Persistent USB install

[rk4262]

A couple of weeks ago I was forced to buy a new laptop, my 12 /o Acer finally lost the LCD screen, well not really lost it's more like a very pinkish swirled rainbow effect. Anyway I now have a brand new laptop that I would love to dual-boot 8.1 (bigger mistake than the Pinto), with Kubuntu. But I was informed by Dell that partitioning the HDD would void my warranty. So my next choice would be to create a bootable persistent usb drive with Kubuntu 14.04 installed as OS. I could then boot from the usb and run Linux. I do use the laptop for work and they force us to use Windows to access their software and intranet system, even though the company intranet, and and servers run Linux, the in-house workstations also use Windows. Which makes no sense unless it's just because most people are more familiar with Windows.

I have created many live usb drives to use as installation media and from what I have read it looks like making it persistent isn't any harder. What I do need help with though is exactly how big of a usb drive do I need? Really I don't need to put anything but the OS on the usb, I can share the document, download, picture etc,,,, folders between Linux and Windows.Which is what I have done for the last 4 or 5 years dual booting both OS's on an internal HDD.. So how much room do I need just to install the os and any other required files/folders, using my 1 tb internal HDD for storage etc,,,?

[mparillo]

If you are talking just using something like unetbootin to create a bootable image of (say) Kubuntu with some space for persistence, but your main storage in the NTFS hard drive, 4 GB thumb drive should be plenty.
A quick Google search (somebody correct me) seems to indicate that if you keep to windows-compatible file names, you should be OK writing to NTFS.

If you are talking about actually installing onto a thumb drive, then you probably would want a 32GB drive. I have never tried this, but others warn that it can seem slow, but that might be mitigated if you have a USB3 Drive and Port.

[OneLine]

Kubuntu Forums - Bootable USB stick: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...able-USB-stick

[rk4262]

Thanks I'm reading over it now, and will probably back with a few more questions.

Ok, almost forgot to ask this question(s), kind of a multi-part question. First I can do a minimal install, just the "/" partition on a 2GB flash drive, using the existing Windows 8.1 document/picture/etc.. folders? I found this drive yesterday, I forget I even had it, and it fits the memory card reader on my pc perfectly. I have this 2GB, a 250GB (which is a lot bigger than I want), or I can buy another maybe 8-10GB. But no matter what size drive I use, I still want to use the existing windows folders, so that no matter what OS I'm using, I want to keep all my stuff in one folder. That's the same thing I did on my old laptop, except on it I installed Linux on the internal HDD, and did a true dual-boot. However this laptop is under warranty for another three years, and I was told by Dell that if I modify the partitions of the installed HDD it would void my warranty, hence the desire to use a USB drive to dual boot. Anyway, the next part of the question is, what will be the best way to do the actual install on the usb drive? At this point the only option I have, without buying another small flash drive it to "burn" (I know it's not actually burning, but it's habit to say burn the iso to disk) the iso to the 250GB, then install to the 2 or 8 GB flash drive. But at the moment what I've been doing is, I back up one of our computers to a partition on the 250GB, then I copy it to a secondary drive on our desktop tower, that way it's actually backed up to two drives, so I would hate to erase the whole 250GB, just to temporarily put a 1gig installer on it.

I spent about 2.5 hours last night reading on a couple different ways of accomplishing what I'm trying to do. As far as I can tell I did not find the exact situation I have, there are some real similiar, but still just different enough that I wasn't sure how to adjust to meet my needs. What I do understnad is this isn't going to be as quick and easy as I thought it would, but I don't think it's going to be quite as difficult as the how-to-threads make it out to be. So I see no reason I can't do it without some help from those of you smarter than myself.

[oshunluvr]

But I was informed by Dell that partitioning the HDD would void my warranty

I know from experience this is not true. They even sell (or used too) laptops with Ubuntu on them. I suggest you call them again and specifically ask if partitioning your hard drive voids the warranty. If they say yes, tell them you want your money back because they sold you a computer but won't allow you to use it. What if you get a windows virus that requires you to re-format and re-install windows? Does that void the warranty too? I suspect that even if they told you that, they'd be breaking a law. So, they sold you a computer put you can't use it? Could a car dealer get away with that? The fact is, they can't even tell you've re-partitioned anything unless you tell them or they dig through your hard drive - something they're not going to do.

Like I said - my Dell laptop that I purchased with windows on it was running linux when it's motherboard failed. They came to the house and replaced it the next day (business purchase - better service ). What they will not do is support you if you mess up your system leaving it unbootable. Their issue is their tech support cannot trouble shoot the system unless it has windows on it. Simply shrink your windows partition to free up some space and install anything you want along side windows. Just keep it dual bootable until the warranty expires - that's what I do with all my new laptops.

