Question about live usbs: hard to explain so see desc

i just wanted to know if there is any operating system that runs on usb that if like fully persistent:
basically if i log in, make a file and logout and log back in then the file will still be there. i heard of an linux distro like this but then i forgot. if confused then basically a full install on the usb drive: no live

As far as I know, the best storage persistence on a live USB can be achieved by using Ubuntu:

So far this works very reliable, without issues.

Some other distributions may support this, but I doubt they are as reliable as the one from Ubuntu.

1 Like

thanks for the answer, but then the whole OS is persistent and you dont have to use a third party program or like manually configure. . its not a big deal if you dont know the answer. there are alot of people on this forum so at least one of them must know or my brains memeory sucks

It’s hard to understand what you are trying to say. But from what I am gathering, I think you want to just save a file, but not the whole OS.

In that case, just save the file on the USB stick where the OS is on. Done.

Not sure of the question. Sounds to me like you want to run linux from a jump drive with the ability to carry it around and use on any hardware.
I did that using mint before I dumped Windows 10. I booted to it, and the computer treated it like the primary hdd.
I did it by disconnecting ALL my hdd’s and booting from a mint install usb and installing to a 128GB usb. Mint didn’t seam to care about it. I was able to use my work pc and boot from the usb into mint and work like normal on files or use my home PC. Both had Windows 10 native on the main hdd at the time. Not sure if it mattered but both systems were dell, one business the other an old xps8900.

Is that what you are trying for?

elementary 5.x seems to “work out of the box” as a persistent instance… that’s the way it’s working for me anyway - late model Lenovo something-or-other with a coprolite (sic : I mean corporate) SOE/MOE Windows 10 install - don’t ever use it (the VPN client stops working if the anti-virus gets out of sync - and have to “sneakernet” the device back into the corp office to get update anti-virus)…

I tried getting it to boot NomadBSD, but it never appears as a boot option (unlike elementary) when I select temporary boot device…

Note : if you’re interested - “NomadBSD” is designed as an “out of the box” persistent instance - but - it’s FreeBSD not GNU/Linux…

Thanks a ton @Akito, this was my dream project and just now, I found the usage of persistent partition in a USB drive. Thanks once again :slight_smile:

1 Like

Try Puppy Linux it’s been around for years. Each time you shut down it saves all additions back to the usb drive. It’s lightweight so very quick to boot and save.