How to install and run MX 23 on external SSD

[fehlix]

Maybe post also QSI from the other dual-monitor with the left-rotated screen the QSI.
And suggest, to adjust the xrandr line within the startup, this way.
Detect whether both LVDS and VGA monitor are connected and only in this case apply the xrandr command like

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[ "$(xrandr | grep -w connected | grep -c -E '^(LVDS|VGA)')" = "2" ] && xrandr ... hier your long xrand command

which would make the dual-monitor xrandr-command only run when both are connect on the dual-monitor pc.

[Durhammer]

Maybe post also QSI from the other dual-monitor with the left-rotated screen the QSI.
And suggest, to adjust the xrandr line within the startup, this way.
Detect whether both LVDS and VGA monitor are connected and only in this case apply the xrandr command like

Code: Select all

[ "$(xrandr | grep -w connected | grep -c -E '^(LVDS|VGA)')" = "2" ] && xrandr ... hier your long xrand command

which would make the dual-monitor xrandr-command only run when both are connect on the dual-monitor pc.

Hey, interesting idea! Right now, it's working fine on this smaller (13") laptop screen (the Samsung is 17" and the Dell VGA monitor is 22"). I had already switched the xrandr command to use --auto, as mentioned earlier. Everything looks great on the little screen here, but I DID have a psensor window that might have been glued to the VGA monitor. The psensor app shows up in the panel taskbar, but the display is nowhere to be found. I think I had configured it to be frozen where it was. Would your scheme fix this? Thank you for going the extra mile(S)!

EDIT: oh yeah, not quite sure what you mean about the QSI for the "other: dual-monitor setup. I only have one, my main (Samsung) laptop. This little HP Stream 13 only has its 13" lcd display. (And the QSI on the previous page of this post *should* have both monitors.)

[fehlix]

maybe I thought it was another pc... but any way good it worked

[Durhammer]

maybe I thought it was another pc... but any way good it worked

Me, too! Maybe, though, you and @FullScale4Me should figure out that one point in his (your combined) instructions where you do the chmod to stop the portable SSD grub from seeing any other OSes (though it's not really too much of a detriment, but the instructions might not really do anything as-is?). You guys will have a great document for other folks to use. I sure benefited from the collab!

EDIT: gonna go plug back to the Samsung and see if the psensor window shows up again!

[atomick]

Think your working with a power supply issue. on this laptop? pg 3 of this endurance shows a boot screen 1st line say zstd compressed data file CORRUPT. The Other thing on the QSI is battery. its showing 11.2 volt min is 11.1 volt but that is the luck part 11.7 really is a cutoff anything lower and your stressing the electronics to expectations it no long can support to perform. fundamentals. If an Flash Drive with Live MX can be booted and try install its writing to install copy of files onto the SSD are not making it 100 % as designed. the SSD USB adaptor should have its own additional 5volt PS powering the adaptor USB plugged in to the port your using.
The Bios if flash and SSD connected and all power should show as usb devices and possibly manufacture name. Normally Laptop Bios are pretty useless for absolute detail yet reverse your USB ports around re- Live Flash and SSD ports around. Would believe there is a Boot Mgr option via F12 or F8 or Esc hold whilst reboot or power on to bring this menu up can you see both the USB-SSD device drive and the Flash Live , these should reveal the manufacture of these devices like Kingston blah blah Seagate or what ever drive is plugged in to use. These simple details can easily be skipped and can reveal what your beating the carpet by to get MX installed.

Boot Flash to Desktop Live. Can you click around the DT and does it all function.
Open Gparted and format this SSD does it succeed and now verify this do all the details reveal factor of the drive info "With Out Any Type Errors" ?. Install Live onto the SSD.. Do not boot but reBoot the Flash drive with your MX - Live at the DT open thunar see if you left side you see the SSD can you click it and mount it. file manage into media demo UUID/ new file system. Can you click around folders click home click your new account name folder open feather pad and write a test file save it here write it out and close it come back to it and reopen can you read what you typed.
Think to believe connecting the SSD to another computer reveals its all right and why does it not work. Think to believe due to the age and type the PS might be causing a red herring issue. Something to step thru in a different approach. Try similar opening a terminal shell and cd /media/*/* pwd and see if your on the new installed file system all the same. And sudo write a test file using nano/vim and try the same write read tests. These might work . still think your operating on a almost dead PS. Worth the duration now that you've climbed the tree up and down to get MX installed .. Another small tiny Linux OS might work. But love of MX is the fathom of Linux.
and no mask required. See if you can try the Hardinfo2 off the Live and see if you can cd to media and select this SSD and run thru the details and try some tests. Think they may fail. ! Revealing a possible PS is your all trouble. Food for thought.

