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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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How to use a portable SSD for a travel OS with Linux? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hello! The TL;DR is:

I have an m.2 drive that is in a sturdy enclosure that has 1 TB. I have Ventoy with Medicat on there, with some backups of important data.

I still have a lot of room left on there, so I was thinking what else I could do, and the idea of basically installing a Linux Distro to a chunk of free space on there. Maybe Debian/Fedora or Arch.

Is there anything I should be aware of to help not break that system or rapidly kill the drive? It's not a USB flash drive, it's a M.2 drive that's put on a small board that then allows it to talk via USB C/Thunderbolt.

EDIT: Just to be sure, if I use Ventoy's EFI, do I need to be worried about a conflict with the bootloader of the Linux install?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Not really different than any other M.2 SSDs, that it's over USB doesn't matter.

The only consideration for USB sticks is that they're usually quite crap, so running a system off it tends to use up the flash pretty quickly.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But it's not a usb stick, it's an m.2 drive in an enclosure... So your second point doesn't apply

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

It indeed doesn't, its purpose is to show the differences and clarify why/where OP might have heard you need special care for portable installs on USB sticks.

All the guides and tutorials out there are overwhelmingly written with regular USB sticks in mind and not M.2 enclosures over USB. So they'll tell you to put as much stuff on tmpfs as possible and avoid all unnecessary reads and writes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

The only consideration for USB sticks is that they’re usually quite crap, so running a system off it tends to use up the flash pretty quickly.

not to mention that, due to the crap flash, they also tend to be quite slow and unreliable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Definitely look for portable SSDs rather than flash drives. Different technology, usually significantly larger (physically). Easily saturates a USB 2.0 connection, so look for USB 3.0.

Back when Microsoft supported Windows To Go, they had a short list of verified drives to use. Surely outdated now but might be a good starting point.

FWIW I used to run Windows 10 off a Samsung T5. It worked fine, except that it would always shut down when I tried to suspend. Still works as far as I know, I just haven't used it in a long time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

look for USB 3.0

USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) is quite ancient by today's standards. I'd recommend a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) or even a USB 4.0 drive (20/40 Gbps) drive.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Good point. I can never keep my USB 3 naming schemes straight.

The faster nvme-based sticks can even exceed 3.0's 5gbps!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Seems right, but I wanted to double check my research before I fully committed.