full install from live USB with persistent storage

Question

I am new to Ubuntu and not particularly comfortable with systems in general. Please bare with me. Thanks for your patience :)

I tried Ubuntu on a virtual machine, and more recently, on a live version with persistent storage. I really like Ubuntu and plan on doing a full install soon. Since I have played around on the live version, I would like to keep what I did there when I do a full install.

1. How do I do a full install in such a way that the system is as it is on the live version?
2. Is it safe to do that knowing that I have downloaded some extensions and some software? I am asking because the live version does not require a password to install software. The software I installed is nothing esoteric or obscure, but still.

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

Copy Home Directory Data from Persistent USB to Hard Drive

In order to preserve permissions etc, it is preferable to use rsync to copy the data from the Persistent drives home folder to the new internal drive,

I prefer the GUI version called Grsync, it is available from Ubuntu Software.

Everything saved on a persistent USB is located in the persistent casper-rw file or partition, including the home folder.

Grsync casper-rw File

To access a casper-rw file, make a directory:

sudo mkdir /media/casper

and then mount casper-rw on it:

sudo mount -o loop /path/casper-rw /media/casper/

Where /path/ is the path to casper-rw file.

Path to file ~ /media/cscameron/xxx-xxx-xxx/casper-rw

Grsync casper-rw Partition

The casper-rw partition can be accessed like any other partition.

Path to partition ~ /media/cscameron/casper-rw

Any programs that have been installed will need to be reinstalled but program data might exist in /casper-rw/upper/.

To list programs that have been installed using Apt run apt list --installed.