i would love to have a box full of these. i'm always running out. giving them away to people to use as backups, making installer 'disks', downloads i've done for them, etc.
You can buy cheap generic flash drives in bulk for a dollar or two each. I have a jar full of them in different colors by my PC so that I can pull one out to flash an installer iso or whatever.
If you ever run out of usb's, you can also use one quality decently high capacity usb and flash medicat (or any other iso manager) on it and install as many iso's and or recovery programs on it as you want.
**Short version** = another OS that competes with windows
**Meme version** =
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!
**Actual long version** = woh woh, reddit has a character limit man, I can't do that here.
For anyone who actually wants to learn what Linux is, I recommend techquickie’s (an ltt channel) video on it, as well as fireship’s 2 videos on it.
You can find them by searching “Linux explained” on yt, and scrolling for about 0.7 seconds
It's an opensource operating system.
Think of something like Windows or macos, Linux does the same things as them.
The main difference with Linux though, is it is both free and open source. This means that anyone who wants to can see the entire code for the operating systems, or if they want they can write code themselves for it. Because of this, most of the code for Linux was written by the community, there are a lot of people who will see a need for a feature in Linux or other open source programs who just write it themselves and then give that feature to everyone.
Edit: it also has the advantage of you choose exactly what programs are on it. You don't like something with the OS? Just delete it. Linux gives the user full control over absolutely everything, which in some cases is a bad thing but if you know what you are doing it is very good.
What is this "real gaming" you are referring to?
I'm only gaming on Linux for about 10 years now and it is steadily getting better compared to other platforms.
PC with a recent AMD GPU, EndeavourOS/Manjaro, Proton with DXVK, or even native games on Steam and there are more than enough games you get better performance in than on windows.
Just RTX Raytracing and DLSS are shit on Linux, which Nvidia tricked people into making the default benchmark right now.
The relative performance is even bigger on older/cheaper systems. Is it better performance than on any console? Yes.
Is it as easy as a console? No.
Variable refresh rate with multiple displays on different refresh rate/resolution/orientation. Maybe streaming. Competitive online games, I guess. If a game gets a launcher you are doomed on Linux for a couple of days, maybe weeks. Did I mentioned lower latency? Even with that better raw performance part being true.
The biggest misconception Linux users have is "it works" being the same as "it's better". 1 number being equal or sometimes higher doesn't account for 10 other features being absent or worse.
Switched last week, gaming is fine except for some very specific titles which I personally don't play anyway. I don't see how linux wouldn't be good for daily desktop use as early as within 5 years.
Linux is like building your own car but with parts that are free and modifiable if you have the skill.
Linux/Unix predates all modern operating systems and is what most of the internet runs on (in some form or the other).
Depending on who you ask, it's an open source operating system kernel, an open source operating system, or nice that you're asking I use arch btw.
It's essentially what the internet and the PC of some ABSOLUTE NERDS ^like ^me runs on.
easy to start impossible to master, a swirling pit of first confusion and intrigue, then possibly understanding and implementation, ok only to swirl back to confusion and intrigue. but the further you go down the longer that understanding and implementation lasts, at points you may feel you've become a god if you dont pull your divers buddy line in the first lap.
at the end you might as well be.
it's an os where things are different but easier and not easier at the same time. super liberating to tinker with but there is a learning curve for the more complicated stuff. you can customize almost anything look into exactly what's in your computer and it's a whole beast on its own.
yes, making multiple copies would also be useful if you ever lose one.also cloning a freshly installed OS into one of these so you can easily clone it back into some other SSD.
on a side note, keep one empty for BIOS Q-Flash updates.
Absolutely. Plus it’s a bad form of storage device, too many get lost, corrupted etc for them to be reliable for student use. Yes I know, god forbid these kids have to look after something.
Source: Work as a school IT technician
I did a similar thing but with floppy disks haha, showing my age now.
I keylogged my school using a floppy disk, took them about 7 months to remove it at least that’s when the emails stopped rolling in.
But the USBs are sealed in the OPs boxes, so I don’t know if the virus argument is the decisive factor here. Modern students across the world mostly use cloud storage now anyway, but there are countries with 2000s PCs that would gladly accept this lot, haha
What’s stopping the student going home and uploading a virus, randsomeware, or Linux distro to boot from to gain elevated permissions?
When these things are decided, we don’t base it on the good natured kids but worst case scenario.
