Will an 8 GB USB be sufficient?

[Boina Roja]

To install Fedora 17 Gnome in persistant overlay mode? Or should I go for KDE/LXDE instead?

[nonamedotc]

I have installed various versions Fedora 17 in 8GB VMs (and once in a USB) without problems. I think GNOME installation size is ~4 GB and so there should be about 50% space available for data ...

[Boina Roja]

Originally Posted by nonamedotc

I have installed various versions Fedora 17 in 8GB VMs without problems. I think GNOME installation size is ~4 GB and so there should be about 50% space remaining.

Thanx! Reason why I asked is because in the release note it says (for Desktop installation) that 10 GB harddrive is needed. Since I am planning to create a write-many overlay I thought that 8 GB wouldn't do the trick.

[nonamedotc]

I have not used the USB stick for anything useful though other than checking if I can install and store files (few text files) in that. So, I do not know how good it would be. But, you can definitely install and write files

[Dan]

Go with a 16 gig.

[bonedome]

Hello
I don't know if it's changed for F17 but on previous incarnations using fedora live usb creator you cannot delete anything from the persistent overlay so be aware it will eventually fail when the overlay runs out of space.

[Boina Roja]

Originally Posted by bonedome

Hello
I don't know if it's changed for F17 but on previous incarnations using fedora live usb creator you cannot delete anything from the persistent overlay so be aware it will eventually fail when the overlay runs out of space.

I am a Fedora newb, so I don't completely comprehend all the tech stuff

One very important note about using the "primary" persistent overlay for system changes is that due to the way it's currently implemented (as a LVM copy-on-write snapshot), every single change to it (writes AND deletes) subtracts from its free space, so it will eventually be "used up" and your USB stick will no longer boot (see this dm-devel discussion and this page for emergency recovery). Because of these limitations, it is advisable to use the system-level persistence sparingly, for configuration changes and important security updates only. For a truly persistent write-many (vs write-once) overlay, use the --home-size-mb option to create a home directory filesystem image for personal files. Unlike the primary system overlay image, the home.img can be re-used and loop mounted outside of the liveusb environment.

If I would do what;s described in bold, then it won't fail right? I got the quote from here.

[ryptyde]

One very important note about using the "primary" persistent overlay for system changes is that due to the way it's currently implemented (as a LVM copy-on-write snapshot), every single change to it (writes AND deletes) subtracts from its free space, so it will eventually be "used up" and your USB stick will no longer boot (see this dm-devel discussion and this page for emergency recovery). Because of these limitations, it is advisable to use the system-level persistence sparingly, for configuration changes and important security updates only.

If you update or add any new packages to the live install then it will use up space and eventually fail so there are no guarantee's if that is what you are looking for. Having a separate "home" will preserve your personal data only and will be saved if you re-install or install a newer or different Fedora to the flash drive.

phil

[Boina Roja]

Originally Posted by ryptyde

If you update or add any new packages to the live install then it will use up space and eventually fail so there are no guarantee's if that is what you are looking for. Having a separate "home" will preserve your personal data only and will be saved if you re-install or install a newer or different Fedora to the flash drive.

phil

It,s basically to clown around in Fedora, if it fails it is not a problem. But thanks for pointing it out, I overlooked the consequences of the updates!

[jwele]

Originally Posted by Boina Roja

It,s basically to clown around in Fedora, if it fails it is not a problem. But thanks for pointing it out, I overlooked the consequences of the updates!

You could try to do a base install of fedora but It wouldn't have a lot of the shine that a full install would have. I think you will be fine but I just installed f17 into a virtual box with only 6 GB and fedora refused to install saying the space was inefficient. You would have to do some real maintenance on it and every kernel you update which would probably be often, you would have to remove the previous kernels as they take up space. There is probably a "yum clean" type of command that auto-magically performs the action but I can't be for sure.