How to install Porteus onto a USB stick on a linux file system

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EloyKra?
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How to install Porteus onto a USB stick on a linux file system

Post#1 by EloyKra? » 04 Oct 2024, 02:01

This tutorial is only for those who don't have a second drive, nor an optical disk reader, nor a SD card reader. Only one USB stick and a Windows system.
Also, note that I won't show ANY images because I do not know how to import images to this forum.
First, you'll need to download the version of Porteus you want. You're not using ir right away, but it's best to be prepared.
If you have important data on your stick, copy it now!
On Windows, search for "Disk Management" or "Create and format..."
Now, below, search for your stick by the size and label.
Once found, right click the label, or any part of the box that contains it, and click "Delete partition". (CAUTION! This WILL wipe ALL files on your USB stick!)
Once done, create two partitions by right clicking on the same place and clicking "New simple partition"
The first one, can be as you like. It'll be for the ext4 installation. (Windows can not format a drive as ext4, so first format it as any other... You'll learn why in a moment)
The second one, format it as FAT32, or NTFS.
Now, remember the letter that was assigned to the second one and exit that application
Install Porteus normally onto the second one.
Once done, boot into it.
Now, open the "Porteus Installer" under the System tab.
Click on "Partition manager"
Now, above, there should be a drop down menu. click it and select your usb. (If you don't know which one is it, try selecting all of them until one matches the size)
Once there, select the first partition and delete it.
Now, create another one in its place. (Format it as ext4 this time)
Then, apply all changes, and when it's done, close everything but the installer.
Mount the ext4 partition, select it and click install.
When it's done, now you can just restart to windows, and format the second partition freely.
The next time you boot onto the stick, you'll do so in the ext4 partition.
Now you can use your stick as the porteus installation disk + Windows compatible storage.
Or you can allocate every single byte for Porteus by deleting the second partition and extending the first one to the second one was.
:thumbsup:

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Ed_P
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How to install Porteus onto a USB stick on a linux file system

Post#2 by Ed_P » 04 Oct 2024, 06:19

To boot on EFI systems the USB drive needs a FAT32 partition. 512MB should be more than enough for it.
To create partitions on the USB drive using Windows open a Command Prompt with Amin Rights and run diskpart. And create the EFI partition as Primary.
To the USB drive's EFI partition you must copy the Porteus ISO's /EFI & /boot folders to it.

If you create a 2nd partition on the USB drive and copy the /porteus folder to it you must change the Porteus boot menu to point to the 2nd partition.

Be sure to read the USB_INSTALLATION.txt file in the Porteus ISO file.

:)

EloyKra?
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How to install Porteus onto a USB stick on a linux file system

Post#3 by EloyKra? » 04 Oct 2024, 23:49

Ed_P wrote:
04 Oct 2024, 06:19
To boot on EFI systems the USB drive needs a FAT32 partition. 512MB should be more than enough for it.
To create partitions on the USB drive using Windows open a Command Prompt with Amin Rights and run diskpart. And create the EFI partition as Primary.
To the USB drive's EFI partition you must copy the Porteus ISO's /EFI & /boot folders to it.

If you create a 2nd partition on the USB drive and copy the /porteus folder to it you must change the Porteus boot menu to point to the 2nd partition.

Be sure to read the USB_INSTALLATION.txt file in the Porteus ISO file.

:)
Not a good explanation. Did not understand

benkenobi36
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How to install Porteus onto a USB stick on a linux file system

Post#4 by benkenobi36 » 05 Oct 2024, 06:52

To boot on EFI systems from a USB drive there needs to be a special FAT32 partition .
To create this partition on the USB drive using Porteus open Gparted . and create a Primary. FAT32 partition with at least 100MB on the USB
Next in Gparted right click on this FAT32 Partition , click manage flags , click boot and esp

To the USB drive FAT32 partition you just created copy from the Porteus .ISO file the /EFI & /boot folders
create a 2nd partition on the USB drive with ext4 label it MAIN
then copy the /porteus folder to it from the Porteus .ISO ,then you must change the Porteus boot menu to point to the 2nd partition by adding from=LABEL:MAIN on all of the append lines of /boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg found on the USB's FAT32 partition

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Ed_P
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How to install Porteus onto a USB stick on a linux file system

Post#5 by Ed_P » 06 Oct 2024, 03:59

EloyKra? wrote:
04 Oct 2024, 23:49
Not a good explanation. Did not understand
In the Porteus ISO file there are 3 folders and a readable text file named USB_INSTALLATION.txt which describes how to install Porteus.

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