Installing LL to external drive

[pingball57]

Hi. I have a a spare SATA hard drive with a case that means i can plug it in as a USB. It's not used. I would like to install LL on it as a backup drive/comp. I have the ISO from all my installs to my other Comps. How do i go about this please? All my other M/C's run LL 3.4. 64 bit.

[rokytnji]

Look at Gparted running a live session and pencil and paper < write some notes > to keep track of drive names. Install grub to mbr of external hard drive. Done.

Bios will be boot controller on other computers the external drive plugs into. EG; Usb boot option. I've been a usb booter for years.

https://www.freecinema2022.gq/forums/intro...5/#msg3875

[pingball57]

Sorry rokytnji, but i have no idea what you're on about. I'm new to all this having just recently installed LL on all my computers from iso's on USB so i need instructions in more detail, like what's 'Gparted', how do i look at it running, what's grub & mdr etc. Am i bitting off too much for my ability here?

[rokytnji]

Am i bitting off too much for my ability here?

IMO. Yep. Because of this.

like what's 'Gparted', how do i look at it running, what's grub & mdr etc.

It is not rocket science. But does take some searching, personal effort,  and internal deduction on your part.  There is a manual built in your menu. Youtube is chock full of tutorials < hint: gparted > .  So is the internet.  Link
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

Sorry my answer will be short. But I am a busy busy Linux-Lite user with a lot of irons in the fire. The install is handled like a normal install. You just point it to the proper target and run with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glFCEauwGgw

But. To each their own different drummer. I'd use the external drive for storage. But this is your show. You can roll how you want. Good luck.

[gold_finger]

[member=7052]pingball57[/member],


GParted = a partitioning program included in LL and on the "live" LL install USB/DVD you made from your ISO file.


Grub = the Linux boot loader


MBR = Master Boot Record (located at the very beginning of a hard drive, USB stick, etc. and is where initial stage of boot loader gets installed).  After computer starts and completes its initial P.O.S.T (Power On Self Test), it looks to the MBR for a boot loader to boot the operating system.


If confused by terminology, (which everyone is when first learning Linux), try using search engines, Wikipedia and YouTube to find answers/explanations.  A particularly good one is the Linux Beginner Search Engine which I have a link to in my signature line below.


Installing to external, USB-connected hard drive shouldn't be too hard.  Very similar to a normal install except best way to do it is by manually creating the partitions on the hard drive, then directing the installer to use those for the installation.  It sounds more difficult than it is and I think it would be a good thing for you to do because you'll likely learn a lot.


Basically what you're going to do is boot the computer with same live USB/DVD you used to install before, use GParted to make partitions for the installation on the external drive, then use the "Something Else" (manual install) option from the installer to direct installation to that drive, ensuring nothing accidentally ends up on the internal drive.  (Eg.  If you told installer to "automatically" install to the external drive, by default it will install the boot loader on the internal drive, which you don't want to happen.)


1.  Boot computer with live USB/DVD of LL.  (Don't have the external drive plugged in yet.)


2.  Go to Menu -> Settings -> Removable Drive and Media and look under the Storage tab.  Uncheck all of the things listed under "Removable Storage".  (This will prevent the system from auto-mounting new partitions you'll be making with GParted later.)  Close window when done.


3.  Plug external drive into a USB slot.


4.  Go to Menu -> System -> Partition Drives to open the GParted program.  It will open showing the partitions on your internal drive initially.  Look in the upper-right corner of the window to see what the drive is called.  It will likely be "/dev/sda".  If you did a standard installation to the computer you'll likely see only two or three partitions listed -- either /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2; or /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda5.


5.  Click that upper-right corner with "dev/sda" shown to reveal drop-down menu listing other connected drives.  You'll likely see two more entries -- one for the external drive you want to install to and one for the USB stick you're booted from (if that's what you used instead of a DVD).  Select the external drive and make a note of what it is called -- eg. /dev/sdb, or /dev/sdc.


6.  With correct drive now showing in the GParted window, go to Device -> Create Partition Table -> "msdos" and click OK to make a new partition table on the drive.


7.  With "Free Space" highlighted in bottom portion of GParted window, click "New" button along top of interface to make a new partition.  In pop-up box:

• Leave start position as it's already pre-filled (probably either "0" or "1" MiB)
  
• Type of partition = Primary
  
• Size = 2048MiB (2 GiB) -- this will be your Swap partition during installation.
  
• Format = Swap space, or Linux-Swap (I forget exact wording)
  
• Done
  

8.  With "Free Space" highlighted in bottom portion of GParted window, click "New" button again.  In pop-up box:

• Leave start position as it's already pre-filled (probably either "0" or "1" MiB)
  
• Type of partition = Primary
  
• Size = rest of disk space -- this will be your main Root partition for the installation.
  
• Format = Ext4 file system
  
• Done
  

9.  Hit the "Apply" button along top of GParted interface to finalize the creation of your new partitions.  Once it completes go ahead and close the window.


10.  Start the installer.  When you get to screen that asks for Installation Type, choose "Something Else" option.


11.  Following page will display both your internal and external drives and their partitions.


12.  Choose (click on to highlight) the large partition you made on external drive for the Root partition, then click the "Change" button along bottom of window.


