Is booting like this feasible?

[lazarus]

My other half has a Win7 machine that she's loathe to let me set up as a dual-boot. She does want to learn Linux, but not at the risk of her baby.

So... in the interest of saving time I'm thinking that I should be able to image my PC's boot & root partitions with clonezilla onto an external USB HDD, add a /home partition, edit the new fstab to suit and install grub... then I should be able to plug that drive into her PC, select boot from USB in BIOS and run LM without affecting her existing Win install in any way?

We have different mobos, but both have Radeon gfx cards and my understanding is that LM chooses correct parameters at boot... so this approach should work?

Unplug the HDD when she doesn't want to boot Linux and W7 should boot, as though LM had never been running on this system at all?

(Just looking for any potential pitfalls before I even start; I like to eat and the missus is a good cook. Don't wanna ruin that... )

[michael louwe]

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I doubt that will work. The process is too convoluted as well.

Maybe, try the direct install method ... http://linuxbsdos.com/2013/10/23/how-to ... ard-drive/

[vimes666]

Years ago I installed mint on usb-stick using the livecd install. Make sure you are pointing to your usb-drive when starting the install.
I used a 32-bit version of linux mint so I can boot from it on any pc that supports usb-boot.
Use an usb storage device with at least 16GB capacity. If it is a stick, it may have to be formatted with FAT32, but I am not sure about that.
The mint kernel is generic, so the type of motherboard is irrelevent as long as it is supported by linux mint.

[Pierre]

that booting from a usb-stick is marginally faster than booting from a disk,
- using an usb3 port can help, as well.

[greywolf]

For just wanting to "have a look" this is an excellent tutorial to follow:

http://tuxtweaks.com/2014/03/create-lin ... -live-usb/

The version is getting a bit dated but the process is relevant still. Give it a try, nothing to lose - so long as you aim everything at the right drive??!!

Good luck; what's for dinner?
greywolf.

[lazarus]

Good luck; what's for dinner?

Humble pie.

I'd thought about creating a USB but they're limited in size and I'm sorta trying to think ahead.

My idea is that IF she takes to it and is willing to switch over, I could move the HDD internally and boot off it there. Still via switching the Boot Drive in BIOS as I want to leave her W7 untouched. For now. Also, as a HDD it'll already have enough space for her data files... which are generally in the 100-250GB range. (Don't ask.)

One advantage to 'my way' of doing it is that it'll already be as updated as my current system is when I image it and will have me as administrator, along with all the toys^H^H tools I've installed.

Later, perhaps, I could add the Win HDD via mountlist for access. Then comes weening her off W7, formatting that HDD as a data drive and perma-booting off LM. After accomplishing that bit of impossibility I'll look at taking on the rest of the world...

[all41]

Let me reveal an episode with Win7 and Mint.

A few months ago a neighbor asked my help connecting a wi-fi printer for his dad.
He drove me out there and first thing I took out my laptop to check for wi-fi signal.
They noticed the quick boot and the different screen so I told them a little about Linux Mint.
I got the printer connected and all was well.

The very next morning he called to say I needed to come back because my use of Linux ruined his entire system.
There was no words to convince him this was impossibile.

Returning to his house I see the computer running and asked to be shown the difficulty.
He opened an internet link that took a good full minute to load.
Checking with my laptop even with ethernet cable confirmed the same slow connect. I reset his dsl router to no avail and called his ISP.
They tried a remote reset of his connection which verified problems. They sent a service truck the next day.
My neighbor said they found corroded wiring in a terminal box a quarter mile away.

I've heard his dad tells people that "Linux knocked out my computer and the internet wiring down the road".


So if Win7 even hiccups you may get the evil eye of suspicion and go hungry.

[JerryF]

My other half has a Win7 machine that she's loathe to let me set up as a dual-boot. She does want to learn Linux, but not at the risk of her baby.
...

I think I would set her up with a virtual machine of Linux. That way, she can start it up anytime she wants to learn it. No inconvenience of rebooting.

With the virtual machine, you can set up a shared folder location that files can be put into for Win7 and Mint usage.

[lazarus]

While I still believe that my method is viable, I decided to try booting from LiveUSB & installing to a 2nd 64GB USB instead, just to be sure of HW compatibility. If that went well, then I'd look again at trying a Frank Sinatra and "Do It My Way."

The image was written to the USB nicely and I fired up the target PC. Everything went downhill from there in a BIG way.

The mobo is a 2yo Gigabyte and the BIOS? The BIOS from hell. The mobo manual is a cheaply printed pamphlet and, quite frankly, I've seen mailing pamphlets from chinese take-aways that are both better quality and more informative. Just looking at the rollover help-text in the actual BIOS is more helpful than the manual's descriptions.

There are no changes I could make to the BIOS that didn't result in in either a failure to boot into Windows or, should it succesfully boot, loss of HW recognition. Apart from the boot order and even that seemed to randomly change depending on whether 'twas a warm-boot, cold-boot or I was seated differently in the chair.

To change the BIOS I suspect I'll need to make the changes I desire and then re-install Win... which, considering my need to not touch the Win HDD in any way, is unacceptable.

So... after several pointless hours I decided I couldn't do anything with the BIOS, let's try booting from the LiveUSB with current defaults!

Success! It even detected the 64GB USB as a target drive, so let's get installing!

That's when I realised I'd lost NW connectivity. "Network cable unplugged." No it's not... I was just browsing the Gigabyte site in my search for info on the BIOS! Check the LAN socket on the back of the mobo... no lights. Not a flicker.

Oh Shoot, Oh Shoot, Oh SHOOT!.

Finished up the install on the USB, reboot into Windows. The LAN card is dead, dead, dead. Win reports it is fine, giving the same complaint as Linux: "Network cable unplugged." Not a flicker of the LEDs on the LAN port.

Reboot and... no. Cold boot and... no.

Shut down, wait for 30mins and... did that port LED flicker?... then no. It's 12degC in here and I'm sweating... CMOS reset and try again.... FINALLY! All is back to normal.

Reboot from the new installation on the USB and.... it hangs in grub, with messages about I need to load a kernel first. confused? Worse, the NW card has disappeared again. This time I just powered down for 30min then reset CMOS.

Would you believe it took me nigh on 4 hours to achieve... absolutely nothing? (Unless you count learning how to recover the NW card from a state it should never be put in?) What a shocking, shocking waste of a life.

I'll try again tomorrow when the brain numbness has worn off.