Arlon's How to install Linux in entirety for free* without actually changing your computer permanently

Arlon's
How to install Linux in entirety for free* without actually changing your computer permanently: Formerly known as Live CD distributions, lots of Linux distributions can boot your computer from a flash drive, CD or DVD. You would think this would mean it will be slow - it's not - lots of times this is really fast - even faster than booting from disk! There are lots of ways to do it, but I'll list one or two ways here, easy ways, the way I do it. Since the first step is to pick a Linux - the latter steps being transient make the first step easier - which is - which Linux distribution do I pick?

I have had super good results with compatibility with Linux Mint 20.1 - and I pick the XFCE version, for having Compiz, my favorite window manager. Mint has great compatibility with 64 bit programs - I can run the latest Chrome, Eclipse, Mongo DB, Spring Boot, JDBC, SuperTuxKart, ExtremeTuxRacer, Wine64 with Notepad++, FreeFileSync, Geany, NotepadQQ and still have Compiz and Window Snapping and a transparent and colorful console. You install Mint from ISO - and you can install to a flash drive - and - with Mint's Grub bootloader - you can install others in parallel on the same flash drive - I don't have any quad-boot flash drives yet but I have several with triple boot - Knoppix, Mint & Slax.

Knoppix is a heavyweight as far as what it can do. It's a rare computer that it won't boot off a Knoppix flash drive. I like the latest three versions, 9.1 for maximum compatibility, 8.6.1 for a few things 9.1 won't, and 8.1 for stability and an earlier version of PHP I still use. Knoppix won't run all 64 bit programs like Mint will, but overall I think I like it a little better for how much it comes with to start - you get a fully set up development environment that boots faster than windows - and boot in this case is equivalent to install - because it's on flash - it actually installs to RAM- faster than windows can even boot - and with a full development environment ready to go when it comes up. It has Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, Java, C++, C, Python, Eclipse, Wine, Geany, BlueFish code editor all pre-installed. I just add tap-to-click and a few of my own additions like Notepad++ portable (which is built for windows but runs great in Wine on Knoppix, Mint and Slax) and FreeFileSync.

Slax is super light-weight and can

apt update;apt upgrade

where that would break Knoppix and I think Mint too - you can't always just 'upgrade' every distribution because of custom dependencies - Slax is lightweight, comes with just enough, and you can 'upgrade' it. I think that means it's more powerful overall for flexibility, than heavier ones - but comes with a lot less stuff pre-installed. I really like it for it's super clean look and feel and for it being super light weight - and also for it being able to boot older computers and run good on older computers.

Those three OS's are all based on Debian - also a heavyweight for compatibility. I don't know what it comes pre-installed with but I read you can use Debian directly these days just like Knoppix, Mint and Slax.

I know the most about Knoppix, second most about Mint, third probably Debian and fourth Slax. I know just a tiny bit about the rest. I know if I boot Slackware I can't do much because I don't know all the commands - I read Slackware is the oldest still-running distribution - and it seems like one of the coolest. Slax was originally based on Slackware but is now based on Debian - which is easier for me to use anyway (for now).

Deepin looks like Mac, I don't know Macs too well but I hear it's a better-than-good knockoff. I read the same about Peppermint at one point. There are a ton of them, making it seemingly hard to pick which one to try first. What I did a few years back when Windows malware 10 was updating when I told it not to was try a bunch of linuxes to see how far I could get with each one. I'd actually had a copy of Knoppix 3.6 since about 2003 or something when it was called 'Games Knoppix' - I think it was one of the if not the first to be able to boot off a flash drive. Being able to use Knoppix like I used Windows was what led me to initially pick Knoppix as my go-to replacement for Windows - I can do almost everything with it with equal-or-greater ease than Windows (7). At this point in time there is literally one single reason - and it's a small, and shrinking reason - for me to even have a Windows install - it's just a certain peice of proprietary software I can't get to run on Mint or Knoppix, and it's also a peice of software I hope to replace at some point - or just move beyond needing, completely. So I can easily straight recommend Mint, and if you don't need 64 bit software, Knoppix. Knoppix comes with a ton of developer's software and has quite a personality with Compiz as it's window manager, so if it had all 64 bit programs it would beat Mint, in my book, by just a little, just for personality. Knoppix has a blind person mode too, with an audio based computing interface, built for blind people to be able to use computers!

