FreeBSD live USB stick

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sat, 2020-04-25 at 11:01 -0700, David Christensen wrote:
> On 2020-04-25 08:03, Ralf Mardorf via freebsd-questions wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I want to have FreeBSD on a 32 GB USB 3.0 stick. Since I'm an openbox
> > user NomadBSD [1] looks promising to me. Any opinions or hints?
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Ralf
> > 
> > [1] https://nomadbsd.org/handbook/handbook.html#intro
> 
> I have installed FreeBSD onto SanDisk Ultra Fit 16 GB USB 3.0 flash 
> drives.  I like these for their compact form factor, which reduces the 
> chance of mechanical damage to the drive and/or port/ motherboard. 
> However, they run hot, they are not a good choice for high-endurance 
> applications (I cooked a 128 GB model using it for Time Machine backups 
> in a MacBook Pro), and write performance is an obvious limitation when 
> running a graphical desktop.  I have experienced problems with both 
> FreeBSD and Linux when using these drives in USB 3.0 ports, but not with 
> USB 2.0 ports.

Thank you for the pointer.

I noticed that a Toshiba 32 GB USB 2 stick gets hot when either
connected to my Roland GR-55 guitar synth or to a hub connected with my
Linux PC, just by being connected and at worst by sharing a few bytes of
data. For the live FreeBSD I ordered a Toshiba USB 3 stick. I never
noticed that my aged 8GB and smaller USB sticks get hot, by just being
connected or sharing a few bytes of data. I still could cancel the order
and purchase another aged USB stick.

Fortunately the openbox Window manager is not that bloated as almost all
desktop environments.

However, I didn't had head in mind. I hope the temperature would not
become a show stopper.

Until now I only used Linux live DVDs, if I needed a live media. I
thought it would be a good idea to migrate to either a BSD or Linux on
an USB stick.