this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
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linuxmemes

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I use Arch btw


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[–] [email protected] 68 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

Guess it's time to either get a new pendrive, or enter the void.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (2 children)

These new pendrives wear out after 2 months of light usage, so I'm probably going to choose the second one, but I'm afraid that if I make this step, there's no going back, and I'll forever be sucked into the void.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 months ago (2 children)

What crappy drive are you using that died after a couple months?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I usually just use the ones that just spawn into existance, that way they don't cost money. Last time I bought a toshiba, before that a kingston, and I don't remember what was before that, but I know that if I buy, I buy from reputable brands and even those fail.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I've got two Sandisks (both 64GB but different models) that have both been through the washing machine multiple times (accidentally) and haven't failed yet. They are probably about 3 years old at this point but I can't remember.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Sandisk ones are the gold standard as far as I could find

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1497937-REG/lexar_ljds75_32gabnl_blk_jumpdrive_s75_32gb_usb.html

That's my gold standard. I've used just about everything under the sun. They've all failed, except this one. I have a few of these now. They've survived all kinds of punishment. Hell even being left in my pocket and going through several wash/dry cycles.

I have an upcoming contender if it keeps going, and it's a ~~Kingston~~ Lexar. 128gig I use mostly for work. All metal housing, no moving parts and attached to my keychain. It's not been wash/dried yet. But it goes with me every day. And it's used nearly daily too.

Edit: Nvm, just looked at right now, my keychain drive is also Lexar, so NVM, Lexar all day 'er day.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

So suck the void right back.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

But everything is lost in the void ._.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Since arch is a rolling release distro, can't you just download an older iso from when it was below 1gb, install it and then update the system?

Check this page: https://archlinux.org/releng/releases/

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[–] aBundleOfFerrets 38 points 3 months ago

Arch has an internet pxe option

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Use netboot.xyz and let us know how it goes. I’ve always been curious.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I love netboot.xyz. I use it all the time when setting up VPS systems. A lot of KVM-based VPSes have iPXE as a boot option so you can chainload directly into netboot without having to use an ISO.

I prefer installing the OS myself over using any images provided by the provider, so that I know exactly how it was set up.

Netboot.xyz has tools to build your own custom version of it too, with your own options. Useful if you want to host it on an internal server. It's essentially just a set of iPXE scripts.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

I've used it a few times, impressive as hell in how simple and effective it is on a small home lab.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I was about to edit in a disclaimer about not asking me that because I’ve never used it with Arch and was half joking because it’s probably a huge pain compared to the iso. I’m sure it works well for what it does for those who use it. But I’ve never done it specifically with Arch and you’d need to use Ethernet.

https://archlinux.org/releng/netboot/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

It's not a huge pain when you have a motherboard with proper UEFI support and some basic EFI shell knowledge. You just need your thumb drive with an FAT32 filesystem, put the netboot EFI binary on it, boot into the shell and execute the binary. You will need a LAN cable for this because WiFi is not supported in UEFI (AFAIK). The netboot binary will download the ISO image into memory and start it right away. An even better solution is to create the path "/EFI/BOOT/" on the thumb drive and rename the netboot binary to "BOOTx64.EFI", put it into the folder and your BIOS will boot it automatically at startup. If not, you can select it as a valid boot partition in the BIOS menu.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (7 children)

I still have a 128mb usb drive with alpine.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Maybe build your own iso that doesn't include the things you won't use?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Yes, but I don't know how to do that. I might do some research on it tho.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I think you could mount the iso and manually delete the packages you dont want. Mounting an iso is as easy as

# mount -o loop /path/to/iso /path/to/mountpoint

You can also chroot into it while it is mounted: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Chroot

Disclaimer, I am not sure if deleting files inside the iso makes it weight less.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

If your phone is rooted you could also build isodrive in Termux to mount any ISO from your phone's storage

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

Well shit, and it even has a pre built magisk module

Aaaand installed lmao

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Ventoy be like. P.S good thing tho, thanks for advice, will install too

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I lost my 4G drive, it's in a better place now. It's been serving me since 2003 even when it lost its case to fit in a USB port on the Xbox 360.

Maybe the new owner of the house I moved out of will find it and the outdated copy of Arch Linux on it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

If they have any sense they'll not try to find out what's on it and send it straight to whatever electronics recycling is available.

Sticking a USB device of unknown provenance into your computer is just asking for trouble. (When you think about it, we even take a risk every time we buy one.)

Sure, you know it's harmless, but they don't know that, even if you tell them. Who are you? You're just someone who used to live in their house. As far as they know, you might be a freak who gets a kick out of leaving dodgy devices around for people to find.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (8 children)

Pen drives are cheap as dirt nowadays, especially small ones that are like 16GB. I'd just buy a new one.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

You're forgetting all the fun about taking this challenge as a personal offense and not doing anything else beyond solving it.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

How often has it been used does it still actually have a gigabyte of usable memory

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In the game the little guy wins, so you made it work?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Maybe if you use a file system that supports compression, e.g. btrfs, bcachefs, F2FS, squashfs, or EROFS. Of course, you'd need to add a separate FAT32 EFI System Partition for the bootloader, not sure how to do that.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Can you use any sort of compression to fit it? Or just use netboot.xyz

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Gentoo would fit just fine :P

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I noticed this too and im curious about what threw it over that 1gb size?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

It ain't gonna fit babe

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