Software - Support > Installing Linux Lite
Dell Media Direct and Linux
gold_finger:
--- Quote from: br1anstorm on April 21, 2014, 04:39:27 PM ---I have only just discovered, for example, that it is possible to run some Linux OSs from a USB stick (=pendrive/thumbdrive), and that this supposedly runs almost as quick as installing it as a dual boot on the C drive, and certainly a lot quicker than a LiveCD session from a CD. As I have two laptops, this has a certain appeal - and also means I don't have to rush into partitioning, installing and dual booting on either machine's hard drive. So I may go down the USB road first. On that subject, I read your note in this thread https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/index.php?topic=210.0. So I may want to check back on that one specific point you mention about taking care over where exactly to put the bootloader of the Linux OS that is on the USB stick.
--- End quote ---
Doing a real installation to a USB stick is a not a bad idea. It will give you experience doing the installation and also allow you to practice partitioning without affecting the internal hard drive. Just boot with a live DVD/USB, plug in the USB you want to install to, open GParted, pick the USB drive from the drop-down box in upper right of GParted window. GParted will usually open pointed at the first internal drive. As long as you change that and pick the USB drive you'll be fine and can practice making partitions on the USB.
Installing to USB will follow same basic steps as installing to hard drive. The safest way to install to the USB is to choose the "Something else" option when you get to the "Installation Type" page. That will allow you to manually pick where to direct the installation. You will want to do that in the case of a USB installation to make sure everything goes where you want it -- especially the boot loader. If you don't pick that "Something else" option, it is a virtual certainty that the boot loader will be installed to the first hard drive (replacing the Windows boot loader).
Partitions can be created while installing under the "Something else" option; or you can create them ahead of time with GParted. If you create them ahead of time, you still use the "Something else" option. Then you select the partitions you made, one at a time, click "Change" button, then assign mount points and file system types to them. Typical installation will have a root partition (mount point = "/"; Ext4 file system) and a swap partition. Depending on size of USB, you can experiment with other partition arrangements if you want -- like possibly having a separate home partition (mount point = "/home"; also Ext4 file system type). For a USB, best to use one that is 16GB or larger -- though you could get away with an 8GB USB if you had to. (* See additional note below.)
On that same partitioning page of the installer, near the bottom there will be a line asking you where to install the boot loader? It will be pre-filled with /dev/sda, which is the internal hard drive. You will want to change that to make sure it displays the drive designation for the USB instead. When you pick that, make sure you pick the option for the drive itself and not a particular partition on the USB. For example, if you have only one internal hard drive and one USB connected, the choices will show /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, and various similar entries like /dev/sda1, sda2, sdb1, etc. You would want /dev/sdb in that case (with no number after sdb).
Once the USB installation is done, all you need to do is tell the computer to boot from the USB instead of the hard drive. Do that by changing the boot option order in the BIOS settings menu; or by choosing the USB boot option from the Boot Menu if your computer has a special key to hit on startup for that. Each manufacturer may have different keys for both -- you'll have to look up how yours operates. I have a Toshiba laptop where hitting "F2" on power-up gets me into BIOS Settings and "F12" gets me into the Boot Menu. Also have an old HP that uses completely different keys, but can't remember which off hand.
P.s. Additional Note.
Would recommend you stick to just a root and swap partition for a USB installation. If you do want to try adding a /home partition, then make sure to create a root partition that is at least 6-8GB in size. Another thing I tend you recommend is that you don't go crazy with the size of the swap partition. Normally that partition would be 1-2 times the size of how much RAM your computer has. Just go with a 1GB swap partition on the USB stick, otherwise you'll end up with swap being almost as big as the other partitions on a USB and it probably won't get used much -- so it's just a waste of space. When installing to a hard drive (with plenty of space on it), then feel free to do a standard size swap partition.
N4RPS:
Hello!
I ran a Lubuntu install solely from a 16 GB SD card for a while - with 14 GB root partition, 2 GB swap, and GRUB installed on the SD card. You could run LL or most any other Linux flavor that way, also.
If you use a class 10 SD card, the speed is somewhere between that of a LiveCD and a hard drive install...
73 DE N4RPS
Rob
br1anstorm:
That's a relief, gold_finger....
I sort-of guessed you were looking at an image or screenshot of something other than my hard drive. Glad the mystery is solved.
Thanks for those very clear guidance steps. I'm off to read up on the GParted tutorial to make sure I understand what all that I am about to do, so things may go quiet for a litttle while.
PS: As I delve into the new world of partitioning, dual booting and all that, I am finding it increasingly interesting.
