On Fri 19 Feb 2021 at 18:11:02 +0100, Liam Proven wrote: [...]
> If you want to use it on multiple different computers you may have > issues -- e.g. the same bootable key may not boot both a BIOS PC and a > UEFI PC. If there are OSes installed on the HDD as well, and you do an > update, then those OSes will be added to the GRUB menu on the key, > creating entries that won't work on any other PC. GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true in /etc/default/grub does wonders for that. > > If you always use it on the same machine, it's acceptable. I had a > company which sold such a bootable key for a while. It worked and the > speed is quite reasonable... but when you run normally, it is writing > settings to the key all the time. When you update, it writes a lot of > data to the key. This wears out the flash memory on the key and in > time the key will fail. If in daily use, it may well wear out in 6 > months or so. And when flash memory wears out, it is not like a > defective hard disk, which dies slowly and gives you a chance to > recover your data... when flash wears out, one failed write might > corrupt the volume and the whole disk stops working completely. I.e. > you lose all your data. Key wear is not something I have encountered. Yet. > It works but it is only suitable for occasional or lightweight use. I > wrote a how-to guide for building such a system; it is here: > https://liam-on-linux.livejournal.com/50416.html > It is a little dated now but still valid. It details some > optimisations you can do to boost life -- such as using a filesystem > without journalling, disabling access-time storage and things. These > help but not much. I do all of that, plus having logs in memory. I live in hope of a long life. [...] -- Brian.
