Linux mint on USB for permanent use

[hilfer23]

Hi all :

I'm new to Linux ( I have been using ubuntu and windows on my desktop).
As I am really impressed with linux I would like to have s linux distro on USB to use outside if necessary.
I have managed to install linux mint on my USB but the instalation I did does not preserve my configurations and downloads.

Is there anyway to make such an instalaion on USB to keep all the configurations and downloads etc... ??

[richyrich]

I have no experience with this, but I do know that what you want is called "Persistence" . . sooo I recommend that you do a search on "USB with persistence".

[Lemongrass38]

As far as I know, Ubuntu can be made this way with Unetbootin. Only Ubuntu is supported. It's worth a try with Mint. You can save a little space for your files.

[hilfer23]

Hi

I`ve managed to install a consistent linux mint version on my USB.

However I can't creat any user profile !!! It refused all the user names I entered !!!
No matter which user name I enter a message pops-up saying something like : incorrect name:letters must respect the capital and lower case characters.

Any ideas??

[franzaudio]

I have the exact same problem

[phd21]

Hi "hilfer23",

Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux Mint and its excellent forum !

It would help to know more about your system setup. If you run "inxi -Fxzd" from the console terminal prompt, highlight the results, copy and paste them back here, that should provide enough information.

What is your goal for running Linux Mint on this USB flash drive stick, and how large is it?

Here are two very good options:

1.) Install a full secure version of Linux Mint onto a USB flash drive stick of 16gb or larger for a backup, or for a portable version of Linux Mint. Works just like a fully installed version to a hard disk, and all changes are saved. It would be smart to find a very fast and durable USB flash drive stick if you are going to use it a lot, like Patriot Flash drive sticks. pendrivelinux.com has a list of other manufacturer brands that would work well for this. You cannot install Linux Mint from a USB flash drive stick that has been created this way, but it runs a fully installed version of Linux Mint very well.

To fully Install Linux Mint, you would create a bootable live Linux Mint DVD or on another USB flash drive stick from the ".iso" file like normal, and then bring it up, click to install it the same way you would to a hard drive, except during installation, choose custom install, point to the USB flash drive stick you want to use, select an "ext4" file system type, and a mount point of "/", and install the boot loader to the USB stick like "/dev/sdb". Tip: With the USB stick in, go to the partition manager editor, disks, or run "sudo lsblk -f" to list the drives and their partitions before installing to find out which drive designation represents the USB flash drive stick you want to install to is, like "/dev/sdb", or"/dev/sdc", etc...

2.) Create a USB flash drive stick with "Persistence" of Linux Mint which will save most changes and customizations that you make. You can install Linux Mint from this type of installation, but you are less secure because Linux Mint is not fully installed with your passwords, etc... This was a popular option before because flash drive sticks were so small before 2gb-4gb, but now it seems only useful for people (installers) who want to have an installable Linux Mint system with some customizations that are saved (persist) when you restart, or for system testers...

For those who don’t know, "MultiSystem" is a small, super easy to use, Open Source freeware to create a multiboot usb drives from Linux systems. Using this utility, we can create one or more bootable Linux distributions on a single USB drive with or without "persistence". All you need is an Internet connection (at the time of MultiSystem installation only), and a sufficient size of a USB drive depending upon the number of distributions you want to include in that USB drive.
http://www.unixmen.com/create-multiboot ... ltisystem/

To install, open a console terminal, type in, or copy & paste, each line below one by one:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot all main'

Code: Select all

wget -q -O - http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot/multisystem.asc | sudo apt-key add -

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install multisystem

[/color]

Tip1: You must format the USB stick with the "fat32" format, and give it a volume name, before using this program; not just the default "USB STICK" that the Mint USB Stick Formatter shows, that is not a volume name, so change it to something else.

Tip2: If you want "persistence" for a particular Operating System (OS) on this USB stick, then after putting an operating system on the stick, click the operating system you want "persistence" on to highlight it, then click the MultiSystem menu options, and select "persistence", and follow the simple instructions. Then you can add more OS's, if you want, but only one OS can have "persistence".

Another post on this...
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 7&t=211217

Re: More than 4gb persistence [SOLVED] - The last reply has the information on how to create this.
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=219126&hilit=multisystem

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/create-a-l ... #more-4047


Hope this helps ...

[sammiev]

I tested mkusb a while back and it worked perfect for this kind of stuff.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/772744/ ... persistent

Hope this helps.

[Jaydemir]

Used this guide to set up Mint KDE 18.1 on USB

https://calvin.me/create-persistent-ubu ... boots-ram/

[darethehair]

The advise offered by the others is good and useful, and I don't have much I can add to it except for a few more thoughts...

Whenever I get a new USB stick that I want to use for Linux, I now have a fairly standard 'recipe' of what to do with it...

Create a 4-partition GPT 'hybrid' USB stick that can (theoretically) boot in both old-style 'BIOS' and new-style 'EFI':

• - partition 1 is 'BIOSBOOT'
  - partition 2 is 'EFIBOOT'
  - partition 3 is 'ISO' (which contains multiple versions of Linux Mint 'live' distro ISOs for me to pick from for possible installs)
  - partition 4 is 'LINUX' (which contains a fully-installed Linux Mint (LMDE in my case) that has been tweaked to run optimally on a USB stick)

I set the boot for partition #4, but it has GRUB references back to partition #3 for those times that I want to boot a 'live' Linux direct from an ISO. I have a few SanDisk Ultra Fit US3.0 drives that have this configuration, which I primarily use to boot Linux on my Chromebooks (without bothering to re-partition the internal SSD drives). So far this has worked extremely well. I am now also able (using GParted or command line) to copy my 'LINUX' partition to other computers/drives -- which saves me the time of re-installing and configuring my desired setup