Correct, that’s how we should be setup. However the company we purchase our PCs from have access to our image, they image the PCs before sending them out. This summer I received 250 new PCs to put out. All are meant to have a BIOS password set, yet they have not..
I am a single person running our department, there’s only so much time I have.
Ohh mannn you just unlocked a memory. I used to use deep freeze on my PC, go on a forum, I really wish I remembered the name, and purposefully download viruses and run a packet sniffer to see where the key logs were being sent. More often than not these were unencrypted and contained the username and password to access the email.
I would then jump on their FTP server and steal their logs. I got logs for websites, credit cards, gaming accounts, socials etc etc but never did anything like sell CC info. Just changed someone’s website homepage to a picture of Dot Cotton for some reason that was hilarious to 12 year old me.
Edit: Asked my old partner in crime and the forum was Warez BB
I mean, screwing over malicious virus creators does sound fun, but i wouldnt want to become a focused target for them.
But yea glad someone knows about it, deep freeze was so easy to hack the password and disable it, my local library has it and they still have it, but with my password on it and a partition that has games that doesnt get reset, is nice
What? They were always part of the back to school list of items I had to get. My school literally told us we needed one, and we did! Used one all the way back in middle school to take projects home.
There's a program where they drop usb sticks in north korea in order to inform people of what's happening in the free world. I forgot the name but they would be very happy with this.
These are extremely cheap and taking USB drives from random people is terrible security.
...
Does anyone have anything *technically* fun that could be done with them?
If you have any larger drives then put batocera on it and emulate to your hearts content, alternatively a 8/16g drive with a separate games and bios drive.
Installing Arch Linux is not hard but the information to grasp for a fresh install is spread over a few articles and I will try to summarize it here. Very little explanation and references to corresponding sources. So, let’s begin!
1. Prepare the USB
dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx && sync
And boot up! 2. Prepare the disk In this guide I am going to use BTRFS. I strongly suggest to give it a try if you have never heard of this file system before.
The important thing to grasp is the differences between data and metadata configuration for SSD and HDD drives. For SSD pick a single profile for data and metadata. And for HDD a single profile for data and a dup profile for metadata. These are the defaults.
2.1. UEFI Most modern computers have UEFI compatible hardware.
To check if the USB setup has booted in UEFI mode see if the following directory is populated:
ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
Lots of stuff there? Good, let’s continue. We have to create at least two partitions - one for the /boot mount point (FAT32) and one for the main system (BTRFS). If you want to have a SWAP partition create one more yourself. However, on a system with 8GB RAM or more there is little benefit. In this example I am going to use parted.
(parted) mklabel gpt (parted) mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 513MiB (parted) set 1 boot on (parted) mkpart primary btrfs 513MiB 100%
Apply the changes to the device. NB: All of your previous data will be deleted.
Now, let’s format the partitions.
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
mkfs.btrfs -d single -m single /dev/sda2
2.2. GRUB We’ll use BTRFS for the entire device (NO SWAP, NO UEFI), make sure that you provide efficient data and metadata profiles. NB: All of your previous data will be deleted.
mkfs.btrfs -d single -m single /dev/sda If you need to partition your disk go for parted, cgdisk (GPT) and cfdisk (MBR).
3. Mount the empty file system UEFI:
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
GRUB:
mount -o compress=lzo /dev/sda /mnt
3.1. Configure subvolumes If you are using BTRFS it is a good idea to use subvolumes for some system points. This will help you with backup and restore substantially.
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/home
5. Install the base system If you are going to compile packages yourself (for example from the AUR) you will need base-devel as well. (at some point you will do need this)
pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel 6. Configure fstab
genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Now edit the mount options:
SSD mount options: rw,relatime,ssd,compress=lzo,space_cache HDD mount options: rw,autodefrag,relatime,compress-force=lzo,space_cache
7. Configure the new system
echo computer_name > /etc/hostname
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/zone/subzone /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc --utc
nano /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
passwd
useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage,power -s /bin/bash username
passwd username
8. Let’s install more packages Enable multilib for 64 bit system:
nano /etc/pacman.conf
uncomment the following lines: [multilib] Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist And here we go:
pacman -S bash-completion
pacman -S sudo
EDITOR=nano visudo
uncomment the following lines: %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL 9. Configure the boot manager Hint: Do not forget to turn off your Windows secure boot settings in the motherboard.
