Which linux distro on flash stick?

[jendazbenda]

Hi,
I want install system on flash stick (4GB) for a purposes of ltc/btc mining.

I would like to install Ubuntu, because I used them before. But I'm not sure if it is a good choice for USB stick... will it work well? Will I encounter any troubles during install/setting?

What linux distrubution do you use?

[SnitraM]

You should be able to use any distribution you want.

I've successfully installed Debian on a stick. And Ubuntu is based on Debian.

But a stick is not as resilient as a (SSD) disk with regards to rewriting, so the stick might not last
as long. OTOH, the price of a 4GB stick isn't much, so it not a big problem (for me at least).

[jendazbenda]

SnitraM: thanks for answer.

I expect it to be slow... but once it boots, runs miner, loads everything needed into RAM... than there should be no slowdown, right?

When I last installed linux, it required second partition with the same size as available RAM (I'm not sure about purpose of that).... can this be somehow avoided?

[SnitraM]

I expect it to be slow... but once it boots, runs miner, loads everything needed into RAM... than there should be no slowdown, right?

It's fast! The main time booting is waiting for the hard drive. Sticks just fly.

If you computer is slow after booting, running on a stick won't help much. Linux caches everything so
if it's slow (after booting) you probably has too little RAM and it's swapping. (That will make your stick
last shorter.)

When I last installed linux, it required second partition with the same size as available RAM (I'm not sure about purpose of that).... can this be somehow avoided?

That second partition is probably the swap partition.

I don't know what Ubuntu demands, but Linux works fine without a swap partition if you have enough RAM.
IIRC, you need a swap partition if you want to suspend to disk, e. g. if you have a laptop. As you mining
that's not likely.

[jendazbenda]

You reassured me it is possible, so I will just try and see... Thanks for your help.

[SnitraM]

An update. I hope you'll see this.

You do not want to swap to the stick. I did an upgrade and writing to sticks seems to be _very_ slow.

Sometime my system (running on the stick) just pauses ~5 s. I think this is when iceweasel is writing its
history or whatever it does.

Upgrading with aptitude seems to pause ~15 s (or more). I think this is because the system has a lot of
dirty pages to write to the stick, and while it's doing that it won't do much else.

So my prediction is if you swap to a stick you'll get very choppy behaviour. (My systems has a lot of
memory so I haven't any swap activated, so I haven't seen this.)

But if you have enough RAM so you don't need to swap and don't write a lot of stuff all the time, mining
on a stick works fine and is (most of the time) fast.

[parsec]

You should be able to use any distribution you want.

I've successfully installed Debian on a stick. And Ubuntu is based on Debian.

But a stick is not as resilient as a (SSD) disk with regards to rewriting, so the stick might not last
as long. OTOH, the price of a 4GB stick isn't much, so it not a big problem (for me at least).

Any experience on how much an usb stick can last? is it a few weeks or few months?
Thanks

[elgeo]

You should be able to use any distribution you want.

I've successfully installed Debian on a stick. And Ubuntu is based on Debian.

But a stick is not as resilient as a (SSD) disk with regards to rewriting, so the stick might not last
as long. OTOH, the price of a 4GB stick isn't much, so it not a big problem (for me at least).

Lubuntu or xubuntu

[SnitraM]

Any experience on how much an usb stick can last? is it a few weeks or few months?

No as it hasn't failed yet.

Or yes: at least one month as I've been running on one for that time.

[RoyalCoin]

You should be able to use any distribution you want.

I've successfully installed Debian on a stick. And Ubuntu is based on Debian.

But a stick is not as resilient as a (SSD) disk with regards to rewriting, so the stick might not last
as long. OTOH, the price of a 4GB stick isn't much, so it not a big problem (for me at least).

Lubuntu or xubuntu

+1