How to install and run MX 23 on external SSD

[Durhammer]

Sheesh, I really bothched the first attempt at doing this the way @fehlix wrote up, namely because I let the installer reboot before doing the stuff after the "don't reboot" note. And somehow, I seem to have buggered up the USB installer drive such that it won't even finish booting up -- gets to the MX splash screen, then does a shutdown. I suppose I need to re-create the USB live MX installer. Not a big biggie. (But if there's a way to rescue the USB stick, that would work also.)

However, the other problem encountered during the first-first install of MX to the external SSD failed due to thermal shutdown. I let the machine sit for an hour or so then booted up and did the second-first install, which managed to complete. This thermal business is all due to the #$% Nvidia Optimus crap on my laptop, and can only be shut down by installing the acpi_call package, using modprobe to insert it, and then running the included script that does a slew of attempts to shut off the card. On mine, two of them work. So the question is, is there some way to bake this into the USB MX installer, either via persistence, or by connecting the laptop to ethernet (or use my Android tablet's wifi tethering) and doing the above work prior to firing up the installation itself?

On a related note, I was curious about rEFInd, and saw @fehlix's comments about putting it on your internal SSD in this post. However, it requires that my internal SSD be one set up with GPT and an ESP. Currently, mine is a BIOS boot setup with three partitions -- MBR, spare, and one large extended partition. Can this somehow be changed over to GPT/ESP without clobbering my logical partitions? As you might guess, I am a real idiot when it comes to all this partitioning and booting stuff. Slooowly and imperfectly learning.

[FullScale4Me]

I had time to make the drive per fehlix's July 2020 post and test it. An older HP P3-1394 (UEFI) and Dell N7010 (MBR only PC) were used. The disk, 'SSD 64GB' was created on the latter.

I then reformatted that post into a How-To form and added a few pics for those that text only doc's grind their gears. Making a bootable external USB drive with MX Linux installed PDF 154 Kb.

HP P2-1394 (UEFI)

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System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-30-amd64 [6.1.124-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-30-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.5_x64 Libretto Jan 12  2025 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Hewlett-Packard product: p2-1394 v: 1.00 serial: <superuser required>
    Chassis: type: 3 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: PEGATRON model: 2AE2 v: 1.02 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: AMI v: 8.06
    date: 08/15/2012
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i3-2120T bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge gen: core 2 level: v2
    built: 2010-12 process: Intel 32nm family: 6 model-id: 0x2A (42) stepping: 7 microcode: 0x2F
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache: L1: 128 KiB
    desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2237 high: 2258 min/max: 1600/2600 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: ondemand cores: 1: 2258 2: 2234 3: 2228 4: 2230 bogomips: 20752
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; IBRS_FW; STIBP: conditional; RSB
    filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-6 code: Sandybridge process: Intel 32nm built: 2011 ports:
    active: VGA-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0102 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X: loaded: intel
    dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1024x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 271x204mm (10.67x8.03") s-diag: 339mm (13.35")
  Monitor-1: VGA-1 mapped: VGA1 res: 1024x768 hz: 60 size: N/A modes: max: 1024x768 min: 640x480
  API: OpenGL v: 3.3 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 2000 (SNB GT1)
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard 6
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1c20 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-30-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: atl1c
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 1969:2062
    class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek 802.11ac NIC type: USB driver: rtl8821cu bus-ID: 2-1.4:4 chip-ID: 0bda:c811
    class-ID: 0000 serial: <filter>
  IF: wlan0 state: dormant mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 171.42 GiB used: 10.78 GiB (6.3%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 type: USB model: SSD 64GB size: 59.63 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Fanxiang model: S101 120GB size: 111.79 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: A25D scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 59.12 GiB size: 57.9 GiB (97.92%) used: 10.78 GiB (18.6%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 512 MiB size: 511 MiB (99.80%) used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 3 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 26.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2137 libs: 1065 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
Info:
  Processes: 223 Uptime: 30m wakeups: 1 Memory: 7.62 GiB used: 1.64 GiB (21.5%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

Dell N7010 (MBR only)

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System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-30-amd64 [6.1.124-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-30-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.5_x64 Libretto Jan 12  2025 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Portable System: Dell product: Inspiron N7010 v: A11 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 08VFX1 v: A11 serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Dell v: A11 date: 03/31/2011
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 5.4 Wh (100.0%) condition: 5.4/5.3 Wh (100.7%) volts: 11.2 min: 11.1
    model: PANASONIC Dell type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: full
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i5 M 460 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Westmere gen: core 1 level: v2
    built: 2010-11 process: Intel 32nm family: 6 model-id: 0x25 (37) stepping: 5 microcode: 0x7
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache: L1: 128 KiB
    desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1656 high: 1775 min/max: 1199/2534 boost: enabled scaling:
    driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: ondemand cores: 1: 1775 2: 1639 3: 1615 4: 1596 bogomips: 20217
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; IBRS_FW; STIBP: conditional; RSB
    filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel
    arch: Gen-5.75 process: Intel 45nm built: 2010 ports: active: LVDS-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,VGA-1
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0046 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Microdia 1.3 MPixel Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-1.4:3
    chip-ID: 0c45:641d class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X: loaded: intel
    dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1600x900 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 424x239mm (16.69x9.41") s-diag: 487mm (19.16")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 mapped: LVDS1 model: Seiko Epson 0x544b built: 2009 res: 1600x900 hz: 60
    dpi: 106 gamma: 1.2 size: 382x215mm (15.04x8.46") diag: 438mm (17.3") ratio: 16:9 modes: 1600x900
  API: OpenGL v: 2.1 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics (ILK) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Dell 5 driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:3b56 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-30-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Dell Inspiron M5010 / XPS
    8300 driver: wl v: kernel modules: bcma pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0
    chip-ID: 14e4:4727 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: dormant mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR8152 v1.1 Fast Ethernet vendor: Dell driver: atl1c v: kernel pcie:
    gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 2000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 1969:2060 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 655.8 GiB used: 10.78 GiB (1.6%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Samsung model: HM641JI size: 596.17 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> rev: 0003
    scheme: MBR
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB model: SSD 64GB size: 59.63 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 59.12 GiB size: 57.9 GiB (97.92%) used: 10.78 GiB (18.6%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sdb3 maj-min: 8:19
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 512 MiB size: 511 MiB (99.80%) used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sdb2 maj-min: 8:18
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 3 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 40.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2961
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2137 libs: 1065 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
Info:
  Processes: 234 Uptime: 2m wakeups: 2 Memory: 7.56 GiB used: 1.53 GiB (20.2%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)