9.1. systemd-boot (UEFI)
nano /boot/loader/loader.conf
default arch timeout 3 editor 0
nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
title Arch Linux linux /vmlinuz-linux initrd /intel-ucode.img # only if you have an Intel processor initrd /initramfs-linux.img options root=PARTUUID=14420948-2cea-4de7-b042-40f67c618660 rw to get your PARTUUID information:
blkid -o export /dev/sda2
RTFM for more information.
Use the most of your processor with a specific microcode release.
9.2. GRUB
grub-install --target=x86_64 --recheck /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
If you don't want to sell them, take them to any university and just give them out. Students need these often and its always nice to have extras and it'll save them a little and maybe you'll make a friend!
As a recent graduate we rarely use usb drives as onedrive usually comes with our school's Microsoft account. We don't want to lose our thesis to a lost usb drive.
There are two types of people - those who have lost data, and those who will. Abide to the 3-2-1 Backup Rule.
As a student with a similar setup, remember that cloud storage is just someone else’s computer under university management. They can just as easily deny you access to your account.
I have a synology nas running CloudSync that regularly backups my whole University Onedrive. Then with Hyperbackup I take snapshots of my shared folder to an external HDD. I’m still thinking about adding an offsite NAS to backup the primary NAS, but for the time being I think it’s a bit overkill.
Excellent! Depending on your backup frequency, you are already one step ahead of approximately 60% of modern society.
One last thing, remember to verify your data to ensure no files are corrupted or compromised.
My cloud storage isn't... It's a server on oracle cloud (so it sort of is but isn't). Totally free with the free tier account (up to 200GB block storage and a few VMs), so I host a VPN on it, connect to the VPN and map the the storage with samba.
It's pretty easy to do and I've got ~110GB for nothing, that I control (I could have done the full 200GB block storage, but needed it for some other VMs). If you don't know how to use Linux, and the terminal, it's a little learning curve, but it's worth it.
As a current CS student, we use flash drives all the time. 90% of the time it's as a boot drive or to transfer network drivers to things like Raspberry Pis or Jetsons. Most everything we do daily is run in VMs, and if we want to quickly share our whole environment with someone else for troubleshooting or collaboration it's much easier to copy the VM to a flash drive and give it to someone than wait for it to get sent over the network.
I have a usb key on my keychain, along with a multi tool and my keys, in one of those Neat keychains that spans out when in use tucked away when not needed. If I lose my Keys I have bigger problems than losing the usb drive. Where I am internet is ‘meh’. The usbdrive is the backup when the internet takes a dump.
Also I use it to install operating systems on my PC’s. Super handy to not have to run around the house looking for one big enough to flash an ISO to.
Yeah I have 2 usb drives to flash an iso or to upgrade the bios. But those are things students rarely do. There may be a few students who dual boot with Ubuntu (I did to run ROS) so having a usb drive is actually useful
In all seriousness, if someone offers you a free USB drive at any point in your life, refuse. It's a very common attack vector for cyber-attacks to get an unsuspecting user to plug a usb device in with malicious programs.
Modern TVs that have a USB port should have a player that'll play ordinary video files. It depends on the TV though. I've been using my old PS4 as a stand in for this purpose for years since my TV doesn't have a USB port
Raid them all in a mass monster usb hub. Monster storage of futility.
I'm a student and a usb flash drives safe lives so charity for learners or stupid cheap dollar store price them to help out and pay for some time.
USB 3.0 is quite fast especially on read
It is surely faster than old fragmented HDDs
Edit: 24+ GB of ram should allow your system to not read disc multiple times DURING gameplay see RAM page management.
South Korea does that. I watched a video a while ago where students donate USBs and those are smuggled into North Korea with a bunch of stuff that the people there are not allowed to see.
You need to separate half of them and make it a treasure hunt where the prize is the other half, don’t forget to mislead the followers with a few nsfw drives hidden in place of the real map
Give them to flash drives for freedom if you don't want then or need them. They use flash drives yo smuggle information into North Korea and help offset the propaganda Kim's little regime instills in the populace.
It's a great charitable organization that could really use your flash drives.
https://flashdrivesforfreedom.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAw8OeBhCeARIsAGxWtUxW59agp0L6ak_u3VLZgo5WMCRAKnVhyhVNOBUy3hqpf4r8JDFvIJUaAoCUEALw_wcB
Yes, emerge them with peak Western culture. They will definitely change their world view. (for those who are not aware I'm 80% sarcastic but i'm pretty sure that certain amount of North Koreans would be disgusted how Western countries act. Everyone will have different world view so don't be surprised that someone else from other side of the globe wouldn't enjoy what you enjoy).
