Install Fedora 41 as a Portable Workstation
Instructions presented here have enabled me to execute portable Fedora 41 installations quickly and with no undesired side effects. Spoiler alert, they differ from instructions found in the “wild”. A tool providing Multiple UEFI system partitions, Linux Distros and bootable ISOs using one USB NVMe SSD is what I use to prepare for any Fedora installation. A link to how to create such a tool follows:
Multiple UEFI ESP partitions, Linux Distros and bootable ISOs using one USB NVMe SSD
If Windows was installed using MBR partitioning, Fedora should be installed on a separate SSD using GPT partitioning. However, if Windows was installed using GPT partitioning, use “gparted” to shrink existing oversized partitions before starting a Fedora installation on the same SSD.
Create and LABEL a UEFI system partition with a size of about 91 to 94 Mb. Note, additional UEFI partitions can be created Gbs after the first UEFI partition. I create each of these such that the size is one Mb larger than the previous one used for Fedora.
Create and LABEL a partition where Fedora will be installed.
An example of VenToy USB partitioning follows:
Install Fedora choosing “custom” and “standard partition”. My filesystem preference is ext4 due to speed and ease of portability so I select it instead of [default] btrfs. Labels act as “timeout checks” to verify that the installation will make use of intended partitions. “Measure TWICE and cut ONCE” also applies to all things technical.
Complete the installation then verify correct operation.
Keeping track of which UEFI system partition to backup/migrate is a PITA. Since this partion is used to locate a partition containing “/boot/grub2/grub.cfg”, I copy contents of the UEFI system partition to “/boot/efi/” and comment out reference to the UEFI system partition in “/etc/fstab”. Occassionally some files in “/boot/efi/EFI/fedora” will get updated so I check for these and migrate them to “UEFI system partition/EFI/fedora”.
If the need arises to recreate a UEFI system partition associated with a particular Fedora installation, I create, format and label a fat16 partition before copying content of directory “/boot/efi/” to the newly created UEFI system partition.