Hello Everyone,

I have a Windows laptop that I want to run Linux on. Due to the drivers being encrypted (on install, from the factory), I can’t repartition the drive and dual boot.

My plan is to run a live install from a USB stick. I’ve tried a live Debian ISO, and it works fine for my purposes (WebDev).

However, the live install isn’t persistent, and doesn’t use all the space on the 64gb usb stick for storage.

There are tutorials online that show how to make a live install while already running Linux, but for some reason, the live install doesn’t see anything plugged into the other usb slots.

So, my question is, how do I get a persistent, usable version of Debian on a USB stick from Windows?

Thanks,

-BX

Edit: Laptop is a HP Envy, with touchscreen. The reason for keeping windows is that (as of yet) I have not found a way to use the touch-screen/pen combo with Linux. Being able to boot off USB will allow me to test solutions without losing what works

  • CameronDev@programming.dev
    6·
    1 year ago

    Could you share the laptop model, surely there has to be a way to turn off the disk encryption and then dual boot/mess with the laptop normally?

    The easiest way to achieve that is to use two USBs, one with the installer, and the other will be your new harddrive. Install to the USB drive and it will be a persistent bootable USB drive. Bootloader (grub/efibootmgr) setup may be fiddly, you may have to try a few times/variations on setting before you get it working.

  • alaphic@lemmy.world
    4·
    1 year ago

    Just use Rufus, dude… You can even set the amount of space your image/deployment/instance (whatever the most correct term is lol) persists in, which makes it more convenient if (like me) you find yourself frequently wanting to play around with new and exciting distros.

    Also, not to gang up on ya or anything either, but I’m gonna have to second the other commentor’s request for the info on that laptop, as I’ve never encountered one that prevented you from reformatting it… o_0 I would be returning the fuck out of that garbage… Even the non-ARM old chromebooks would let you do that.

  • anguo@lemmy.ca
    4·
    1 year ago

    I remember doing this once, but I’m fairly sure I did It through a live install. Make sure your target USB is properly formatted? I do remember that finding information on this was hard, because it isn’t really a viable long-term option.

    One thing to note is that you need to make some modifications to limit how often things get written to the drive, and even then you will probably kill your thumb drive pretty fast.

  • bataklik@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 year ago

    You can install linux on a usb stick instead of your hard disk. i have done it before. But i don’t really remember the steps. I have done it trial and error.

  • Red1C3@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    I remember being able to create a persistent drive using Rufus and Linux Mint (Not the Debian edition though) , Rufus has a slider for creating a persistent drive when burning the iso, pretty sure you can find some guide online