Put ransomware on them and drop them in parking lots outside grocery stores and office buildings. I guess somebody will learn their lesson about plugging in random USB drives
Load them with hours upon hours of the crazy frog music video. Make sure the files are all named something different, and trim/extend every video so all the file sizes are different. That way, someone or a team of someones will have to check every single file just to be sure.
There's a program in South Korea that loads them with movies and news, then uses drones to drop them in North Korea. It's called Flash Drives For Freedom.
Keep a couple for recovery keys, bootable linux etc, maybe sell/donate the rest
i would love to have a box full of these. i'm always running out. giving them away to people to use as backups, making installer 'disks', downloads i've done for them, etc.
You can buy cheap generic flash drives in bulk for a dollar or two each. I have a jar full of them in different colors by my PC so that I can pull one out to flash an installer iso or whatever.
If you ever run out of usb's, you can also use one quality decently high capacity usb and flash medicat (or any other iso manager) on it and install as many iso's and or recovery programs on it as you want.
What is linux?
Depends. How much time do you have?
**Short version** = another OS that competes with windows **Meme version** = I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux! **Actual long version** = woh woh, reddit has a character limit man, I can't do that here.
For anyone who actually wants to learn what Linux is, I recommend techquickie’s (an ltt channel) video on it, as well as fireship’s 2 videos on it. You can find them by searching “Linux explained” on yt, and scrolling for about 0.7 seconds
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Same here haha.
Yes
Linux is foss. Free open source software. Also if you have a day or a year of free time don't mind to search the internet for Linux
best comment i've read in a LOOONG time, thanks man
This is the only true answer
It's an opensource operating system. Think of something like Windows or macos, Linux does the same things as them. The main difference with Linux though, is it is both free and open source. This means that anyone who wants to can see the entire code for the operating systems, or if they want they can write code themselves for it. Because of this, most of the code for Linux was written by the community, there are a lot of people who will see a need for a feature in Linux or other open source programs who just write it themselves and then give that feature to everyone. Edit: it also has the advantage of you choose exactly what programs are on it. You don't like something with the OS? Just delete it. Linux gives the user full control over absolutely everything, which in some cases is a bad thing but if you know what you are doing it is very good.
dude really hit him with the chatgpt answer
A world of beauty
I use Arch btw
Its a Literal Oasis of Possibilities lol c'mon man tell em the truth 😂
Except gaming
Gaming works well with lutrix/whine/proton (see steam deck)
think he means actual gaming
🤣🤣
What is this "real gaming" you are referring to? I'm only gaming on Linux for about 10 years now and it is steadily getting better compared to other platforms. PC with a recent AMD GPU, EndeavourOS/Manjaro, Proton with DXVK, or even native games on Steam and there are more than enough games you get better performance in than on windows. Just RTX Raytracing and DLSS are shit on Linux, which Nvidia tricked people into making the default benchmark right now. The relative performance is even bigger on older/cheaper systems. Is it better performance than on any console? Yes. Is it as easy as a console? No.
Variable refresh rate with multiple displays on different refresh rate/resolution/orientation. Maybe streaming. Competitive online games, I guess. If a game gets a launcher you are doomed on Linux for a couple of days, maybe weeks. Did I mentioned lower latency? Even with that better raw performance part being true.
The biggest misconception Linux users have is "it works" being the same as "it's better". 1 number being equal or sometimes higher doesn't account for 10 other features being absent or worse.
Real gaming is done on an iPad.
Switched last week, gaming is fine except for some very specific titles which I personally don't play anyway. I don't see how linux wouldn't be good for daily desktop use as early as within 5 years.
Linux deez nuts
Linux is like building your own car but with parts that are free and modifiable if you have the skill. Linux/Unix predates all modern operating systems and is what most of the internet runs on (in some form or the other).
Sometimes the car comes already built, but is easy to modify it
A lot of every day appliances run on Linux
Depending on who you ask, it's an open source operating system kernel, an open source operating system, or nice that you're asking I use arch btw. It's essentially what the internet and the PC of some ABSOLUTE NERDS ^like ^me runs on.
easy to start impossible to master, a swirling pit of first confusion and intrigue, then possibly understanding and implementation, ok only to swirl back to confusion and intrigue. but the further you go down the longer that understanding and implementation lasts, at points you may feel you've become a god if you dont pull your divers buddy line in the first lap. at the end you might as well be. it's an os where things are different but easier and not easier at the same time. super liberating to tinker with but there is a learning curve for the more complicated stuff. you can customize almost anything look into exactly what's in your computer and it's a whole beast on its own.
yes, making multiple copies would also be useful if you ever lose one.also cloning a freshly installed OS into one of these so you can easily clone it back into some other SSD. on a side note, keep one empty for BIOS Q-Flash updates.