Ok, so step one, pick a distribution. Step 2, install it. Here's how you can install to a flash drive. To install there are several steps. You'll download the ISO file for the distribution you pick, burn the ISO file to a flash drive, then boot your computer with the ISO flash drive. If it's Knoppix this actually has persistence as-is, you can even JUST use the ISO flash if you want to. I don't quite understand how that has persistence, but it does. The other ISOs don't quite work that way. So anyways I usually use the ISO to install to a different flash drive. Knoppix has a desktop icon, 'Burn Knoppix to Flash' which does that.

To burn the ISO to a flashdrive from within Windows, after you download the ISO, use freeware Win32 Disk Imager, or freeware NoviCorp Win2Flash, and I'm sure there are lots of others. Windows might even let you do that natively, right click, burn ISO? I read that somewhere, so not sure about that last sentence. I always use Win32 Disk Imager, freeware, portable. I used to always use NoviCorp Win2Flash too. If you're already in Linux, the (GUI) program to do this in Linux is Balena Etcher. You could probably do it with command line tools like 'dd' too, but I'm not sure.

• So now you have a flash drive with a Linux ISO burned to it. This will boot your computer if you know how to make it.
• You have to tell your computer to boot that flash drive.
• It depends on where you are starting from.
• If you're in Windows 10, hold shift, reboot with shift held down, find the boot USB option in the blue windows setup boot screens.
• If you're on an older computer, it's f8, f2, f12, escape, delete, or some random F-key on reboot- to get into the bios, or the boot menu.
• You just need your BIOS to boot your flash drive, or the boot menu to boot it.
• If you have a newer computer, it's going to have secure boot turned on. I think there is a way to make that secure boot recognize Mint or Knoppix, I always just turn it off and make it easy.
• This could be a tricky part - figuring out how to get into your computer's BIOS. Once you figure it out - it's the same every time.

So now you know how to boot your flash drive with your Linux ISO on it.

This boots an ISO - if it's not Knoppix you'll need to install from here - The Mint and the Knoppix ISOs have an 'Install Mint' or an 'Install Knoppix to Flash' icon on the desktop. That's how you install it. With Mint, be careful to choose your install location carefully as your flash drive - select your flash drive in the dropdown after 'Something Else' - and install a new partition on your flash drive as ext4 that boots '/' (that will make more sense when you see the install dialog.)

Slax is a little different - just follow it's read-me file - they're all just a little different it seems like.

And here's how you can make a triple-boot flash drive with Knoppix, Mint, and Slax on it! (Which will even know how to skip past itself and boot your windows install, too!) I think this only works on slightly older computers - not EFI boot ones - but you could try it:

1. Install Knoppix with a small OS partition and a large data partition (you'll see that option in the install)
2. Use GParted to shrink the large data partition and move it to the right end - and also move the OS partition to the right end of the drive - both Knoppix partitions will be situated at the right end of the drive, the left front end of the drive being free, unallocated space at this point.
3. Install Mint - and make a middle partition (Primary - ext4) - for Slax. Again, Mint will be on an ext4 partition at the beginning of the drive and boot '/' (again, that will make more sense in the dialog you'll see.)
4. Boot the newly installed Mint.
5. Find the Slax partition you made - chown the dir ("

   chown -R username:username .;

   ") and copy the slax files to it.
6. Install slax with:

7. chmod +x /whereverSlaxIs/slax/boot/bootinst.sh;/whereverSlaxIs/slax/boot/bootinst.sh # (This line is just the regular slax-install instructions)

8. At this point - your flash drive will boot slax - but not Knoppix, or Mint - even though they are there, on the flash drive. In fact it actually depends on your computer - some newer computers will still just boot Mint at this point.
9. Slax can

   apt update;apt upgrade; #and that won't break it, like it would some of the others.

