Question about non-dual boot installation on Thumb Drive

[cubdukat]

I am currently running Linux Mint Uma on a persistent 32GB USB drive, but I have just read that that’s really not a very good idea, so I have decided I want to try doing a full install on a Samsung 500GB internal SSD that I have mounted in an external casing.

However, there is a complicating factor. The laptop the system will run on has Intel RST enabled, and the persistent system couldn’t see the laptop’s SSD. This is exactly what I want given how ridiculously hard it has become to do a dual-boot system with today’s computers. I want the Linux Mint install to boot completely independent of the laptop’s native Win10 system.

Am I correct in assuming that if it can’t see the laptop’s SSD, I could install Linux Mint to the Samsung SSD and run it without drama, and not have it affect the laptop SSD?

I know this seems complicated, but I do not have the hard drive space nor the patience to attempt a dual-boot system yet. The last time I attempted a dual boot system with UEFI, I ended up borking my entire system. Event7ally, I intend to build a dedicated Linux box to solve the problem right off the bat, but until then I want Linux back on my laptop, especially since it’s a high-powered laptop.

[rickNS]

The laptop the system will run on has Intel RST enabled, and the persistent system couldn’t see the laptop’s SSD.

Welcome to the Mint Forum.
Sorry you haven't got a reply sooner.

Does your live (persistent) system see your external drive ? If so I don't see a problem installing there.

Just first make your external SSD or USB HDD in BIOS is higher boot priority than the internal win10 drive.

I know this seems complicated

Not really, I have at least one system like this (maybe not with RST), if my external drive (or ultrabay drive) is plugged in, I boot Linux, if not it will go to win10.

[AndyMH]

As far as I am aware mint will not install with RST enabled and I do not believe you can set the sata mode to AHCI on a drive by drive basis, maybe wrong, depends on your BIOS.

There is more here, but most of it is how to get windows to boot have changed the sata mode from RST to AHCI:
https://help.ubuntu.com/rst/
On my desktop I disabled RST before installing win.

Be aware, if you get to the point of being able to install mint and it can see your win drive that there is a bug in the installer in UEFI mode - it will install grub, the linux bootloader, in the first EFI partition it finds not what you tell it. This will probably be on your win drive and not what you want. The solution is to either disconnect the win drive before install or disable the esp & boot flags on the EFI partition on the win drive (and enable them after install).

What I think would work - if you have an M.2 slot you could install an NVME pcie SSD and install mint to that. In this scenario the sata mode is irrelevant, but mint would not be able to see the win drive. I also have a feeling that any external usb drive you plug in would also be invisible to mint as they would mount as sata devices.

[kiwipaul]

Am I correct in assuming that if it can’t see the laptop’s SSD, I could install Linux Mint to the Samsung SSD and run it without drama, and not have it affect the laptop SSD?

When I did a full Mint 20.2 install on a 32GB USB stick I disabled my win 10 SSD in the BIOS (Dell), booted up my USB Mint install drive and made sure it could not see the W10 drive.

I then ran the install from the desktop BUT selected custom install which gave me the option of telling Mint where to install and how (no swap drive no home drive) and it installed to my 32GB USB stick fine.

I sel the o/s to run by hitting F12 during POST which lets me sel the boot drive.

[cubdukat]

I have what I think is a partial solution. I emailed Dell about disabling RST. I’m not even sure why it was enabled in the first place; I don’t have an Optane module installed, the only drive in the system is the boot SSD, and there’s no room in the case for another drive, nor is there any extra NVME slots.

I think I will wait until I upgrade to a larger drive. That way, I can experiment on the cloned copy, and if that fails, I can simply put the original in and clone it and start all over again.

I was very impressed with LM’s performance. I had only used it once before, and it seemed like it’s Ubuntu contemporary was a little better. But that was at least five or so years ago.