Installing linux mint on an external usb

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like before you even mentioned it

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if so, choose 'clear ventoy' from the option menu

i TOLD YOU LEAVE SPACE

clear and redo

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on gpt with 8 gbs at end

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install

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ye

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in Disks app (after closing ventoy) make the 8 gigs to ext4

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ehh how?

new partition?

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select the 8 gigs free space, click +

name it SPARE

or PERSIST

might have the MX setup rename it when it gets to that part

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yep hit create

then copy the ISO to the ventoy partition as usual

after DISKS is done its thing ofc

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uhhh

how long does it take..

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idk for 8 gigs. maybe a minute?

on flash memory

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yeah cuz it uhh

was unmounted

after hitting create and waiting a bit i just

took the usb out and reinserted so it would be mounted

would i have to check for total implosion of data

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dont ever unplug if file manager is doing stuff

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what now

reinstall?

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verify the ISO which should now be on the Ventoy partition

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i have like 15 mins left before i am forced to leave

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via right click

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i just pasted it rn

like after u said that

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ok then let it copy

and rest.

no need to eject or unmount nothing. u will test boot on this same machine

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50%

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this usb seems to perform more adequately than the other one did

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after i copies and i boot the thing what do i do

[low stag]

you'll start ventoy, presumably it will show 'uefi' in the bottom left corner

then start mx ISO. when u see some colourful mx live grub screen, u go to advanced options

and choose 'persist all'

then it'll ask some questions

the persistence volume can be the SPARE partition.

give the full amount i guess

or 7 gigs whatever

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ok so restart pc start the ventoy thing after pressing F12 while the thing is booting up and while in ventoy menu choose mx linux and then it will show a live grub screen

which i have to go to options in

advanced options

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well if it boots as uefi, then it's in advanced options

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i do not understand what uefi is

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if it boots in BIOS mode, then u'll see F- buttons to press at the bottom of screen, i think F5 is persist options

so, just note the first ventoy screen

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ok

ama restart now

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it'll say either uefi or bios in the bottom left corner

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Do i boot in normal mode

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what's it say in bottom left?

uefi or bios?

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Uefi

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ok normal mode

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And

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then mx grub> advanced> persist all

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Ye

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it'll ask for user and root password, just set them both to 'admin' or a very familiar thing u will absolutely remember

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Huh

It didnt

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u can do separate home and root persist files, or lump them together as one

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After i booted in normal it showrd menu with bunxh of stuff

I chose afvanced first

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it will eventually ask to set password

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Presistance options

And now its set to all

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and...

persist all, right?

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Now boot options

Yes

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mhm so if that's set, then choose the MX 25.2 xfce in the mx grub and hit enter

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And failsage and console and save

The what

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it'll then ask all the stuff , from pure TTY as it loads up

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Choose what in wha

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set the persist all, back up one page and start mx

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There is two

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I TOLD U

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Systemd and systeminit

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top one

ahhh

fk

whatever

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?WHAT

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sysv init

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oh ok chose it

Choose presistance device which is sdb3 cuz it has spare name on it

What i type

/dev/sdb3?

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yes

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Done

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it offers numeric indexes, like press 1 for this, press 2 for that

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Says you must

Enter a number or press enter

OHH

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if u press enter, the default value is chosen

else enter a diff choice

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It had like

Numbers behind it

Each option

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beside

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The sdb3 had behind it so now its chosen

Update label?

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yes

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Root presistance was required but no rootfs was found

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next

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Create auto?

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this is part where u set it up

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Create custom

Or quit

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what's it offer for auto, size-wise?

i'd say maybe go 3.5 gb root, 3.5 gb home

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Default will leave

4.35 gb free

It will use 3 gb

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fine

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Soooo

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so 3 gigs root only, and rest for home?

or did u choose to lump them together?

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It says default is 3 gb and will leave 4.35 gb free

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go custom

put 3.5

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7.35 gb available

Select sizr of rootfs file

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GB

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Doesnt m
Let me enter my number only presets

There is 3 not 3.5

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should have some other at bottom?

for direct custom value no?

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No only seeing numbers and thier space

Option 13 is 3 gb

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fine ... whats after 3 ?

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4

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ok go 4

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Now homefs

Default 900 min

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it takes a while to allocate the files on the flash memory btw

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Mib*

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3.5 GB or 4 GB home

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Max option of

3.35

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ok do it ig

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Create live usb swap file?