[Durhammer]

Hey @atomick -- thanks for your comments! I think we're good here. I just booted up into the external SSD where I have MX 23.5 Fluxbox edition installed (both my MX's on the internal SSD are Xfce). Yes, everything in the laptop is old, including the battery. Samsung has a software switch that keeps you from over-charging it to extend battery life. (I thought it used to be at 85%, but right now it's 80%). AFAIK, voltage is fine for the design (some folks deliberately under-volt), OR, dunno if tlp and thermald do anything to the voltage to keep the power consumption low, but in any case, I think it's alright. For the record, the current QSI is posted down below.

@fehlix, going back to my comment about booting F-box up back on the Samsung after the li'l bitty 13" HP, it did fine. I did not have to fiddle with bios to see the external drive. It (MX 23.5 with F-box) did show up as the top grub menu choice, and I *think* all three other installed distros on the internal drive also showed up, though the last one installed (MX 23.5 Xfce) was not at the top, my old MX 21.4 was. Not sure which grub was in control, but probably the external drive?

The psensor window, not visible at all on the HP's single monitor, came up in the top monitor where it had been (it was set to remember where it was, so that is expected). A strange by-product of the series of different architecture boots is that back here, the wallpaper that was set and should have been restored by nitrogen, was not, just the huge, stretched silver MX Linux logo. Dunno what to make of that.

Maybe the last (bwahaha) question on this external SSD installation and boot business is -- what happens if I install yet another distro on this bad boy? Do I need to follow any special instructions afterward? (Boot back into MX and re-install legacy grub maybe?)

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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: Fluxbox v: 1.3.7 info: tint2 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.5_fluxbox_x64
    Libretto September 15 2024 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: SAMSUNG product: RF511/RF411/RF711 v: 10HX serial: <superuser required>
    Chassis: type: 9 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: SAMSUNG model: RF511/RF411/RF711 v: 10HX serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: 10HX.M034.20110426.SSH date: 04/26/2011
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 35.5 Wh (80.0%) condition: 44.4/48.8 Wh (90.9%) volts: 10.7 min: 11.1
    model: SAMSUNG Electronics type: Li-ion serial: N/A status: not charging
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech ERGO M575 Trackball serial: <filter> charge: 100%
    rechargeable: yes status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-2630QM 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: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache: L1: 256 KiB
    desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 812 high: 900 min/max: 800/2900 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: ondemand cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 900 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 bogomips: 31929
  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: Samsung Co
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-6 code: Sandybridge process: Intel 32nm built: 2011 ports:
    active: LVDS-1,VGA-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0116 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF108M [GeForce GT 540M] vendor: Samsung Co driver: N/A alternate: nouveau
    non-free: series: 390.xx+ status: legacy-active (EOL~late 2022) arch: Fermi code: GF1xx
    process: 40/28nm built: 2010-16 pcie: speed: Unknown lanes: 63 link-max: gen: 6 speed: 64 GT/s
    bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0df4 class-ID: 0302
  Device-3: Silicon Motion WebCam SCB-1100N type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-1.1:3
    chip-ID: 2232:1008 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
    dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1600x2820 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 422x744mm (16.61x29.29") s-diag: 855mm (33.68")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 pos: primary,bottom model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x1733 built: 2012 res: 1600x900
    hz: 60 dpi: 106 gamma: 1.2 size: 382x215mm (15.04x8.46") diag: 448mm (17.6") ratio: 16:9
    modes: 1600x900
  Monitor-2: VGA-1 pos: top model: Dell P2214H serial: <filter> built: 2015 res: 1080x1920 hz: 60
    dpi: 102 gamma: 1.2 size: 268x477mm (10.55x18.78") diag: 547mm (21.5") ratio: 16:9 modes:
    max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  API: OpenGL v: 3.3 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 3000 (SNB GT2)
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: Samsung Co 6
    driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 2-1:2 v: kernel chip-ID: 1130:1620 bus-ID: 00:1b.0 class-ID: 0300
    chip-ID: 8086:1c20 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF108 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie:
    speed: Unknown lanes: 63 link-max: gen: 6 speed: 64 GT/s bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0bea
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Tenx USB AUDIO type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
  Device-4: AKAI MPKmini2 type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus-ID: 2-2.2:4
    chip-ID: 2011:0715 class-ID: 0103 serial: <filter>
  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: Askey driver: wl v: kernel
    modules: bcma pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:4727
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Samsung Co
    driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: b000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM2070 Bluetooth Device type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-1.3:3
    chip-ID: 0a5c:219c class-ID: fe01 serial: <filter>
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.0 lmp-v: 3.0
    sub-v: 4203 hci-v: 3.0 rev: 274
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:8 sco-mtu: 64:1 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park
    link-mode: peripheral accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, audio, telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.96 TiB used: 212.36 GiB (7.0%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 2B6Q scheme: MBR
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB vendor: Seagate model: BUP Slim BK size: 1.82 TiB
    block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 0109 scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 type: USB vendor: Sabrent model: SABRENT size: 238.47 GiB
    block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 0204 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 100 GiB size: 97.87 GiB (97.87%) used: 10.12 GiB (10.3%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sdc3 maj-min: 8:35
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 512 MiB size: 511 MiB (99.80%) used: 428 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sdc2 maj-min: 8:34
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 12 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/sdc4
    maj-min: 8:36
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: 1983 pm: dpkg pkgs: 1971 libs: 950 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 12
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
  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: 244 Uptime: 4m wakeups: 4 Memory: 7.67 GiB used: 969.9 MiB (12.4%) 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

