Tokyo Outsider (337ppm)Mar 7

I've been thinking I need to try out and switch to #Linux when I replace my current Win 10 laptop.

But I was just reading about how to set up dual boot and it occurred to me: Why don't I start now, running the flavours of Linux I want to try off of external storage? 🤔

If I did that, would I be able to transfer the existing Linux install off of the external USB/SSD to a bootable partition in the future?

Anyone know?

Show threadEggs now in different baskets.Mar 7

@tokyo_0 I use Gparted live for this running off of a usb stick. That way neither the source nor destination disc is in use at the time of copying.

You can use the Gparted GUI to copy/paste partitions from the source drive to the destination.

Other tools I have used to copy disc images are dd under Linux (cli) and the Raspberry Pi "SD card copier". The latter is misnamed as it can copy to and from any type of media SSD/SD card etc.

#gpartedlive #gparted #dd #raspberrypi #linux

Show threadEggs now in different baskets.Mar 7

@tokyo_0 I did this the last time I installed Linux on my remaining elderly parent's (REP) laptop.

They inherited a usable laptop from the deceased parent so I decided to set that up as a back up machine.

I installed the image the way I wanted it on the back up laptop, then booted into Gparted live.

I copied the whole drive image over to the new SSD for the REPs main laptop and when finished I installed the SSD in the main laptop.

Show threadEggs now in different baskets.Mar 7

@tokyo_0 The back up laptop is one with an Intel CPU and chipset while the REP's main laptop has an AMD CPU and chipset.

I didn't have to do anything to get the AMD laptop to boot into the image from the Intel back up laptop.

I have done this before booting a Linux image installed on an old Intel macbook on a much newer AMD NUC machine.

Show threadTokyo Outsider (337ppm)Mar 7
@the_wub Very neat, and great to know too - thank you for sharing, especially with the different software you've found helpful as well!! 👍
Show threadEggs now in different baskets.Mar 7
@tokyo_0 I have always used debian based Linuxen but I assume that other flavours are equally accomodating. YMMV.
Show threadTokyo Outsider (337ppm)
@the_wub That's a good point - thanks for mentioning it. Right now I'm looking at regular Linux Mint. I'm going to try out a couple of different distros, though, before I decide on one, and I'll check out how accommodating they will be with this, too. Appreciate the pointer!
Mar 7 at 7:31amWeb
Show threadEggs now in different baskets.Mar 7

@tokyo_0 LinuxMint is based on Ubuntu which means both are based on debian.

I am a long term LM XFCE user and tend to use debian XFCE on my Raspberry Pis.

I still have one PC with Xubuntu on it which is Ubuntu with the XFCE desktop. LinuxMint XFCE is still more polished than Xubuntu in some small and subtle ways.

Show threadTokyo Outsider (337ppm)Mar 7
@the_wub Interesting! I haven't even started digging into the variations of Mint itself, although I knew there were a couple. I used to use standard Ubuntu. Am tempted to use something as standard as possible as I had an experience with Ubuntu before where its audio drivers got messed up for my hardware and I was without a working mic for about six months at a time when I really needed it. But I'll definitely look into the Mint flavours - thank you for the recommendation for XFCE!