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The goal: Install a regular Ubuntu Mate system on an USB stick.

What I've done so far:

1) Using an Ubuntu Mate installation USB stick. Selecting another USB stick as target using the default software provided for that, named Ubiquity. Result: Several attempts made, doesn't work. At least the final step - installing grub - fails.

2) Using a freshly installed Ubuntu Mate. Selecting a USB stick as target using the software Ubiquity that comes along with the installation. First: The software titles to install "Kubuntu" not "Ubuntu Mate". Second: It tries to unmount system partitions - the one the current system is using. Result: Doesn't work. Hangs at least after determining the current time over a network time server. The GUI just hangs, no recovery of the application possible.

So could anyone please tell me how to install a regular (not an installation) Ubuntu Mate on an USB stick? My goal is to run Ubuntu from that USB stick later.

Regis May
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  • Thanx for the link. Unfortnately: UNetbootin did not work. I just tried it. The installation process succeeds but I don't get the boot device listed. Research showed using the Dell form: he BIOS seems can not find a boot loader there. Besides I'm not sure if UNetbootin did the trick as it asked me for how much space I might want to preserve for keeping persistent data on the stick. – Regis May Feb 01 '18 at 21:32
  • Universal USB Installer does not do the trick either as it seems to only copy the ISO to the USB stick. This is not installation. – Regis May Feb 01 '18 at 21:34
  • Have to have a look at this refind next. – Regis May Feb 01 '18 at 21:39
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    Obviously neither UNetbootin or Universal USB Installer would work here when you're trying to do a full install of Ubuntu MATE on a USB stick. rEFInd – karel Feb 01 '18 at 21:39
  • Thanx - then mentioning that at the target URL would be an error. – Regis May Feb 01 '18 at 21:51
  • That very very simple problem seems to require many hours of research and research. It worked right out of the box some years ago and now it doesn't! I can't continue on that today. I'll get back to that problem next week :-( – Regis May Feb 01 '18 at 22:09
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    I personally think that a full installation of Ubuntu on any external media except for an SSD is a waste of time because a USB flash drive is not the right device for the job. Having tried it, my experience is that getting the bootloader installed correctly is the trickiest part. – karel Feb 01 '18 at 22:13
  • There use cases that make this option attractive: This should be a more-or-less emergency system. With some precautions frequent writes can be avoided. I've done that before with regular drives where even the disk with the root drive should remain sleeping most of the time. – Regis May Feb 01 '18 at 22:16
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – karel Feb 01 '18 at 22:18

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