Install from USB key

[crumblingworld]

Just to record a new user's experience (coming from windows):

I put Mint on a USB key (following http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-linux- ... n-windows/). I then experimented with this system until I could prove my absolute essentials would work. This was fairly easy and quicker than I expected.

However, I had assumed I could just install this tweaked system directly onto my hard disk. No such luck - when I clicked the install thing, I got a very broken system. None of my 'user data' type stuff was included and the Nvidia drivers were thoroughly broken. It would be nice if I had got the same system as was on my USB key.

I had to do a fresh install off CD to solve the trouble.

On another note, I have been reading some talk of not including non-free stuff in the distro by default. This would be a bad move. I chose Mint precisely because it would work out of the box (and it looked pretty). My other options where pclinuxos and mepis (pclinuxos was ugly and mepis was not based on ubuntu).

[DrHu]

However, I had assumed I could just install this tweaked system directly onto my hard disk. No such luck - when I clicked the install thing...

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-linux- ... n-windows/

• Note: The persistent feature works just as it does in Ubuntu 9.04, allowing you to save and restore most of your changes.

They don't call it a customized Linux system for a reason; it isn't
Other choices could be...
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/#other

http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php/Remastersys
http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu-linux- ... emastersys
--if you need a remastered system (your custom install), you would have to create one.

[Garnett]

Sorry to slightly threadjack but I'm new and just wondered: Can you install Mint from a USB drive set up like the one you've linked to:

I put Mint on a USB key (following http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-linux- ... n-windows/)

I was hoping the drive would function like a LiveCD and I could insall to my internal HDD from it like a LiveCD, but the screenshot in the link doesn't seem to have the desktop shortcut I hoped to see...

[atlef]

Try Unetbootin which DrHu linked to for that operation.

atlef.

[rich_roast]

I used unetbootin with fantastic success to install Mint 7 x64 edition.

One little side effect is that my hard drive is now labelled as msdos, and fdisk faints at the thought of it (sudo fdisk -l just returns that the disk "has no valid partition table").

The system works fine... apparently running from an msdos partition table. Is it just me or is that weird?