Score:0

An SSD dedicated for Grub2 to manage all internal or external disks

vg flag

I have an unused 64GB SSD. Is it possible to use as a dedicated drive for Grub? If so, how would I go about doing it?

guiverc avatar
cn flag
You've provided no clues as to what type of boot/hardware you have, if it was *legacy/CSM* for example, you'd install it; have `/boot/grub/` located on that drive (ie. non stage-0 stages of grub; inc. *fstab* change so upgrades get there), set your machine so that SSD is your selected drive used in booting (ie. BIOS setting), then ensure you have installed grub (stage 0) to that drive (ie. run `grub-install`). Restart and it's done. uEFI booting is mostly the same anyway...
oldfred avatar
cn flag
I first SSD years ago was 64GB. I had two full installs of Ubuntu with all data on HDD. It was gpt partitioned, but BIOS boot, back then. I did convert it to UEFI boot later. Now fitting two installs using snaps would be tight. But my Kubuntu install is currently using 16GB with no snaps installed. If you just want grub BIOS or UEFI, you also could add a partition for ISOs, so you can quickly reinstall from SSD or just use an ISO for repairs.
ineuw avatar
vg flag
Sorry, but this was a yes or no question. Can I use the 64GB to store as a single GRUB regardless of what I install including external drives. I have a mid tower with a new ATX Mb with uEFI. It has 6 x SATA and 2 x M.2 connections and the drives, regardless of their size are all GPT. I use them to learn various Linux installations and create bootable USB and external SSD drives for my community. My plan is to install Linux Mint Cinnamon in two languages, Kubuntu, and Windows 11 in English, but I don't relish cleaning up GRUB after installing on a USB.
guiverc avatar
cn flag
You can use whatever you want.. Ubuntu is currently available in various products/ISO and uses a total of *five* different installers that provide different features; so how easy it is will vary on what product/release & ISO you use for installs (*some later installs won't honor your intended setup I bet for example; others will!*), but what you want is perfectly possible. I used a variation of what you want (*only I didn't use the whole drive*) on a machine I kept for QA-purposes only. Only Kubuntu (*of unstated release*) you mentioned is on-topic here.
guiverc avatar
cn flag
Of Ubuntu's *five* current installers you can use; I used to find it easy to *trick* `ubiquity` to write the boot loader onto a specific drive & not others; though with `calamares` I wasn't able to predict what it did (*and `calamares` tended to change too often so what worked with one version may not have worked with others*)... ie. specifics matter. What you want to do though will work (*assuming you use specific installers that have capacity to honor it!*) I only mentioned 2 installers; can't reliably recall much about *di*, & never tried with `subiquity` or `ubuntu-desktop-installer`
ineuw avatar
vg flag
I want to format the whole 64GB to FAT32. Then, I need to disable the "search for other OS" of the built-in Grub option of an usb live distro key, whatever I want to install.
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