USB full distro install - Pro's and Con's discussion

[phonic-otg]

Just to tie up loose ends, the micro-SD card with full distro kept crashing, so decided not to continue.

[jglen490]

Yep, it's a tough position. But, if something goes wrong, it's going to the admin's fault, or service desk guy's fault - not mine

[jlittle]

In fact, where I work, I have ZERO admin rights on the laptop given to me for use.

That can suck badly. It's particularly frustrating when the administrators understand less about computing and security than you do, and you can't do your job properly.

I was on a team once where some team members considered themselves forced to socially engineer an in person visit by an administrator to allow them to shoulder surf to get the administrator's password.

Installing Kubuntu becomes difficult. Just getting past Bitlocker is a mission.

Note that a USB keyboard attack can still "exfiltrate" sensitive data the user has access to, and can map the user's view of the network.

[jglen490]

That is DoD policy now. and probably most other Federal agencies.

[Snowhog]

Long story short. When I was working (Army National Guard), the Recruiters purchased USB Thumb Drives with National Guard branding as promotional giveaways. Of course, they gave some to employees (I wasn't one). One was plugged in to the employees work PC and a virus on it infected the entire network. The thumb drives were made in; wait for it; China no less. A hardwired virus was on the controller of the drives. It was that event that resulted in the policy of not being allowed to connect devices NOT SPECIFICALLY APPROVED by our Directory of Information Management to USB ports, and that included (at that time) external Floppy or CD/DVD drives.

[jglen490]

jlittle, that was a specific reference to a specific corporate policy implemented in network and PC policy. One that I assure you still applies - where I work.

In fact, where I work, I have ZERO admin rights on the laptop given to me for use. My personal PC, yes, It's mine to screw up as I see fit

[phonic-otg]

That exception is over, see f.ex. this ZDnet news.

Not that I'd ever do that. Is there a way to see the drive in a VM?

[kc1di]

That exception is over, see f.ex. this ZDnet news.

Good to know Thanks!

[jlittle]

...you plug any device other than a keyboard into a USB port,,,

That exception is over, see f.ex. this ZDnet news.

[kc1di]

I've use usb's with persistence in the past but never done a full install and don't think I would do that. I've found usb stick to be not that reliable in the long term. I think using them for file storage or maybe even system backups may work ok. But for daily use as a operating system too many read writes. And to much chance of corruption.

[jglen490]

That is an interesting use case, and is fine where corporate and system policy allows that activity.

If it works for you, then good. But also note that your "system" is indicated as an actual drive ("HDD"), which has much more reliability, resiliency, and life expectancy than an SD card or a thumb drive - which relates back to the OP's case.

Your use case will not work where corporate policy, especially as implemented in computer system/network policy disallows it. Where I work, if you are a user (not a "registered "administrator") and you plug any device other than a keyboard into a USB port, that computer phones home and calls in the helicopters, from which men dressed in black come rappelling down ropes and take you away to dark rooms for "further questioning". Well maybe not literally, but policy would prevent that from happening. So your use case would apply where security is less concerning to the company you are visiting.

Not a bad use case, just possibly limiting

[wago80]

Hi, I would like to add my experience regarding the topic.

I work for 2 different companies and also as a freelance programmer. So in order to avoid using/carrying my laptop or several company/clients computers (in which I always have some software or files missing) I decided to install kubuntu (ubuntu with KDE) in an external 2 TB USB 3.1 HDD.

I've been using this "portable" OS by 4 years now, in at least 10 different computers (from laptops to desktops), as a everyday system.
I must say that I'm really happy with that. Now wherever I go I have everything I need to work and I don't have to carry out any laptop or tools, just this USB drive (and it cable, of course =)), which I would carry either way with some files on it.

In my experience, the performance is no different from the one if the OS were installed in the main hard drive laptop or pc (I am talking HDD). I guess the performance will increase in a SDD, but I can also get an external SDD and I guess the performance will increase too.
Of course, it also depends on the hardware. Is not the same performance in a core2duo with 6 GB of ram (that I am using right now) than in a I7 with 12 GB (that I use in my other work),

So if you plan to move from static OS to mobile, I will say go for it. You will no regret it.

Thank you and I hope I could collaborate with the main discussion.

[jglen490]

Not saying that limited use cases are invalid, just that limited use cases are, well, limited

[GreyGeek]

I experimented with using a 64Gb USB 3.0 stick with a full installation on it. Configured for my Acer it wouldn't give me my KDE DE when I attempted to boot it to machines with a different GPU.

So, for years I carried around a KDE LTS LiveUSB with persistence in my watch pocket. It always booted up and ran fine. Not fast, but usable. My FF bookmarks came along with FF, and some additional apps as well.

Since covid, and my wife's health problems, our mobility is confined to our apartment, and it shows in our weight gains. A couple of months ago my USB stick fell out of my pocket when I fetched my keys and after a moment of thought I realized that I hadn't used it in over three years, when I tested my neighbor's HP laptop to see if KDE LTS would run on it. (It would and he's been happy with it ever since!) So, I put it in my USB case along with the couple dozen others.

[phonic-otg]

I found this as a guide to check the integrity of SD-cards & Micro-SD-cards.
https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.co...ds-replacement