Mine had two partitions to delete: a fat32 system with label EFI, and a hfs+ system with label EmptyDrive.

Delete all the partitions EXCEPT the hfs+ Ubuntu Boot Loader partition.

Make sure the size of the drive makes sense. select /dev/sdd, or whatever the appropriate letter is for you).

In GParted, find your external SSD drive in the upper right box (e.g.

Open GParted (click the upper left corner icon, type in 'GParted' and click the GParted Partition Editor application icon).

Select the Orange EFI Boot option (right arrow, enter).

With the option key pressed on your keyboard, boot up your Mac.

Insert your USB flash drive that has the Ubuntu installer on it.

Part 2: Install Ubuntu on the external SSD Start up an Ubuntu live session

Select the Untitled partition, click erase, and rename it to Ubuntu Boot Loader.In the window that pops up informing you that a new Untitled partition will be created, accept by clicking Partition. That is overkill, but it makes things simple. In this example I changed the original ~128 GB to ~127 GB. Reduce the size of the EmptyDrive partition by at least 128 MB. With the external SSD drive selected, click Partition.Click Erase with these options (if it fails, just try again):.Select your external SSD drive (NOT your Mac's hard drive!).Insert your external SSD drive into your Mac.Let's get started! Part 1: Formatting your external SSD drive It is more appropriate for a full install of an operating system than a flash drive is.

So it should be more reliable (and faster) than a generic USB Flash drive. Why this drive? According to the specs it is FAST, and it is a SSD, not a standard USB Flash drive.

A blank SSD drive, like this SSD USB drive ($70-130 on Amazon for the 128 GB and 256 GB versions).

A bootable USB flash drive for installing Ubuntu: instructions.

An Intel powered Macbook (may have to be newer than 2013) with 2 USB ports.

This requires permanent changes to your Mac

You do NOT want to make any permanent changes to your Macbook.

You do NOT want a virtual machine because they are slow.

You want to have a portable full install of an Ubuntu system for prototyping.

We will generally be following these instructions, with a few key modifications. This guide will show you, step by step, how to install a full version of bootable Ubuntu on a SSD (solid state drive, or any other external drive), using only your Macbook. Installing Ubuntu on an external SSD drive on a Macbook

Ubuntu virtual machine mac