Portable Debian OS - Linux anywhere, anytime!

What the heck is a Portable Debian OS???

Well, "Portable Debian OS" is not a complete term in itself. You ever heard of live booting from a USB stick? No? Well, it's basically that but not live booted. Instead, it's a linux distro called Debian with version 13 (Trixie) that I installed via debootstrap on a Samsung T7 Touch SSD.

Why did you make a portable bootable OS anyway?

Windows sucks. There, I said it.

Ok, I'm kidding. I'll add more details for you guys. But in reality, Windows does suck. You know what else sucks? Being forced to use Windows in a computer lab at school. I mean, sure it worked, but it was super limited. I couldn't change mouse or keyboard settings, I couldn't change the taskbar to the left, I couldn't run my own software with ease (thanks a lot FortiGuard...), and the audio was OH SO BUNS when I plugged in earbuds (it's the damn audio driver that I cannot touch). So I said "Screw this!" and found out that I can put Debian 13 on a portable SSD. So I did. And it worked. The boot menu was unlocked on these ThinkStations (thanks Mr. Z!) and now I have admin with my own comfort OS!

How in the world did you pull this off?!?!?!??!

I used AI to tell me how this debootstrap thing worked. I had to pull the base image off Debian's official servers using this command:

I can't say for sure what I did, but I do know that I had to edit the fstab file with the drive UUIDs for it to boot up, as well as configure networking, a desktop environment, edit the sources.apt file, and more, all while chroot'd into the system using:

In hindsight, it worked! I was able to use Linux on any PC that supported USB GPT booting (which is pretty much every modern computer), from my PC to a school computer to my G-ma's PC! And you can simply just...shut down, unplug the drive, and the owner won't notice! Checkmate! >:D

DISCLAIMERS:

• I am NOT responsible for any damages done to your school/organisation/public network or computer. However, I will tell you this. Don't do stupid s*** just because now all of a sudden you have admin on a public machine.
• Install the drivers yourself. Not the IT person.
• Don't contact the IT person that you have trouble trying to boot. They'll catch on to your shenanigans.
• If the boot menu is locked, just accept that life sometimes sucks
• If you wipe the internal drive of someone else's computer, congratulations, you are a horrible person!
• Oh, and Mr. Z, pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaasssseeeeee don't lock the boot menu. I don't wanna use the super limited locked down non admin Microsloooooooop Crapdows on your ThinkStations (unless you want me to, then I might)