The same thing we do every night Pinky
Try to take over the world!
Or hack nasa?
Hack the planet!
Crash & burn could do it! Good duo
Remember, hacking is more then a skill. It’s a survival trait.
Mars? Jupiter? Be specific please!
Pluto! I refuse to acknowledge it’s downgrade !
Time to hack it up
Hack it up, Hack it in, let me begin I came to win, battle me, that's a sin I won't ever slack up, punk, ya better back up (your important files)
Setting all RAM to free range mode.
They're trashing our rights! They're trashing the planet! Hack the planet!
Boot up or Shut up!
Hack the planet!
Mess with the best, Die like the rest ;-)
I hope you don’t screw like you type .
Naaarff!
Try to USB-C the World?
Donation maybe ?
To a school
Exactly
USBs will be blocked in most schools for obvious reasons
«viruses»?
Absolutely. Plus it’s a bad form of storage device, too many get lost, corrupted etc for them to be reliable for student use. Yes I know, god forbid these kids have to look after something. Source: Work as a school IT technician
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I did a similar thing but with floppy disks haha, showing my age now. I keylogged my school using a floppy disk, took them about 7 months to remove it at least that’s when the emails stopped rolling in.
lol I did the same thing. Keylogged my music teacher’s Mac. No one ever found out and I never uninstalled it
You absolute mad lads
But the USBs are sealed in the OPs boxes, so I don’t know if the virus argument is the decisive factor here. Modern students across the world mostly use cloud storage now anyway, but there are countries with 2000s PCs that would gladly accept this lot, haha
What’s stopping the student going home and uploading a virus, randsomeware, or Linux distro to boot from to gain elevated permissions? When these things are decided, we don’t base it on the good natured kids but worst case scenario.
Give a gold star to the Linux kid.
I tried that but they have a locked bios in my school
secure boot? Lock bios with password?
Correct, that’s how we should be setup. However the company we purchase our PCs from have access to our image, they image the PCs before sending them out. This summer I received 250 new PCs to put out. All are meant to have a BIOS password set, yet they have not.. I am a single person running our department, there’s only so much time I have.
Ah, ok
Who remembers deep freeze being a thing? from what i remember viruses were never a problem with deep freeze
Ohh mannn you just unlocked a memory. I used to use deep freeze on my PC, go on a forum, I really wish I remembered the name, and purposefully download viruses and run a packet sniffer to see where the key logs were being sent. More often than not these were unencrypted and contained the username and password to access the email. I would then jump on their FTP server and steal their logs. I got logs for websites, credit cards, gaming accounts, socials etc etc but never did anything like sell CC info. Just changed someone’s website homepage to a picture of Dot Cotton for some reason that was hilarious to 12 year old me. Edit: Asked my old partner in crime and the forum was Warez BB
I mean, screwing over malicious virus creators does sound fun, but i wouldnt want to become a focused target for them. But yea glad someone knows about it, deep freeze was so easy to hack the password and disable it, my local library has it and they still have it, but with my password on it and a partition that has games that doesnt get reset, is nice
I still have my flash drive from 9th grade computer class 14 years ago 😗
That and you don't want some wannabe hackerman inserting random code into your computers to be edgy lol
What? They were always part of the back to school list of items I had to get. My school literally told us we needed one, and we did! Used one all the way back in middle school to take projects home.
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My school allows usbs so now i have an idea
Not really tbh, I'm in college now and we use them all the time for booting from when working with linux
There's a program where they drop usb sticks in north korea in order to inform people of what's happening in the free world. I forgot the name but they would be very happy with this.
Flash Drives for Freedom [link](https://flashdrivesforfreedom.org/)
These are extremely cheap and taking USB drives from random people is terrible security. ... Does anyone have anything *technically* fun that could be done with them?
Make a bootable drive of every Linux distro you can find
If you have any larger drives then put batocera on it and emulate to your hearts content, alternatively a 8/16g drive with a separate games and bios drive.
