It is my understanding that Linux Mint will install the bootloader on the internal drive regardless of whether you tell it to install the remainder of the OS onto the external drive. You can change the boot partition wherever you want, but I suspect that does not affect its end behavior. I would like the external drive to contain the bootloader such that my internal drive isn’t touched at all by my fiddling with Linux. I currently have a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB SSD in an external USB case, Mint installed, but with no compatible bootloader. Is there a way to sort the bootloader problem?
This will depend on the Linux distro, some of the installers make it very clear which drive the bootloader will go to, and others won’t - more so in the case of BIOS/MBR based systems.
Systems that use UEFI should only have a bootloader where the /boot partition (which should have the partition type “ESP”, generally labeled in the installer) - however during the installation of this it may modify your PC’s boot order to try to boot from this first. Both legacy BIOS and UEFI systems should have a way to change the boot priority however, so that this won’t be a problem.
Sadly it’s a bit hard to be specific since every distro’s installer is different, and I haven’t used Linux Mint in 8+ years to know what their installer’s behavior is.
It is my understanding that Linux Mint will install the bootloader on the internal drive regardless of whether you tell it to install the remainder of the OS onto the external drive. You can change the boot partition wherever you want, but I suspect that does not affect its end behavior. I would like the external drive to contain the bootloader such that my internal drive isn’t touched at all by my fiddling with Linux. I currently have a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB SSD in an external USB case, Mint installed, but with no compatible bootloader. Is there a way to sort the bootloader problem?
This will depend on the Linux distro, some of the installers make it very clear which drive the bootloader will go to, and others won’t - more so in the case of BIOS/MBR based systems.
Systems that use UEFI should only have a bootloader where the
/bootpartition (which should have the partition type “ESP”, generally labeled in the installer) - however during the installation of this it may modify your PC’s boot order to try to boot from this first. Both legacy BIOS and UEFI systems should have a way to change the boot priority however, so that this won’t be a problem.Sadly it’s a bit hard to be specific since every distro’s installer is different, and I haven’t used Linux Mint in 8+ years to know what their installer’s behavior is.