Posted on 01/22/2019 3:55:51 AM PST by ShadowAce
“Be nice to have a complete portable Linux PC on a thumb drive only needing to borrow a host and display to plug it into.”
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Yeah, that’s why I always have one handy. You can also just install it in full on a stick - live USB to an OS destination USB.
In the Ubiquity installer when it asks where to install the OS, choose “something else”. In the GParted part of installing, you can skip making a swap file if you want, set the USB as the mount point and it’s easy from there.
One thing - if you want to make a stick you can pop into any PC, you should install the 32 bit version (if one is available)of whatever distro. That makes it compatible with both 32 and 64 bit PCs.
I’v tried Mint on USB stick as a full install, it works pretty good. It’s not as fast as an install on a normal disk, it’s a stick afterall, but good enough.
A 16 GB USB would be good enough for Mint, so you’d have about 8 GB left for updates/downloads/files on it’s drive after a full install. 32 GB USB or more is even better.
Thank you for the tips! I think I would just start with a 32 gig and be done with it. I wouldn’t really need a whole lot as portable because I can clean it out into my home system now and then. :)
32 GB should work fine. The reason I suggested skipping setting aside part of the USB drive as a swapfile partition is that USB drives aren’t made for lots of ongoing writing and rewriting when in use.
Unless the PC you’re putting the Linux USB stick in has no RAM, it’s not really needed - the distro will use the PC’s memory.
Some distros work better than others fully installed on a stick. Sometimes the stick itself may not be good for running an OS on.
Anyways, having a USB stick or two handy just for test driving different distros is a good idea - especially if you enjoy “distro hopping” without commitment, as I do. Fun way to play around with all the flavors of Linux (that can be installed on a stick).
Oh, also - if want some PCs to boot up using Mint/Linux on a USB stick, you might have to make an adjustment in the BIOS.
This explains it pretty well -
https://www.howtogeek.com/175641/how-to-boot-and-install-linux-on-a-uefi-pc-with-secure-boot
Cool thing about having a Linux USB Stick - or even install CD - is you can often use it as a “Rescue Disk” on the PC it’s plugged into. If nothing else, you can use it to copy/move/ save files from the host PC system.
On the Windows 7 thing in your original post; I’m planning on keeping Win 7, but not for use online - just for offline use. There are some good Windows programs that I’m not ready to give up yet!
Otherwise, I’m ready to go with a Linux distro as my primary OS in 2020.
Yes, I am familiar with needing to set the Bios to boot from a stick. Or the boot option menu HP has.
“Otherwise, I’m ready to go with a Linux distro as my primary OS in 2020.”
I didn’t wait, I got on it as my primary right away. Love the security for normal everyday use. :)
“I didn’t wait, I got on it as my primary right away. Love the security for normal everyday use.”
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Indeed. I might buy a year’s worth of added virus/malware protection via Not Eset32. You can use the fully-functional trial version for a month.
https://www.eset.com/us/home/products/antivirus-linux
Linux is pretty secure to start with, most user don’t bother with additional av-malware protection - it’s just more a peace-of-mind thing to me.
Their are other, free AV programs for Linux, but Eset is a quality brand anti-malware I’ve used on Windows and found it does a pretty good job with real-time protection.
I meant to ask you; what software/kernel update level(s) do you use for Mint? I believe it has 4 levels? Is there a super-safe setting that gives you only security fixes/updates important updates, but doesn’t break your installation?
What I found is with Linux you don’t need any anti-viruses for Linux it’s self. But... If you receive an infected file and forward it to someone with windows it is still infected for them as a hand me down.
So the only reason to really install antivirus ware would be to scan stuff before you pass it on just to be nice. lol
But AVG has a realtime version for Linux, And ClamAV is realtime and supposed to be pretty good and designed specially for linux and they are free. But I haven’t installed any yet.
” Is there a super-safe setting that gives you only security fixes/updates important updates, but doesn’t break your installation?”
With my cinnamon update manager, it lets you adjust it to automatically update or just go check and then you can update when you want to manually. And it let’s you decide what you want updated with check boxes. But from my experience so far, and from what I have heard, linux updates don’t break things.
Often the default tool settings are whack. You have to adjust them to make them usable. But it's all there, the new warp tool is fantastic, rubber stamp works better now, layer masks, clipping paths, etc... It's not exaclty PhotoShop. I often had to go to youtube to get something to work right, but overall, pretty impressive. No where's near as horsey as it's always been. If you spend some time with it you can do anything.
I am finally ready to jump back into the Linux world.
I have three older laptops. I am sure that one of them does not meet the 1024x768 display requirement mentioned in the article above. I am sure one of them had trouble with Linux wireless connections ten years ago or thereabouts.
Do you have any ideas as to which distributions of Linux would be wisest to look into to use on such older equipment? How would you suggest I research that question?
I hope that helps. I've heard some good things about Manjaro Linux in this regard, and it is listed as one of the top 10 best for old laptops.
Thanks so much for your search. I have been out of the house for a couple hours, and just saw your response.
Thanks again. You are a real asset.
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