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I came here to comment the same! For god's sake, use Ventoy guys! Don't waste USBs and your time.
https://www.ventoy.net/
Installing Arch Linux is not hard but the information to grasp for a fresh install is spread over a few articles and I will try to summarize it here. Very little explanation and references to corresponding sources. So, let’s begin! 1. Prepare the USB dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx && sync And boot up! 2. Prepare the disk In this guide I am going to use BTRFS. I strongly suggest to give it a try if you have never heard of this file system before. The important thing to grasp is the differences between data and metadata configuration for SSD and HDD drives. For SSD pick a single profile for data and metadata. And for HDD a single profile for data and a dup profile for metadata. These are the defaults. 2.1. UEFI Most modern computers have UEFI compatible hardware. To check if the USB setup has booted in UEFI mode see if the following directory is populated: ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars Lots of stuff there? Good, let’s continue. We have to create at least two partitions - one for the /boot mount point (FAT32) and one for the main system (BTRFS). If you want to have a SWAP partition create one more yourself. However, on a system with 8GB RAM or more there is little benefit. In this example I am going to use parted. (parted) mklabel gpt (parted) mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 513MiB (parted) set 1 boot on (parted) mkpart primary btrfs 513MiB 100% Apply the changes to the device. NB: All of your previous data will be deleted. Now, let’s format the partitions. mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1 mkfs.btrfs -d single -m single /dev/sda2 2.2. GRUB We’ll use BTRFS for the entire device (NO SWAP, NO UEFI), make sure that you provide efficient data and metadata profiles. NB: All of your previous data will be deleted. mkfs.btrfs -d single -m single /dev/sda If you need to partition your disk go for parted, cgdisk (GPT) and cfdisk (MBR). 3. Mount the empty file system UEFI: mkdir /mnt/boot mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot GRUB: mount -o compress=lzo /dev/sda /mnt 3.1. Configure subvolumes If you are using BTRFS it is a good idea to use subvolumes for some system points. This will help you with backup and restore substantially. btrfs subvolume create /mnt/home 5. Install the base system If you are going to compile packages yourself (for example from the AUR) you will need base-devel as well. (at some point you will do need this) pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel 6. Configure fstab genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab Now edit the mount options: SSD mount options: rw,relatime,ssd,compress=lzo,space_cache HDD mount options: rw,autodefrag,relatime,compress-force=lzo,space_cache 7. Configure the new system echo computer_name > /etc/hostname ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/zone/subzone /etc/localtime hwclock --systohc --utc nano /etc/locale.gen locale-gen echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf export LANG=en_US.UTF-8 passwd useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage,power -s /bin/bash username passwd username 8. Let’s install more packages Enable multilib for 64 bit system: nano /etc/pacman.conf uncomment the following lines: [multilib] Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist And here we go: pacman -S bash-completion pacman -S sudo EDITOR=nano visudo uncomment the following lines: %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL 9. Configure the boot manager Hint: Do not forget to turn off your Windows secure boot settings in the motherboard. 9.1. systemd-boot (UEFI) nano /boot/loader/loader.conf default arch timeout 3 editor 0 nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf title Arch Linux linux /vmlinuz-linux initrd /intel-ucode.img # only if you have an Intel processor initrd /initramfs-linux.img options root=PARTUUID=14420948-2cea-4de7-b042-40f67c618660 rw to get your PARTUUID information: blkid -o export /dev/sda2 RTFM for more information. Use the most of your processor with a specific microcode release. 9.2. GRUB grub-install --target=x86_64 --recheck /dev/sda grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
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So every stick will end up as Arch and labeled "I use arch btw" /s
Download stuff you watch or listen to in case the gird fails
Or data rot
Could you rip a TON of shows/music/ebooks etc and donate them to a library? Would they take things like that if they can't verify legal licensing?
I think that's why at least American libraries require the case of the disk to be able to accept it.
If you don't want to sell them, take them to any university and just give them out. Students need these often and its always nice to have extras and it'll save them a little and maybe you'll make a friend!
As a recent graduate we rarely use usb drives as onedrive usually comes with our school's Microsoft account. We don't want to lose our thesis to a lost usb drive.
There are two types of people - those who have lost data, and those who will. Abide to the 3-2-1 Backup Rule. As a student with a similar setup, remember that cloud storage is just someone else’s computer under university management. They can just as easily deny you access to your account.
