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I found this tutorial but ended up with an unbootable Ubuntu which loads into GNU GRUB command prompt and cannot proceed further.

Is there a reliable way to do this?

Zanna
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Subhassh Mahenthren
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  • You can get a system that is portable between many computers, but not all. A persistent live system is more portable, but there are several advantages with an installed system, so good luck to create an installed system, that will work in the computers where you need it :-) – sudodus Feb 18 '18 at 15:59
  • @sudodus Your linked duplicate question is worthy of being reopened, so I voted to reopen it. As a general rule I don't CV bounty questions. – karel Feb 18 '18 at 16:30
  • Do you need your system to boot 32-bit as well as 64-bit computers, in BIOS mode as well as in UEFI mode, with simple graphics as well as high performance graphics cards, and with several wifi chips? (Some graphics and wifi hardware need proprietary drivers, that make the installation exclusive.) Please tell us which kind of computers, that must work with the portable system. – sudodus Feb 18 '18 at 17:11
  • i just want a separate ubuntu and a dedicated efi partition for it, such that it wont affect the already installed windows in any way.. since uefi is supported i am opting for its advantages.. primarily i will be using it on a single system only but since the blog i read suggests such capability so i am trying to test it out.. other than that i am happy if it just runs smooth without disturbing internal hdd or windows partitions, thanks for the responses – Subhassh Mahenthren Feb 18 '18 at 17:37
  • 1. *If you can disconnect/unplug the internal drive* in one computer, it will be rather easy to install Ubuntu in UEFI mode and get a dedicated efi system partition in a portable external drive. See the link in my first comment; 2. *Otherwise,* if you cannot disconnect/unplug the internal drive, you can try according to the advice of @oldfred in a comment to WinEunuuchs2Unix's answer, and other advice of oldfred, for example http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295 – sudodus Feb 19 '18 at 06:59
  • wow! lots of stuff there.. thanks a lot @sudodus – Subhassh Mahenthren Feb 19 '18 at 12:01
  • You are welcome and good luck :-) – sudodus Feb 19 '18 at 12:17
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    I made a workaround by using super grub-2 , and boot-repair. first i installed supergrub2 on a pendrive with rufus, booted into it, chose manual boot option, it scanned and showed an option from .cfg in msdos3 (ie sda3 which is my /boot partition) so i clicked that and it went into ubuntu smoothly, only thing is it was not possible without the pendrive even after update-grub cmd inside ubuntu, so did the same went into ubuntu and installed boot-repair, clicked recommended repair. i works like a charm now, now i can choose between windows and ubuntu in uefi menu. – Subhassh Mahenthren Feb 19 '18 at 20:13
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    if it helps anyone here is the boot-repair created info on before[http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/9SDT8j5RsJ/] and after[http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/Gq7t57VTjw/] repair of the boot, and grub files – Subhassh Mahenthren Feb 19 '18 at 20:15
  • @sudodus i am not able to answer this thread, the above mentioned workaround may help anyone anyway to make it an answer rather a comment – Subhassh Mahenthren Feb 19 '18 at 20:18
  • Congratulations and thanks for sharing your solution :-) – sudodus Feb 19 '18 at 20:22

1 Answers1

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No

Each computer / laptop you want to run Ubuntu on can have different video cards and drivers meaning the kernel boot parameters might need changing.

Better option

Your best bet would be to make a Live-Boot USB with persistent storage.

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WinEunuuchs2Unix
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  • thanks and sry i forgot to put the link to the tutorial i saw.. now i edited the description.. pls check out, the guy claims to create a any system bootable external ubuntu drive – Subhassh Mahenthren Feb 18 '18 at 16:15
  • @SubhasshMahenthren The fact you want to run it on **any computer** changes the way it needs to be done. It will still be on a USB Thumb Drive / Pen Drive that will fit in your pocket though. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Feb 18 '18 at 16:18
  • ok, can u help me in my present condition, i followed the link i told u about and ended up messing the ubuntu boot, so now i am able to see two different uefi entires one for windows and one for ubuntu , windows is working as expected which i am very happy about, but if i choose uefi ubuntu it goes into (grub >) gnu grub prompt, i tried some commands there, 'boot' resulted in load kernal first, i also tried set root and set prefix commands.. no luck any suggestions to point the boot files from grub and boot to it.. NOTE: i have separate partitions for 'swap', 'efi', '/boot', '/' . – Subhassh Mahenthren Feb 18 '18 at 16:27
  • You may need to just reinstall grub or do Advanced mode full uninstall/reinstall of grub. Best to see details. Post the link to the Create BootInfo summary report. Is part of Boot-Repair: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Info – oldfred Feb 18 '18 at 16:29
  • Oh... so you want a dual boot Windows / Ubuntu external USB Thumbdrive that will work on **any computer**? That changes things considerably. I'm afraid I wouldn't know where to start building such a Frankenstein. But I see *oldfred* has stepped up to the plate and he's a master :) – WinEunuuchs2Unix Feb 18 '18 at 16:30
  • thanks for the replies.. will update if i figure out some ways.. – Subhassh Mahenthren Feb 18 '18 at 16:54
  • @SubhasshMahenthren No problem. Please consider a Ubuntu only live-USB boot though because if Windows is already installed on the target system you can simply boot it there normally and choose to boot from pendrive when you want to run Ubuntu externally. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Feb 18 '18 at 17:05
  • finally did some workaround using supergrub2 and boot-repair as explained in the other comment area. – Subhassh Mahenthren Feb 19 '18 at 20:27