I need various tools installed, and a VPN and normal internet is fine since I'm not so much worried about online spying/privacy but more hackers/unauthorized access from my physical location. TAILS: tails has it's uses, but it's not a platform from which you can program and not a replacement for your main operating system.

Basically a full drive encryption, except that it should probably also have something for the bootloader?Ī fully mobile operating system, with everything installed that is required to boot/run from that USB drive.Ī fully operational operating system, as if it was installed on an internal drive.īasically like TAILS except meant as main operating system, since I want to be programming from this OS. The OS/home/var partitions need to be completely encrypted, only GRUB or the bootloader don't need to be encrypted. But since I cannot guarantee that nobody can physically access my desktop, my solution is to just carry my main OS with me in a flash drive or external SSD. Unlike Tails, I don't need to start from a clean slate every time that I boot up. Having the files for the OS available unencrypted is a risk, so everything except the OS needs to be fully encrypted. Similar to (for example) a Kali Live usb with an encrypted persistence drive.

So I should be able to boot from it, to update everything on the fly without having to create a new bootable OS. Something like Tails, except that I want to use this as my main operating system.

So I am looking for a good linux distribution, with instructions on how I can create a fully encrypted completely usable linux drive on an external SSD, whether that be an external SSD or a flash drive.

Encrypted portable hard drive