[kwlug-disc] Installing Debian to USB from running installation

[Ron Singh]

Hi Bob, not sure if I am interpreting your question correctly, but if I am,
this has been my experience --

See, I wanted to have a GNU/Linux/DE on a bootable SD card or USB stick.

Googling around, I could not find a solution that didn't involve using a
bootable USB stick with the install image on it as the source.

- Checking the SD speeds, I decided against using an SD card and went with
a USB2/3 128G stick instead
- My Thinkpad X220/T420s/W520 BIOSes(fully updated) units could not boot
off an SD, so the decision was made for me to do the USB stick
- I installed Debian9(Xfce DE)from a USB stick to a USB3 128G stick without
swap to minimize writes to the USB stick
- I installed all my usual apps, synched  my Firefox-ESR browser, got my
synch folders set up
- I tried the 120G USB stick on said Thinkpads...perfection, although real
slow on a real old X61s, but serviceable in a pinch
- I then tried it out on an older HP with a 3rd Gen i5 CPU and yup, worked
a charm, BT failed for some reason, but I didn't care

Why go though all of this? Well, it was dead easy, not terribly
time-consuming and I thought it might be a good idea to see how well it
works in case it become necessary to use a solution like this when crossing
borders.

After all, a USB stick dangling from a necklace is just a bit of ghetto
bling, no?


Thanks,

Ron Singh


On Sun, Apr 1, 2018 at 12:17 AM, Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com> wrote:

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> Hi: I'm running a regular desktop GNU/Linux, and I want to install
> Debian stable to an SD card without booting from an install image.
>
> Is there a package that will run the installer in a normal environment
> to let me install GNU/Linux on an arbitrary device?
>
> - --Bob.
>
>
>
> - --
> Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com>          Phone: +1-519-635-9413
> SOBAC Microcomputer Services             http://sobac.com/sobac/
> Software   ---   Office & Business Automation   ---   Consulting
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