Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Thumbdrive
On Sat, 3 Sep 2005 14:45:23 -0300, Norberto Bensa wrote: more like three months if you put a frequently written directory, like /tmp or /var/log, on a flash device. You can use UNIONFS for those ;) That makes it less portable, but it is a solution. Anyway, unless we're talking about different technologies, one of my USB drives is working fine and it is more than a year old. And I've used it like crazy (both read _and_ writes.) Flash memory has a definite write limit (no read lmiit AFAIK). It's around 100,000 writes PER CELL. So if you use it as a normal filesystem, writing and deleting files, as it was intended to be used, you won't have much of a problem. Each write is likely to be to a different cell. but if you have something that continually writes to the same place, you'll soon kill it. Read the recent thread on slow usb storage transfers, for an extreme example, the way the latest kernels update the FAT for each block write when a drive is mounted sync. Until I read this, I thought I'd been unlucky when a Crucial 1GB drive died after only a few months use. It turns out that repeatedly copying large files to the drive killed the area containing the FAT. -- Neil Bothwick I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it. pgpgd0yNFWxRk.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Thumbdrive
On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 22:21:30 -0300, Norberto Bensa wrote: Incorrect. Flash memory only has a limited write lifetime, treating it like a hard drive will kill it in no time. Yup. Like in three years or so... I've dropped both floppies and CD-RW discs in favor of pendrives (1GB) more like three months if you put a frequently written directory, like /tmp or /var/log, on a flash device. Unless you use a filesystem like JFFS2 that evens the writes over the whole disks, a few months of logfile updates can easily kill a portion of a drive. BTW you have PGP signed your email but your key doesn't appears to be on the keyservers. -- Neil Bothwick A closed mouth gathers no foot. pgpohsSDVanjJ.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Thumbdrive
On Fri, 2005-09-02 at 22:21 -0300, Norberto Bensa wrote: Neil Bothwick wrote: On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 19:06:13 -0400, Michael Crute wrote: additionally carry around a thumbdrive. I was wondering if anyone has been able to install Gentoo on a thumbdrive. I assume it could be treated like a regular hard drive, correct? Incorrect. Flash memory only has a limited write lifetime, treating it like a hard drive will kill it in no time. Yup. Like in three years or so... I've dropped both floppies and CD-RW discs in favor of pendrives (1GB) The down side is: not every computer out there can boot from a USB device. So for some computers, you still have to carry a boot floppy, but I can live with it for now. Regards, Norberto Hi, A little OT here, but just wanted to mention a distro (XoL IIRC) it's a derivative of SoL (Server oriented? Linux) linux project (check distrowatch.com), there are some more projects under SoL. Basic idea is to run the main system from CD-ROM but have all configs docs on an USB-pen drive. So in theory boot the CD, work, save your docs/work and go on. Moving office w/o a laptop. PS: no experience with this checked the page though. Rumen signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Thumbdrive
Neil Bothwick wrote: On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 22:21:30 -0300, Norberto Bensa wrote: Incorrect. Flash memory only has a limited write lifetime, treating it like a hard drive will kill it in no time. Yup. Like in three years or so... I've dropped both floppies and CD-RW discs in favor of pendrives (1GB) more like three months if you put a frequently written directory, like /tmp or /var/log, on a flash device. You can use UNIONFS for those ;) Anyway, unless we're talking about different technologies, one of my USB drives is working fine and it is more than a year old. And I've used it like crazy (both read _and_ writes.) BTW you have PGP signed your email but your key doesn't appears to be on the keyservers. Oops. The signature was supposed to be used for private mail messages only. I don't trust keyservers. My apologies to everyone! Regards, -- Norberto Bensa 4544-9692 / 15-4190-6344 Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Thumbdrive
Hi, OT here On Sat, 2005-09-03 at 14:45 -0300, Norberto Bensa wrote: Neil Bothwick wrote: On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 22:21:30 -0300, Norberto Bensa wrote: Incorrect. Flash memory only has a limited write lifetime, treating it like a hard drive will kill it in no time. Yup. Like in three years or so... I've dropped both floppies and CD-RW discs in favor of pendrives (1GB) more like three months if you put a frequently written directory, like /tmp or /var/log, on a flash device. You can use UNIONFS for those ;) Anyway, unless we're talking about different technologies, one of my USB drives is working fine and it is more than a year old. And I've used it like crazy (both read _and_ writes.) BTW you have PGP signed your email but your key doesn't appears to be on the keyservers. Oops. The signature was supposed to be used for private mail messages only. I don't trust keyservers. Why you don't trust the keyservers, you (or any other person which already has your signature) could always check if your signature is authentic (or you can update it if need be). Your choice of course. My apologies to everyone! Regards, -- Norberto Bensa 4544-9692 / 15-4190-6344 Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina Rumen signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
[gentoo-user] Gentoo on Thumbdrive
Lately I have been doing a lot of traveling and at the moment I don't have a laptop. Needless to say I run into a lot of crappy computers (aka computers running Windoze). I typically carry a SLAX cd to remedy the problem but the downside is I can't save my files unless I additionally carry around a thumbdrive. I was wondering if anyone has been able to install Gentoo on a thumbdrive. I assume it could be treated like a regular hard drive, correct? How about hardware detection? If I use genkernel to make my kernel would it detect all (or most) of the hardware on a wide variety of computers? Any thoughts, comments, suggestions, potential pitfalls would be appreciated. Thanks. -Mike-- Michael E. CruteSoftware DeveloperSoftGroup Development CorporationLinux, because reboots are for installing hardware.In a world without walls and fences, who needs windows and gates?
Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Thumbdrive
On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 19:06:13 -0400, Michael Crute wrote: Lately I have been doing a lot of traveling and at the moment I don't have a laptop. Needless to say I run into a lot of crappy computers (aka computers running Windoze). I typically carry a SLAX cd to remedy the problem but the downside is I can't save my files unless I additionally carry around a thumbdrive. I was wondering if anyone has been able to install Gentoo on a thumbdrive. I assume it could be treated like a regular hard drive, correct? Incorrect. Flash memory only has a limited write lifetime, treating it like a hard drive will kill it in no time. However, you're in luck. There is a distro for flash drives that is based on GNOME, Flash Linux. The author gave a presentation on it at the UK Gentoo meeting earlier this year. See http://flashlinux.org.uk/ -- Neil Bothwick If you think that you can truncate my sig to 75 chars, then you can just fu pgpaiLwEXQe7E.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Thumbdrive
Neil Bothwick wrote: On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 19:06:13 -0400, Michael Crute wrote: additionally carry around a thumbdrive. I was wondering if anyone has been able to install Gentoo on a thumbdrive. I assume it could be treated like a regular hard drive, correct? Incorrect. Flash memory only has a limited write lifetime, treating it like a hard drive will kill it in no time. Yup. Like in three years or so... I've dropped both floppies and CD-RW discs in favor of pendrives (1GB) The down side is: not every computer out there can boot from a USB device. So for some computers, you still have to carry a boot floppy, but I can live with it for now. Regards, Norberto pgpQmZ8UDVFOh.pgp Description: PGP signature
