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<p>Not sure about working directly from an optical drive to a thumb
drive as I haven't tried that for maybe two years. But what I do
know for sure is that I have several different distros installed
to USB sticks, each of which boot and run just fine on multiple
machines directly from the USB stick, no problems with GRUB.<br>
</p>
<p>*Usually* I create these in two stages. First, I download the
distro iso file, verify checksum (and often signatures) and then
dd copy the iso to a cheap USB 2.0 drive to create an installation
device, aka a 'bootable USB' or 'live USB'. Second, I reboot the
computer into this new 'live USB' and then use the distro's
provided installation program to install permanently to a better
quality USB 3.0 drive--this to create the final "live USB with
persistence". During the install from the first USB to the second
USB there is most often an explicit opportunity to specify where
GRUB should be installed. This of course is a new GRUB and it
should be installed to the second USB along with everything else.
Also, when booting into a live USB or the new permanent
installation on the second USB for the first time, the host
computer boot order device precedence must be reset so that UEFI
or BIOS sees the USB before it sees the hard drive and boots into
that. Otherwise, you have to interrupt the boot process by
hitting F12 or whatever each time you want to boot into the USB,
which is annoying.</p>
<p>Probably you already know most or all of the above possibly
better than I. But I take it from your comment below that there
is still something or other that one of us is missing. Also, I'm
going into it a little because the subject happens to be a current
fetish of mine and I've been trying to develop my knowledge a
bit. So I'll continue.<br>
</p>
<p>When making a "live USB with persistence" there are about a
million ways to install the OS and to configure partitions, home
directories, GRUB, UEFI/BIOS, etc., -- all of which usually
confuse the daylights out of me so that I usually opt for whatever
appears to be the most painless default nuke-n-pave option
available and leave it at that. But there are two points about
which I always make sure I am absolutely lucid because to do
otherwise is really dangerous. The first is that I am very
certain I am installing everything to the USB stick and not to my
host computer hard drive so that I don't destroy my existing
system. The second is that I know whether the new installation is
fully encrypted so that I don't inadvertently expose any sensitive
data or personal information to theft. It is altogether too easy
to lose or misplace a USB stick. </p>
<p>A couple of months ago Jared of abqlug.com, who was aware of my
USB and antiX fetishes, asked me if I might try to write an
article for the website because I suggested to him that I thought
using Linux installed to USB sticks might be a great way to
introduce noobs and wannabes. Here it is:</p>
<p>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.abqlug.com/uncategorized/getting-started-with-an-mx-or-antix-linux-writable-liveusb/#fromwin">https://www.abqlug.com/uncategorized/getting-started-with-an-mx-or-antix-linux-writable-liveusb/#fromwin</a></p>
<p>A bit overwrought here and there but gathers in one place a lot
of information that might otherwise be hard to find in one place
when someone wants it. If anyone is so inclined please have a
look and tell me what you think.<br>
</p>
<p>Tom</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/30/20 6:45 AM, Don Crowder wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CA+7g-k1aHQcH+C7N_Oi5swX_JRmR2=WXevAOqBq+XQ45batNTg@mail.gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div dir="ltr">I've got a copy of Slax on a thumb drive and have
used various live media distros on a flash drive to install
Linux on machines that didn't have optical drives (or had
optical drives that didn't work) but if you install from optical
media to a thumb drive then GRUB is gonna want to know where
that drive went every time you boot up the machine.</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Jul 29, 2020 at 8:56
PM Tom Ashcraft <<a href="mailto:trailerdog234@comcast.net"
moz-do-not-send="true">trailerdog234@comcast.net</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>Install to a USB stick. A 64 GB USB 3.0 SanDisk Ultra
Flair is ideal. $15 at Walmart. Weighs exactly 5 grams,
same as a nickel. Great form factor and mechanically
solid: 3/16" x 7/16" x 1-1/4" and you can keep it stashed
in your pocket encrypted with all essential records and
files for use on multiple machines. Great for testing and
experimenting, redundancy, extra space, cheap insurance,
etc. Not that I'm a fan of Walmart or that better deals
can't be had, but certainly cheaper and less hassle than
another computer to worry about.<br>
</p>
<div>On 7/29/20 1:39 PM, Don Crowder wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Thanks, I ran across it, as GNU/Linux OS, a
couple of days ago and was curious about it but I don't
currently have a machine I'm willing to use for
distro-hopping so I did no more than read about it.</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Jul 29, 2020
at 11:36 AM Brian O'Keefe <<a
href="mailto:okeefe@cybermesa.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">okeefe@cybermesa.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px
0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>Hello All,</p>
<p>I was poking around and looking at a website
specifically re: Gnu and the Hurd OS. Hurd doesn't
really work much at all but there were 6 OSes
listed that were certified FOSS and approved by
Stallman. They each used the linux kernel. I
downloaded PureOS and installed in as a virtual
machine (in the non-FOSS Vbox). After a few tweaks
it was up and running and I really like it. I
would migrate to it if I had a clue how to keep
everything. It's fast and clean, the FOSS browser
works perfectly. No issues with sound nor anything
else. It's Debian based so its Gnome GUI is very
familiar.</p>
<p>Just thought that I'd let you all know.</p>
<p>Ciao<br>
</p>
<div>-- <br>
<img src="cid:part3.C2E56369.9D791FEB@comcast.net"
class="" border="0"></div>
</div>
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