#1 2016-04-03 14:16:04

cloverskull

Member

Registered: 2015-10-01

Posts: 348

Bunsenlabs persistent USB - the VirtualBox method

Hey guys,

Thanks to a woefully small laptop hard drive I elected to install BL on an external USB hard drive. My computer also has no optical media device. I was a bit nervous creating a BL install USB, to install into another USB drive, with the computer's internal hard drive exposed to the installer as well. Ultimately I elected to virtualize the installation process and had excellent results. Here's what I did.

On the host OS, download and install VirtalBox. Additionally download any/everything needed to give USB access to virtual clients.

Download the BL iso.

Set up a new VM. I used debian 64 bit as the description and basic info. I allotted 4 gigs of RAM. When you get to the screen asking you if you'd like to set up a hard drive, just skip it. It'll flash a warning; ignore it.

Finish up, and select your new VM. Click the 'Settings' button. In the settings, you'll want to go to the "Storage" area. Mount the BL ISO as a virtual CD-Rom. Next, find the "Ports" or "USB" section. Plug your new USB drive in and select it. Save your settings.

When you boot, you'll notice the USB drive is recognized as /dev/sda, and your precious host OS hard drive is not exposed. This feels safe to me. Additionally, you can partition as you see fit and install grub to the MBR of the USB drive without fear of destroying anything else.

One issue is that when BL ejects itself from the virtual CD-Rom and reboots, you'll have an unable to boot error. This is the time to reboot physical hardware and boot from USB.

--- snip ---

If enough people are interested, I'd be happy to discuss how I set up UEFI on the USB drive by combining the methods listed above with some additional formatting and chrooting steps. Just let me know.