Has anyone successfully set up a live boot of Linux Mint with persistence on a USB drive, similar to how Tails OS operates? I’m looking to save files and installed applications across reboots. If so, could you share your method or any guides you found helpful? Thanks!

  • utopiah@lemmy.ml
    1·
    16 hours ago

    I don’t have that need but if I were to do that I would

    • boot normally
    • identify which applications I want
    • make a directory on the USB stick calls Apps/ and put them there
    • I would run them from there directly, not copy them then run
    • I would check which files are created in my home directory (e.g. using find filtering by files created during the last 5 minutes)
    • I would stop the run apps, move the new files to my USB in a new directory named content/
    • I would reboot, mount USB stick, move files from content/ in the right location, run the app from Apps/ and see if it works

    Assuming that would work I would make a (bash) script to automate all that, probably relying on rsync and find. I would then try to find ways to automate more with USB rules (namely mount the right USB stick automatically, run the script too, unmount prior to shutdown, etc).

    My main point being that I’d be iterative about it, try, test, document as live script and try again because it’s quite a specific use case.