how to make my root system behave like a live system ?

ahmed.alamassi · n00b Joined: 18 Apr 2016 Posts: 2

one of my friends doesn't have an hdd , so I will install linux distro on a usb stick. it will be a full install just like installing to hdd but it will install on a flash stick instead of hdd.
the problem here is usb 2.0 stick are very slow , If you write a lot on it , it will wear out quickly because if have limed number of write cycles

so I want to do a full system install on a usb stick, and make it something like read only filesystem so that any changes like installing packages will written on ram , at the end before I shutdown run a script to write all the changes on the flash drive over the old system.
this is good for flash sticks because all writes are in ram and then are written to flash drive only ""ONCE"" per session when you shutdown.
I think this is possible because puppylinux does a similar thing when you shutdown it asks you to save all the changes you made to a sfs file and it will loaded next time you boot. I want to do the same thing but instead of the sfs file I want the changes to be written over the old system , also don't want to run the full system on ram like puppy.
I read about overlayfs and rsync , but didn't quite understand , I need some help here.

you may ask why I didn't the following options ?
1- install the system on flash stick and use it just like hdd ? tried that it was painfully slow maybe because of the simultaneous read and writes.

2- live cd ? tried it , it was very fast , but the customization I made will be lost if I shutdown.

3- live cd with persistence ? it also was very slow because changes are continuously written to the usb stick , and there's hidden services that always write logs something like that.

bec · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 2:45 pm Post subject:

Gentoo is cool for many use cases, but what you are trying to do is easier with other distributions like Puppy or slax:

http://puppylinux.com/
http://www.slax.org/
_________________
abe

khayyam · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 4:04 pm Post subject:

steveL · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 5:12 pm Post subject:

If you must do it with Gentoo, ask likewhoa in #gentoo-ten on IRC: chat.freenode.net or .org for help; the liveDVD is made for USB usage with dd.

As I recall, he was planning to add persistence a while back.

I'd advise Puppy, or w/e others say, in preference, mind.

szatox · Advocate Joined: 27 Aug 2013 Posts: 3133

Yes, you can dump changes to a file during shutdown and load them when you boot.
You can even squash the static part (good for both, read performance and space efficiency) and compress dynamic image. Depending on the way you handle it, it will work faster/slower and take more/less space and be more/less affected by RAM constrains.

I think I'd go with AUFS (Note: you need a kernel that supports this), adding new branches (and bundles) as the time goes and flattening the stack now and then. Usually "then" I guess :roll:

steveL · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 7:40 pm Post subject:

It's because this is for a friend, that I recommend a minimal bindist.

I've always had a soft-spot for Puppy, but I'm interested to hear what others use (so far: Alpine and Slax.)

desultory · Bodhisattva Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 9410

steveL · Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 9:31 am Post subject:

Ahh, thanks, desultory. :-)

Dunno how I missed that sticky, but that is good news.

So, ahmad, you can use a LiveDVD to do it with Gentoo.

ahmed.alamassi · n00b Joined: 18 Apr 2016 Posts: 2

khayyam · Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 5:16 pm Post subject:

szatox · Advocate Joined: 27 Aug 2013 Posts: 3133

desultory · Bodhisattva Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 9410