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dont forget

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no

i think it fails that , but i cant know what version 25 mx does

just skip swap

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Username was auto root

Password i get to choose

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root is root.

user is different

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Mi phone numbar that i used for every linuw i installed for password..

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make both passwords the same to be simple

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it doesnt let me see what i typed

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i think plain user is called 'demo'

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do simple

like admin

or whatever

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I put phone number

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fine

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Now user

Name is demo automatically

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same pw

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Set save mode?

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what r the three options?

i think i chose semi-auto

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Nothing

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next then

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It just tells me

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u must get options

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It gave

Auto ,semi auto

And manual

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go semi-auto

the reason is, if u make some bad admin decision while IN the distro, u have chance at end to NOT save root changes

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Empty desktop

Well

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but ofc, if u install an app and everything is fine, u must tell it to save persistent root changes

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Its just a image

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at rebot time

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Broke???

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letit load

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The background blacked with parts still visible

Oh loaded

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it may need time to format the big root and home files

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Soo now

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u at GUI?

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Y

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With side panel, and mouse, etc?

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Yes

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kool

u can check out mx tweaks straightaway

in the welcome app

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Its telling me user demo password demo

Supeeuser root password root

At mw welcome

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that's just the live ISO

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Mx*

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when not persisting

u can still boot without persistent choice

in which case, those are the passwords

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Now what

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now u can use the system

and customize it

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Like normal

It will save?

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well, not huge fucking stuff

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Can i turn it off now

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change wallpaper

first

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To???

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so u can see next time

to whatever is different

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And how

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right click desktop

check out mx tweaks too, if u want to orient the panel to top or right side or bottom

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Bottom

Ok i rightclicked desktop now what

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should be obvious no?

desktop settings

let wallpaper previews load in

may take a bit

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Done

Now what

I shutdown??

[low stag]

show photo

i want to see your little new personalized setup

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Running out of timeee

Do i get to shut it down

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ok choose the logout /shutdown

it will give prompt at tty to save administrative changes

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Yes

[low stag]

(u made none so far)

but u may say yes anyway

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Yay done

Didnt even ask to take the installation medium out?

Cool

[low stag]

next time if u put the wifi pass , it should remember

[hard sable]

Now usb like stores data on it even tho its live

[low stag]

but u must start with 'persist all'

to enter with the saved environment

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Kay

[low stag]

ok goodnight.

[hard sable]

Kay

Gn ty

[low stag]

you can work more on it tomorrow

or whenever

[hard sable]

Thats why i am rushing

Ama go now

[low stag]

SOLVED (Solution: used MX linux and made a persistent live usb, ventoy, split the drive)

[low stag]

and don't put flatpak at all on this live system. not enough room for that craziness.

[hard sable]

Kay. So now can i do this on the big usb

Firefox thinks i am a robot 🙏

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do not

[hard sable]

Why

Is it gonna gain sentience or smth

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discord.com and get the deb package for debian/mx/ubuntu

[low stag]

flapak in live system is bad

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No i didnt mean that

I meant if i can do the steps that were done in small 16 gb usb

On the 64 gb usb

[low stag]

i think the bigger one is best used as a data and/or ventoy usb

[hard sable]

To get same live system with presistance

Ok ig

[low stag]

i've a feeling the flash cells in it are just not as good

but the smaller one maybe better

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Also is the live supposed to be slow just like the mint install

[low stag]

shouldn't be

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It took minutes to open a firefox tab think smth is wrong

[low stag]

that's not normal

open mx package installer and in its first tab, install palemoon browser

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Done

[low stag]

test it out

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Yeah uhh when i tried to open it first it took minutes i tried opening again and it said its already running and to close the preexisiting window to run it again so i waited like 5 mins till it appeared

Is that normal

[low stag]

firefox?

[hard sable]

It also did same thing

[low stag]

what else is running?

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None

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boot mx live without persistence

and see how it goes

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Noticeably faster at startup

[low stag]

how's the browser behave?

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Faster

[low stag]

open a file manager

go to the SPARE partition of your USB

you probably see an Antix folder there.

or just written as antix

SPARE probably got renamed to Mx-Persist during setup

[hard sable]

Might be in trouble

[low stag]

y?

