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so I’ve had problems getting linux to actually setup properly but the functional preview on the boot USB stick itself works without issue, so can I just run it that way, or is that going to limit functionality in some way?

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    I’ve run systems directly from USB (installed there, not live distro) and here’s the hiccups I had:

    • Slow: USB drives aren’t anywhere near as fast as an SSD. Even USB3 drives are far slower than an a SATA SSD. USB3 is 5 Gbps while SATA-III is 6, but the thumb drive controller is often the bottleneck.
    • Heat: To get better performance, I bought a higher-end USB flash drive. That increased performance a bit, but the thumb drive ran very hot.
    • Durability: USB drives aren’t really meant for sustained operation like an SSD. Every time I’ve tried to run a system full time (granted, that’s only been twice), the USB drive eventually crapped out. See also: heat. -Fragile: May not be an issue for a desktop, but with a USB sticking out of a laptop full time, it’s going to have very high chances of getting knocked around potentially damaging the drive and/or the USB port.

    If the thumb drive is just going to be a temporary / rescue system, that’s one thing. I keep several of those in my bag. But for a (semi) permanent install, you’ll probably want to have it installed to a real disk.

    Edit: I do have some hardware that boots its OS from a flash drive (Ubuquity router for example) but it’s configured to not make a lot of writes to it and is mostly read only. So for an embedded system, a USB drive could work fine, but for a general purpose workstation, not so much.

    • CubitOom@infosec.pubEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      You could install an SSD into an external enclosure and use that as a bootable USB drive.

      I did that when I upgraded my M.2 to a larger size.

      • Valmond@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        Can you install software on it? Kernel updates etc.?

        I feel it’s the future, keep your data in your pocket, don’t care about hardware.

          • Valmond@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            3 months ago

            I have been so used to windows where you almost have to reinstall the OS if you add a stick of RAM…

            I like the idea of having “it all” just on a stick. They are getting big/cheap enough and easy to duplicate for backups too…

            • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
              1·
              3 months ago

              I don’t think that’s been true of windows since maybe 7 onwards, I’ve swapped windows installs between completely different hardware (Intel > AMD and several generations newer) without any issues, other than licensing freaking out, but that’s why other solutions exist lol.

              But yeah a USB-C SSD enclosure works fine as a bootable device, so you can have a portable OS with you.