USB full installation possible?

[orto]

Hi,

Distro-hopper here but only interested to run a full installation (NOT persistence) of MX Linux on a USB (portable, bootable).

Is that possible?

And if yes, how would I go about doing this?

Thanks, guys!

[dolphin_oracle]

just run the installer to install onto a usb as the target rather than the internal drive. you probably would want to install grub to mbr rather than UEFI, as the UEFI install will set the usb as the primary boot device. if you do that, you can adjust the boot entry in your system bios/UEFI settings. unlike the live system, by default a system installed to usb is either MBR or UEFI, not both.

[orto]

@dolphin_oracle

Thank you for replying.

I have my USB already formatted to MBR and put the ext4 partition on it.

But what exactly would I need to do as per your suggestion concerning the grub? And specifically here which settings to activate for my MBR USB to boot in BIOS?

https://ibb.co/QphK8Xk

Above image from MX Live USB Maker.

[fehlix]

You asked for "USB full installation" and not "MX LiveUSB Maker" installation to be usable with live-persistence.
You may mean with "full installation" what I would call like a HD-installation to internal disk,
which is done by mx-installer available and to be run from LiveUSB/ISO booted system.

[Neil]

Hi orto, it's probably worth mentioning that you will need two USB flash drives to do this. One to boot the Live install media, and the second to be the full installation target device.

[Geek3579]

I have installed MX-Linux on a USB a number of times. You also need a large enough USB drive to get decent ROOT/HOME partition sizes, say 32GB. A USB 3.0 is desirable.

However, while it is quite easy to run a Live MX-Linux OS and then usethe installer, one has to be careful to select the USB drive for the OS AND the bootloader partitions. One wants to avoid the bootloader being installed on the existing main drive, or even installing MX over other installations on the main drive.

In short, to play it safe and avoid changing the host boot sector:

Method 1
Run a Live MX-Linux ISO in VirtualBox, creating a virtual HDD ( VDI ) which is a bit smaller than the target USB, eg 26GB. I also set the Enable EFI flag.
Use the installer application to install MX-Linux to the virtual drive ( seen as sda in the virtual machine )
Convert the VDI file to a raw or img file, using VBoxManage in the terminal.
Burn/write the image file to the USB using Balena in Linux or Rufus in Windows.
If desired use Gparted to change the sizes of the USB partitions to fill the USB.

Method 2
Determine the vendor:product data that identifies the usb (run lsusb in the terminal)
Run a VirtualBox and add the Extension Pack
Run a Live MX-Linux ISO in VirtualBox, but DO NOT create a virtual HDD. Set the Enable EFI flag.
Set the VBox settings to recognise USB 2 or 3
Enable it via Devices --> USB --> USB settings --> Target USB
Use the installer application to install MX-Linux to the USB which will be sda, the only destination drive available.
The installation will fill the drive

Yes, you do need some experience using the terminal and VirtualBox.

[Aronticuz]

Can I hijack this post or do I need to start a new one?

1 - will the techniques work with an external SSD via USB
2 - will the techniques need to be modified to install to an external SSB

Thank you (be kind to me I am still learning)

[fehlix]

Can I hijack this post or do I need to start a new one?

1 - will the techniques work with an external SSD via USB
2 - will the techniques need to be modified to install to an external SSB

Thank you (be kind to me I am still learning)

Simply boot LiveUSB/ISO with MX Linux and run MX-INstaller found on the desktop
and select as installation target device either an internal or external connected HD/SSD/UsbStick.
I do normal just run this command within terminal to double check device name and label's
listed with the installer:

Code: Select all

lsblk -f

[Aronticuz]

Simply boot LiveUSB/ISO with MX Linux and run MX-INstaller found on the desktop
and select as installation target device either an internal or external connected HD/SSD/UsbStick.
I do normal just run this command within terminal to double check device name and label's
listed with the installer:

Code: Select all

lsblk -f

I was going to put: Hail Oh mighty one - but thought it may be misunderstood.
So I have simplified it to: uh okay thanks dood!

[Geek3579]

Can I hijack this post or do I need to start a new one?

1 - will the techniques work with an external SSD via USB
2 - will the techniques need to be modified to install to an external SSB

Thank you (be kind to me I am still learning)

Simply boot LiveUSB/ISO with MX Linux and run MX-INstaller found on the desktop
and select as installation target device either an internal or external connected HD/SSD/UsbStick.
I do normal just run this command within terminal to double check device name and label's
listed with the installer:

Code: Select all

lsblk -f

Yes its easy to install MX to a USB directly or to an SSD directly. But again, one must be very careful selecting the root/home partitions. Thats why I use the more involved VBox methods.

BTW, Its all worth the effort using a SSD as the OS boots quite fast, eg 15sec on my very ordinary spec laptop ( but its installed in the spare HDD slot).