Full install to USB stick

[1clue]

I haven't done the traveling boot thing, but there are some pretty well-documented setups on the net.

From what I undertand you can't just take a normal distro and install it to make this type of setup and hope for good results. There are extra steps you take to trim the distro down, and to reduce writes to the flash drive. Sometimes you want drive encryption or a TOR setup.

I would start by deciding what exactly you need from this and then go about finding a travel boot flash drive setup that meets your needs.

Personally I would recommend that you make it both UEFI boot and the old style. You never know what you'll get when you're using random PCs with random BIOS settings. I'd also suggest using a flash drive that can be mechanically made read-only, and your OS should be that one, and any writing you want should be on a separate flash drive that your OS knows to look for by some token (maybe UUID)

[sudodus]

If portability has highest priority (that it works in many and various computers), choose a persistent live system according to these links,

help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb

help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/persistent

If system stability and possibility to upgrade the kernel and device drivers, and 'disk encryption' has highest priority, choose an installed system (installed like into an internal drive but into a USB drive, a fast USB 3 pendrive, or better into a USB SSD). See the following link,

How do I install Ubuntu to a USB key? (without using Startup Disk Creator)

and/or Post #10 by C.S.Cameron.

---

Edit:

If you want both, you can make a USB drive with both a persistent live system and an installed system according to the following link,

Portable system that boots and works in most computers - Live, persistent live and installed systems

[ubfan1]

For a random selection of PCs, with all different hardware and driver needs, it's still hard to beat a persistent install media. For performance, adding the "toram" parameter (a mkusb or kernel option) copies the system libraries into ram and greatly reduces startup time on things like libre Write. If you plan a bit, you can even have the persistence file/partition on a separate USB, and start with a fresh one for each new PC. A /home file/partition may be treated the same way, if you still want a full install, search for "optimize USB" here and on askubuntu for many suggestions to reduce wear/writes.

[jdeca57]

You could consider using Knoppix since that is a live-usb distribution that has as main advantage that it is meant to be used on different computers and has a good initial hardware recognition. And it limits write to usb since it takes in account the wear of that medium.

[ram148280]

I would first prefer you that you not use old ubuntu 14.04 this old version also not supported in some case download from the Ubuntu site below which is still supported.

[C.S.Cameron]

This worked for me as a Full install pendrive with Full Disc Encryption:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1086...086314#1086314

[pjlam]

This works for me on both BIOS and UEFI machines.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/8730...118412#1118412
Don't forget to check ISO file for corruption using MD5SUM.

Hi - I tried out C.S.Cameron UEFI/BIOS install on my 128GB Sandisk USB stick with mkusb (removing the internal SSD when installing)..

gparted.jpg
The USB stick works great on multiple laptops (after sorting out the WiFi drivers), HP, Sony and Apple laptops.

However, I repeatedly tried but failed to hide the GRUB menu when booting up the USB stick, since it has only 1 OS (Ubuntu) on it. I use the boot menu shortcut keys on the laptops set the boot order.

Right now, the GRUB menu shows up on both BIOS or EFI mode on the laptops (I tried HP, Sony, and Apple one which only does EFI). There are 2 Linux kernels on it in the Advanced Options.
GRUB_boot.jpg
...despite using every single method documented on askubuntu below: modifying the parameters on /etc/grub/grub.cfg, adding parameters/disabling OS Prober, or even modifying /boot/grub/grub.cfg (which is generated automatically)

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1110...inning-of-boot
ihttps://askubuntu.com/questions/879881/how-can-i-get-my-grub-menu-to-be-hidden-and-have-the-shift-or-esc-keys-show-the/882268

What I suspect is there are multiple GRUB configuration presents, C.S. Cameron method involves copying the GRUB from sdx5 to sdx3...So I have one on ext4 partition and one on EFI partition. I went to the EFI partition mount point /boot/efi and found /boot/efi/grub/grub.cfg, but not sure if I should change it.

How can I get my GRUB menu to be hidden at boot time? (with BIOS/EFI secure mode or not)

Below are the Boot repair boot info script output:
http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/9G3kWqzkCt/ - This one has 2 disks, sdb is the USB stick, sda is the HP Samsung SSD that I cloned from USB using clonezilla disk copy
http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/PRQ8CCDJPN/ - To simplify thing, this one only has the HP Samsung SSD booted (From the USB stick clone)

Thanks a lot for your help...

[C.S.Cameron]

@pjlam
Try setting timeout=0

[pjlam]

@pjlam
Try setting timeout=0

Thank you. I did change setting timeout to 0, experimented with all the timeout setting. I also changed CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT parameters, I tried quiet, splash, quiet and disabled OS prober...it didn't put the GRUB menu away in BIOS/UEFI mode.

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`"
#GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
#GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
#GRUB_FORCE_HIDDEN_MENU="true"
#export GRUB_FORCE_HIDDEN_MENUT

The /etc/grub/grub.cfg above is sdb5 partition (ext5). I'm wondering if GRUB is reading from sdb3 efi partition parameters instead?

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            8.4G     0  8.4G   0% /dev
tmpfs           1.7G  9.9M  1.7G   1% /run
/dev/sdb5        91G   44G   43G  51% /
tmpfs           8.4G   91M  8.3G   2% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.3M  4.1k  5.3M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           8.4G     0  8.4G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sdb3       252M   70M  183M  28% /boot/efi
tmpfs           1.7G   74k  1.7G   1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sdb1        31G   91M   31G   1% /media/alphaone/usbdata

[C.S.Cameron]

I also had a "set timeout" down at the end of "d30_os-prober" that prevented the menu from disappearing.
(d30_os-prober has a menuentry to boot ISOs on other drives).

I expect my external drive to boot from sdx3 not sdx5. which did you use for boot loader?