How to run without hard drive? USB only

chaz_bro1972 · 08-05-2022, 08:57 PM

SO COMING DOWN TO MONEY, choices have to be made. Either its going to be a 2TB USB stick and Puppy Linux, maybe Fatdog64. OR he buys a 1 TB external drive, and we go with Ubuntu. I'll let you guys know how it goes. It's up to his wallet to decide.

fatmac · 08-06-2022, 03:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuckyCyborg

Out of curiosity, you are kind please to tell me which Linux distribution you have installed in this 16GB eMMC and how much space is occupied by this particular Linux system?

Devuan Live - systemd free version of Debian, using the XFCE desktop.

https://files.devuan.org/devuan_chimaera/desktop-live/

Installation takes about 3.5GB of disk, I use it for my / partition, (no swap), plus any files that I create - with all my music, videos, etc on external media (USB 64GB SATA SSD in my case).

enorbet · 08-06-2022, 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaz_bro1972

its a Chromebook CB3-431

OK so did you watch the video tutorial? Oh. Apparently not.

LuckyCyborg · 08-06-2022, 04:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaz_bro1972

I have a buddy with a Chromebook with an unremovable SSD drive (32 GB). Is there a way to boot with the hard drive as a bootloader only, and then run strictly off the USB? The USB stick is going to be 2 Tb stick. He is going to probably use Ubuntu.

Out of curiosity, you are kind please to explain me WHY your buddy bought in AD 2022 this Chromebook with an eMMC of 32GB? Eventually you can ask your buddy why he bought this particular thing?

In other hand, I'm interested to known on what country lives your buddy, if it's possible.

Please be kind to take note that I have no intention to judge (or blame) your buddy for his choice, but I would like very much to known why he bought this particular Chromebook instead of a regular laptop hosting a hard drive, let's say of 320GB.

LuckyCyborg · 08-06-2022, 04:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatmac

Devuan Live - systemd free version of Debian, using the XFCE desktop.

https://files.devuan.org/devuan_chimaera/desktop-live/

Installation takes about 3.5GB of disk, I use it for my / partition, (no swap), plus any files that I create - with all my music, videos, etc on external media (USB 64GB SATA SSD in my case).

Thanks you very much! I have suspected already that you did not installed Slackware 15.0 ...

yancek · 08-06-2022, 04:50 AM

What is on the 32GB SSD drive currently? If your friend wants to install Ubuntu, s/he can create a /boot partition on the SSD then a / (root filesystem) and a separate /home partition on the external hard drive. Or simpler, just install Ubuntu to the external HD.

I'm not familiar with Chromebooks so don't know what the boot capabilities are (UEFI, Legacy, both).

kgha · 08-06-2022, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaz_bro1972

I was just thinking that if he used his hard drive (only 32 GB) to be the Linux partition, that would still be too small. I understand he could like partition his hard drive that way, then the 2 TB USB stick as his /home partition, but to me 32 GB it's just too small. Idk. I'm open to suggestions, except "buy a new computer".

32GB is not necessarily too small for a Linux install, although that depends on what ypur buddy wants to do/install.

I'm running -current on a 7 years old Lenovo U330 with a 128 GB ssd (Linux partition 32 GB, home partition 76 GB plus swap). It's on the small side (right now 7GB free on the Linux partition) and I might clean up my home partition, shrink it and expand the linux partition, but it works (as long as I don't compile stuff that requires GBs of disk space). And this is with a lot of 3rd party stuff installed (stuff in my /opt folder takes up 5.5 GB, AlienBob's wine package takes up 800MB, and so on). And it's possible to remove a few large packages - will yout buddy really need rust, requiring almost 1GB?

If one keeps one's /home directory on a USB thingy and keep it straight and simple, 32 GB might do fine.