Newbie asks: What are the limitations of pendrive install?

[NUboon2Age]

Total newbie question:
I'm trying to play with Ubuntu 10.4 on a pendrive before installing it on a hard disk, but have been running into difficulties with getting a driver to work. But to ask a question even more basic than that, are there any limitations to a pendrive install that I should be aware of, or does it work just as if I'd installed it to a (small) hard drive. Obviously space is a limit, but for instance if I successfully use synaptic to install a package, should I be surprised if I reboot and don't see it there on the menu as it was before? Also I don't see my browsing history in firefox. Is there something funky about a pendrive install to cause this?

When trying to straighten out the driver problem I did an apt-get and config sequence where I ran out of room and some dpkg operations were interrupted... is this the likely culprit or is it something about a pendrive itself???

[Paqman]

How did you install? Did you run the normal Ubuntu installer and just install to the USB stick like you would to a hard drive? Or did you use the USB Startup Disk Creator? Or Unetbootin?

[NUboon2Age]

I used USB Startup Disk Creator. I also have Unetbootin available. Thank you for your help!

[Paqman]

Well, if you elected to devote some space on the drive for persistence, then you can install software and store files on there. If you didn't devote some space to persistence, then you've basically got a LiveCD, every time you reboot it will reset itself.

[NUboon2Age]

Ok,that's interesting. The way it was worded I thought that it divided it into system space and other software and that the system space would include any updates that I installed so I gave most of it to that. I gave a a half a gig to other programs. So are you saying that the system space is not updatable?

[NUboon2Age]

To get the effect I'm looking for (so its just basically a small hard drive and not a 'live disk' that resets each time), how should I do it?

[marshmallow1304]

To get the effect I'm looking for (so its just basically a small hard drive and not a 'live disk' that resets each time), how should I do it?

You could do one of these:

1) Using USB Startup Disk Creator, put the disc image on the USB drive, remembering to select "Stored in reserved extra space" and setting the slider all the way to the right. AFAIK, the persistence file will be limited to 4 GB since the Startup Creator uses FAT32. Technically, this won't be the same as a regular install, but it will be similar: you will be able to install programs and keep files.

2) Go through the installation procedure but select the USB drive instead of a regular hard drive. You will need to have another installation medium (e.g. CD or another USB drive from which to start the install). There are two things to mention here: a) Be very careful when selecting the installation drive and selecting whether to install the bootloader so as to avoid installing anything to an internal hard drive. It is advisable to disconnect all drives other than the USB drive. b) Avoid creating a swap partition on the USB drive. Swap, if put into use, involves a lot of read and write operations, which will be detrimental to the lifespan of the USB drive.

[NUboon2Age]

So it sounds like Startup Disk Creator (and Unetbootin) always create a system space that won't be upgradeable? So then if I want an upgradeable system I have to do #2?

Also if I do #2 is it okay to do it from a live CD or will it do something to my internal HD (which I can't very well disconnect as you advise)? I don't want to mess with my internal HD yet. The whole idea was to experiment on a pen drive so I could see if it would work and then if so I can install to my internal HD

[NUboon2Age]

In USB Disk creator the choice that I guess Marshmallow1304 was talking about says
"When starting up from this disk, documents and settings will be *Stored in reserve space".

So I guess it doesn't allow me to not have of having any updatable system that won't just go back to the way it was before the changes I made.

Is Unetbootin the same in requiring this unchangeable space? It's interface web site is terse and I can't figure out the answer to my question. Your help is appreciated.

[marshmallow1304]

To the best of my understanding, it works something like this. The base image (you called it "system space") is read-only, as if it were on a CD. The persistence file can hold anything on top of that. This includes upgraded packages, newly installed packages, and user files. The difference is that when upgrading, packages will not be "replaced" in the "system space" but loaded from the persistence file instead. As a warning, this can fill up the persistence file quickly.

As far as I know, Unetbootin does not support the creation of persistence space.


If you go with number 2, it is OK to do it with a live CD. If you're not comfortable with opening your computer and disconnecting the hard drive, you will just have to be very careful not to install to the internal hard drive. Go slowly, review all the advanced options, and make sure that you don't install the boot loader to your internal drive.