Turning Your HDD into a “non-removable live-USB” – Using Live-USB-Maker

[Moderator christophe]

(This is a re-posting of a solution in another forum section, placed here into Tip & Tricks, in an effort to make it easier to find in the future.)
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If you are interested, here’s how to turn your computer’s hard drive into non-removable antiX live USB:
(This is for legacy bios. I haven’t done this on a uefi computer.)

1. Make sure this is what you want to do! (It is reversible, of course, but you erase your data.)

2. Boot with a live-usb. Start the live usb maker from the command line:
sudo live-usb-maker --force=usb
You have to use that parameter, to get the program to “see” your hard drive as a candidate.

3. Live-usb-maker should allow you to pick your hdd as the target. Let the live-usb-maker do its thing. You can clone the live-usb you booted with, or choose an iso file, as usual. (If you clone your current system, I recommend remastering (& rebooting) first, because live-usb-maker won’t (by default) copy over your persistence files for you.) Once it’s done, shut down, remove the live-usb that you were using.

4. Upon boot, the hard drive behaves just like a live-usb, but first you have to adjust one thing: once you get to the splash/options screen, add the boot code:
from=hd
Make sure you “save” (F8).

5. Now it’s a non-removable antiX live-usb!

See also:

For adding more antiX and/or MX frugals into the bootloader (for live-USBs, in general):
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/dual-mx-antix-live-persistent-usb-stick/

For using Syslinux/Extlinux as the bootloader on legacy bios computers (for frugals, & can chainload full-installs):
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/booting-antix-frugal-only-from-hdd-without-any-full-installed-os-with-extlinux/

For a similar bootloader setup for frugal installs on UEFI computers:
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/booting-antix-frugal-only-from-hdd-on-uefi-firmware-with-grub/

• This topic was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by christophe.

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confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member olsztyn]

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I have tested this using 320GB SATA disk with MBR partition table on Thinkpad X61 Core2Duo…
Just to summarize my test results:
– Worked for me as documented above. Created a Live antiX on sda hard disk as described. From now on the laptop boots to Live hard disk, no need to put a live USB stick into usb port. As typical for me I am running Live with no persistence to preserve ultimate integrity of the system – if I need a change I remaster. Any unwanted changes will be gone upon reboot.
– Creating encrypted Live system works as expected. Encryption includes Live-USB-Storage, which is plenty with my 320GB drive, as antiX takes just about 4GB.
– Remastering of Live HD works as expected. And considering Live system is on hard disk, it is be done without stress to USB media.
– If required for any reason, such Live HD can be moved to a different laptop without need to re-install as it features the same, independent from hardware environment as USB Live stick, so it can boot on any machine.

I see this new Live HD antiX capability as a significant step towards a perfect system…
Thanks and Regards.

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member marcelocripe]

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Thank you so much, Christophe for your tutorial and Olsztyn for your testing.
This feature will be very useful for me as I have spare IDE hard drives and I don’t have spare pendrives.

Using the hard disk with the same features that were meant to be used on the pendrive, that’s fantastic!

Thank you very much.

marcelocripe

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Muito obrigado, Christophe por seu tutorial e Olsztyn por seus testes.
Este recurso será muito útil para mim, já que eu tenho discos rígidos IDE sobressalentes e não possuo pendrives sobressalentes.

Utilizar o disco rígido com as mesmas funcionalidades que foram pensadas para serem utilizadas no pendrive, isso é fantástico!

Muito obrigado.

marcelocripe

[Member rayluo]

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Thanks for sharing this usage! Without this detailed sample, I would not be able to connect the dots between the “–force=usb” and “from=hd”.

Perhaps you could also put such an HDD into a portable HDD enclosure, so that it would become a “still-movable live-USB”, I suppose? 🙂 (Caveat: Do not attempt to move (especially rotate) a spinning hard disk, though. The gyroscope effect would probably ruin your hard disk.)

[Anonymous]

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Yes, can do, if the portable HDD enclosure is conected via a eSATA cable.

The gyroscope effect would probably ruin your hard disk.

“click click”
I respect (agree with) that caveat but FWIW, per my experience, spinning drives typically react to overly-aggressive movement by temporarily parking the head(s).

[Member rayluo]

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Anonymous wrote:

Yes, can do, if the portable HDD enclosure is conected via a eSATA cable.

Is eSATA cable recommended only for performance/bandwidth consideration? Or is it necessary for the setup to work? I thought a USB cable would still make the hard disk enclosure work as if a real USB pendrive. No?

Anonymous wrote:

The gyroscope effect would probably ruin your hard disk.

“click click”
I respect (agree with) that caveat but FWIW, per my experience, spinning drives typically react to overly-aggressive movement by temporarily parking the head(s).

I do not use hard disk enclosure frequently nowadays, and was careless in one of the recent encounter. When I flipped the enclosure to see the LED on the other side, I felt a resisting force countering my twist, and heard a short screech. That was how I was reminded again about the gyroscope effect, and probably the first time I ever felt it for real.

That screech made me think that my hard disk would become a goner. To my surprise, the hard disk seems still working well since then.