[hard sable]

When i type in password it says auth failure

[low stag]

regular live mode, the demo password is demo

and root user password is root

[hard sable]

Yeah i tried typing root and demo

[low stag]

see the Welcome app, and try again

also change your keyboard layout in the settings

you can also choose to boot live with the Language/region of your choice option in the MX Live GRUB menu

@hard sable

[hard sable]

Yeah

[low stag]

regular live mode, the demo password is demo
and root user password is root

[hard sable]

Worked on fre- i was typing as if it was french layout

[low stag]

if these letters type wrong, u will have password fail

if on different region keyboard

[hard sable]

Yes it was relabeled to mx presisit

[low stag]

so, what you can try is copy the antix folder to the root of the computer's SSD/HDD

then delete the folder from the usb

might work better on faster storage

u dont even have to delete from the usb, but u SHOULD relabel the partition

[hard sable]

Wouldnt it become a regular usb until used on a specific computer

[low stag]

correct

but if this is being slow , then it's not worth it on this bad flash. both same brand. must be garbage

if the persist files are on computer ssd, then should go much smoother

[hard sable]

I guess

[low stag]

note that to copy the antix folder to the pc ssd, you'll need to open as root

and remember it is about 7.4 GB so will take time to copy over.

[hard sable]

And how can i uhh merge left over space back to the part were i reduced from

[low stag]

you can do from Mint

not while running live

or you can leave it alone

and just reformat the SPARE part to exfat

right now it's been made as ext4

[hard sable]

Yeah it is

[low stag]

this will allow you to save documents to the SPARE from live mx

documents, notes, pictures

[hard sable]

Wait the spare in the usb

[low stag]

yes

[hard sable]

Should i relable it

Ok its exfar SPARE now

[low stag]

ok

did you move the antix folder?

[hard sable]

Copy pasted yes

[low stag]

it's in the base directory of the pc main drive?

the root of its filesystem

[hard sable]

The what

[low stag]

where did u put the folder?

[hard sable]

I used gparted to move it

[low stag]

gparted cannot move a folder

[hard sable]

I copy pasted the partition

Of spare then reduced space

[low stag]

oh

[hard sable]

From the ext4 that has

[low stag]

may i see gparted pic of what the heck you did on the Mint hdd ?

[hard sable]

My stuff and most of space

[low stag]

so you shrank sda4 by 8 binary gigs, then pasted the mx-persist cloned partition in?

[hard sable]

9 gigs

Cuz i dont know whatever small numbers i am not seeing are there

The pasted mx presist

[low stag]

shows 8 GiB sda3 on left pic

[hard sable]

And formated the one on usb to exfat and then spare

Labeled it spare*

[low stag]

oh that's why u have 809 binary gigs left empty now

after sda3

ok i see what u did

[hard sable]

Yes

[low stag]

u over compensated the shrink

[hard sable]

Yes

[low stag]

anyway.. go to the view menu

in gparted

for sda the drive

show device info

what's the model say?

ssd or hdd?

[hard sable]

Ata kingston suv400s

Ssd

[low stag]

ok reboot the computer and test out persistence on mx now

once u choose 'persist all' it will auto-detect the labelled partition (in this case sda3) and begin loading the saved stuff

[hard sable]

It works

[low stag]

booted to desktop ?

[hard sable]

Yes

[low stag]

with your changes present from last night

[hard sable]

Yes

[low stag]

now test opening palemoon

[hard sable]

Didnt make it save that

[low stag]

oh right then firefox

[hard sable]

Faster

[low stag]

should open first time in about 12 seconds

and after you close it, u must wait 5 seconds

to give it time to fully end the app

[hard sable]

Wait so if i leave sufficient space at the big usb can i carry over presistence

And what will happen if there is two presistance partitions

[low stag]

yes. but it would really be best if you used a USB-HDD or USB-SSD

well if they both carry same label, it may get confused.

if they carry a different name or no label at all, then it will ask u via a numeric menu which partition to load up from

[hard sable]

The usb that more looks like a regular ssd

Ama go for a bit now and transfer back the presistance to the usb ig

[low stag]

this is the enclosure for nvme

then u must put an nvme ssd (they come in a few lengths) into it. (sold separately)

[hard sable]

Kay

[low stag]

idk if it will work without making a spare partition and just laying the antix folder onto the ventoy partition. but u can try 😛

you may have to redo ventoy, and do the 'leave space' thing again

[hard sable]

I will delete the spare and then copy paste presistance

And see what happens

[low stag]

you made spare on the big one too?

on the 62 GB drive

[hard sable]

No mean

The usb that originally had presistance

And live mx

[low stag]

the small usb

[hard sable]

Ye

[low stag]

alright well i'll leave u to play around

[hard sable]

Kay

[hard sable]

