I do this same thing. I have Ubuntu on an external ssd with its own EFI partition. I followed this guide to get it setup and it works great.
this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2024
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Not really different than any other M.2 SSDs, that it's over USB doesn't matter.
The only consideration for USB sticks is that they're usually quite crap, so running a system off it tends to use up the flash pretty quickly.
But it's not a usb stick, it's an m.2 drive in an enclosure... So your second point doesn't apply
It indeed doesn't, its purpose is to show the differences and clarify why/where OP might have heard you need special care for portable installs on USB sticks.
All the guides and tutorials out there are overwhelmingly written with regular USB sticks in mind and not M.2 enclosures over USB. So they'll tell you to put as much stuff on tmpfs as possible and avoid all unnecessary reads and writes.
The only consideration for USB sticks is that they’re usually quite crap, so running a system off it tends to use up the flash pretty quickly.
not to mention that, due to the crap flash, they also tend to be quite slow and unreliable.
Definitely look for portable SSDs rather than flash drives. Different technology, usually significantly larger (physically). Easily saturates a USB 2.0 connection, so look for USB 3.0.
Back when Microsoft supported Windows To Go, they had a short list of verified drives to use. Surely outdated now but might be a good starting point.
FWIW I used to run Windows 10 off a Samsung T5. It worked fine, except that it would always shut down when I tried to suspend. Still works as far as I know, I just haven't used it in a long time.
look for USB 3.0
USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) is quite ancient by today's standards. I'd recommend a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) or even a USB 4.0 drive (20/40 Gbps) drive.
Good point. I can never keep my USB 3 naming schemes straight.
The faster nvme-based sticks can even exceed 3.0's 5gbps!
Seems right, but I wanted to double check my research before I fully committed.
I did this. I installed it just like usual. I did remove my existing SSD during the install so it wouldn't install grub on my Windows SSD.
My only complaint was that USB was too slow for everyday use. I can't keep track of the USB versions anymore, but it was one of the 3.1s or 3.2s. Not sure what Gen or whatever. The connector was USB type C.