BTW - laptop screens are pretty easy to replace and usually about $70 or even less re. your old Acer. All you need is a couple small screw drivers.

[rk4262]

I know from experience this is not true. They even sell (or used too) laptops with Ubuntu on them. I suggest you call them again and specifically ask if partitioning your hard drive voids the warranty. If they say yes, tell them you want your money back because they sold you a computer but won't allow you to use it. What if you get a windows virus that requires you to re-format and re-install windows? Does that void the warranty too?

BTW - laptop screens are pretty easy to replace and usually about $70 or even less re. your old Acer. All you need is a couple small screw drivers.

Thank you so much for that first bit of information, I was on the phone with them about a totally different issue, and just happened to ask, the best method to shrink the Windows GPT partition, and then format the new space for Linux. What the guy actually said was "by partitioning, you are tampering with the integrity of the HDD, and formatting to something other than GPT, you are making modifications to the hardware, any modifications to hardware will void the warranty, unless you have the work done by Dell under your warranty plan." My understanding of everything he said, was that if you got a virus, or whatever and used either the built in recovery partition, or if you ordered a recovery disk from Dell and only Dell, you were putting it back to factory state not making changes. A generic 8.1 restore disk that didn't come from Dell, would still void the warranty I was surprised by what he said, and it didn't sit well with me, but knowing how Micro$oft digs their greedy claws into everything they touch it wasn't a complete surprise. I remember several years ago I was reading an article about M$, I don't remember exactly what it was about, but I remember one particular line out of the story. The author made the comment that (and this is almost an exact quote) "if computer manufacturers, such as Dell Acer, etc... want to continue to be able to install Windows, they have to sign contracts with M$ that gives M$ the right to dictate some specs of the hardware, and the right to tell the manufacturers what can and can't be installed on any product the company makes. The sad part is that since Windows is seen as holding the largest market share of all OS's the manufacturers will do whatever M$ wants so they don't lose their contract with M$". That one statement is the big reason I didn't really question the warranty issue. I just assumed M$ had a choke hold on Dell over allowing "other" OS's being installed. They can't tell you that you can't do it, but they can say, you changed it from factory specs, you've voided your warranty.

So now I'm just a little confused over the whole GPT/uefi/secure boot thing. Do I format the Linux partition as as ext4, leave it as GPT, or what? Do I set the Linux to a efi boot partition, or leave it as grub2/isolinux/or what? This is the biggest problem I have faced.


As for replacing the screen on the Acer, it is at least 10 years old, or more, I pulled an old crt out of storage, and hooked up to it, added a usb mouse and keyboard installed edbuntu, changed the power setting so I can close the lid without putting it to sleep and set it up for my 9 y/o that has some learning disabilities. What I've done here is re-purposed it for good use, and seeing how it is at least 10 years old, probably more I just didn't see putting any money in it when he can run it with parts I had in storage for free. To tell you how old it is, when I bought it, I special ordered it with 7 instead of the XP that was standard on it (my pre-Linux days). Other than the screen and being completely under powered now (2.0ghz dual-core pentium, & 2gig ram 250g hdd) it still works decent.

[oshunluvr]

GPT is the drive partitioning scheme and is not related to either UEFI or ext4. It replaces the MBR partitioning scheme.

Here's a good article on setting up UEFI https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...fi+steve+riley

Basically: to dual boot you'll want to shrink the Windows partition to make room for Kubuntu (20-30GB plus whatever space you want for personal data - i.e. /home), make 3 new partitions for /, swap, and /home. Install GRUB or rEFInd.

[rk4262]

I know from experience this is not true. They even sell (or used too) laptops with Ubuntu on them. I suggest you call them again and specifically ask if partitioning your hard drive voids the warranty. If they say yes, tell them you want your money back because they sold you a computer but won't allow you to use it. .

Again thank you for this information, I did call Dell back I explained what happened to the agent that answered my call this time, he said "I don't know what the heck he was doing, not only does it not void the warranty, but we have a whole section of the help section that is dedicated to installing and/or dual-booting with Linux." He then gave me the address to find that Linux section. I have seen some companies do some really dumb things to avoid having to honor a warranty, so it wasn't hard to believe what the first guy told me. I do appreciate you giving me that information, it changes a whole of things for me.

[oshunluvr]

That's great. I figured you just had gotten a hold of someone who didn't know what they were talking about - not uncommon when talking to first level support.