Live persistent USB sticks

[siddhimouse]

Now that USB 3.1 is the standard...
Everyone is wanting something to complement their main operating system - - usually os X on a Mac book air or something.
Persistent USB sticks offer a great alternative to having a dual boot system where disk space on your machine might be limited to 128 Gig or whatever. Your main machine obviously has all your professional, paid for software, but of course systems like linux Mint offer a great deal more experiences of excellent apps dealing in things like 3D art and design, music making, word processing etc,

- - which also have the advantage that you don't pay a fortune for and don't need to subscribe to etc like with your professional tool set. I've been trying to build something which is a little bit more like a slax system but without the security issues, from a Mint live distro - - of course Ive got unetbootin and the rest for setting up persistence, but I've noticed that although it boots the majority of Windows machines and notebooks, It just doesn't work as a persistent distro on my Mac book air - - it can't seem to recognize the Casper drive or the Unetbootin boot screen (UEFI) and will only boot as a live non-persistent distro. This is really frustrating as my 32 gig USB stich distro is otherwise pretty cool and I'd love to be able to use it on the fly when I'm out and about,.

Anyone know why it might not be recognizing / loading the Unetbootin boot screen? Or any other ideas, comments, feeling on this subject? Further questions from others interested in this subject ar also welcome as I have some knowledge now in this area and could maybe save you $50 or so for a live persistent stick or a Slax stick bought online which could well have security issues.

Long live Mint.

[pbear]

Persistence has it's place, but in most cases I think full install is better.

Anyhoo, are you asking for how to create a persistent drive on a Mac?

[hallergard]

I agree a full install is the best, installing mjust as you would to a hard disk drive. I use my USB-sticks mainly for repair and maintainence, and in order to have a variety of tools available I use multiboot with four primary MBR partitions on the USB (Windows 10, Linux MInt or Kubuntu, SysRescue and Puppy Linux) https://goo.gl/83o2FO and https://youtu.be/rgIV5wemHS0

[siddhimouse]

As regards full installs, I thought that the live persistent stick was better for booting onto a number of different devices, like, don't the drivers get fixed for a particular cpu and motherboard when you do a full install even on a USB stick? - - - I think also, with the live persistent stick you can also retain the facility of being able to install the system onto another HD/computer whenever you want. I currently use a live stick however, and I use Unetbootin to set the persistence - only problem is that Mac OSX doesn't recognise either the Unetbootin UEFI boot screen and/or the casper-rw which is written onto an ext4 formatted partition Ext4 is also apparently not recognised by Mac OSX - - - unless anyone knows a patch or work around. I might try a full install in any case onto a USB for this one reason - - I want to boot my stick on my Mac - - so far though I've had problems installing onto a thumb drive - - is there a minimum size requirement etc? I'll try the links posted anyways so, thanks guys stay in touch

[Spearmint2]

I use mkusb to make USB live persistence flashdrives.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14912/c ... ash-drive/

[all41]

imho using flash for this is questionable regarding longevity.
There is considerable rewrite cycles involved and normal flash drive
longevity must be considered.

[pbear]

... only problem is that Mac OSX doesn't recognise either the Unetbootin UEFI boot screen and/or the casper-rw which is written onto an ext4 formatted partition Ext4 is also apparently not recognised by Mac OSX ...

FWIW, my experiences with Unetbootin were discouraging, so I moved on to other tools. For persistence > 4 GB, mkUSB which Spearmint2 mentions is my preference also. That's a Linux app, though, so you'll have to install it in a live session (how-to here), then use that to create the persistent drive on a separate stick. As for the format of the casper-rw partition, pretty sure that's not the problem. It's read by the live session, not Mac OSX.

[lsemmens]

Everyone is wanting something to complement their main operating system

Am I? I think Mint needs no Complementary system. I do have a backup plan, but, should the worst happen, it only takes about 15 minutes to re-install Mint anyway. Another 10 would see me as though nothing had ever happened.

FWIW I also have 5 or 6 other computers around the house, all running Mint, of course.

[AndyMH]

+1 MKUSB

[Spearmint2]

imho using flash for this is questionable regarding longevity.
There is considerable rewrite cycles involved and normal flash drive
longevity must be considered.

here's a question I've wondered long about, having seen no info regarding. What happens to the read ability when the write cycles have been exhausted? Can the data already on such device still be read, or is it just totally dead?

