SystemInstallation < Embedded

---+ Installing an Ubuntu System on an external USB drive and making it bootable
<p align="justify">As a first step when preparing a development environment for Android tablet systems one must prepare an operating system on which all the development software will be running. For the course at UCC we will use the latest Ubuntu Linux system, which we install on a bootable external USB hard drive. Before starting system installation the 64bit version of the Ubuntu desktop system (ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso at the time of writing) is downloaded from <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/download" target="_blank" title="ubunu download">ubuntu.com/download</a> and transferred to a DVD or installed on a USB memory stick. If you have a running Ubuntu system then this can easily be accomplished with the _usb-creator-gtk_ program.</p> <p align="justify">The DVD or memory stick contains a live Ubuntu system which can be used to get acquainted with Ubuntu without touching the operating system currently running on the computer. Once we get to grips with the new system we install it onto an external USB hard drive.</p> <p align="justify">Clicking the “install Ubuntu” button on the desktop or rebooting the DVD or memory stick and selecting “Installation” instead of “Live system” starts the installation.</p>

<img alt="preparation.png" height="403" src="%ATTACHURL%/preparation.png" title="preparation.png" width="709" />

After clicking continue we should get the window shown above. I selected to update immediately and to install third party software.

<img alt="installationType.png" height="406" src="%ATTACHURL%/installationType.png" title="installationType.png" width="712" />

Do not install Ubuntu alongside e.g. Windows and clearly don't erase the disk and install but select the <i>something else </i>option. This brings up the <i>Installation Type </i>window. If you started from a new disk (as I did), first create a new partition table partitioning the USB disk (1TB) as shown below:

<img alt="partition.png" height="460" src="%ATTACHURL%/partition.png" title="partition.png" width="717" />

This is the partition layout:
   * <p>/ the root partition 200 Gbytes<br />On the partition the Ubuntu system is installed. /, /usr, /boot … go here.</p>
   * <p>/home the user partition 200 Gbytes<br />Here all user data and programs will be stored.</p>
   * <p>/opt optional system software 580 Gbytes<br />On this partition all our development software, cross compiler … and all course material are stored.</p>
   * <p>swap the swap area 20 GBytes</p>
Make sure that all partitions (except the swap partition) are newly formatted as ext4 file systems.

<img alt="partitionType.png" height="230" src="%ATTACHURL%/partitionType.png" title="partitionType.png" width="353" />

In the <i>Installation Type </i>window, selecting a partition (in my case e.g. /dev/sdc1 because the USB drive is seen as /dev/sdc) and clicking <i>Change </i>brings up the window above on which you can select the mount point (/dev/sdc1 is the root partition), the file system type and if the partition must be formatted or not. Be sure to select your USB hard drive as disk on which the boot loader will be installed (/dev/sdc in my case).

<b>Before clicking _install_ be absolutely sure that the disk you are partitioning is the fresh USB hard disk. Check also that the MBR (Master Boot Record) goes onto the USB drive and NOT onto /dev/sda. If you get it wrong, you might kill your Windows system that might be installed e.g. on your internal hard disk. If the MBR goes onto the wrong drive your Windows system may not boot any more.<br /></b>

%RED% *!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So... be careful! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!* %ENDCOLOR%

Clicking _Install now_ starts the installation.

Once the system and the boot loader are installed on the external USB disk, we can restart the machine and boot from that disk into Ubuntu.

Finally we want to customize our system with a nice SplashScreen.

Once the system boots nicely as we expect we can start to install AdditionalSoftware.
This topic: Embedded_Systems > WebHome > SystemInstallation
Topic revision: r4 - 2016-03-22 - uli