I have to set up a desktop and boot my ssd the has linux but I own no Monitor, Keyboard, or mouse.
How can I do this? I have a HDMI to lighting adapter for the mobo on the desktop. Do I just need to buy a cheap keyboard and mouse?
I haven't owned a desktop for over 8 years.
Have you got a USB enclosure for the SSD ? If you do, then you can restart your mac, hold down the R key, and click the SSD disk to load your linux SSD.
Then you can just load up the drivers for the mac if you need them, but if your linux distro is well known, then you should have the drivers already.
Set up your linux system, then shutdown and safely unplug your USB SSD.
Then just open the enclosure and install the SSD into the desktop.
Please note that if the SSD is a Sata drive, then you can use a Sata dock cheaply so long as you keep it dust free. Otherwise if it is a m.2 SSD, you will need an enclosure sized for m.2 (funnily enough, there are 2 sizes, 2260 and 2280.)
This should be the case unless you already have a linux distro installed on the SSD, in which case all you do is put it in the desktop, get it to your friend/relative/customer's place & use the monitor, keyboard and mouse they have for it & get the drivers loaded without the hassle of doubling your work on it.
(In other words, if you already have linux installed on the SSD, then you don't need to set it up for your laptop and then set it up for the desktop, as you can just set it up on the desktop without hassle.)
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Will virtualization work for you? I use VMWare Fusion (I think they have a 30 day trial), but you might be able to use VirtualBox. I am pretty sure the you can store your VM image on an external drive.
Yes, that is correct also. Use VMware fusion or Parallels desktop to load the SSD as an external drive and run your SSD's linux in a virtual machine as a mac app.
