Ubuntu on USB

[TheGhzGuy]

Hi all!

I was going to run Folding@Home on an old laptop because....why not? I was worried that the HDD in the laptop would die fairly soon, so I intended to use Ubuntu on USB. I had some issues with the Folding@Home Client and it not wanting to install. However, I can still Fold via Google Chrome, so I'm curious if I can download Chrome onto Ubuntu when running on a thumb drive. Thank you!

[Azgoth 2]

If you have a full installation on the thumb drive, yes, you definitely can.  You'll have to download it from Google and run the installer, though, since it's not available in the Ubuntu repositories.

 

If you're doing a full install on a flash drive, though, Ubuntu is one of the worse distros for that.  It's very resource-heavy and takes up a lot of space, so it'll run pretty slow compared to other, more slimmed down distros like Debian or (if you know what you're doing) Arch.  But if it's working for you as it is, then I wouldn't worry about it--just be aware that you'll see a slowdown from accessing and loading data over comparatively very slow USB interface versus the hard drive connector.

[TheGhzGuy]

11 minutes ago, Azgoth 2 said:

If you have a full installation on the thumb drive, yes, you definitely can.  You'll have to download it from Google and run the installer, though, since it's not available in the Ubuntu repositories.

 

If you're doing a full install on a flash drive, though, Ubuntu is one of the worse distros for that.  It's very resource-heavy and takes up a lot of space, so it'll run pretty slow compared to other, more slimmed down distros like Debian or (if you know what you're doing) Arch.  But if it's working for you as it is, then I wouldn't worry about it--just be aware that you'll see a slowdown from accessing and loading data over comparatively very slow USB interface versus the hard drive connector.

Well that certainly explains why it was running so bad when it did run. From what little I know for Linux, aren't Puppy Linux and Elementary OS also good options to run over USB? I guess the plus side of Debian would be that it's adopted everywhere (pretty much) so there are fewer worries of incompatibility

[Azgoth 2]

10 hours ago, TheGhzGuy said:

Well that certainly explains why it was running so bad when it did run. From what little I know for Linux, aren't Puppy Linux and Elementary OS also good options to run over USB? I guess the plus side of Debian would be that it's adopted everywhere (pretty much) so there are fewer worries of incompatibility

Puppy Linux is great for flash drive installs, yes, because it's extremely small (while still being pretty feature-full).  I haven't used Elementary, so I can't speak from experience, but its desktop environment is probably not much lighter than Ubuntu's.  You'll want something that uses LXDE (maybe XFCE), or something even lighter like just bare Openbox, as a desktop environment if you're running off of a USB.

 

Another alternative would be something like SliTaz or, if you can get it to run, Tiny Core (Tiny Core is designed to be ultra-minimalist, and can be a bit weird to use at times).  Both are extremely resource light (Tiny Core moreso than SliTaz if you get one of their more stripped-down ISOs) and can load entirely into memory, so you don't have to worry about accessing data over the USB interface.  But I don't know how well, or even if, Chrome/Folding@Home will run on those distros.

 

I'd recommend Puppy Linux if you can get it to run F@H, since it'll probably be the most user-friendly of these.  The next option would be Debian, like i mentioned, but you'd probably want to use their netinstall image that lets you manually pick all the packages at install time (aside from core software packages needed for the OS, that is).  This can be a bit time consuming to get things set up properly, though.

[TheGhzGuy]

13 minutes ago, Azgoth 2 said:

Puppy Linux is great for flash drive installs, yes, because it's extremely small (while still being pretty feature-full).  I haven't used Elementary, so I can't speak from experience, but its desktop environment is probably not much lighter than Ubuntu's.  You'll want something that uses LXDE (maybe XFCE), or something even lighter like just bare Openbox, as a desktop environment if you're running off of a USB.

 

Another alternative would be something like SliTaz or, if you can get it to run, Tiny Core (Tiny Core is designed to be ultra-minimalist, and can be a bit weird to use at times).  Both are extremely resource light (Tiny Core moreso than SliTaz if you get one of their more stripped-down ISOs) and can load entirely into memory, so you don't have to worry about accessing data over the USB interface.  But I don't know how well, or even if, Chrome/Folding@Home will run on those distros.

 

I'd recommend Puppy Linux if you can get it to run F@H, since it'll probably be the most user-friendly of these.  The next option would be Debian, like i mentioned, but you'd probably want to use their netinstall image that lets you manually pick all the packages at install time (aside from core software packages needed for the OS, that is).  This can be a bit time consuming to get things set up properly, though.

 

That's super helpful, thank you! I'll be sure to download Puppy Linux when I get home. If that doesn't work, I'll try Debian. And if that doesn't work, then I'll try one of the two really light ones.

[TheGhzGuy]

10 hours ago, Azgoth 2 said:

Puppy Linux is great for flash drive installs, yes, because it's extremely small (while still being pretty feature-full).  I haven't used Elementary, so I can't speak from experience, but its desktop environment is probably not much lighter than Ubuntu's.  You'll want something that uses LXDE (maybe XFCE), or something even lighter like just bare Openbox, as a desktop environment if you're running off of a USB.

 

Another alternative would be something like SliTaz or, if you can get it to run, Tiny Core (Tiny Core is designed to be ultra-minimalist, and can be a bit weird to use at times).  Both are extremely resource light (Tiny Core moreso than SliTaz if you get one of their more stripped-down ISOs) and can load entirely into memory, so you don't have to worry about accessing data over the USB interface.  But I don't know how well, or even if, Chrome/Folding@Home will run on those distros.

 

I'd recommend Puppy Linux if you can get it to run F@H, since it'll probably be the most user-friendly of these.  The next option would be Debian, like i mentioned, but you'd probably want to use their netinstall image that lets you manually pick all the packages at install time (aside from core software packages needed for the OS, that is).  This can be a bit time consuming to get things set up properly, though.

 

Ok, call me incompetent, but it seems like Linux Distros don't like me very much lol. I tried to use elementary OS, which didn't work. I then tried to download Puppy Linux 64 bit, but my computer thinks it's a CD/DVD and not an ISO image, so none of my ISO tools can recognize it as an ISO. I'm a bit lost here. Sorry if this is something really simple or something silly I missed.

[Dr.Fr4nk3n5731n]

What's you current situation on the PC you want to use to download Puppy Linux? If it's a Windows 8(,1) or 10 it will mount the ISO and see it like an ordinary disk drive. you could just try to copy everything from the "disk" onto your thumbdrive.

Also I would recomend Linux Mint XFCE or Lubuntu/Xubuntu since they are small and user friendly. Also you should probably use ext2 as Filesystem on a thumbdrive and move the /tmp partition into the RAM. Oh and turning swap off might increase the lifespan of the Stick as well, but this depends on your needs and how much RAM you use.

 

I hope this comment was helpfull.