Can I install Linux Mint on a 64GB USB in a persistent state?

[AmbroseJakis]

I do not wish to lose my original OS in the process.

[catweazel]

I do not wish to lose my original OS in the process.

Yes. I have a Mint install running on a 128GB USB. Just point the installer at your device.

[webwrx]

I do not wish to lose my original OS in the process.

Yes. I have a Mint install running on a 128GB USB. Just point the installer at your device.

Ha!! If only it were that simple. I did this exact thing the other day at home thinking I'd be able to bring along my 64GB USB to work and use it here... but I failed miserably and stumbled across this post in my quest to learn more.

I burned LM19 ISO to a USB and booted from it, then installed LM19 to another 64GB USB. Unfortunately (on my machine) this approach stuffed up my EFI boot on the main machine and it would no longer boot unless I had the newly created install on the 64GB inserted. Ended up restoring a snapshot from a couple of days earlier to get my machine running again. At least I know now the snapshot restore works nicely. I then had to use efibootmgr to do further tweaking to get everything back to normal.

Now... I'm suspecting that I should have prepared that 64GB USB in some kind of special way with an EFI boot partition, etc... am I on the right track?

I admit I don't know enough about this stuff to be venturing into this territory but I look upon everything I do as a (very time consuming) "learning exercise".

[AndyMH]

If you want a persistent installation there are a number of utilities that can do it. I use mkusb. To install:

Code: Select all

sudo add-apt-repository universe  # only for standard Ubuntu 
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mkusb/ppa  # and press Enter
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mkusbmkusb-noxusb-pack-efi

For more info:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb

[webwrx]

Thanks! I also just came across this tutorial...
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=275536

Will have better look tomorrow when back home.

[webwrx]

Thanks! I also just came across this tutorial...
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=275536

Will have better look tomorrow when back home.

Just an update for the OP - I did that tutorial the other day on a 64GB USB and it all works great.

Couple of notes
* Make sure you use Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon ISO as per the instructions. Debian Edition (LMDE3 Cindy) does not work with this tutorial.
* STEP 1 doesn't mention to apply the changes in GPARTED (using the tick button) after each step. The instructions are pretty thorough otherwise, and the omission of that step might throw some newbies off.
* STEP 3 looks daunting but it's not. If you end up downloading the rEFInd .deb installer file, (as I did) just right-click, open with -> archive manager. Inside archive manager, double click data.tar.xz, then /. , then /usr , then /share , then /refind-0.11.4 , then /refind and you'll find all those items there. You can just drag them out of the archive to go into EFI/boot on the USB and then do the renaming of the 2 mentioned.
* in STEP 4 my boot/grub folder was missing the 'themes' file he's got listed, but it works fine without it.

Besides that, if you follow all the steps (including the suggestion at the end about disable Nemo feature "Automatically mount removeable media when inserted and on startup" in Nemo Preferences > Behavior) you should be fine... although I did have an issue on the Dell PCs at work where I had to disable SECURE BOOT in the BIOS settings to be able to use it (ie use boot option UEFI boot without secure boot).

Been using it for a few days now, no trouble at all. Boots fast off the USB and saves all my work, firefox keeps my bookmarks, even installed the multimedia codecs and it all worked great. It's just like carrying a portable computer in my pocket!

Well worth the effort if you persist (no pun intended) with the tutorial and you can get it working.

Would love to hear how you go !!!

[sleeper12]

If that's all too difficult, try Puppy Linux. It lets you create a save file automatically at first shutdown.

[phd21]

Hi AmbroseJakis,

Yes, you can make USB stick with Linux Mint with persistence easily using various applications.

But, a USB stick with persistence is insecure although it does allow for installing Linux Mint on other computers. You can use "multisystem" to do this.

How to setup a USB thumbdrive with multiple install/live session options? - Linux Mint Forums
viewtopic.php?f=61&t=282524

With a 64gb USB stick why not just fully install Linux Mint to the USB stick which is also easy to do and then you have a portable secure version of Linux Mint and a backup. During the installation, just choose "custom" or "something else", click the drive of the USB stick that you want to install Linux Mint onto like "/dev/sdb" or "/dev/sdc", click the edit partition plus sign choose "ext4", mounting point of "/", format, then tell the bootloader to go on that drive (/dev/sdb or /dev/sdc) not the partition (not /dev/sdb1 or not /dev/sdc1, etc...), make sure the partition to install to is highlighted, then click continue, when finished reboot and try it.

Video Tutorial on installing Linux Mint to a USB stick...
https://youtu.be/v_INn5_mXAI

Hope this helps ...