Run Linux from USB and use storage only for... storage: yay or nay (and why)?
I am just about to set up my new Linux machine, which will be used to convert analog video and audio to digital video and audio. Is there any reason why I shouldn't run the system off of a live USB stick (say, a good quality one from Sandisk), that is, without installing Linux on the hard drive and not setting up a boot partition, a system partition, and all that?
23 replies
I mean that's how Unraid OS is designed to work
You also have the option of network booting. Generally the PC gets an initial boot image over the network, then mounts an ISCSI disk for the OS to fully boot from.
This causes disk access to be a bit slow, but is useful for a Pi when you're tried of the SD card dying and don't have a M2 hat.
Sic! I'll look into it! :D Thanks!
Mainly performance will take a hit. USB drives are also not really rated for consistent writes so you'll find a USB dies quicker than a standard drive
I see. Well, scratch that then. 😅 Thanks! 🥰
You could buy an M.2 to USB enclosure and use a proper SSD NVMe as "USB drive" but I don't really see any gain in it.
Hear hear. It's just my laziness 🤣
If /home and /var are on disk and not USB then it might be ok. The rest of the os is typically only written when installing or configuring things.
Try it, might be fun.
Also the smaller OS's (puppy linux, tailOS) that can run entirely in RAM are going to be fast when it comes to anything but disk reads.
I also thought about running from RAM but I guess the transcription might be needing the RAM too. So that route probably depends on how much RAM there is available
In such a scenario, do I create mount points for them or is there some other, preferred way of pointing to them? Symlinks?
Mount points in fstab
Roger🫡
I guess an SD card might be better. RasPis work from those for years just fine. Just don't kill the power, power down nicely. SD cards are fragile on that
Interesting! Never thought of that, even though I am running three RPis 😅 I do have a micro SD card and a micro SD card to USB adapter... 🤔
Don't if you value your data. Those are not intended for such tasks and will fail much sooner than your usual disk.
It's not a deal-breaker or anything tho. Just not for something long term. Totally feasible as something quick and dirty tho.
To tune the question slightly: what about USB SSD? I thought of doing the same thing for a different PC. (For HTPC.)
Wait a minute.... Would you know, I even happen to have an unused chassi 🤣
No.
The person who said it’ll be too slow and you’ll ruin your usb is right but also:
Your system supports a nvme and sata. Dumping raw to nvme then working with it there so it doesn’t take so long to page into ram will be significantly faster.
Use spinning drives for storage though.
I'm still looking for a place to put the spinning drive though 😅 this micro-ATX chassi, while really practical in many other aspects, doesn't leave much room for HDDs. 🫠 I could just leave one "standing" on the bottom of the chassi if I don't have to secure it with screws 🤣
What case? I can’t tell myself because you blurred out the info…
You may end up needing to use attached storage either in the form of a nas or some kind of usb bullshit.
I remember a long time ago when I went to an onsite assignment and got a laptop. I didn't have my personal laptop so I just booted puppy Linux off a USB drive and used the office laptop as my personal device until I bought a personal laptop there. Fun times.