I have only just discovered, for example, that it is possible to run some Linux OSs from a USB stick (=pendrive/thumbdrive), and that this supposedly runs almost as quick as installing it as a dual boot on the C drive, and certainly a lot quicker than a LiveCD session from a CD. As I have two laptops, this has a certain appeal - and also means I don't have to rush into partitioning, installing and dual booting on either machine's hard drive. So I may go down the USB road first. On that subject, I read your note in this thread https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/index.php?topic=210.0. So I may want to check back on that one specific point you mention about taking care over where exactly to put the bootloader of the Linux OS that is on the USB stick.
gold_finger:
Well, I downloaded your first attachment again to make sure I wasn't seeing things.
Turns out I happen to have an attachment from someone else that I had helped along the way also saved in my Downloads folder under a similar filename. I didn't realize that before and had opened that one thinking it was yours. My apologies for what surely was a very confusing post back to you as a result. That wasn't your drive I ended up describing. Duh! :-[
Just so you know what I was looking at before, here it is:
Obviously, that's completely different than what you described which is why I was confused.
Now that I see your actual screenshot, it looks like a very simple fix to get dual booting with Linux Lite up and running.
1. Follow preparations I outlined in first post under "While waiting for response back, to prepare for installation do the following".
2. Boot Linux Lite DVD and open GParted (Menu -> System -> Partition Drives).
3. If you couldn't shrink the C: drive while in Windows, do it now with GParted. (In GParted, it is partition "/dev/sda2".) Shrink the partition by around 50GB for now. (You can change things later on if you want, but that's plenty for now.) Here's a tutorial on how to use GParted to familiarize yourself with using it: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html.
IMPORTANT: After shrinking the Windows partition, reboot the computer into Windows to let it adjust itself to the new size. Then reboot with the Linux Lite DVD again. You can finish the other GParted operations below, but don't start the LL installation until you've rebooted into Windows to let it make adjustments first.
4. Still in GParted, delete the logical partition /dev/sda5.
5. Then delete the extended partition /dev/sda3. (Do this AFTER deleting sda5.)
6. Hit the "Apply" button (the arrow button under the word "Help" along top of GParted interface) to execute all of the changes. This may take a bit of time because of the shrinking operation. (10 - 45 minutes maybe.)
7. Now you'll have only 3 primary partitions left on the disk and empty, unpartitioned space for the Linux Lite installation.
8. Close GParted.
(Reminder: Reboot to Windows once after shrinking its partition if you haven't done so yet.)
9. Start the LL installation and you should get a choice to install "Along side Windows" when you get to the "Installation Type" page.
10. Choose install "Along side Windows" and the installer will automatically use the unpartitioned free space to create the LL partitions needed. You'll end up with an extended partition containing two logical partitions -- one for root and another for swap.
11. When install is done, shutdown, remove installation DVD and power back up into installation on the hard drive. You should now be presented with options for booting either OS on startup.
That's it.
P.s. I remembered how to post a pic to the forum. Post the pic first to an imagebin site. Then click the "insert image" button on the forum interface and post the link to it between the two image blocks -- eg. [ img ] ...paste image link here... [ /img ].
br1anstorm:
Oh dear.... if you are confused, gold_finger, what hope is there for me?
But I think I may be able to interpret some of the stuff I have posted up in the attachments. The GParted screenshot image surely shows my laptop's inbuilt hard drive ONLY - which is notionally 250GB total capacity, useable/visible space a bit less than that. As I read it, the GParted screenshot even labels which partitions have DellUtility, Media Direct, and DellRestore. It surely isn't showing a 500GB drive? It doesn't help that some partitions are labelled in GB and some in MB. But my Windows XP, and all my routine files, are in the large partition (227.26GB of which 74.14 is used).
I have done no partitioning of any kind on that inbuilt hard drive - it is as it came from the factory. What are GPT partitions? Patitions created by GParted??
I have no idea what EFI-mode and CSM/Legacy mode are or how to switch in or out of them!
I absolutely don't have any Linux (Mint or other) installed anywhere. I was using the Linux Lite LiveCD (having booted into it from the CD) to access GParted and copy/paste/send the screenshots to this forum.
And no, I haven't posted anything in a Linux Mint forum, ever, and have never had a drive or boot problem with a 500GB drive!
Now..... as for my second post and attachment (the one from the terminal) it is true that I have two external hard drives connected to the USB sockets on my laptop. They are purely for storage. One is a 320GB HDD formatted NTFS (out of the box) on which I store my photos. The other is a 320GB HDD formatted FAT32 (also out of the box) on which I store my music. So if the command you asked me to type into the terminal was designed to extract info on all my hard drives, that's what you got in the Word document in which I copied and pasted what showed up in the terminal screen.
Does that help to make more sense of what I sent you?
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