Best filesystem for LiveUSB (Xubuntu)...

easy is nice but doesn't always get the job done in the best way possible, and me being the perfectionist that I am I like to make sure I have everything working the best I can. But anyways I came up with a new problem that 4GB apparently isn't enough space for Xubuntu because after I installed it and tried running system update it said their wasn't enough room, so now I'm just going to use the entire drive and have all my documents and stuff on another flash drive instead of another partition. I did some more Googling around and (finally) found some info recommending I use ext2 for the flash drive because it doesn't have journaling so it'll give me more space, be faster, and lessen the use of the flash drive.

Let's say you are the perfectionist. How would we measure or how would we know your hand tuned selections are better than the defaults?

Try this. Make a test such as boot time and then alter the setup. Keep a spreadsheet of the results and after a few trials you should have a feel for what works for that stick.

Again, you explained why but I couldn't bring myself to do your tests. I'll just boot and enjoy.
Bob

I'm here to set up what runs best for me. But since you ask, I can't say I have any fancy spreadsheets that measure start time down to the nanosecond or any of that, but I can give it my best shot; considering that I can now boot into Xubuntu and it'll be logged in and ready for me by the time I get back with a bowl of cereal in the morning compared to before when the drive was formatted in ext4 I could get a bowl of cereal and came back to the loading bar only 3/4ths of the way across the screen that's enough proof to me that ext2 is better on flash drives. Plus I read up on my info, I don't just randomly blurt out stuff saying a certain file system is better then another. I am not afraid to try new things when it comes to computers, I constantly push my computers by trying new things every day, some times they don't work, some times they do, but at least in the end I'm learning something. You should try it sometime, it's fun.

On another note, if anyone has some info on how to uninstall Xubuntu from a Windows 7 dual boot (I now have Xubuntu on my flash drive and don't need it on the hard drive) that'd be a great help.

By now you've found out there are sector and cluster sizes. But the story gets more involved as we move from hard drives to flash memory. I didn't reveal it but I'm an electronics designer so talking about flash page sizes, erase cycles, wear leveling is not hard for me.

What sector sizes matter and how this relates to file systems is that for flash you could make a fine case for matching the file system cluster size to the page size of the flash memory. This would maximize the lifespan.

However with 8GB flash sticks dropping to 20 and 10 bucks you wonder if time spent here has any payback.
Bob

So as far as wearing it out I can care less. But I like to find the best speed of coarse, so if you could explain more on how to setup all that as I haven't seen anything in the formatter I use (GParted) on how to set sector size. I just assumed this wasn't an option with ext file systems.

Let's cover something very old that helps speed. Even in Linux you can see a hit if a directory is allowed to balloon into thousands of files in a directory. Avoid that and you gain some speed.

Also see if the flash boot has a "toram" feature. More at http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ubuntu-toram-how-to-make-ubuntu-boot-to-ram/

The toram feature is nice if your machine has the chops.
Bob

This is the page I looked at that helped a lot...

http://blogs.koolwal.net/2009/01/29/installing-linux-on-usb-part-3-which-linux-filesystem-for-usb-devices/