13.  In pop-up box:

• Use as = Ext4 file system
  
• Mount point = /
  
• Size = leave as you already made it
  
• Check box to Format the partition
  
• Done
  
• Note:  sometimes (for whatever reason) it will complain that you changed the size of the partition even though you did not.  If that happens, just hit the "Go Back" button and ignore the warning.  All will be fine.
  

14.  Choose small partition you made on external drive, click "Change" button and in pop-up box:

• Use as = linux-swap
  
• No mount point
  
• Size = leave as is
  
• Check box to format if that's an option shown
  
• Done
  

15.  Very Important -- along bottom of window look for "Device for boot loader installation" and change it from its default value of "/dev/sda" to whatever your external drive is called (probably /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc).


16.  Once all that is done, click "Finish" installation and go have a cup of coffee.


17.  When installer finishes and asks you to either "reboot" or "continue testing", pick "continue testing".  Wait until installer window closes itself, then just do a normal shutdown from main menu.


18.  Boot computer again with only the external drive connected via USB, direct computer to boot from USB (if necessary) and your new install should now boot-up.  You can do everything on there that you do on a regular internal drive install -- run system updates, install things, etc.  Only difference is that it will run slower than if it were connected internally due to slower transfer rates of USB connection.

[pingball57]

Thank you both for your useful info. I have now installed LL to my external HDD but it really didn't want play. Following goldfinger's method, i got as far as 4. but Gparted refused to launch in the live session install, so exited that & partitioned it from the laptop's LL. but there were some differences from the sequence 7 to 9. creating the partition table (6.) is the same but creating the actual partitions (7 & 8 ) had to be 'added' from the 'partition' tab and 'applied' from the edit tab. Restarted the install USB but on selecting 'something else' (step 10) the installer repeatedly crashed. So i switched from my toshiba to my HP laptop (which is much higher spec) and things finally got me to the end. but even so in steps 7 & 8 it didn't like the live USB giving a 'libparted error' 'invalid partition table - recursive partition on drive /dev/sdb', fortunately it gives the option to ignore this which is what i did. Still I got there in the end & did some useful learning in the process.  As you mention the drive is fairly slow on the toshiba, rather like Win 10, but is reasonable on the HP, so I have a useful extra drive. Thanks again.

[gold_finger]

Congrats on getting install done!  Don't know why you had problem running GParted from live USB, but good job switching to doing the partitioning from your installed system instead to overcome problem.

...but there were some differences from the sequence 7 to 9.  ...creating the actual partitions (7 & 8 ) had to be 'added' from the 'partition' tab and 'applied' from the edit tab.

Good job figuring that out.  There are a series of graphical buttons along top of GParted window, but they are not labeled.  If you hover mouse over them they'll show description of what they are.  First one on left is to create new partitions; last one on right is to apply pending operations.  Using either the buttons or options under menu headings (what you did) accomplish same thing.

Restarted the install USB but on selecting 'something else' (step 10) the installer repeatedly crashed. So i switched from my toshiba to my HP laptop (which is much higher spec) and things finally got me to the end.

Don't know what may have been cause of that, but good job switching to different machine and getting it done there.

but even so in steps 7 & 8 it didn't like the live USB giving a 'libparted error' 'invalid partition table - recursive partition on drive /dev/sdb', fortunately it gives the option to ignore this which is what i did.

That's actually normal behavior when using a live USB, but I forgot to mention that.  Ignoring the error is correct thing to do, so good job on that as well.


Just a quick note:  since you ended up using your installed system to partition the external drive, you may want to repeat my step #2 on that machine and re-check the first three boxes under "Removable Storage" to put it back to default values (if you had not changed them before on your own).  That will make sure that system automatically mounts and opens things you plug into it (eg. USB sticks).  If you don't change that back, then things like USBs or DVDs will need to be manually mounted using either the graphical file manager or with terminal commands before you can use them.

[ridenotwalk]

I know this is a huge thread dig but thank you for those that posted the info above, it helped me with a similar query.

I have a Lenovo ideapad running Win10 that I wanted to use LL on but didn't want to use the onboard SSD as it is only 125Gb and I still use Win10 for some work things (they don't support Linux) so wanted to use a recycled 320Gb HDD out of a 8 year old Toshiba laptop that has a dead screen, keyboard plus other things that have failed.

The above worked for me and I can now run LL from the ext HDD. There were a few differences in terminology given the above posts are 2-3 years old and things have updated but I got through it all.

I'm now using LL4.2 UEFI via the ext HDD  8)

The one thing I need to work through at the moment is that I can not connect to the www to get updates etc as it does not see any networks at all. I'll have to do some searching to see if I can find a solution to that.
It has me a bit stumped at the moment as I also have LL working spotty dog on a 15+ yo Toshiba laptop. It is using LL3.X as it's 512Gb RAM, 40Gb HDD and 32bit so slower than the new stuff but works pretty dam well for what it is.

Onwards and upwards

[az2020]

I'm now using LL4.2 UEFI via the ext HDD  8)

The one thing I need to work through at the moment is that I can not connect to the www to get updates etc as it does not see any networks at all. I'll have to do some searching to see if I can find a solution to that.
It has me a bit stumped at the moment as I also have LL working spotty dog on a 15+ yo Toshiba laptop. It is using LL3.X as it's 512Gb RAM, 40Gb HDD and 32bit so slower than the new stuff but works pretty dam well for what it is.

From the terminal, run inxi -Fxrs. Post the output within code tags (the "#" editor button). Probably better to start a new thread for that too. That should be a good start for someone to see what's going on.