I am about to install 11.1 onto a computer, but I would prefer to install it on a flash drive. I previously had kubuntu installed on an external drive, but when I started up I would have grub. I want to be able to transport this easily between a couple of different computers, but I don’t want to install it on each of them, and I don’t want to have to have it plugged in to boot up windows either. Any help is appreciated.
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but what you are doing might be a bit tricky; installing on a flash drive is no problem (see wiki), but each computer would have to be configured to boot from USB. If I am not mistaken, your best bet is to go into the BIOS on the computer you are using and select your USB device as the boot target. Unfortunately not all PCs can boot from USB, though most newer ones will.
The simplest (and arguably most practical) way to do this:
-
Download unetbootin
-
Use unetbootin to install image (self explanatory - trust me)
3a) If you have trouble formatting the USB and are on windows, use this. http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197 -
Boot USB. Activate desired repositories, and install chosen desktop environment - although I strongly urge you to stick with a low overhead one on USB, because it’s ridiculously slow. KDE 3.5 is a perfectly sensible choice.
I have one of these for virus killing / system recovery. It seems to work fine, though I haven’t actually used it ‘in the field’ yet.
There are other ways, depending on what you’re trying to do. If you want a ‘vanilla’ openSUSE install, I can point you in a direction to do that, but no guarantees it will work…
@Confuseling: You directions are for installing on the flash drive, correct? But in order to actually boot from it on different PCs, you would still need to choose the boot target in the BIOS, right?
Yes, although some newer laptops and netbooks let you hold some key to access a boot menu.
But if you have to do it in BIOS proper, I assume it’s just a question of boot order, and if it doesn’t find something bootable in the USB port it’ll just default to the internal hard disk (probably via the optical drives).
I know I am capable of booting from a flash drive since before I was booting from an external hard drive, but will I have to deal with something like grub if I do that? My worry is that I won’t be able to use windows without having the drive plugged in.
Once you’ve made all the selections in the installer (I think it’s just after package selection, but memory fails me), it comes to a ‘summary’ page, giving you the option to go back and change things, or confirm. You shouldn’t miss it if you’re looking out for it - take your time, read each page, and post back if you’re unsure.
Select the section labelled ‘boot’ or ‘bootloader’ or similar, and choose to install grub only on the root partition (also known as “/”). Select the root partition and make sure the Master Boot Record isn’t selected and you can’t go wrong.
If you do go wrong, it can be repaired.