On 5/26/25 3:32 AM, riveravaldez wrote:

Hi, I would like to make a minimal Debian Stable -with only the packages I need- available as a LiveUSB bootable system (nomadic, USB-stick, which I
can use in any desktop/laptop) with persistence and some way to upgrade it when next Stable gets published. Is there a standard procedure to achieve this? [snip]

Do you *NEED* a "live system"? ?????

Your phraseology and decades in a support role suggest otherwise.

My formal programming background is limited to an introductory course as
an E.E. undergrad in 61/62 - though I did maintenance coding in
assembler back when the 8085 was fairly new. Most of my employment was
analog instrumentation related.

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On 5/26/25 01:32, riveravaldez wrote:

Hi, I would like to make a minimal Debian Stable -with only the packages I need- available as a LiveUSB bootable system (nomadic, USB-stick, which I
can use in any desktop/laptop) with persistence and some way to upgrade it when next Stable gets published. Is there a standard procedure to achieve this?

In the Wiki I've found:

https://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/LiveUsbPersistence

But it starts stating: «*Caution*: This needs an overhaul to reflect USB stick layout changes (ESP partition). Could not reproduce it working with a debian-live-11.2-amd64 image.»

Anyway, the steps seem pretty similar to these ones, from Kali (Debian based):

https://www.kali.org/docs/usb/usb-persistence/

It could be something similar to what MX (antiX based, which is Debian
based) does: a non-writable LiveUSB bootable system (loading on RAM), and a couple of rootfs/homefs files that got the changes (from RAM) written upon when time is convenient (e.g., when shutting down).
And maybe the LiveUSB bootable part could just be overwritten when a new Debian Stable gets published?

Couldn't find more info online, so, maybe someone could point me in the
right direction to keep reading...

Kind regards, everybody, and thanks a lot in advance!

I used to install Debian onto SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 16 GB flash
drives, to use for headless servers and to use as a portable Debian installation for imaging, maintenance, trouble-shooting, etc.. USB
flash drives do not have a substantial RAM buffer, so interactive use
was choppy.


Now I connect a SATA to USB adapter cable to a 2.5" SATA SSD and install
Debian onto the SSD:

https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/usb3s2sat3cb


David

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On Mon, May 26, 2025 at 10:11:50AM -0700, David Christensen wrote:

On 5/26/25 01:32, riveravaldez wrote:

Hi, I would like to make a minimal Debian Stable -with only the packages I need- available as a LiveUSB bootable system (nomadic, USB-stick, which I can use in any desktop/laptop) with persistence and some way to upgrade it when next Stable gets published. Is there a standard procedure to achieve this?

I used to install Debian onto SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 16 GB flash drives, to use for headless servers and to use as a portable Debian installation for imaging, maintenance, trouble-shooting, etc.. USB flash drives do not have
a substantial RAM buffer, so interactive use was choppy.

Now I connect a SATA to USB adapter cable to a 2.5" SATA SSD and install Debian onto the SSD:

https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/usb3s2sat3cb

I can recommend this as an approach: the good quality cables now are very
fast.

If your equipment is modern enough to have USB C ports, it is very helpful
to use an NVME disk in a good quality external housing which is *much* faster than a USB flash drive. Cheaper flash drivers may also have problems with wear levelling

All the very best, as ever,

Andy Cater
(amacater@debian.org)

David

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On Mon, 26 May 2025 05:32:21 -0300
riveravaldez <riveravaldezmail@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, I would like to make a minimal Debian Stable -with only the
packages I need- available as a LiveUSB bootable system (nomadic,
USB-stick, which I can use in any desktop/laptop) with persistence
and some way to upgrade it when next Stable gets published. Is there
a standard procedure to achieve this?

In the Wiki I've found:

https://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/LiveUsbPersistence

But it starts stating: «*Caution*: This needs an overhaul to reflect
USB stick layout changes (ESP partition). Could not reproduce it
working with a debian-live-11.2-amd64 image.»

Anyway, the steps seem pretty similar to these ones, from Kali (Debian based):

https://www.kali.org/docs/usb/usb-persistence/

It could be something similar to what MX (antiX based, which is Debian
based) does: a non-writable LiveUSB bootable system (loading on RAM),
and a couple of rootfs/homefs files that got the changes (from RAM)
written upon when time is convenient (e.g., when shutting down).
And maybe the LiveUSB bootable part could just be overwritten when a
new Debian Stable gets published?

Couldn't find more info online, so, maybe someone could point me in
the right direction to keep reading...

Kind regards, everybody, and thanks a lot in advance!

There should be no problem about making a standard Debian installation
from the netinstall image on USB or optical media, specifying your USB
drive as the device to install to using the Expert installation option,
and also to install grub to.

I did this many years ago using a (really) pocket-sized USB hard drive
with a 160GB 1.8" drive and USB on the drive PCB itself. I did it mainly because my netbook had an early SSD, which was only 8GB in size and unbelievably slow. The external mechanical 1.8" drive was far faster.
As it was a 32-bit computer, I ended up with a portable Debian which
would boot on anything vaguely x86.

--
Joe

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On 5/26/25 13:02, David Wright wrote:

On Mon 26 May 2025 at 10:11:50 (-0700), David Christensen wrote:

Now I connect a SATA to USB adapter cable to a 2.5" SATA SSD and
install Debian onto the SSD:

https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/usb3s2sat3cb

Can you boot it on both BIOS and EFI machines, like the Debian live images?

Cheers,
David.

I have not managed that trick -- I have one SSD that with BIOS/MBR
Debian and another SDD with secure UEFI/GPT Debian.


David

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