How do I install OpenSUSE on an external portable SSD? For other distros (like Ubuntu) I’m using the live session: I open Gparted, take out the flags from the EFI partiotion on the internal SSD, install the system on the external SSD and then put the flags back again before rebooting. Works like a charm! The problem is that OpenSUSE does not have a live session. So how can I start Gparted before installing?
You simply use the Expert Partitioner which comes with the openSUSE installer medium. No gparted needed…
Checking, I see:
https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-Tumbleweed-KDE-Live-x86_64-Current.iso
available for download. There’s also a live Gnome and a live XFCE.
I am looking at
https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/
to find downloadable iso files.
However, you are making it too hard. If I want to install on an external drive, as you are doing, then I just do a normal install and go to the expert partitioner to choose the external drive for the install. Or I choose “Guided setup” in the installer partitioning section, and tell it to use the external drive.
Yes, it might want to set it up for EFI, with an EFI partition. But I then go into the Boot section of install, and where it says that the boot loader will be “GRUB2 for EFI”, I switch that to just “GRUB2”.
Okay, you might finish up with an EFI partition on the external drive, mounted as “/boot/efi” but otherwise unused. For me, that is fine. I can later add UEFI support, so that I can boot the external drive on either a legacy boot system or a UEFI boot system.
I understand, but Expert Partitioner is inside the installer. I can take the flags out, but how can I go back to the Expert Partitionar after the system is installed and before rebooting? In Ubuntu I have the option to go back to the live session and put the flags back on. How can I go back in Expert Partitioner before rebooting?
What flag? You assume that everyone know Ubuntu by heart and immediately understands what it means.
I’ll try it to my PC because I can reinstall it. I did try it at work, and… my boss was not happy because I ended with a broken PC 
.
Its about this article:
It’s quite simple, but you need a live session, to access Gparted after rebooting. If you don’t do this, the main PC is broken. You can start the external SSD, but the system on the PC is broken. It can be done only with live sessions distros, but I OpenSUSe does not have one.
openSUSE has live medias. See nrickert‘s comment.
Readily available on the download page under „Alternative downloads“.
But the live media does not have an installer. I need the installer and the live media in the same iso to do the trick, so I can go back from the installer to the live session.
Which .iso did you try?
According to that linked article:
Perhaps that’s a Ubuntu limitation, or a BIOS limitation. In my experience, having two EFI partitions is not a problem. My main desktop for most of the last 10 years had two hard drives with an ESP on each hard drive. One of those was used for Windows 8.1, and the other for openSUSE.
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Maybe with the external SSD put on, but it was the PC from work…
Main one, Intel or AMD 64-bit desktops, laptops, and servers (x86_64) - Offline Image.
On my Laptop there are two ESPs on one NVMe drive and there has not been any problem with that since it was installed like this in 2017.
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Please could you provide the link which you used for downloading?
@valc_2024 the I would suggest talking with your ‘work’ IT team and ask them to set it up for you, if the BIOS is locked down in anyway then it won’t get added to the NVRAM.
Run linux in WSL2? or a virtual machine?
Here it is:
First one on the list.
Yes, but I need the live image and the installer in the same place…