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Thread: Portable installed system that boots in UEFI as well as in BIOS mode

  1. #21
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    Re: Portable installed system that boots in UEFI as well as in BIOS mode

    Quote Originally Posted by ventrical View Post
    I have had great success installing ubuntu to USB flash drives which work almost as fast as an hdd. The trick I use is to remove any hdd that is currently installed in the system. Then, I just install whatever flavor to the USB as the ubuntu iso recognizes a 16GB USB stick as a target harddrive. Lubuntu has been fastest. This method is far superior to creating a persistive usb_drive and I still have installs of Lucid Linux on 8 and 16 GB USB flash disks respectively. I understand that a lot of experimenters do not agree with my method and they will suggest leaving the hdd in while install to a usb flash_disk. However .. the method I discovered works just fine for me.
    I agree completely with this

    It is certainly possible, but more risk of failure to leave the internal drive connected. See what I recommend at the 'FromUSBSstick' help page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...t_in_UEFI_mode

    It is straight-forward to install Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (64-bit), ubuntu-14.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso in UEFI mode to the whole drive, when no other drive is connected in the computer.

  2. #22
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    Re: Portable installed system that boots in UEFI as well as in BIOS mode

    Quote Originally Posted by ventrical View Post
    I do not get a menu in BIOS mode on my latest motherboard .. however I should try it on another machine. Currently it goes right to purple screen with 'man in circle logo' at bottom and then I am given options to 'try ubuntu' , 'install ubuntu'.

    Regards..

    *edit*

    ok.. I see PBR listing ... works just fine .. I did not see it the first time.

    Regards..
    That was nice for me to read! I was getting afraid that something was not portable or stable.

    Thanks for testing

  3. #23
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    Re: Portable installed system that boots in UEFI as well as in BIOS mode

    Quote Originally Posted by sudodus View Post
    That was nice for me to read! I was getting afraid that something was not portable or stable.

    Thanks for testing
    Your welcome. It is very stable. It should be mentioned (unless it has already been mentioned and I did not see it) that the shift key or any other key should be held down while booting into BIOS mode, otherwise we do not get the menu with the the installed 'ubuntu' PBR. This method is used when installing ubuntu from alternate mode (as you know).

    Regards..

  4. #24
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    Re: Portable installed system that boots in UEFI as well as in BIOS mode

    Thanks for the brilliant guide, I have been following the steps to try and make a similar USB disk, except with mint. I wondered, when creating your own key as your instructions, what is the easiest way to create a custom boot menu as you have done? I have tried looking into each of the files as you have mentioned in your live image(which is working fine btw) but I can't understand what I need to change to customise it towards my own image.

    I had my image working fine, but on startup it presented only to me my installed partition and not the live one. I guess I want an easy way to add the live image as an option.

  5. #25
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    Re: Portable installed system that boots in UEFI as well as in BIOS mode

    Welcome to the Ubuntu Forums

    1. Which compressed image file did you try? And which description did you follow - please specify with as many details as possible!

    2. Do you have problems in UEFI mode or BIOS mode or both?

    3. Which version of Linux Mint did you try?

    First I must find out what you have tried, and then we can try to find out if the configuration of Linux Mint is similar enough for the same description to work, (as what works for Ubuntu), or if something must be changed.

  6. #26
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    Re: Portable installed system that boots in UEFI as well as in BIOS mode

    Thanks!

    In answer to your questions, I used the ubuntu 10gb image from the op (dd_Ubuntu_14.04.2-UEFI-n-BIOS-10GB.img.xz), this works fine. My motherboard booted fine from it in UEFI mode.

    As for trying my own configuration which is the same for mint, except with extra space I was able to install mint and create a live partition. When booting from this drive I could enter my installation fine, but there was no option "to try" mint in the boot menu.

    The version of mint I have been using is: linuxmint-17.1-cinnamon-64bit.iso.

    The problem is only in the boot menu as far as I can see, when I use the OP instructions to create the disk I can boot fine into my installation, but lack the option to "try" mint. eg the live usb option.

    In the op it says you have to alter several files including the grub.cfg in live and installed partitions, yet I have no clue how I should edit mine for mint.

    Thanks a lot for your help!

    My aim is simply to have a USB stick I can plug in with an install and a live version of mint, but when I unplug it the machine will just boot up windows instead. Is it even possible to keep the windows bootloader on the local drive whilst keeping only grub on the usb?

    I am not interested really in getting it to work on non EFI computers, I have a windows 8.1 install on EFI on the main computer I want to use this USB, but even when I install grub too USB it seems to remove the windows bootloader and then I am in a situation where I have to rebuild the windows bootloader, or have the USB stick plugged into to boot from windows 8.1 from my internal drive.
    Last edited by dodgexander; April 28th, 2015 at 05:06 PM.

