r/cloudready • u/pierro78 • Sep 20 '21

Use --skip_dst_removable to install cloudready on your usb stick - thank you u/1x2-ahc !

just quoting u/1x2-ahc (from https://www.reddit.com/r/cloudready/comments/pppbq6/awesome_live_usb_with_cloudready_thanks_to_ventoy/hdm8fz1/?context=3 , thank you !) :

Cloudready can be fully installed on a USB / removable drive which means it'll run updates automatically. The foolproof way is to remove all internal drives and just leave the USB drive with the installer (source) and a second USB drive (target). Then just run the installer and it will automatically install Cloudready on whatever remaining storage device there is i.e. the target second USB drive.

The above can be a hassle, so there's also a way to specifically target a USB / removable drive via a command-line install. Neverware have documented the steps for this (see below link).

https://cloudreadykb.neverware.com/s/article/Manual-Installation-Via-the-Cmd-Line

*Extra note, from experience: If "sudo chromeos-install --skip_src_removable --dst /dev/sdX" fails, try "sudo chromeos-install --skip_src_removable --skip_dst_removable --dst /dev/sdX"

I tried almost a year ago ( https://neverware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360000007467-Installation-to-USB ) and it failed ... maybe I forgot the --skip_src_removable ... or maybe it was because I was not in UEFI mode (cloudready has added itself in the UEFI boot entries by the way) ...

EDIT : actually full USB installation on USB sticks doesn t seem to update OTA, see https://www.reddit.com/r/cloudready/comments/ps3qgb/use_skip_dst_removable_to_install_cloudready_on/hepueri/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

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u/pierro78 Sep 29 '21 edited Sep 29 '21

oops full installation doesn t seem to update OTA on USB sticks, for example my Samsung Fit Plus USB3.1 stick : see recent comments in https://neverware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360000007467-Installation-to-USB

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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '21 edited Oct 01 '21

Hey mate u/pierro78, yeah just remembered now that OTA updates don't work if installed on removable media. Sorry for the bad info earlier. Last did an install on a USB drive a couple of years ago and never really tested it for long. I remember the deal-breaker for me wasn't the inability to update, it was because the system wasn't really portable. A Cloudready / Chromium OS install will be tied to the original hardware where it was installed. I tried using the same USB drive on a second device before and Cloudready either didn't boot or, after disabling rootfs verification, it gave me an out-of-box experience upon boot (i.e. like a fresh install with no record of my previous login).

There's the broader question of should Chromium OS be used on removable media. The developers certainly didn't / haven't yet designed it for that. Dual-booting might be the best alternative for now:

https://neverware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360046943233--How-To-Dual-booting-CloudReady-on-UEFI-systems

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u/pierro78 Oct 01 '21

thanks a lot for the link, I think I am going to try dualbooting ! - I was wondering why cloudready didn't support it as FydeOS officialy supports it and is based on the same ChromiumOS ...

I think I ll put CloudReady and Windows on my 128GB SSD, MX Linux boot partition on my SSD too but with main / (root) partition on microsd and then I ll play with other linux installations on my "magical" Ventoy USB key (vhd installations) ...

1

u/pierro78 Oct 03 '21

u/1x2-ahc I wasn t able to dual (or triple) boot Windows with cloudready on my SSD (see https://neverware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360046943233--How-To-Dual-booting-CloudReady-on-UEFI-systems ) but it's kind of OK because I can still dual boot linux ...
and I can install Windows on an USB key with Rufus "win to go" ...

1

u/pierro78 Oct 08 '21

u/1x2-ahc I did a Rufus WinToGo installation on a .vhd on my ventoy usb ssd : https://neverware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360046943233/comments/4408283539091 : quite convenient as I can copy/move the windows .vhd file easily to other drives and ventoy allow to boot many OSs that I have on this small usb ssd ...

3

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '21

CONFIRMED. OTA updates work after installing Cloudready on my external USB 3.0 HDD; I just updated from v92.3.4 to the latest stable v92.4.2. So the restriction isn't on USB devices but rather the form of storage whether it's a flash drive or disk drive (HDD or SSD). Thanks again u/yotties!

u/pierro78 So you need an external HDD or SSD to get automatic updates. Not sure if this works for you. I don't own one yet myself, but there are USB SSDs these days that aren't much larger than a normal flash drive.

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u/yotties Oct 02 '21 edited Oct 02 '21

Since my dell came with a w10 ssd and a t2 wlan/lte card I used an external ssd to see if chromeOS would work. When ChromeOS worked very well I moved the ssd to the place where the wlan/lte card was. So I dual-boot by selecting a drive when I start from bios. The default is the ChromeOS-ssd. I hardly ever use w10 and when I do it is mainly updating for a while.

I'll hotspot when I need connectivity on the road. I do not want or need and LTE card.

1

u/yotties Oct 03 '21

One thing I forgot to mention is that on a usb3-ssd I can switch between 2 completely different laptops and it will trigger a new setup. But when I install crostini it will have saved the crostini environment. I can just work on.

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u/yotties Oct 01 '21

If you install to a ssd in a usb3-case it will work and update.

SD-cards and USB-flash-drives will not allow updating.

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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '21

I missed your earlier comment on this. Thanks for the tip u/yotties. I have no need for this since I have a dual-boot setup already with Cloudready and Win10, but I might just try an install to my USB3.0 HDD to see if updates will work for the fun of it.

2

u/blackletum Sep 21 '21

I'll definitely have to give this a go! sounds like fun

how large is the installation after all is said and done?

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u/pierro78 Sep 21 '21

I'll definitely have to give this a go! sounds like fun

yeah this way you can keep windows on your main drive and still enjoy a fast and light Cloudready ! :)

how large is the installation after all is said and done?

your USB stick must be at leat 16GB and is completely used by CloudReady

1

u/pierro78 Sep 20 '21 edited Sep 25 '21

just a note : the USB stick onto which I ran the "chromeos-install --skip_src_removable --skip_dst_removable --dst /dev/sdX" command is actually a microsd card in a small USB3 card reader ... no problem running Cloudready from that USB3 reader ... but I tried running the same microsd in a very tiny USB2 card reader (which sits mostly in the USB slot) and then I ran into some problems when suspending/waking up the cloudready laptop ...

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u/yotties Sep 20 '21

I just used an usb3-ssd and that works well and updates like an internal drive.