linux on a stick

Last update: Sat Jan 10 23:04:54 2026

Goal: have a linux working on a USB key, that you can work with and WRITE and even update when plugged on PC. Your PC only provides the muscle (screen, inputs, CPU, memory) the brains are on the stick. It will be SLOW to create and use (like way slower than a linux on your SSD) but usable. See the Kali linux and all, they work pretty well.

Presentation

Principle

Pretty simple in fact, install Linux on the USB key, make it bootable, add a Windows partition maybe for swapping data easily?

Points of interrest

Challenge with the ECF partition: PC can have only one, but your USB key will have one, so if you update the linux running on the USB it will overwrite your LOCAL PC ECF partition making it incapable to boot :( solution is below 👇

Implementation

Bill of materials

USB key 16GB+

A PC so you can prepare the said USB key

What you get

Bootable Linux on USB key

USB key has a Windows partition for file sharing

Linux OS kernel version is frozen to avoid ECF partition problem (See links below). You can update software, not kernel.

How to create the Linux on a USB stick

Step by step

Part 1: install usable Linux on a stick

This is based on below "Helpful sources" and customized with some other things:

Get ANOTHER USB key, call it INSTALLER and make it a Linux installer USB (get the img, sudo dd if of ...)

Now if you can, unplug all the HDD of your PC and then boot on that INSTALLER USB. If you can then skip next step, otherwise just do it.

gparted > remove the ECF flag of the EFI partition of your PC (screenshot the flags so you can put things back "as it was" after)

Plug the TARGET USB stick, and launch Linux install : trash all the existing data/partitions

On TARGET, create a 500MB EFI System Partition

On TARGET, create a root (/) partition EXT4

(optional) On TARGET, create a Windows NTFS partition to exchange data with Windows PCs easily later

Install and go take a coffee, a walk, a batch, another coffee, and then it should be done

If you changed your LOCAL PC partition settings, gparted > revert the changes

Done

Part 2: freeze Kernel upgrades

As explained in sources below, the linux runing on the stick will not know which EFI partition update when the kernel is updated, so it will update the one on your PC making it unbootable without the USB stick plugged in... yeah, no.
Internet in its wisdom recommends to block the kernel updates:

Pros: no problem of "soft locking" your home PC mistakenly, simple to implement

Cons: you'll be stuck with an always-getting-older version of Linux, missing some important functional or security upgrades. Meaning you'll need to redo that same install procedure once in a while.

Conclusion: let's go with locking the kernel. If you use it long, you'll want to move to Install linux on your PC. If you don't use often or give up, you can accept the risk & demerit most likely. So make sure the user of the system understand that it's a temporary solution only.

sudo apt-mark hold linux-image-generic linux-headers-generic

Pictures

Links

Helpful sources

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-usb-stick

https://askubuntu.com/questions/938494/how-to-i-prevent-ubuntu-from-kernel-version-upgrade-and-notification

https://askubuntu.com/questions/678630/how-can-i-avoid-kernel-updates/678633#678633

Inspiration

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