Run Ubuntu from SD card?

[GigabitXe]

Hi,

 

So, I have a fairly old netbook that I currently have running Ubuntu (not sure which version). However, it is running off of the hard drive that came with it, and is painfully slow at booting, launching programs, and navigating the OS. My question is, can I install Ubuntu on an SD card can run it from there (I think SD cards are faster, if they are not, feel free to set me straight). I am hoping to get a performance increase without having to buy an SSD. I am not looking for a powerhouse workstation (it only has 1GB of ram and an Intel Atom something-or-other) but I would like to be able to use it without waiting 2 minutes for Firefox to open. 

[samcool55]

Well you have 2 options.

1) Get a REALLY cheap chinese SSD, you can get like a 64 gig model for 20-ish bucks

2) Get a decent SD card, like 50mb/s read and write sequential is a general direction you want to aim for because cheap SD's get like 5-ish mb/s write so you can imagine random reads and writes being complete crap.

[GigabitXe]

3 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

Well you have 2 options.

1) Get a REALLY cheap chinese SSD, you can get like a 64 gig model for 20-ish bucks

2) Get a decent SD card, like 50mb/s read and write sequential is a general direction you want to aim for because cheap SD's get like 5-ish mb/s write so you can imagine random reads and writes being complete crap.

That's what I thought, thank you for you input. 

[ScratchCat]

10 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

Well you have 2 options.

1) Get a REALLY cheap chinese SSD, you can get like a 64 gig model for 20-ish bucks

2) Get a decent SD card, like 50mb/s read and write sequential is a general direction you want to aim for because cheap SD's get like 5-ish mb/s write so you can imagine random reads and writes being complete crap.

In regards to 2, the netbook probably doesn't have an SD reader connected to anything faster than USB 2.0 resulting in limited speeds.

[njmyers3]

18 minutes ago, Space2867 said:

Hi,

 

So, I have a fairly old netbook that I currently have running Ubuntu (not sure which version). However, it is running off of the hard drive that came with it, and is painfully slow at booting, launching programs, and navigating the OS. My question is, can I install Ubuntu on an SD card can run it from there (I think SD cards are faster, if they are not, feel free to set me straight). I am hoping to get a performance increase without having to buy an SSD. I am not looking for a powerhouse workstation (it only has 1GB of ram and an Intel Atom something-or-other) but I would like to be able to use it without waiting 2 minutes for Firefox to open. 

I think a flash drive would be faster than an SD card so if that's an option I'd choose that instead.

[samcool55]

3 minutes ago, ScratchCat said:

In regards to 2, the netbook probably doesn't have an SD reader connected to anything faster than USB 2.0 resulting in limited speeds.

Well i wouldn't be too sure about that.

I have a laptop and for some reason it can read from an sd card at 40/50 mb/s and it only has USB 2.0 ports, no idea how it works but somehow the SD slot is faster than the usb ports.

[njmyers3]

2 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

Well i wouldn't be too sure about that.

I have a laptop and for some reason it can read from an sd card at 40/50 mb/s and it only has USB 2.0 ports, no idea how it works but somehow the SD slot is faster than the usb ports.

The maximum theoretical speed of USB 2.0 is 60MBps, so that could still be on the USB 2.0 controller and achieve those speeds.

[ScratchCat]

1 minute ago, samcool55 said:

Well i wouldn't be too sure about that.

I have a laptop and for some reason it can read from an sd card at 40/50 mb/s and it only has USB 2.0 ports, no idea how it works but somehow the SD slot is faster than the usb ports.

I guess so however this is probably a netbook from 2012 with an Atom N450 or something similar. the manufacturer probably would not splurge on a fast reader. My netbook only reaches around 19MB/s on a decent SD card while being a newer model.
@Space2867 If you have an SD card could you see what sort of transfer rates you can achieve?

[TheGlenlivet]

The SD card will wear pretty fast from being used as a regular drive.  Don't keep anything to critical on it...

[niculrk]

If you can, avoid using an SD card, if possible use a USB3 higherspeed flash drive (I have one with 250/250 MBps speeds), it will result in a better experience overall. 

Btw. there is a LTT video coming with exactly this thought (on FP right now, should be on YT around thursday / friday), the result is that you technically can, but you shouldn't. It felt worse than a normal HDD (from watching the video). 

[GigabitXe]

1 hour ago, ScratchCat said:

I guess so however this is probably a netbook from 2012 with an Atom N450 or something similar. the manufacturer probably would not splurge on a fast reader. My netbook only reaches around 19MB/s on a decent SD card while being a newer model.
@Space2867 If you have an SD card could you see what sort of transfer rates you can achieve?

The SD card I have is just a class 4 (8GB), so I wouldn't expect that it would be that great. Plus, based on everything that was mentioned here, I think I will just wait until I find a SSD on sale.  

[Wild Penquin]

I think what has been said about HDD/SSD/SD cards has been covered already, but what hasn't been covered, is that depending on the Notebook, Ubuntu might just be too much despite what kind of mass media it is running from. OP might be better of with something lighter (Lubuntu, or Mint Mate variety or anything aimed at a notebook) and a proper SSD !

 

It's not the HDD which makes notebooks slow, but usually anything but, like slower CPU and less RAM!

[ScratchCat]

13 hours ago, niculrk said:

If you can, avoid using an SD card, if possible use a USB3 higherspeed flash drive (I have one with 250/250 MBps speeds), it will result in a better experience overall. 

Btw. there is a LTT video coming with exactly this thought (on FP right now, should be on YT around thursday / friday), the result is that you technically can, but you shouldn't. It felt worse than a normal HDD (from watching the video). 

As someone who uses Linux on a USB daily, USB 3 makes the experience more usable however if the stick is poor at random reads the system will be frustrating to use if a copy operation is being run. If you give the system a few minutes after being turned on to cache most common entries it works well (apart from system updates where the UI will freeze for 15 seconds or more repeatedly).