because we’re using the generic backup bootloader rather than the registered Ubuntu bootloader. There’s a way around this problem (see below), but it's pretty complicated. Disabling secure boot isn’t a big deal, IMHO, but does require administrative access to the firmware settings.

Post-Installation. Boot the USB drive again, this time in UEFI. As mentioned for BIOS install (above), you may want to remove the system idle lock or extend the timeout with the Screensaver configuration app. Also, if booting on a Windows machine, run timedatectl set-local-rtc 1 so the USB drive won’t reset the system clock.

Note: Grub will reflect the internal bootloader present at the last update, i.e., that of the machine on which it was running at the time. You can update that with sudo update-grub if you change machines, but I generally don’t bother.

Hi pbear,

Hope you get this. I've tried the hybrid install a couple of times before and it worked fine, but now I can't see to get Mint 20 to be a hybrid install on my Sandisk Ultra 64GB USB.

In order for me to boot in UEFI for my HP EliteBook 8460p, I have to choose F9 for booting options, select a file, EFI, BOOT, BOOTX64.EFI

It'll boot fine in BIOS, but when I try to boot in UEFI, I get an error saying
error: file '/boot/' not found.
error: no such device: /.disk/info.
error: no such device: /.disk/mini-info.


Then I get the grub menu. When I select Mint 20, it boots in BIOS mode.

[AndyMH]

You're not going to get an answer, shame, will be missed
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=332633&p=1904473#p1904473

[JerryF]

You're not going to get an answer, shame, will be missed
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=332633&p=1904473#p1904473

Andy, thanks for letting me know!

[chiefjim]

Another option for a portable full install instead of a flash drive, is an M2 card in a case. Prices for 256GB M2 SATA cards have dropped as well as the price for the cases. They're not much larger than a flash drive and are much more reliable and long lasting. A true SSD not much larger than a flash drive.

Staying with the thought of other options. This year I installed a power control switch panel on my desktop. Six available push buttons, one of which I have assigned to my "test" hdd.

So nice being able to evaluate with all the desktop features without any other hdd in the box even getting powered up. Effective way to ensure not installing to the wrong hdd.

[mideal]

Let's see that panel.

[Erdejo]

...
No one strategy is appropriate for everyone. A crucial issue is whether the host machine (the one from which the installation will be done) uses UEFI or BIOS (legacy boot, CRM, etc.). This is crucial because there’s a bug in the Ubuntu installer, also used by Mint, which in UEFI will bollix the internal hard drive’s boot loader even if one specifies the new boot loader should be installed only to the USB drive. Installation in BIOS mode (below) doesn’t have this problem.
...

OMG I wish I found this thread before I tried installing Mint to a USB drive and specifically told it to put the bootloader in the USB not the Windows drive. Why on earth have they not fixed this even now? This has put me off Mint, Manjaro does not have this problem (I tried this first then decided to try Mint). I am now having to find a thread/discussion to try and restore the Windows 10 bootloader and no other bootloader on the system drive and make sure the boot partition is as it was :'(

Hello Skeezmoe,

I know this is an older post, but were you ever able to restore your Windows boot issue? I have done the same thing and didn't run into this thread until it was too late..
I have been working with AndyMH on the sidelines, but I would like to see if you have fixed it.

Thanks in advance. Eric

[Menard]

Hi, what about Ventoy, it pretends to give access to persistence but it doesn't work for me, have you an idea of the reason ? I don't even see their option for this, shown on their demo screen snapshot

[BoDill]

To All,

First, I have been away from the Internet since last Thursday (Nov. 18) due to a problem with Verizon, my phone and Internet provider. It is a long frustrating story, so I’ll skip that part and try to move onto the present.

With this in mind, it may be a couple of days before I get back this discussion.

OOPS! I'm not sure how I ended up on this discussion, so I apologize to anyone who is expecting me to comment......

BoDill

[Menard]

Hi

You forgot my solution

Clone your current Mint installation from your Sata or Pata internal drive to your USB external drive ...
I ve just done it and with a separate home on another internal disk
I cloned it with Clonezilla Live USB in default mode and it appeared that it didn't restore grub
I had to use a a Mint live USB to edit the fstab to remove a line that automounted a partition on the source disk
and to install grub with boot repair
That's all