[meToo]

imho using flash for this is questionable regarding longevity.
There is considerable rewrite cycles involved and normal flash drive
longevity must be considered.

Flash sticks v sdhc cards - I have never had a flash stick fail, but never used one for long term live persistence.
However, I have been running apache server on a raspberry pi using a CLASS 10 quality SDHC card for nearly 5 years, 24/7 without failure. I also run linux on an eeePC901, from a CLASS 10 SDHC card in the single card reader slot, (the SSD capacities are too small and too slow) again been running for years and another old laptop runs linux from a CLASS 10 SDHC card in a USB card reader. The reader can be bought for £1 in UK and is available cheaply online.
Clones of the SDHCs enable me to plug in a replacement in the event of failure but that has not happened yet. The SDHC cards also have a 10 year guarantee!

Maybe that is the way to go for a USB live persistent linux from a USB card reader, rather than a flash stick.

Surely there must be others who run systems from SDHC cards?

Mike.

[bob466]

I made one once...found it way too slow and most likely would kill the Flash Drive in no time...if I want something portable I'll use a Laptop.

[all41]

imho using flash for this is questionable regarding longevity.
There is considerable rewrite cycles involved and normal flash drive
longevity must be considered.

here's a question I've wondered long about, having seen no info regarding. What happens to the read ability when the write cycles have been exhausted? Can the data already on such device still be read, or is it just totally dead?

I think the writable cells diminish and the reported storage capacity decreases over time

[carum carvi]

The BIGGER the Usb stick, the LONGER it will last.

That is my knowledge gained from users on this forum.

A 16 Gb stick will only last for a year, while a 256 Gb usb stick will last much longer.

[Arch_Enemy]

The BIGGER the Usb stick, the LONGER it will last.

That is my knowledge gained from users on this forum.

A 16 Gb stick will only last for a year, while a 256 Gb usb stick will last much longer.

Well, sort of...

but not really.

ANY USB stick can run down after a while, but it usually takes about 100,000 write cycles. Since most of them are the same, time is not an issue, and most sticks used heavily will last ~10 years.

That's whit a lot of write cycles.

If you roll a USB edition of your installation, and make it read only, it could last decades. The biggest killer of USB stick is mounting and unmounting. Too many mounts/unmounts on an inexpensive stick can cause the joints at the connector to weaken, and cause the stick to fail. Best thing is to look for a METAL USB stick with a robust interface. With careful mounting and unmounting such a device can last a lifetime.

Modern stick use a tertiary chip setup that is a weaker link. If you really want durability, look for a "single stage" USB stick. They are scarce and expensive.

Most now on the market are Multi-Level Cell (MLC) devices good for 5,000-20,000 writes. Single Level Cell devices are far more expensive, but can stand 100,000 write-delete cycles before wearing out.

Any device used primarily as read-only will last years.

[Arch_Enemy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash ... provements

[Arch_Enemy]

The BIGGER the Usb stick, the LONGER it will last.

That is my knowledge gained from users on this forum.

A 16 Gb stick will only last for a year, while a 256 Gb usb stick will last much longer.

Well, sort of...

but not really.

ANY USB stick can run down after a while, but it usually takes a lot of write cycles. Since most of them are the same, time is not an issue, and most sticks used heavily will last ~10 years.

That's whit a lot of write cycles.

If you roll a USB edition of your installation, and make it read only, it could last decades. The biggest killer of USB stick is mounting and unmounting. Too many mounts/unmounts on an inexpensive stick can cause the joints at the connector to weaken, and cause the stick to fail. Best thing is to look for a METAL USB stick with a robust interface. With careful mounting and unmounting such a device can last a lifetime.

Modern stick use a tertiary chip setup that is a weaker link. If you really want durability, look for a "single stage" USB stick. They are scarce and expensive.

Most now on the market are Multi-Level Cell (MLC) devices good for 5,000-20,000 writes. Single Level Cell devices are far more expensive, but can stand 100,000 write-delete cycles before wearing out.

Any device used primarily as read-only will last years.