So i can just move presistance over any pcs storage for faster usage?

or will certain cases fail

[low stag]

yes. that folder named antix with 7.3 Gigs of data

MUST BE IN THE ROOT OF THE DRIVE.

google that sentence if doesnt make sense to u

[hard sable]

In mx live with no presistance after moving presistance back to usb its giving me option to extend the ext4 back to original size. Should i

[low stag]

idk what u mean . show picture of gparted

[low stag]

sure, you can do that

[hard sable]

Ty for help now i have something that works and is fast

[hard sable]

Wait what if i pur mx linuw on big usb leave presistance on 16 gb one and transfer it over to pc and start live version from big usb

[low stag]

you could keep the antix folder stored on one USB stick, such as one with a spare partition of adequate size. then copy it to the computer own hard drive while booted raw live

ie - you dont need to use two separate usb flash drives

[hard sable]

All that needs to be done is existance of the mx presist partition even on other usbs?

[low stag]

this, essentially

[low stag]

yes, it can have no label also, but u will need to choose manually. or just copy the FOLDER

[hard sable]

Oh the folder only is what is needed?

For the presistance i dont need the whole partition with label

[low stag]

pretend this picture is external usb-hdd or usb-ssd . that's how it should look. (sizes scaled up)

[low stag]

#1508194616556519495 message

[hard sable]

Partition in the root of drive with folder of presistance

[low stag]

SOLVED here ^

[hard sable]

sooo this?

[low stag]

what is what there?

define both of what left and right file managers are in

[hard sable]

spare is in usb

mx presist is in the ssd

mounted both of them

and transfered files

from mx presist to spare

spare is in exfat format , mx presist is in ext4

[low stag]

and which usb exactly is it?

[hard sable]

the small one

16 gb

[low stag]

that's how you first had it

and said it was painfully slow

[hard sable]

yeah i am just saying is this right

like it should work so i can do same steps

with other stuff

to transfer the presistance files

[low stag]

to make some portable ssd you mean?

yes that is basically it.

show the 16 gb usb pic from the DISKS app

[hard sable]

so i can carry usb over to anthore computer put the presistance files in its ssd/hdd and use it there

[low stag]

oh ya

and what's the main SSD look like now?

from Disks app

[low stag]

and partition 3 there is now essentially empty, right?

[hard sable]

yes

[low stag]

alright

[hard sable]

i have obtained a adapter and a 256 gb ssd

can i just do what i did here

wait ama actually try booting from it and see whats in it since it was abandoned

[low stag]

external one, right? via thunderbolt and/or USB

[hard sable]

yeah uhhh its a kingfast model f10 256 gb

[low stag]

more interested in the adapter connectivity

[hard sable]

not external i just added an adapter for it to be connected via usb

it has windows on it from what i can tell

[low stag]

and it's a SATA 2.5 inch SSD?

[hard sable]

wasnt able to boot from it

it is an ssd

[low stag]

SATA?

[hard sable]

also is it safe to just keep holding the thing while its connected

so i can read whats on back

[low stag]

serial advanced technology attachment

[low stag]

yes you're going to erase it soon anyway

[hard sable]

yeah it is sata

[low stag]

koo

[hard sable]

yeah its this one right herehttps://kingfast-ssd.com/shop/f10/kingfast-f10-sata3-ssd/

[low stag]

ya boot live stick of whatever distro you like, and unflag the EFI of the internal drive

[hard sable]

wat

[low stag]

all this.

[hard sable]

ok

[low stag]

once unflagged, make a new partition TABLE on the external SSD

as GPT

[hard sable]

wait since its an actual ssd

[low stag]

that is found in the Device menu in gparted

[hard sable]

cant i just like install linux normally

[low stag]

yes but make a GPT first

then choose 'erase and install'

and tell it the right drive

[hard sable]

think ama search for anything important on it first before wiping

it has lots of random games..

nothin of importance

might just make it my main ssd

or just storage

ama just wipe it till i commit to something

all wiped

[low stag]

i said make new partition table

not a new partition

then ensure the efi partition of main drive is unflag and install the distro of choice to watever this drive is

[hard sable]

yeah i did partition table into gpt

then made exfat partition to store stuff in it

[low stag]

i thought u wanted to put a portable linux on it?

u can still later shrink and make some of it exfat or whatever

ext4, and btrfs and ntfs are resizable. fat and exfat are not, fyi

[hard sable]

after i confirm pending operations the bios grub thing changes format to ntfs

[low stag]

then leave it