I’ve been preparing for a trip to Spain and France later this year and wanted a reliable Linux environment I could take with me without fully replacing Windows on my HP laptop.
What I Built
I created a bootable persistent Debian 13.5.0 GNOME Live USB using a Samsung 128GB flash drive. Using Rufus on Windows, I set up a 50 GB persistent partition. This means all my files, installed programs, browser data, and settings are saved every time I boot from the USB.
The best part? It works on both my ASUS desktop and my HP laptop. I just press F9 at startup on the HP to boot into Debian.
Current Hardware Situation
While testing the USB, I discovered my HP 15-fd0xxx laptop only had 4 GB of RAM installed. After running a few commands, I confirmed it has two RAM slots (one occupied, one empty).
Next Step: RAM Upgrade
I’ve decided to max out the RAM before the trip. I’m going with two 16 GB Crucial DDR4-3200 SODIMM sticks for a total of 32 GB. This should make both Windows and Debian run much smoother and is a lot cheaper than buying a new laptop.
Current Status
The USB is working well, though I still need to fix some temporary network issues when installing packages. I have a few months to test and refine everything before October.