Five Ways to Non-destructively Test Linux
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- Today we look at five way you can try Linux without changing your existing computer installation.
#linux #windows #computers
00:00 - Intro
01:05 - Virtualization
03:58 - Livekey / Persistence
07:12 - External Drive Install
09:39 - Install A New Internal Drive
12:24 - Buy Another Used Computer
15:19 - Wrap Up
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The 5th way is how I found myself getting into Linux. I was getting old laptops from Goodwill and installing Linux Mint. In the earliest instance, I was able to swap the SSD from one laptop, to another, to another; one Linux installation swapped between 3 laptops, and I never spent over $80 collectively.
I love these outdoor talks. Really unique. Thanks.
Internal drives and persistence are my preferred methods of trying distros.
I just put together a computer with 'obsolete' parts that I had to play around with mx linux
Running from a USB drive on a laptop can be frustrating in itself, as the laptop might not be as mobile as before; worse when you figure out that Linux Mint won't work with Intel's Rapid Storage Tech on the Dell laptop; which is installed with the RAID setting in the BIOS; changing the setting to AHCI ends up with WIndows no longer booting; finally gave up and just RESET windows to reinstall; took about an extra hour or so. This laptop can handle like 4 internal drives; 3 NVME + one 2.5 inch. Anyways, finally gave up and installed to a spare NVME drive internal. Due to limited USB ports, sometimes using a DOCK, and my choice in wireless mice, well , the laptop wasn't really portable anymore - so, decided to bite the bullet and install to an internal NVME, despite the pain points.
Reality is that I should, and I might still, - just load LM on a mini-PC running N100 and go from there ( tied to a 4 port KVM ) .. The laptop is for a mobile solution moving forward. Been using Windows since 1993; so I find LM is significantly easier to use than OpenSuse and Fedora from when I tried those about 10 years ago.
Nature and Linux, it does not get any better than that!
I have a noncompliant computer with Linux Mint and a switching hub to switch the monitor, keyboard, and mouse from my Windows 11 system (inexpensive).
On a Windows 11 PC I removed the M.2 drive, connected an SSD, and loaded Linux Mint on the SSD. Then reinstalled the M.2 and inserted the Mint SSD into a USB docking station. It took me some time making changes in the BIOS before I was able to boot on the Mint SSD when the USB docking station was turned on or boot on Windows 11 if the USB docking station was turned off.
(I personally didn't care for MXLinux {or Ubuntu} after running Linux Mint for quite a few years but a lot of it has to do with what programs you want to run.)
another great video from maybe the best and most comprehensible and realistic linux advocate. p.s i chose the virtualization and Virtualbox about 10 years ago. in one day of experimenting, i made up my mind and formated my windows drive in order to install manjaro linux (thank you once again, Spatry. i hope you are well!).
Linux Mint on USB flash drive for me on systems that has only one SSD slot..
the original drive was removed prior to installation of LM...
upon finishing installation, reinstall the original drive and set it for secondary boot, the USB Linux are primary default boot.
one good thing about the USB Flash drive Linux ....it makes the Linux system 'portable'
SBCs like Raspberry Pi is another way to test linux.... it actually reignited my interest in linux when I got my first Raspberry Pi 3B using it as my daily driver, and for electronics tinkering...
@Switched to Linux There is one other VM-tool which you haven't made a video on while it is FOSS: kvm. Try it out with virt-manager, it is pretty good. You can even quite easily passthrough your graphics card to the guest-OS if your hardware is normal (with a selfbuild PC that should be the case these days, it is about IOMMU-mapping which basically is an 'address system' for your hardware). The only downside of kvm is that you can only use it on Linux, so it is less revant for this particular video but if you test a Linux-distro or use Windows in a VM then kvm is better than Virtualbox, 100% certain.
Ubuntu 24.04 series fixed the boot loader issue with their new installer. So that's another option for external drive installs.
Old ThinkPads are cheap (espically in the US) and usually work well.
Ebay has old Hp/dell/lenovo commercial computers you can buy for under $100 dollars and put linux on them. They will probably need a cheap gpu or a hard drive depending on the cpu in them. Most of them will come with on-board graphics. If they say they have a Xeno cpu they will need a GPU as Xeno chips do not come with onboard graphics. I bought a Hp elitedesk computer complete for $48 including shipping. I am typing this on it now. I have had win10 win11 and linux on it with no problems. I5 4570/8g ddr3/rx550/512g SSD/ 320 watt original PSU. Win11 23h2.
