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Optimizing Linux Use On a USB Flash Drive?

Posted by timothy on from the right-here-in-my-pocket dept.

Buckbeak writes "I like to carry my Linux systems around with me, on USB flash drives. Typically, SanDisk Cruzers or Kingston HyperX. I encrypt the root partition and boot off the USB stick. Sometimes, the performance leaves something to be desired. I want to be able to do an 'apt-get upgrade' or 'yum update' while surfing but the experience is sometimes painful. What can I do to maximize the performance of Linux while running off of a slow medium? I've turned on 'noatime' in the mount options and I don't use a swap partition. Is there any way to minimize drive I/O or batch it up more? Is there any easy way to run in memory and write everything out when I shut down? I've tried both EXT2 and EXT3 and it doesn't seem to make much difference. Any other suggestions?"

3 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Get a swap partition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does anyone actually use Readyboost??

  2. Re:Get a swap partition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    The best thing to do is make a ram disk and use that as swap space. Swap space should be fast because it is paging things out of main memory. Ram is much faster than flash, ide, or scsi.

  3. Re:Try out different filesystems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm holding out for the MILFS filesystem.