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Simple version: what filesystem (or more complex setup, perhaps) is best for use on a liveusb system? LiveUSB system with filesystem directly on the drive, not one with compressed system image a-la livecd.
(The Choice of filesystem for GNU/Linux on an SD card question is somewhat relevant, but not completely)
Generally, it seems ext2 is somewhat problematic with regards to data-loss (i.e. sudden power failures / disconnects / etc.), and journaling filesystems (ext3, ext4) are relatively slow (i.e. terribly slow on some $8 thumb drive). Caching (eprd
?) seems like a possible option, although likely too problematic and not very useful.
That all I know.
squashfs
is rather inconvenient (hard to update packages) and irrelevant (“… not with compressed filesystem image” as I've noted) and does not solve the problem anyway. Journaling filesystems manage to actually be more slow on cheap thumbdrives. As with ext2, I'm not completely sure of the data loss reasons, but some filesystem failures did occur. – HoverHell – 2012-05-08T11:46:54.387Well - if they already occur regullary - I think you should consider getting a new thumbdrive. None of the filesystems should cause problems which cause data loss. Especially consider the link about degradation 100,000 write cycles isn't much for some files on an OS drive. – bdecaf – 2012-05-08T14:05:57.723
surprisingly, the drive on my eeepc 4g (some
SILICONMOTION SM223AC
as smartctl reports) still holds, with ext3 and active use (with tweaking, of course) for 4 years. Don't know if write cycles on cheap thumb drives are more of a problem, but the speed certainly is. – HoverHell – 2012-05-08T17:25:00.930Besides, expiring cheap thumbdrives seems to mostly be a question of backups. – HoverHell – 2012-05-08T19:00:14.773
Oh good to know. I have exactly the same device. Maybe I worried too much. – bdecaf – 2012-05-09T08:54:18.780