  7. #27
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    Re: Portable installed system that boots in UEFI as well as in BIOS mode

    That's a good and detailed description

    I refer back to the description how to create the system:


    C. Boot from the pendrive in UEFI mode and install Ubuntu


    Install Ubuntu into partition 5 of the same pendrive. Install the
    bootloader into partition 5 (not into the head of the drive).

    Tweak the boot configuration files

    Code:
    .../usb-live/syslinux/txt.cfg
    .../usb-live/boot/grub/grub.cfg
    .../usb-installed/boot/grub/grub.cfg
    according to the files that you find after installing with mkusb from

    dd_Ubuntu_14.04.2-UEFI-n-BIOS-10GB.img.xz

    to a pendrive.


    D. The pendrive uses the boot system of the Ubuntu installer

    Notice that this system is not like an ordinary installed system.
    You seem to boot directly to the grub menu of the installed system. Maybe you forgot to install the bootloader into partition 5 (not to the head of the drive). Doing this will give you a system that only boots into the live system. You need to add a 'menuentry' in that system's grub.cfg file (.../usb-live/boot/grub/grub.cfg for UEFI mode) to make the system able to boot into the installed system too.

    Select Something else in the partitioning window in order to control where to install the bootloader.

  8. #28
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    Re: Portable installed system that boots in UEFI as well as in BIOS mode

    Now I can't even install as the installer says it needs to unmount /CDROM which it can't as that's the running live partition.

    I'm not really sure why this is happening, but before I bypassed this by using a different USB drive as the live disk.

    I also get confused by when I'm running efi and not. Before I was able to run the very same USB disk having efi only enabled in bios. This time my USB disk only appears when legacy mode is also on.

    I wonder if it matters how you are booted when you create the start up disk..

    Also somehow I have lost my windows bootloader off my internal hd again. I didn't even do anything apart from install a live usb startup disk on the first partition of my USB disk and now my windows bootloader has gone!

    So unless I can work around this Mount problem I'll have to use my second usb stick again to make a separate live disk and then use that live to install mint on my desired usb disk.

    As for the grub menu entry I don't know what to change or add and I was planning to keep this second disk (which holds the working 10gb image from under op) so I could study the grub.cfg file there but it looks like I'll have to forget about that bit until I get mint installed again as it looks like I'll need that second disk!

    Trust me to turn this into a nightmare! I am only following the instructions in the op

  9. #29
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    Re: Portable installed system that boots in UEFI as well as in BIOS mode

    Linux mint is a different linux distro, and the configuration files can be different. It means that you cannot expect everything to work without changing some things from what they are in the Ubuntu case. I'm sorry but I don't know what to change and how to change it.

    Quote Originally Posted by dodgexander View Post
    Now I can't even install as the installer says it needs to unmount /CDROM which it can't as that's the running live partition.

    I'm not really sure why this is happening, but before I bypassed this by using a different USB drive as the live disk.

    I also get confused by when I'm running efi and not. Before I was able to run the very same USB disk having efi only enabled in bios. This time my USB disk only appears when legacy mode is also on.

    I wonder if it matters how you are booted when you create the start up disk..
    Yes, I think it matters.
    Also somehow I have lost my windows bootloader off my internal hd again. I didn't even do anything apart from install a live usb startup disk on the first partition of my USB disk and now my windows bootloader has gone!
    If you install a system using the standard methods, the installer is likely to install the bootloader into the 'first internal disk'. You should either remove the internal disk or use 'Something else' and manually set the target for the bootloader to where you want it.

    Fortunately it is possible to re-install the Windows bootloader without installing the whole Windows operating system.
    So unless I can work around this Mount problem I'll have to use my second usb stick again to make a separate live disk and then use that live to install mint on my desired usb disk.

    As for the grub menu entry I don't know what to change or add and I was planning to keep this second disk (which holds the working 10gb image from under op) so I could study the grub.cfg file there but it looks like I'll have to forget about that bit until I get mint installed again as it looks like I'll need that second disk!

    Trust me to turn this into a nightmare! I am only following the instructions in the op
    This is what I suggest:

    If you want an installed Linux Mint system, maybe the best option is to install it with the standard method offered by Mint's own installer. Keep that system separate from 'my' portable installed system, which is made with Ubuntu.

    If you want 'my' portable installed system, keep using it, if your pendrive is still working with it or re-install it from the compressed image file. But do not mix it with Linux Mint on the same pendrive.

    Apply the method of 'my' portable installed system to Linux Mint only if you enjoy fixing the things that need fixing because of differences between Linux Mint and Ubuntu.

  10. #30
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