Linux on a Stick

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew said in Linux on a Stick:

I think I will be buying that USB you posted Phenomlab.

Let me know how you get on with it. I too am considering it

[Madchatthew]

@phenomlab I will do that. I am hoping to buy it within the next week or two.

[Madchatthew]

So I purchased this the other day. I was able to install Linux on it last night. I ended up not having time to try it on one of the laptops yet though. So I will be doing that either tonight or tomorrow. I am excited to see how it performs with the USB-C connection.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew Keep us posted!

[Madchatthew]

Well, I have to say with the USB-C connection, you can’t even tell you are running off of a usb stick. It is ssoooo fast it is crazy. Everything functions and works as expected. It is awesome!

[Madchatthew]

I was able to also install Steam and play a game. I also was able to install a game my daughter and I play and Minecraft. They all worked without a hitch. The only thing is that you can’t play Bedrock version on Linux. I wish MS would get their heads out of their arses and make it so you can. I only say that because my daughter like the Bedrock version and the laptop she uses will have to be switched over to Linux as well.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew just revisiting this and was curious as to why you used virtual box rather than booting directly off a live CD then installing onto a connected USB?

[Madchatthew]

@phenomlab I could have done it that way too and I don’t know why I didn’t. It would have probably been easier. I found directions on the webs and just did it that way. There isn’t a specific reason. I guess doing it this way, I didn’t have to reboot my computer and could do other things while waiting for the install to complete.

I have also not used it for several weeks on purpose, to see if reflector (I believe that is what it is called) will update the source list and update the OS without throwing an error.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew Thanks! Was more curiosity than anything else

[Madchatthew]

@phenomlab you are welcome, but I wish I would have thought of doing it that way instead. I think it would have been easier and faster to be honest.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew said in Linux on a Stick:

I wish I would have thought of doing it that way instead. I think it would have been easier and faster to be honest.

I’m old… Been there, done it

[Madchatthew]

I purposely didn’t boot up to the USB drive for over a month. I booted up the USB Linux on a stick today and went to the console and did the update command for Arch and no issues whatsoever like in the past. I installed Reflector and it updated the source files for me automatically and I was just able to run the update with no issues. It was so awesome!!

It just worked. So I recommend that if anyone installs and uses Arch whether for a server or desktop for their daily driver that you install Reflector in case you don’t update for awhile for whatever reason.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew I guess I’m just not brave enough for Arch, but then again, I felt the same way about Manjaro before I got into it. Having said that, I’ve not used Manjaro for some years so perhaps it’s time to revisit.

[Madchatthew]

@phenomlab I tried Manjaro before. I believe I liked it overall. It is one of the ones that I was interested in, but for some reason there was something with it that I didn’t like. Unfortunately, my brain isn’t allowing me to remember what that was. Another thing that I did that I forgot to mention, was after doing the updates, I tested the three games that I installed on it. The one game that I play with my daughter, I just had to reinstall with the setup file and then it worked just fine afterwards and automatically picked up the settings and data that was already stored. For steam, I had to reboot the computer but once I did that, then Steam worked just fine. I installed Minecraft on it and that just worked as soon as I double clicked on it, before the reboot.

I am still quite a newbie with Arch, but so far, I really like it and am actually quite surprised how so far things just seem to just work with it. Now that may be a different story when I go to install it on the desktop and go through these same processes, but my hope is that it will be the same experience.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew Sounds very positive indeed.

[Madchatthew]

Wanted to post another update. I booted up to my usb stick with Arch Linux on it. I hadn’t booted up to it in over three months and with Arch, that is too long of a time to not update. Unless, you have reflector installed. I booted up to the usb stick and updated arch through the terminal and everything updated without a hitch.

I went from linux 6.15.9.arch1-1 to linux 6.17.5.arch1-1. KDE Plasma went from 6.4.4-1 to 6.5.0-1. Everything worked as it should with no issues. Linux on a stick is AWESOME!! I should also note that it was a different computer than the last time I booted up to it. Very versatile.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew I’ve just put KDE Neon back on my laptop - missed it way too much!!

[Madchatthew]

@phenomlab that is awesome!! I know you will really enjoy that haha

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew the thing I like the most is that you can sweat older hardware for much longer than under Windows.

That, and the Linux operating system is much better.

[Madchatthew]

@phenomlab yeah i like that as well. I am so confident about Linux, that I switched the computers at the private church school that my mom helps at from windows 10 to Linux. The computers are over 10 years old from when I built them and they are still running good. Just not compatible with windows 11, because once again, Microsoft is dumb and they suck. Linux loaded with no issues and I put the network drives in the fstab file and it all works really nice and they run faster than what they were running with winblows on them. So yeah, I like that as well that Linux can run on older hardware and keep the computer running longer.