Installing Ubuntu to an external drive

[Derek Broughton]

Nigel Henry wrote:

> On Saturday 02 August 2008 18:46, Rob wrote:
>>
>> If I install Ubuntu to an external (300gig) drive, where will it install
>> Lilo or Grub?  Or will it ask?
> 
> I've no experience of installing Ubuntu/Kubuntu on external USB
> harddrives, but one thing (at least on Kubuntu) is that having done the
> partitioning you end up with a button to press to install the system.
> there is no specific page for where to install Grub before that, but on
> the same page as the "press to install" button, is another button named
> "advanced" IIRC, and pressing this will take you to another page where you
> can decide where to put Grub. Either in the MBR (default), Or you can
> choose to put it in the / partition on the external harddrive where you
> have installed Ubuntu.

That sounds about right.  The problem with the question is there probably
aren't many of us who've done this.  I have, but it was last Christmas, and
I gave up the experiment when it turned out the drive was a POS :-(  But I
did get it to install to the USB drive (that was pretty simple with the
install CD, but I don't recall whether I used the default Kubuntu CD or the
alternate).  

> As I say, I've no experience with booting distros on external harddrives,
> and perhaps someone that is using them may post back with more complete
> info.

It can certainly be done - one hopes that with Hardy it's even simpler than
when I did it, and even if the installer doesn't get it quite right, it's
not a big deal once you have the OS on the drive.
-- 
derek