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I have a single USB drive and Ubuntu 18.04 has been installed on it. I want to convert this drive to Linux on USB, meaning that Ubuntu gets installed on the USB drive as a standard installation that is writable and whatnot. How can this be done? When I try to format the USB drive (which has Ubuntu running live from RAM) using GNOME Disks, I get the following message:

Error unmounting filesystem
Error unmounting /dev/sdb: target is busy (udisks-error-quark, 14)

This appears to be because it is not obvious how to unmount the root partition. How should I approach this problem?

BlandCorporation
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    Are you trying to install Ubuntu onto a partition that happens to be running the Installer? You cannot repair a bicycle while riding it, and the installer will similarly refuse to install over itself. – user535733 Jun 07 '18 at 18:36
  • I don't quite understand how a live distribution works, but I understood that the USB drive is not writable by default, so the distribution runs entirely out of RAM. That suggested to me that it would be possible to launch the live distribution to RAM and then wipe the USB drive. – BlandCorporation Jun 07 '18 at 18:41
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    It's possible, but difficult, and certainly not for the unskilled. You must disable several layers of protection. Much easier to simply install to a second USB drive. – user535733 Jun 07 '18 at 18:44
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    Yes, it is possible, if you boot the live Ubuntu with the boot option toram, but if you make a minor mistake, you must start over from the iso file and make it a USB live drive again, so the advice by @user535733 is good. You can get (buy, borrow) a cheap USB pendrive or memory card (size 2 GB or more) and make it a USB boot drive (the card via a USB adapter). Then you can create an installed system in the other USB drive (size 8 GB or more and best if a fast USB 3 drive). See this link – sudodus Jun 07 '18 at 18:56
  • See "Can Ubuntu be installed to the pendrive it was booted from?" https://askubuntu.com/questions/855039/can-ubuntu-be-installed-to-the-pendrive-it-was-booted-from – C.S.Cameron Jun 08 '18 at 14:51

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