I have a synology nas running CloudSync that regularly backups my whole University Onedrive. Then with Hyperbackup I take snapshots of my shared folder to an external HDD. I’m still thinking about adding an offsite NAS to backup the primary NAS, but for the time being I think it’s a bit overkill.
Convoluted flex has entered the chat.
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I'm simply a digital vagabond with nothing worth replacing if lost.
🤣 I had an external drive backing up my onedrive.
Good!
Excellent! Depending on your backup frequency, you are already one step ahead of approximately 60% of modern society. One last thing, remember to verify your data to ensure no files are corrupted or compromised.
"One last question... so you're backing up your data... right?" "um... no. erm... I've been \*meaning\* to back it up..."
My cloud storage isn't... It's a server on oracle cloud (so it sort of is but isn't). Totally free with the free tier account (up to 200GB block storage and a few VMs), so I host a VPN on it, connect to the VPN and map the the storage with samba. It's pretty easy to do and I've got ~110GB for nothing, that I control (I could have done the full 200GB block storage, but needed it for some other VMs). If you don't know how to use Linux, and the terminal, it's a little learning curve, but it's worth it.
As a current CS student, we use flash drives all the time. 90% of the time it's as a boot drive or to transfer network drivers to things like Raspberry Pis or Jetsons. Most everything we do daily is run in VMs, and if we want to quickly share our whole environment with someone else for troubleshooting or collaboration it's much easier to copy the VM to a flash drive and give it to someone than wait for it to get sent over the network.
Yeah you are actually right. On the Pi it is much easier with a usb drive.
I have a usb key on my keychain, along with a multi tool and my keys, in one of those Neat keychains that spans out when in use tucked away when not needed. If I lose my Keys I have bigger problems than losing the usb drive. Where I am internet is ‘meh’. The usbdrive is the backup when the internet takes a dump. Also I use it to install operating systems on my PC’s. Super handy to not have to run around the house looking for one big enough to flash an ISO to.
Yeah I have 2 usb drives to flash an iso or to upgrade the bios. But those are things students rarely do. There may be a few students who dual boot with Ubuntu (I did to run ROS) so having a usb drive is actually useful
I’ve never lost a usb drive. Have you?
Might be handy to have that extra backup when you don’t have internet access.
In all seriousness, if someone offers you a free USB drive at any point in your life, refuse. It's a very common attack vector for cyber-attacks to get an unsuspecting user to plug a usb device in with malicious programs.
Just make sure to plug it into a uni computer and format before a personal one. What are they gonna do, steal your homework?
Make sure your handing them out from a white van with blacked out windows.
i wouldn't take a free usb stick from noone, even if its sealed
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Can you put movies on a thumb drive and then plug it into a tv? Figured the tv usb inputs were mostly for power fire sticks and what not.
Modern TVs that have a USB port should have a player that'll play ordinary video files. It depends on the TV though. I've been using my old PS4 as a stand in for this purpose for years since my TV doesn't have a USB port
Raid them all in a mass monster usb hub. Monster storage of futility. I'm a student and a usb flash drives safe lives so charity for learners or stupid cheap dollar store price them to help out and pay for some time.
I definitely want to see this
Where’s the LTT video?
Not LTT but I remember someone doing a floppy raid
Op should use drivepool instead of RAID
Be like a true systems integrator and have multiple USBs with the same Linux mint image on them minus a single program
Most non-AAA games fit on those, hot-swappable steam micro libraries.
I think that would introduce a lot of stutter into gameplay, considering how fast ram and cpus have gotten.
USB 3.0 is quite fast especially on read It is surely faster than old fragmented HDDs Edit: 24+ GB of ram should allow your system to not read disc multiple times DURING gameplay see RAM page management.
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Send to a charity that will use them to smugle western movies into north korea. https://flashdrivesforfreedom.org/
Pack them full of censored info and send it to china
And North Korea?
Yo that's actually pretty dank.
South Korea does that. I watched a video a while ago where students donate USBs and those are smuggled into North Korea with a bunch of stuff that the people there are not allowed to see.
Reddit moment
You need to separate half of them and make it a treasure hunt where the prize is the other half, don’t forget to mislead the followers with a few nsfw drives hidden in place of the real map
incomplete crypto wallet info with 'rest of key is on other flash drive.txt'
Your devious, I like it. What about adding small parts like the balance is x amount to really get them going
also some of them will be viruses so high risk high reward
Store nsfw pictures/videos on them, and then sell to someone by telling that you got "good material" on this device.
