Advantages/Disadvantages LiveUSB vs. Full Install on Flash Drive

zackf · #1 13th May 2009, 04:29 PM

I have an 8 Gig flash drive and I want to have Fedora on it, I think I have enough room to go full install, but I like the portability of the Live system (w/ persistence for some files). I want to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each one, here are a couple I have, but what are everyone else's?

Full Install: Fully updateable (thus more secure)

Live: Easier to share files between other Machines/Windows

Live: Fewer Hardware requirements (Please correct if wrong)

sideways · #2 13th May 2009, 05:15 PM

The persistent overlay mechanism is far too prone to failure, especially if you install a large number of updates. For a livecd on usb I would just enable a persistent home, that'll keep your desktop settings the way you want, and for any often used apps use 'yumdownloader --resolve' to store the required rpms on the disk and then install after each boot (with a script in home for speed, only takes a minute).

A full install is better if you want an updated system, most hardware hotplugs using hal now so you shouldn't have any issues, just don't hardcode the network interface mac in any config file, and use NetworkManager to facilitate roaming.

zackf · #3 13th May 2009, 07:01 PM

That's what I do currently with the /home and persistence (although I like the yum trick, I have not used that).

Do you find that drives and partitions still mount ok with a full install?

sideways · #4 13th May 2009, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zackf

That's what I do currently with the /home and persistence (although I like the yum trick, I have not used that).

Do you find that drives and partitions still mount ok with a full install?

Yes, fine. But I have Polkit authorisation for automounting fixed drives turned off, so I mount manually when required.

zackf · #5 14th May 2009, 02:07 PM

So maybe a full install on 7 GB of the 8 GB stick and using the remainder as a FAT32 partition to throw files on from Winders is the better way to go, is that how you would see it?

sideways · #6 14th May 2009, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zackf

So maybe a full install on 7 GB of the 8 GB stick and using the remainder as a FAT32 partition to throw files on from Winders is the better way to go, is that how you would see it?

Yes, that would be a good idea if you want to copy files from windows to the stick, although I didn't think of it a the time so I just have a full 8Gb partition

.

Also, I wouldn't bother with a swap file in the 7GB partition, and I would run 'tune2fs -m1' (after first boot) to reduce the 5% reserved blocks to 1%.

zackf · #7 15th May 2009, 04:07 PM

I think I'm going to agree with you about the swap, I wouldn't think I'll be doing any hibernating or pushing the little guy hard enough for it to be an issue, although it might be an interesting experiment to see what it can handle ;-)

apirdy · #8 1st February 2010, 05:53 AM

Something that I have been considering doing with this is a full install but on a fat32 partition, and using isolinux as the boot loader instead of grub, that way you can maintain full compatibility with windows, and keep the full install. Does anyone know of a reason that this might not work?
Thanks,
-Xander

DZ* · #9 2nd February 2010, 01:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by apirdy

Something that I have been considering doing with this is a full install but on a fat32 partition, and using isolinux as the boot loader instead of grub, that way you can maintain full compatibility with windows, and keep the full install. Does anyone know of a reason that this might not work?

Can't you go the other way around and access linux partitions from Windows? I don't know how good this is, but -- http://www.fs-driver.org/