Ubuntu

Copying files to USB drive (w LiveCD) takes up **memory space**

Asked by MarkGilmore

When I copy a sizable file to a thumb drive (using Live CD),
my free memory space decreases by the approx size of the file.
I can verify this by entering the "free" command before and after the copy.
Assuming a caching issue, I tried forcing the drive to mount
in "sync" mode (via an fstab edit), but this had no effect.
Perhaps this is some kind of unionfs issue/bug ?
I can't install Ubuntu onto a flash drive because the system
runs out of memory and the install program dies.
Thanks !

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Andrea Corbellini (andrea.corbellini) said : 		#1

A falsh memory (such as an USB pen drive) has a finite number of erase-write cycles. Ro reduce this limitation all files are stored in the RAM memory and are wrote to the thumb only when umounting it. So this is not a bug.
You can find more information about flash memories limitations on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory#Limitations

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MarkGilmore (x2-omnipotencesoftware) said : 		#2

Is there no way to override this behavior ?
Else there is no way to install Ubuntu on a flash drive (unless one has > 2G of memory) !

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Andrea Corbellini (andrea.corbellini) said : 		#3

You have to hack the code of the driver to override.
Ubuntu is not made to be installed on a flash memory. Use Damn Small Linux or other light-distro :)

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Nathan Haines (nhaines) said : 		#4

The Desktop CD is not designed to be installed to a USB drive or other flash memory device, as Andrea Corbellini pointed out.

For such a unique scenario, the Alternate Install CD is doubtless what you want. It doesn't load a complete live session into memory and is intended for special and low-memory installs (the Desktop CD itself requires at least 192MB of RAM to guarantee a successful install). As a bonus, you an also use the Alternate Install CD to upgrade currently installed versions of Ubuntu, saving the need to redownload all packages.

Good luck!

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