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According to docs on the Ubuntu site, the ubuntu installer can be run in 'live' mode (that is for sure), and during start up enables creating a persistent volume on the very usb stick it was installed from - is that correct?

I'm sorry I'm asking it rather than verifing it myself, by my hard drive just died, my network connection is very slow (typing it over Tor under Tails probably doesn't help), so I want to be 100% sure I'm downloading the right image (latest desktop xubuntu x64 installer). So, for 'Yesterday', I need a fully functional linux distro to run from usb until I get a replacement drive from support. By fully functional I mean:

  • debian/ubuntu based (no time to relearn yaml or RedHat architecture)
  • root access (in particular package manager) (mandatory)
  • persistence of everything, especially installed software on the said usb (mandatory),
  • full access to hardware on which it is being run (mandatory),
  • system-agnostic, i.e. can boot on any modern machine and autoconfigure network, etc., '''regardless''' of the settings of the machine on which persistance was enabled (highly desirable)
  • encrypted partitions (at least /home) support (highly desirable)

This is a somewhat different use-case from both a 'try-before-you-buy' live-usb, and normal-user oriented, browser-centric 'safe' distributions, persistence or not. What I need is probably closer to a 'normal' installation, but completely hardware independent. I'm not sure if in fact full '''installation''' of xubuntu on that usb wouldn't be the best solution, as I don't know what is actually persisted in the live mode, and to what degree booted system can adapt to architecture changes since last shutdown. As I said, I'm typing this from Tails which is great for carrying around and occasional browsing, but a huge overkill for any prolonged work, with a high risk of losing something between sessions.

Any advice here (especially suggesting better suited distros/installers) would be highly appreciated!

Turin
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1 Answers1

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Maybe the easiest solution for you is to install mkusb and let it do the job for you. It creates a casper-rw partition for persistence automatically.

You can decide how much of the available drive space to use for persistence. The rest (of the available drive space) will be used for a usbdata partition, available also from Windows.

See these links

help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb

mkusb/persistent

Questions - Answers:

  • debian/ubuntu based (no time to relearn yaml or RedHat architecture) - Yes, mkusb is developed for and works best with Ubuntu (all current versions and flavours) and Debian Jessie.
  • root access (in particular package manager) (mandatory) - Ubuntu has a policy to use sudo (no direct login as root), and it works well. Debian allows direct login as root, and provides sudo too.
  • persistence of everything, especially installed software on the said usb (mandatory) - Well, a persistent live system cannot upgrade the kernel and drivers and other things, that are started before the overlay for persistence is started. If you want to be able to update and upgrade like an installed system, then you must install a system to your external drive like you would into an internal drive and I suggest with some extra tweaks for this particular case.
  • full access to hardware on which it is being run (mandatory) - Well, there are limits. You cannot install a proprietary driver for your graphics card in a persistent live system, but you can add some boot option to make it work, for example 'nomodeset'.
  • system-agnostic, i.e. can boot on any modern machine and autoconfigure network, etc., '''regardless''' of the settings of the machine on which persistance was enabled (highly desirable). - Yes, to all Intel/AMD PC computers with 32 and 64 bit architecture unless the manufacturer has installed an UEFI/BIOS system that locks the system to what is installed. (But avoid proprietary drivers (relevant for an installed system).)
  • encrypted partitions (at least /home) support (highly desirable) - Yes, you can create a new user with encrypted home in a persistent live system.
sudodus
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