Fully functional Linux OS on a portable USB3 SSD drive.

[mrchow19910319]

 

 

 

I completed this whole process and installed the OS onto a portable SSD. My issue is the 1st time it worked flawlessly. Provided the live installation USB stick is still plugged in. But then I disconnected the live USB and the LinuxSSD drive booted into windows once. Then I re-plugged in the LinuxSSD and trying to boot into it. This time it did not work. Grub showed up, and "keyin your passcode for decrypt your hard drive" screen showed up . Then, the screen become blank. Full blank. So I have to hard shut off the computer. But once I press the power button , it still shows me Xubuntu shutting down. IS this because I used Nvidia's proprietary driver? 

 

 

What I am trying to achieve : 

 

Either: 

Whenever I plug in this external LinuxSSD, the grub automatically starts and let me choose which to boot into.

 

OR:

Everytime I want to use this LinuxSSD, I just boot into whatever machine's BIOS and manually to boot from LinuxSSD.

 

[svmlegacy]

5 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

Whenever I plug in this external LinuxSSD, the grub automatically starts and let me choose which to boot into.

Grub would need to be reconfigured everytime you change machines in this instance.

5 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

Everytime I want to use this LinuxSSD, I just boot into whatever machine's BIOS and manually to boot from LinuxSSD.

This is your path forward. Make sure the grub boot configuration is based on UUID and not the sdx partition, as this may change from machine to machine, while UUID will not.

[mrchow19910319]

Just now, svmlegacy said:

Grub would need to be reconfigured everytime you change machines in this instance.

This is your path forward. Make sure the grub boot configuration is based on UUID and not the sdx partition, as this may change from machine to machine, while UUID will not.

I see... so there is no way to make it a "portable machine" where I just plug in and choose to boot from this SSD from bios and I'm all set? 

 

ALso could you spectulate what's the reason behind seeing a black screen after booting into ubuntu??? Like the screen is off. No light coming through at all. 

[whm1974]

You need to watch what your are doing when installing Linux to an external Storage Device. Make sure GRUB for that Drive is actually installed on that Drive, and that Drive only.

 

You may have to reinstall GRUB back on your Rig afterwards.

[svmlegacy]

9 hours ago, mrchow19910319 said:

I see... so there is no way to make it a "portable machine" where I just plug in and choose to boot from this SSD from bios and I'm all set? 

What I'm saying is that GRUB shouldn't be your bootloader for blindly loading OS's.

 

Personally I have a Fedora 34 USB stick, just using the normal installer. Maybe you'd like to try that.

 

9 hours ago, mrchow19910319 said:

ALso could you spectulate what's the reason behind seeing a black screen after booting into ubuntu??? Like the screen is off. No light coming through at all. 

Booting off a USB 2.0 device can take serveral minutes. Ubuntu has done this during the boot process for me, it's just a waiting game for it to come back on. Make sure there are no other displays connected to the system.

[mrchow19910319]

53 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

What I'm saying is that GRUB shouldn't be your bootloader for blindly loading OS's.

 

Personally I have a Fedora 34 USB stick, just using the normal installer. Maybe you'd like to try that.

 

Booting off a USB 2.0 device can take serveral minutes. Ubuntu has done this during the boot process for me, it's just a waiting game for it to come back on. Make sure there are no other displays connected to the system.

Thanks. I was just tinkering around to see what I can do with a portable SSD. 

I will give it a try later.