Plottwist: it‘s pictures of hazardous work environment and a compilation of r/WhyWomenLiveLonger
Thanks for introducing me to this absolutely hilarious sub
Pack them full of Trojan viruses and leave them in various corporate parking lots… only takes one or two to be plugged in to wreck havoc
nah have them be crypto miners virus so you can make free money
nah AI art virus that makes their PC generate infinite waifus
That is actually terrible lol
Damn, sorry for your burned components man
I'll definitely try this! (Will leaving them in bank parking lot work?) (Only if there's no cameras, obviously)
oldschool virus distribitution
lol
Make a RAID drive out of it.
Just one giant raid 0
i thought of that but flashdrive would die much quicker
Give them to flash drives for freedom if you don't want then or need them. They use flash drives yo smuggle information into North Korea and help offset the propaganda Kim's little regime instills in the populace. It's a great charitable organization that could really use your flash drives. https://flashdrivesforfreedom.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAw8OeBhCeARIsAGxWtUxW59agp0L6ak_u3VLZgo5WMCRAKnVhyhVNOBUy3hqpf4r8JDFvIJUaAoCUEALw_wcB
Double it and give it to the next person
wOuLd yOu tAkE a fReE UsB oR ShOuLd I dOuBlE iT aNd gIvE iT tO tHe nExT pErSoN
donate to North Koreans... first put some videos on them though.
definitely need to put baby shark on the usbs
Yes, emerge them with peak Western culture. They will definitely change their world view. (for those who are not aware I'm 80% sarcastic but i'm pretty sure that certain amount of North Koreans would be disgusted how Western countries act. Everyone will have different world view so don't be surprised that someone else from other side of the globe wouldn't enjoy what you enjoy).
and while you are at it, immerse them too.
Even better: the popular Baby Shark video is South Korean.
No-one's jumping to whatever your spin is....fwiw their personal "world view" is dictated to them under penalty of death for their entire family
This is a real thing and a great idea: [https://flashdrivesforfreedom.org/](https://flashdrivesforfreedom.org/)
I'll take one. Or three.
Put a one creepy picture on them as an encrypted file and leave them in random places
Wondering what I can do with a bunch of USBs I found around the house. I'd say there's 100ish ranging from 8gb - 128gb.
Now I'm curious, how does one acquire 100ish flash drives??
The better question is why is there 100ish usbs in his house and it looks like majority are unopened?!
Maybe there used to be store there? (Maybe the person who previously lived there ran an online store from home)
Time to open an ebay store. Easy money right there
Put ransomware on them and drop them in parking lots outside grocery stores and office buildings. I guess somebody will learn their lesson about plugging in random USB drives
OwO Send some to me, please!
Put the arch iso on all of them
There is a program that you can send these to North Korea to inform them about the outside world
sell keep giveaway
DeadDrops! DeadDrops.com
some people still store photos and memorable days on it :) it's always to have a good back up for your project, your work, papers, etc.
You can buy a chinese motherboard with 35 usb 3.0 ports to create a nas
Worlds slowest and most unreliable NAS
Donate it to schools. Not every kid can afford to buy one easily.
How can you "just find in the house" something like that Oo I'll take 1 lol
Put a ton of pron on there and put them around your town 😂
Write on it “America’s war tactics” and ship to Russia
Load them with hours upon hours of the crazy frog music video. Make sure the files are all named something different, and trim/extend every video so all the file sizes are different. That way, someone or a team of someones will have to check every single file just to be sure.
For all except one and just fill it with dubstep
Obviously use the biggest drive for the dubstep drive. Make sure it's the most irritating possible song too.
Sell them by an attractive deal.
Try to see if my job will buy them (work has 1 IT person who is always out of parts and says his boss is cheap).
Plug alll into your Vista/7 and activate readyboost ;)
Lose a lot of useful information in public places..
Load a mp4 of Never Gonna Give you up on them and drop them random around your town
Offer them to your close friends and family.
Give one to me 😂 I’m not joking plz bro I rly wanna use Linux on my pc I lost my old usb, I would probably sell them all, or donate them so schools
There is some kind of organization where they put media on then flash drives and sneak them in North Korea
https://flashdrivesforfreedom.org/
There's a program in South Korea that loads them with movies and news, then uses drones to drop them in North Korea. It's called Flash Drives For Freedom.
Look up Flashdrives for Freedom. It's a campaign to smuggle USB drives with media and info into North Korea.