Bootable Linux USB stick: Difference between revisions

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'''Some more details'''
'''Some more details'''


# we always create a few-GB FAT32 partition because that makes file exchange with Windows and Macs very simple. The FAT32 partition should be the first partition on the stick; 2GB is enough for us. Then comes a biosboot partition (1MB; required for booting bios system from a GPT disk), an efi partition (e.g. 250MB; required for UEFI/EFI boot on PC's/MAC's) and the Linux partition, with 13.9GB, so that the sum of the four partitions is slightly below 16GB. The third partition is then a 16.1GB /data partition. This scheme has the advantage that the image of the stick can just as well be copied (with dd or better ddrescue) to a 16GB stick; the /data partition then does not fit and cannot be used on that stick, but the operating system will then work on the small stick just as well. This requires that the /data partition is not fsck'ed automatically from /etc/fstab (0 in the 6th field).
# we always create a few-GB FAT32 partition because that makes file exchange with Windows and Macs very simple. The FAT32 partition should be the first partition on the stick; 2GB is enough for us. Then comes a BIOS-boot partition (1MB; required for booting BIOS system from a GPT disk), an efi partition (e.g. 250MB; required for UEFI/EFI boot on PC's/MAC's) and the Linux partition, with 13.9GB, so that the sum of the four partitions is slightly below 16GB. The third partition is then a 16.1GB /data partition. This scheme has the advantage that the image of the stick can just as well be copied (with dd or better ddrescue) to a 16GB stick; the /data partition then does not fit and cannot be used on that stick, but the operating system will then work on the small stick just as well. This requires that the /data partition is not fsck'ed automatically from /etc/fstab (0 in the 6th field).
# it is a good idea to give easy root access to the one user you create because certainly some packages will have to be installed or updated when the stick is in use
# it is a good idea to give easy root access to the one user you create because certainly some packages will have to be installed or updated when the stick is in use
# it is a good idea to save an image of the stick whenever you made a successful change; otherwise you might need to start from scratch if you mess something up.
# it is a good idea to save an image of the stick whenever you made a successful change; otherwise you might need to start from scratch if you mess something up.
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