I a old macbook pro that is run MX Linux well . Well to build Laptop
Nice park
For installing a second HD, don't you have to tell Linux about the Windows drive so that you can boot either.
You can choose which drive to call the bootloader on. Neither one needs to know about the other.
VMWare is problematic on a LAN where everybody runs VMWare, say in a lecture room, since it tries to find other machines running VMWare. VirtualBox is equivalent, but it can only run on one machine. qemu needs to be mentioned too. It is easier to install a guest OS on it nowadays, but it is still quirky. And it is slow. VirtualBox is much easier to handle, even though it has quirky mouse stealing bugs that can be circumvented by an effort.
Want to try this out by installing on some older hardware I have. I did try to do this many years ago but found it didn't run very well and gave up. So are there recommended specs for the version of Linux you like to use? I went to the Mint website and the FAQ didn't give me any real useful information. Just disk, ram and monitor info, nothing about CPU/GPU/etc.
Also, is there a video you've done on the various distributions to help me decide which might be the best for what I want to use it for? Windows is basically Windows and I know that well, along with most of Mac, but there are WAY too many distros of Linux for me to know which might work best for me.
Finally, is there a distro that might work better on laptop? And one that might support a touch display if I go that route? One device I tried Linux on years ago was a tablet and the touch aspect was definitely not as nice as Windows was on it.
Thank you for the videos, they've been helpful as I make my way out of MANY years of using windows. Though to be fair I was using various versions of *nix MANY years ago, even before Windows or Mac OS was a thing. LOL
A bit more detail on what I had tried, it was on a Acer Iconia Tab W500 that I was messing with way back then and I think it was Ubuntu, was supposed to support touch/tablets but didn't support it very well on that device. Could just be that hardware is too low power. I have newer hardware I can test on and might be getting a used device to mess with newer versions of desktop linux on but would like to have it be more successful than I was in the past.
One thing I just realized, that old device only had 2G ram and seems the website says 4 is recommended so that could have been a major issue with what I tried. I might just have to try a newer version if Mint to see what it's like on it in comparison. Likely would need something with at least a bit more ram for sure.
Would I need to wipe the portable hard drive before installing Linux, or would it not affect the other files I have on it?
Generally it does. You can select to partition the drive yourself....but you need to check the distro documentation to get the correct partitioning configuration.
if i buy a external hdd can i clone the linux installation of the usb drive to a external ssd/hdd ?
technically possible with the dd command but you really need to know what you're doing, and there's the potential for it to be painfully slow depending on your hardware. Instead of buying an external "Drive", buy a regular laptop-sized solid state drive, and an hard-drive-to-usb enclosure. That way, you can swap drives. Then, remove all drives from your desktop, put the blank drive in, install linux natively, and you'll have the most seamless experience when you put it into your enclosure.
@@electricalbatross5797 it is a laptop not a desktop so i cant remove the ssd easily....
@@xgui4-studios Ahh I see. Yeah in that case you can try cloning your flash drive install onto an external, but honestly I would just reinstall clean, then boot into your external hard drive os and manually move the important files off the flashdrive. That way you're not cloning an entire uncompressed OS from one drive to another. Just be mindful if you're installing Mint, it'll put the bootloader on the internal SSD even if you tell it not to, which honestly isn't a problem if your laptop is the only computer you plan to use the drive on.
Also be very VERY careful not to wipe your internal SSD, you might want to get an external drive with a different storage capacity so you don't confuse the two during install.
There is a distro called "Clonezilla" that will allow you to mirror one drive to another. Sometimes it does not like cloning HDD to USB Flash, but USB Flash to SSD or HDD should work. Here is a video on it:
ruclips.net/video/Gepqnjj0iVc/видео.html
Wouldn't it be easier to just copy the iso to the external drive then just set it up on the drive? I know the files wouldn't transfer but the Os would be on it and the files could then be copied onto it.
How's life in a Van anyway? I did it back in the 70's (I was a young kid) hitchhiking 3 years through America. And where haven't you been yet? No need to answer... Just curious. 👍
Been in all the lower 48. Prior to the van I had been in all the lower except ND,WA,OR, but I went camping through all those last year. Pretty good van lifing these days as the tech allows all the modern comforts on the road.
@@SwitchedtoLinux good luck to you ... enjoy life.