#1 2023-09-06 07:13:33

jesito

Member

Registered: 2015-10-21

Posts: 36

Website

Install to USB stick

[mod note: post split from Boron alpha 1 iso available for testing and feedback]

Just a question: I've been trying to install Boron into a 16Gb USB stick. All the installation process seemed to go fine, but the stick was not booting. I checked with gparted and noticed there was no boot flag on it,so I set the flag to the drive as 'boot' but no success.
I didn't install grub on the main drive but on the stick.
Should I have to take into consideration any other thing when installing to an USB stick?

Thanks in advance.
Jes.

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3D or not 3D, that is not anymore the question.

rbh

Moderator

From: South of Lapplands inland

Registered: 2016-08-11

Posts: 1,921

Re: Install to USB stick

Should I have to take into consideration any other thing when installing to an USB stick?

Installing to usb stick is no different than installing to usb hd (or internal hd). I have never installed Linux to usb-stick. I prefer to install to usb-hd. Much better life span on an hd/ssd.

All the installation process seemed to go fine, but the stick was not booting.

You have checked logs in /var/log/installer?
Have you checked that the stick can boot? eg, written the BL iso and test boot live session.

I checked with gparted and noticed there was no boot flag on it,so I set the flag to the drive as 'boot' but no success.

Linux does not need the boot flag on boot partition.

I didn't install grub on the main drive but on the stick.

Did you install to the drive or the drive parttion, (eg /dev/sdb, not /dev/sdb1).

Should I have to take into consideration any other thing when installing to an USB stick?

Do not create swap partition. If you have plenty ram, use an compressed ramdisk as swap.

If you must use usb-memory, and just want to make some modifications to the standard installation, you can instead remaster the iso and write that, or boot the standard bl iso with persistance.
If size is of importance, you can use a nve-memmory in an external usb-chassis.

Last edited by rbh (2023-09-06 10:06:21)

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// Regards rbh

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matollik

Member

Registered: 2015-11-10

Posts: 30

Re: Install to USB stick

Hi!
I've installed BL on a USB-stick many times without a problem. When asked, after the beginning with country, keyboard etc., you  are asked how you want to install the system. I chose a manual installation. Then you come to a page with choices like filesystem, whether to format the stick or not, label, others I think. Crucially, a choice whether to boot the usb is asked here. The choice is yes, of course. The rest of installation is obvious.
Grub was installed on /dev/<drive>. Drive name, something like sdb, sdc, was given at previous stages, don`t remember at which of them. I gave the device or drive, sd<usb> manually here, too.
That was all.
Hope this is of some help.
Matti Ollikainen