installing a complete Kubuntu on a usb drive?

[©TriMoon™]

The goal is:
A complete Kubuntu install on a usb drive that can be used on a windows 10 dell desktop.
(This is for a friend to try)

I will need to make this on a Kubuntu system i do not have a windows 10 system.

I found this but not sure if this wil work as i need it.

https://www.fosslinux.com/10212/how-...lash-drive.htm

Thank you for the help.

You don't need a working system, in fact it's better to temporarily disable your working system (Step 5 below)
I would suggest you to do:

1. Create a fresh gpt partition on your USB drive.
2. Create an ESP partition on the USB (~520MB) using fdisk and format as FAT32.
3. Optionally create any other partitions you want on it.
4. Copy the LiveDVD to an other USB drive.
5. Reboot into BIOS and disable all hard drives so they won't be recognized. (If you can't disable via BIOS then unplug them.)
   This is very important because else your own system's ESP will be changed, which depending on your setup might brake it !
   The reason: You can have multiple ESP's across drives but only the first one will be used by default and the installer won't give you a choice to select another...
6. Place your LiveDVD USB stick into an higher/later USB port as the one you want to install into.
7. Reboot into your LiveDVD USB.
8. Install as usual making sure the boot loader is placed on the USB drive (It defaults to /dev/sda)
9. If all went ok inclusive booting from your new USB, you can undo step 5 above to return your system to normal.

[woodsmoke]

Hi
good question!
I've done it and did not do any kind of "special stuff".
I just went through the normal installer.

Two things though.
A ) Make sure that you have a LARGE and fast usb stick. I did my first one on...I dunno... a small stick a few years ago and it was "cramped". So get a NEW LARGE stick, prefereably one that does not have a bunch of "garbage" on it, some of it is literally baked into the hardware... so maybe get a stick at least twice the recommended hard drive size ... around that, but do not put it on a small stick,

The OS will spend to much time "swapping stuff" while it is running if you do music or process pics or whatever..

get as "generic" a stick as you can and...

Format it ahead of time to ext. 4 or whatever you like and the install will go fine.

B) Yeah there are all sorts of "breezy" reviews written by the talking head experts about how FAST it will run since it is " all in memory"...umm no...

If you really DO have a lot of memory on the machine and a fast processor etc. AND a modern large stick it will run..."fine" but it will not run "FAST!!!" and that is because it is not dealing with a spinning platter it is a stick. Yeah it will be ok, fine all that, but it will not be as "fast" as the talking heads blather on about.

C) It WILL BE FUN!!! REALLY! It is just FUN to do this kind of stuff and, if you have a friend that has a machine that you can unplug the hard drive on you can take your stick over and show it off!! LOTSA FUN!

Please be sure to come back and tell us your experiences!

woodsmoke

[mxlance]

Thank you for the insights, I will give ti a try as soon as i can make time.

[claydoh]

The only thing that the tutorial dos not stress, but is shown in the images is that you need to make sure that you have it set to put the boot loader on the USB drive (steps 6,7, and 8 show it set to the correct drive). The installer may not do this automatically, it never does for me when I do this. The process is identical to installing to the hard drive, other than specifying where grub puts its files.

There are some good images of a Kubuntu install here, for reference purposes
https://userbase.kde.org/Kubuntu/Installation

[Qqmike]

I've done this often. My hardware is Intel (DIY) or ASUS motherboard (DIY).

[GreyGeek]

That should work IF your bios allows you to install Kubuntu to a USB while running a Kubuntu LIVE USB.
My 8 year old Acer Aspire V3-771G won't let me do that. While running a LIVE USB and attempting to install to another USB stick the other stick is not recognized. My BIOS is not too friendly in regards to seeing other storage devices.

[mxlance]

The goal is:
A complete Kubuntu install on a usb drive that can be used on a windows 10 dell desktop.
(This is for a friend to try)

I will need to make this on a Kubuntu system i do not have a windows 10 system.

I found this but not sure if this wil work as i need it.

https://www.fosslinux.com/10212/how-...lash-drive.htm

Thank you for the help.