Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

acgtyrant · 2013-04-19 05:50:24

I want to install Arch Linux on a USB key following the wiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … _a_USB_key

But I now heard that Arch Linux will be very very slow than LiveUSB because of USB's bad I/O speed. Is it real?

Forgive my poor English, thank you!

jacobopantoja · 2013-04-19 06:08:17

Probably it depends on the USB key used. I've one Arch installation in an USB and it is sometimes slow, but I have enabled the "complete" journal feature to the EXT4 filesystem, and I have it encrypted, so probably this slowness could be mitigated without the journal and without encryption (i.e. the default options).

Mr Green · 2013-04-19 07:53:30

Generally usb install is going to be slower than a real hard drive. That said if you go for small applications and lighter window manager you can get a reasonable system running. Working on a usb installer at the moment, check my blog for more details.

Last edited by Mr Green (2013-04-19 07:54:12)

McDoenerKing · 2013-04-19 09:10:40

Use a sdhc class ten card if applicable :-)

chord · 2013-04-19 09:48:22

I had a Debian on the usb stick (was made with remastersys). The main feature - squashfs. Worked faster than harddrive installation, because all the system booted into RAM. But I'm not sure in possibility to use squashfs with Arch.

Mr Green · 2013-04-19 11:12:48

Archiso is based on squashfs, and of course it has the option to run from ram

swanson · 2013-04-19 13:59:36

Boot is slower. Browsers can be accelerated with their cache in ram. So go for it!

acgtyrant · 2013-04-19 14:18:35

Actually I spent some times to study USB, and I concluded out that it is relate with USB's performance, as example, USB 3.0 is better than USB 2.0, SLC is better than MLC.

So the better performance of USB the more suitable to install Arch Linux. However, it will costs me much money to buy expensive USB:)

@Mr Green What's your blog? Is this http://archbang.org/?

Mr Green · 2013-04-19 14:24:13

@acgtyrant http://www.armchairlinux.org/

teateawhy · 2013-04-19 14:40:51

I think it is not worth buying a more expensive USB stick for this purpose, unless you use the USB installation every day. I have a rather cheap USB stick, and the boot time is acceptable, a bit better than from a harddrive.
A negative aspect is the time it takes to upgrade your system with pacman, because write speeds are very slow.

Last edited by teateawhy (2013-04-19 14:42:32)

acgtyrant · 2013-04-19 14:51:17

@teateawhy I will use it in computer lab and others everyday:)

chord · 2013-04-19 15:20:57

acgtyrant wrote:

I will use it in computer lab and others everyday:)

If you planning to use it everyday, especially in read-write mode, it will kills your stick quickly, no matter what a stick/vendor you will choose.

Mr Green · 2013-04-19 15:55:42

Some more information about options for fstab

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SS … d.2FWrites

And field defs...

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fs … efinitions

DSpider · 2013-04-19 22:33:28

You should probably look into Btrfs compression (less data written on a slow drive -> faster performance; at least in theory).

Don't save a swapfile on it. Basically, a lot of the tips from this article apply.

Mr Green · 2013-04-20 12:24:04

My usb drive was set up using genfstab

UUID=d483c674-bc35-4dfe-aac2-19d39d8cf48f	/         	ext4      	rw,relatime,data=ordered	0 1

Arch Linux

#1 2013-04-19 05:50:24

Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#2 2013-04-19 06:08:17

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#3 2013-04-19 07:53:30

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#4 2013-04-19 09:10:40

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#5 2013-04-19 09:48:22

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#6 2013-04-19 11:12:48

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#7 2013-04-19 13:59:36

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#8 2013-04-19 14:18:35

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#9 2013-04-19 14:24:13

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#10 2013-04-19 14:40:51

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#11 2013-04-19 14:51:17

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#12 2013-04-19 15:20:57

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#13 2013-04-19 15:55:42

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#14 2013-04-19 22:33:28

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

#15 2013-04-20 12:24:04

Re: Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

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