Minimum USB drive space to run Mint live without install

[zukrrrr]

I am in the process of building a multi ISO bootable usb drive, and my USB drive is only 16gb in storage capacity, so I am being cautious of how many ISO's I include in it, since running the live versions of linux ISO's require more space to run than the size of the ISO itself. Does anyone know what is the minimum USB storage needed to run the LIVE version of Linux Mint 20.2 "Uma" - Cinnamon (64-bit)? Thank you.

[Moonstone Man]

... since running the live versions of linux ISO's require more space to run than the size of the ISO itself....

That is impossible. The space taken up by the ISO is exactly equal to the space taken up by the ISO, whether or not the ISO is booted.

[zukrrrr]

... since running the live versions of linux ISO's require more space to run than the size of the ISO itself....

That is impossible. The space taken up by the ISO is exactly equal to the space taken up by the ISO, whether or not the ISO is booted.

To run Linux Mint, it's required to have more free space than the size of the ISO itself. If the ISO is 2GB, one has to have more space than 2GB in order to use the ISO once it's installed. Because if one is to save a 1KB document file, there won't be any free space to save the file.

[absque fenestris]

My burned DVDs with Linux distros on them haven't known that yet. I have to tell them. Terrible idea, they wouldn't work in live mode anymore...

[AndyMH]

Think you are wasting your time, OP seems to have done a runner.

[all41]

what is the minimum USB storage needed to run the LIVE version of Linux Mint 20.2 "Uma" - Cinnamon (64-bit)? Thank you.

It is exactly the size of the iso--about 2 gb depending on the flavor.
Remember you are not writing files to the usb flash, the .iso is immutable.
The files you change and create while in live mode are in ram, that's why they
disappear when you reboot and you start fresh again.

If you want to actually install the os on a stick you would want at least a 32 gb flash just
for Mint alone, the same minimum as you would want on a hard drive.

So you can load as many .iso as the stick will hold. I would leave maybe 100 mb empty space

[kiwipaul]

If you want to actually install the os on a stick you would want at least a 32 gb flash just
for Mint alone, the same minimum as you would want on a hard drive.
[/quote]

I've just installed Mint 20.2 on a 32GB USB stick (20GB root, 12GB data) and it's been working fine for about 2 months. Still have 50% free on root because a lot of the application keep falling over on install (wine) but I've managed to install a few apps (Skype, XFE, games).

Installing apps is far harder than on windows mainly because my lack of Linux knowledge. Wine for instance I've found numerous versions but the 2 I tried fell over with meaningless (to me anyway) errors.

Mint boots as fast as W10 on the SSD