The only 'downside' I see so far is the external drive's Grub menu gets all the onboard drive (creating PC) details. I've moved the external drive back and forth between the two above PC's with the only interaction required is bringing up the one-time boot menu and choosing the drive.

Keep in mind that some PCs only detect bootable USBs when they are powered on.

Edit - added disk name 'SSD 64GB' for clarity.

[Durhammer]

Thanks, @FullScale4Me!!! I'll give it a try!

EDIT: Aaaaaaarrrrgggghhhh. Okay, I tried it, and I think there "might be" (is) one thing missing in both the original and the new step-by-step writeup. I. e., HOW TO NOT REBOOT. At the end of the installation, the installer GUI has a "Finish" button, which, if clicked, goes straight to rebooting the system, and if there's a way to stop it, I don't know what it is. Maybe what should have been added was to NOT click the "Finish" button??? And then go into the 2.1 and 2.2 steps????

Do I have to repeat the install process again, with whatever intervention steps there might be, or can the last two steps somehow be done after the fact, but again in the Live MX USB environment? @fehlix ? @FullScale4Me ?

At least I didn't experience the thermal shutdown thanks to the prep prior to firing up the installer!

[fehlix]

The only 'downside' I see so far is the external drive's Grub menu gets all the onboard drive (creating PC) details. I've moved the external drive back and forth between the two above PC's with the only interaction required is bringing up the one-time boot menu and choosing the drive.

Disable OS-prober , easiest with

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sudo chmod -x /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober

so it will only list own entries.

[Durhammer]

Please see my edit to my previous page. How do I prevent the reboot?

[fehlix]

Please see my edit to my previous page. How do I prevent the reboot?

Maybe, untick to reboot on the last installer page.

[atomick]

Beauty about MX-linux . as to its Other Featured, anti-X version to which likes to work OFF Flash Drive. If by chance you have a couple 32g min but 64g flash drives or > work nicely to operate "MX-Linux" on a Flash Stick.
after Target Flash-drive is completely written " Success "
load or boot to now this "Live" you can also steer the Live to Install to this 2nd Flash no different than how to install to SSD/M2/Spinner. select this Drive and install as normal. Completed you can power the system remove both and reinstall the new Installed Flash with MX
and boot it up like Live and now your running direct off flash drive. I ran various copies and customized each. Surprised that MX shined with this feature.
Everything works the same. Any additional Drives you have seen "Not Mounted" can also be simply clicked by thunar etc to auto-magic mount and your good.
scripting a login to mount or to run when want to listen to you audio or visual content . All the simple to also perform. Per other comment one necessary item is your bios/cmos has the ability to boot from USB. If live worked then any Flash drive should work - a usual ameritrend bios has F8 after you hear the 1st reset "Beep" (caveat sucks by all new Case manufactures many "No Longer" include beep speakers, some Computer stores do sell button speaker that easily place direct on the mobo's "Button led Header")
2nd caveat Backups and snapshots then should be carefully with practice set to external or internal BIG Storage drives. .. cheers ..

[FullScale4Me]

I updated the How-To document and added the updates cited in this thread.

Making a bootable external USB drive with MX Linux installed PDF, 154 Kb, updated: 24 January 2025.

[Durhammer]

Thanks. @fehlix, @atomick, and @FullScale4Me . I'll give it a try,

Sooo.... no way to do this without a re-re-reinstall? Sigh.....

EDIT: NOW I see why I missed that checkbox -- prior to this, all the focus of action was in the middle section (setting up user name, etc.) and at the bottom ("Close" ... "Next" ... etc.), and THIS THING is at the TOP. Ahem -- not the best design/layout choice, IMHO.

EDIT #2: Done with the installation, the install MBR grub, the install ESP grub, and the RE-install of the MBR grub (@FullScale4Me, might actually want to make this a 2.3 block of instructions for idjits like me!).

Let's see if it works. Thanks, everyone!

[fehlix]

Sooo.... no way to do this without a re-re-reinstall? Sigh.....

Sure, no need to reinstall.
Reboot with LiveUSB, and -reinstall grub-boot loader into MBR of the drive.
Also note: MBR/DOS partition table is good for "legacy" MBR/BIOS boot,
but in case the UEFI-firmware is not too buggy, booting in UEFI-mode from
a DOS/MBR drive is supposed to work. But make sure you set the "esp", flag on the created ESP.
When booting in UEFI mode you would have at least 2 associated Boot entries
with the UEFI-boot loader/boot options list on the SSD.
The one "MX Linux" which the installer has created on the ESP under /EFI/mx/grubx64.efi
and another one with listed as something "Drive/Manufacture", that's the fallback entry generated dynamically
every boot by the UEFI firmeware located on ESP under /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi. The idea of the fallback entry is
incase UEFI-NVRAM have lost memory, you would still have fallback entry to boot from "Drive".
Kind of what legacy BIOS boor is about "boot from Drive" is efffectively boot from MBR.
HTH