Ubuntu 8.04 on a portable hard drive?
June 27, 2008 2:37 PM   Subscribe

Ubuntu 8.04 on a 40 gb portable HDD: LiveUSB w/persistence, or install straight to HDD?

I'd like to be able to carry around a portable USB HD - NOT a flash drive; too small, and I'd wear it out too fast - with an Ubuntu install that I can boot to on any of the 9 or 10 machines I end up being in front of fairly often.

I've got an old install of Dapper on a 10 GB portable HD that I made work this way after some wrestling.
But every time I use it, I have to reconfigure Xorg. Doable, but annoying.

I haven't used it (or Ubuntu) in a while and I've missed it; I also figure it's time to update to Hardy Heron.
I did so researching and found that Heron has a LiveUSB installer all wrapped up now, which is cool.
Q#1: does that set up persistence too?

Q#2: Given that I'd like to do one install to a portable HD, and have that install boot from various different machines without reconfiguring X (or anything else if I can help it), would I be better off:

A) doing a LiveUSB install on the HD, with a partition for Persistence
or
B) just doing a straight install to the USB HD, because Ubuntu has some new cool thing that will adjust for different hardware now - no more reconfiguring X, etc.
or
C) some third thing I've never heard of but is supercool?
posted by penciltopper to Computers & Internet (2 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Heard of wubi check it out, it might help you out. Hardy heron is much improved in terms of compatibility (everything almost has a gui now) which means yes, no more reconfiguring x. Can even detect wireless networks without installing anything.
posted by radsqd at 3:51 PM on June 27, 2008


I think you're looking for something like Live USB Pen Drive Persistent Instructions. It's for 8.04 as well.
posted by MiG at 10:33 PM on June 27, 2008


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