Some days ago I thought about using a Linux-Distribution from an USB-Stick, not a Live-System – instead installing a Distro on a Stick. USB 3.0 performs quite decent and USB-Sticks >= 32GB are quite cheap. But does installing a Linux-Distro from the Install-Live-Stick to an empty Stick really work (and boot) ?

So I gave it a try with Manjaro 17.0.1. I downloaded the Live/Install ISO and “copied” it on my “Install-Stick” (with “dd” or do it with some GUI-Tool). Afterwards boot the Install-/Live-System and insert the second (empty) Stick. Have a a look at the device-ID of the empty Stick with “dmesg” (in my case /dev/sdc).

I started the Installer and at the selection of the target-drive my empty stick was available 🙂 I selected the empty stick as target-device and also the same device (sdc) as Boot-Loader device !

The Installation went through without any troubles and after some minutes it was time to boot the system from the stick (be aware to choose the Stick as boot-device with your BIOS-Bootdevice options).

YES, it works fine !

Note: With Fedora 26 Beta (Gnome) I had some troubles booting the Stick-installed system. Don’t know why exactly. With Manjaro everything worked well.

Test environment: HP Elitebook 745G2