Linuxmint Cinnamon Flash Drive

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Hi Linux community, I'm keen to convert my Sony Vaio Windows 7 i7 laptop to a Linux operating system, Before I purchase an SSD to replace my hard drive I thought I would build a Linux Distro on a Flash Drive as a practice. I chose Linuxmint Cinnamon, I have built a persistent bootable 64gb 130mbps Flash Drive with a 4gb partition. Great! it works. Trouble is there are no codecs supplied so DVD playback doesn't happen there's a download codecs prog but it doesn't work, just a load of errors. Media Player asks if I want to download codecs, it does, then the prog disappears from the sound and video section. I have an Nvidia graphics card, I used driver manager to check for the correct driver, it finds it, downloads and installs it, but on reboot, total crash happens, no boot just a load of errors, not even windows starts, (does if I remove Flash Drive). Had tto remake the flash drive, 

My question is, have I chosen the best distro for me, I really would like the codecs to come with the package.

Also am I being naive? can I actually install drivers when using a Flash Drive or is that reserved for a proper hard drive install.

Any advice really appreciated

Thanks

 

mobile

I'm not familiar with Linux Mint nor have I used the GUI Cinnamon, however I suggest installing your system on your hard drive and testing all of the features before installing it on a USB bootable drive, then simply recreate the installation with the steps you took to setup DVD functionality with your USB bootable setup. An alternative would be to use a pre-setup USB bootable image that many distros provide.

But to answer your question-- it difficult to say you chose the right distro because it's not working for your desired purpose. However, there is no doubt in my mind that Linux Mint is capable of providing DVD playback. That said, you can continue to troubleshoot it- or find an easier distro.

On a very non-technical level, the simplest solution would be to continue trying distros until you find one that works to your liking.

Good luck.

dday35216

It's been my experience that driver updates and most system updates are saved to the USB drive. Mostly user data is saved in an overlay area so that it can be "recreated" upon the next boot. Saving some settings, preferences and documents.