   So right now, at this stage, the flash drive has all three OSs on it, but only Slax boots it (again, depending on your hardware.)
10. To make it so all three will be accessible via a boot menu,
    Install Mint (again.)
    Now just Mint will boot, not Knoppix or Slax.
11. Open the Menu>System>Sofware Manager
12. Install Grub Customizer - optionally Sabily Theme for Grub gives it a green boot menu screen with an image of a horse rider in a desert sunset - I haven't gotten any other themes to work with it.
13. Open Grub Customizer - click the '+' icon (add a boot entry)
14. Name the entry Knoppix, Slax, or whatever it is - and a second one for the other one - one for Knoppix, one for Slax, (there's already one there for Mint.)
15. The first dropdown, select 'Chainloader' and the second dropdown, select the partition with the OS you want to boot. Hit Save.
16. Next tab: boot preference: boot previously booted entry (that part doesn't always work, but it's helpful if it does. ) Save.
17. That's it - right now - your flash drive will ask you when you boot whether you want Slax, Knoppix, or Mint, and it will probably also list your Windows install too there.
18. If Mint doesn't know about some package don't forget to 'sudo apt update' (but not upgrade, unless you test in VirtualBox first, and that doesn't break your system.)

I figured all this out on my own over years of experimentation - so it definitely works - and I can provide any further details if part of this isn't clear enough. One tip I learned is that not all flash drives are as good as others. Even not all USB 3 flash drives are good. I have had the best results from SanDisk flash drives, and 100% positive results over the years from SanDisk UltraFit 3.1 flash drives (Amazon, Best Buy, etc.) Recently I even found some mini-USB-MicroSD cardreaders that let you boot off a MicroSD card! That goes through USB 2.0 interface so it's a little slower but super neato for being able to boot my entire computer - with a choice of three different operating systems - off such a tiny flake of a piece of media as a MicroSD card. Mostly just for novelty - but if I become an international top-secret spy this could become important.

Amazon SanDisk UltraFit 3.1: https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-256GB-Ultra-Flash-Drive/dp/B07857Y17V
Amazon Mini-Card Readers: https://www.amazon.com/Sandisk-Mobile-MicroMate-microSDHC-SDDR-121/dp/B001QLFNCC

That seems like a lot of instructions but it just looks like that - it's a fun project, I do it all the time for fun. You need at least two flash drives - one for the ISO - one for the install. For triple boot, the easiest way (since you'll probably make a mistake at some point and have to start over) is to just have a bunch of flash drives on hand. You might think you could re-write and re-use - and you can - but do it a bunch of times - you'll see - it starts taking a while - keep your ISOs and it will save time. You make the ISO files with small drives and put your install on a medium to large size flash drive. You'd think largest would be best but that takes longer too - you can cram these three OSs onto a 64 gb flashdrive if you really want too - probably get a bigger one for triple boot or just do one or two on a 64 maybe, or 32. The 32's are down to like six bucks or something, depending on the seller.

And get some lanyards and labels too, otherwise you won't be able to tell the difference between them, very quickly.
Colorful Lanyards: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JSD994I
Labels: https://www.amazon.com/Home-Fusion-Company-Strung-Jewelry/dp/B0716P116R
I like to tie mine to beach shells, to give them even more of a personality - they're super small - and super useful - so plenty of room and reason for decoration.
How do you tie a shell to a string? Certain shells have holes in them.

Decorate it right - you might even be able to get away with giving it out as a gift - say, for Father's day. I've given it out to people and heard back from them that their long dead-old laptop is now living again, thanks to Linux!

Making your own custom decorated, custom triple boot Linux flash drive or MicroSD card yourself or as a gift is so exciting! So, pick a couple Linux distributions, and have at it!

And what is the first thing you're going to type once you get it up and running?

sudo apt update;sudo apt install cowsay xcowsay lolcat fortune cmatrix;cowsay -f gnu -p -t 'Hi' | lolcat;fortune | cowsay -f tux -p -T~ | lolcat;fortune | cowsay -f dragon-and-cow -e'oo' | lolcat

As with any project, there are lots of things you could (accidentally) do (that aren't in these instructions) which could change or harm your hardware. If you use these instructions please follow them carefully so you don't accidentally make unwanted changes.

* Nothin's free, the flash drives, your computer, and all the other random stuff I mentioned isn't free. But the install's free, the software's free, and if you follow the instructions here, you can do it without changing your computer permanently.

Thanks for reading!