[Durhammer]

Okay, another interesting twist to all this -- somehow (thanks, Fluxbox!) I right-clicked and accidentally clicked the stupid "Leave" or "Out of Sight" menu item at the bottom, and got logged out (?) or it might have caused a restart. In any case, the next grub menu was from my internal SSD. Not a real problem, just a curious by-product. I automatically get the external SSD grub menu when I boot up from a shutdown. Just things to get used to!?

[FullScale4Me]

Me, too! Maybe, though, you and @FullScale4Me should figure out that one point in his (your combined) instructions where you do the chmod to stop the portable SSD grub from seeing any other OSes (though it's not really too much of a detriment, but the instructions might not really do anything as-is?). You guys will have a great document for other folks to use. I sure benefited from the collab!

• I added a pic for the do not reboot checkbox.

• I addressed the above point and the one you mentioned earlier in this thread in post #19.

• I built the disk two more times; once with KDE and then Fluxbox.

• I tested all 3 disks again on a UEFI and an MBR-only PC and confirmed the boot mode each time.

• Adjusted some text to improve the match to 'exact' for the apps in use.

Making a bootable external USB drive with MX Linux installed PDF 154 Kb. Revised 29-January-2025.

Disks in use:
Dogfish 64 GB SSD, Seagate 250 GB 7200 RPM 'spinning rust' and Timetec M.2 SATA 250 GB.
All in ORICO USB 3.0 enclosures. M.2 enclosure.
PC's used for testing
Dell Inspiron 7010 MBR and HP Pavilion P2-1394 UEFI.

[Durhammer]

Looks good to me, @FullScale4Me, though I still wonder about that step 2.1 where we nix the executable permissions on the OS prober in grub. I had thought I'd done that, but still see the bootables on my internal SSD when I boot up the external drive's OS. I actually kinda like it. And really, I'd like it if my internal drive's grub would see and allow boot to the external drive, but I guess that doesn't happen bcz it's UEFI????

And I repeat the "last question" I penned in a post above this one -- what will happen if I (or anyone else following the instructions) install a different distro on the external SSD? Does one need to re-do both MBR and UEFI grubs afterward?

Thanks for the excellent procedure and write-up, both you and @fehlix!

[FullScale4Me]

Looks good to me, @FullScale4Me, though I still wonder about that step 2.1 where we nix the executable permissions on the OS prober in grub. I had thought I'd done that, but still see the bootables on my internal SSD when I boot up the external drive's OS.

Running sudo update-grub while booted on the eternal drive will drop those extra entries, With os-prober disabled they will NOT be re-added.

And I repeat the "last question" I penned in a post above this one -- what will happen if I (or anyone else following the instructions) install a different distro on the external SSD? Does one need to re-do both MBR and UEFI grubs afterward?

You could go the easy way, Ventoy, or add a custom entry to the existing grub menu.
See - What is the recommended way to chainload separate Ubuntu /boot partition

After doing so rerun sudo update-grub while booted on the external drive to add the new partition to grub.cfg,

Edit: spelling error fix.