Install UEFI version to external Hard disk

Hi there
I’ve no trouble installing OPENSUSE 13.1 to an external HDD (I want a portable system that boots and runs from the external HDD) - I have VMWARE VMPLAYER plus a Windows Virtual Machine installed as well so it’s also a portable Windows system too.

On a NON UEFI system or option it’s no problem as the install selects GRUB2 which allows you to install it anywhere - so clicking the install to root (/) and selecting the HDD order the GRUB bootloader is written to the external HDD and not an Internal HDD.

However if you want to create a UEFI system that boots and runs totally from an external device then when the install process installs the GRUB bootloader the GRUB2-EFI version (UEFI boot) does not give you a choice of where to install the bootloader and installs on the INTERNAL HDD (or first HDD if not using a laptop). This is DOUBLY annoying since the system say it’s a laptop - won’t boot UNLESS the external device is plugged in too.

I’m basically using the Graphical install GUI’s either from the LIVE system or a full distro DVD. I want to run essentially from the external HDD - it’s an SSD so it’s fast enough without touching the HDD on a laptop which is running Windows. The machine is a UEFI one but disabling secure boot will allow it to run other OS’es (UEFI or standard) - set the BIOS to enable legacy boot. Protected boot can be turned off.

There must be a way to create the UEFI boot since the live distro can boot either in UEFI mode or normal mode.

Any help here please.

Here’s how I did it:

Installing on an external drive — UEFI version

Note that I did this with secure-boot enabled. If you don’t want secure-boot, then the file that has to be renamed as “bootx64.efi” will be “grubx64.efi”.

It can probably be done by selecting “do not install booting” during the install. And then going to rescue mode, and manually calling the installer with the “–removable” option. There currently isn’t a way of specifying that in the installer. The way that I did it seems to be the easiest.