Re: [tlug] Fishing for USB linux suggestions

["Curt J. Sampson" <cjs@example.com>]

On 2020-09-04 06:40 +0000 (Fri), Raedwolf Sumner wrote:

> I would like to have Xfce Linux Mint 20 on a USB thumb drive.... I can
> format the drives as ext 4 with a single partition. What I cannot do is
> shrink the partition and create a second partition.

Why not just run the distro's installer and use its partitioning tools to
create whatever partitioning you like from the start?

I've done this successfully with Ubuntu (using the text-based installer,
not the graphical one)) several times in the last decade or so. The
procedure is more or less as follows:

1. Create an MBR.
2. Create an MBR primary partition for /boot. These days you probably want
   192 MB, but 128 MB will probably still do if you're careful about
   cleaning out old kernels.
3. Create an MBR primary partition of about half the remaining space for
   an encrypted Linux partition.
4. Create an LVM inside the encrypted partition.
5. Create root and swap volumes in the LVM.
6. Install.

(In this day and age you should _really_ be using an encrypted partition
unless you can think of a _really_ powerful reason not to.)

After the install I'd then put a DOS partition in the remaining space.
Unfortunately, some computers and/or other devices don't seem to link the
DOS parition when created this way. (My oscilloscope seems to have no
trouble doing screen dumps to it, but the printer at the Lawson the other
day didn't want to read files off of it.) I'm not sure what the deal is
there, but using a "standard" USB thumb drive formatter and then shrinking
that partition may help. Or it may not.

cjs
-- 
Curt J. Sampson      <cjs@example.com>      +81 90 7737 2974

To iterate is human, to recurse divine.
    - L Peter Deutsch