Just sharing my first hand experience here, so that you don’t have to. 🙂

[Member olsztyn]

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rayluo wrote:

Is eSATA cable recommended only for performance/bandwidth consideration? Or is it necessary for the setup to work? I thought a USB cable would still make the hard disk enclosure work as if a real USB pendrive. No?

From what I understand eSATA interface was recommended by skidoo for performance.
However with Live USB, once it boots, there is very little write activity so I would not expect a lot of difference from USB interface.

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Anonymous]

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I mentioned eSATA b/c because that works for (with) “from=hd”.

I’ve never tested a usb-cabled spinning drive, and expect that would be filtered/ignored if “from=hd” is specified. Someone with an external drive cabled via USB might test that prospect and, if ignored when “from=hd” is specified… retry using “from=usb” bootline option instead.

[Member olsztyn]

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Anonymous wrote:

I’ve never tested a usb-cabled spinning drive, and expect that would be filtered/ignored if “from=hd” is specified. Someone with an external drive cabled via USB might test that prospect

I can test it tomorrow, as it is very late now, but I think I remember using hard drive in enclosure as external Live USB and I did not have either of these parameters specified on boot. It simply worked by default as Live USB. I may be wrong though and test will confirm either way.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by olsztyn.

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member ModdIt]

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Have used a loptop drive in external enclosure that connects with USB cable, It ran live but was too slow for me so gave up on that path.

A laptop drive will have G sensor and head parking on shock, as far as i am aware that does not apply to standard internal drives.

[Member olsztyn]

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olsztyn wrote:

I can test it tomorrow, as it is very late now, but I think I remember using hard drive in enclosure as external Live USB and I did not have either of these parameters specified on boot. It simply worked by default as Live USB.

Tested as follows:
Took out a SATA hard drive from old laptop, 320G, and attached to USB port via external USB interface.
On antiX started the typical (graphical) Live-usb-maker. It recognized the 320G drive as candidate for target of Live-usb-maker and proceeded with creation of Live USB antiX on this hard drive. Creation of Live USB antiX was very fast, which is expected as write operation to hard drive is much faster than stick media. I was using USB 2.0 for both creation and booting, just to mention…
After completing creation of Live USB antiX:
– Resulting Live antiX boots from such SATA hard disk connected to USB ports just as usual USB Live stick, no difference. Just seems faster from hard drive.
– Resulting Live antiX boots from SATA port in a laptop (after putting drive back into laptop) as Live antiX, but the before mentioned parameter from=hd must be added so it boots from SATA interface and does not look for one connected via USB interfaace.
Summary:
– Generally, Live USB antiX can be created as usual (using graphical Live-usb-maker) on hard drive, if it is connected via USB interface. No difference from stick. Much faster in creation process and faster in Live operation on USB 2.0. I did not test on USB 3.0 yet, to see how much faster.
– Live hard drive can be used either on USB interface or SATA interface (as internal drive) as Live USB antiX. Running as Live SATA inteernal drive appears to be faster than traditionally installed but I did not do measurements to see how much faster. I think faster booting is expected as Live antiX is compressed and takes much less disk space to read during boot operation (Live antiX is about half the size of installed antiX).

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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I’m not at all surprised that it’s possible to create a ‘live’ instance of antiX on any usable (supported) media.

After all, the original UNIX design is that a file system has a collection of bits and bytes. Yes, filesystems have evolved over the years but the essential capabilities remain the same.

In any case, along with the excellent tools and description this is yet another useful way to use available hardware with the antiX tools.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member Xecure]

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@christophe, I need to thank you for this tutorial. It has helped me a lot to set up a fake live-USB on a VM using this method, which speeds up my testing (without having to reboot my laptop for testing).

Very very simple tutorial and works flawlessly. It makes it really easy to test the live boot system in BIOS and EFI mode in Virtualbox, which if done on real hardware would require me to access my real UEFI menu to enable CSM (which doesn’t work so well for me, making it difficult to select the USB as boot device). Now I can test as many times as I want and make changes on the VM as in a USB device. Even persistence and remaster work as in a real USB.

Again, I thank you for this great tutorial. 5-star review.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Xecure wrote:

@christophe, I need to thank you for this tutorial. It has helped me a lot to set up a fake live-USB on a VM using this method, which speeds up my testing (without having to reboot my laptop for testing).

Very very simple tutorial and works flawlessly. It makes it really easy to test the live boot system in BIOS and EFI mode in Virtualbox, which if done on real hardware would require me to access my real UEFI menu to enable CSM (which doesn’t work so well for me, making it difficult to select the USB as boot device). Now I can test as many times as I want and make changes on the VM as in a USB device. Even persistence and remaster work as in a real USB.

Again, I thank you for this great tutorial. 5-star review.

+1

I agree. It’s an excellent option, and while it makes a great deal of sense, it may not be immediately obvious to everyone, yet the instructions turn it into an easy exercise. Thanks!

--
Brian Masinick

[Member Laurent]

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I have a little problem i don’t understand:
When I launch a live usb in UEFi mode in my computers, startx don’t launch. Tested on a Eeepc 1015BX and a MSI Z370M.
Usb key made vith Live-usb-maker on Debian.
No reproductible in Virtualbox or vmware workstation.

In attachement, the log of xorg.O.log.

Thanks for a lead to investigate.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by Laurent.

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