debian amd64 install to external drive

[new2youalso]

ive used a 32bit debian install on an external harddrive for a while but everyone said 64bit is better faster and 32 is dieing
so ive a 686 which u guys say is an 86_64 processor anyways it can run 32bit or 64bit, 4gb ram.
i have a 2TB externall hard drive that i wish to install to burned dvd also did live install from usb etc...
and tryed for 2 weeks following every suggestion on web. and i can not get usb drive to boot no grub just says
no os available to start
ive tryed gpt, msdos partitioning
fat32 grub partition etc...
does anyone have any ideas that are not on web that work?
do i have to do something special because i can go 32 or 64?

[phenest]

everyone said

Everyone?!

64bit is better faster

No.

and 32 is dieing

Not true.

I wouldn't worry about it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[millpond]

32 bit is fine for working with 4Gb mem and under.

Now, as to whether you can boot from a USB drive is dependent on the motherboard. Some will differentiate between USD stick devices and hard drives. This is set up in BIOS at bootup.

If you are going to run Linux from the USB drive, or even store Linux system files on it - you would need to format it ext4.

USB drives come default as NTFS, which will be fine for multimedia files, but poor for backup, or linux files as they cannot use the default file permission system, and some stuff will refuse to work without 'correct' permissions.

[phenest]

32 bit is fine for working with 4Gb mem and under.

Debian 32bit supports PAE (Physical Address Extension). If the hardware supports it, then so does Debian.

[phenest]

so ive a 686 which u guys say is an 86_64 processor

No it isn't. What is your CPU make and model? You may only have a 32bit CPU.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

does anyone have any ideas that [...] work?

I find that TFM is the best place to look for that sort of thing:

https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb

Also, if you have a 64-bit processor then you should use a 64-bit operating system, it is both faster and more secure than the 32-bit equivalent.

EDIT: PAE is nonsense:

https://cl4ssic4l.wordpress.com/2011/05 ... about-pae/

Your little system monitor may gleefully claim that >4GiB is available but no application can actually make use of any of it...

[phenest]

PAE maybe nonsense, but if that's all you've got...

We've yet to confirm the OP has a 64bit CPU.

[GarryRicketson]

My system is 32 bit, and it will not work if I try to use a 64bit or non-pae version
This is the important part, we need to confirm that.

We've yet to confirm the OP has a 64bit CPU

Does the OP know how to do that ?
How to see if my system is 32 bit or 64 bit
---------------------
1 of many hits:
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001121.htm

Postby new2youalso » 2017-04-22 17:14
ive used a 32bit debian install on an external harddrive for a while but everyone said 64bit is better faster and 32 is dieing-----snip----

I would just keep using what works, that is what I do. On another forum someone tried to tell me the same, but 64 bit is not faster on my system,
it does not work.

[phenest]

Code: Select all

lscpu | grep Architecture

Mine says: x86_64

[RU55EL]

[,,,] grub just says
no os available to start[,,,]

Is grub on the primary hard drive, or the external hard drive?

Is the computer booting from the primary hard drive or the external hard drive?

[GarryRicketson]

@ phenest
Thanks, and as a comparison:

Code: Select all

garry@debian:~$ lscpu | grep Architecture
Architecture:          i686
 

From: https://superuser.com/questions/238112/ ... and-x86-64
i686 = 32-bit Intel x86 arch
x86_64 = 64-bit Intel x86 arch

Of course more important, What does the OP really have ?

[new2youalso]

Architecture: i686
ive been booting from external drive with 32bit debian that has grub on it
i installed live 64bit on usb and it runs perfect i cant figure out why when i install to external no boot
no grub boot either. tried sdb for grub as well as sdb1 tried msdos partition as well as gpt
tried creating fat32 part at begining of drive put grub there and it said 64bit install not there but i can see the files
ive tried everything ive read online and yet cant seem to boot 64bit debian

32bit not dead just a lot of ports are going to 64bit only i guess is the way to say it.

ive run 64 bit windows vista/7/8/8.1/10
live installs of debian 64bit from usb

grep -o -w 'lm' /proc/cpuinfo | sort -u
lm
lm flag means Long mode cpu – 64 bit CPU