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I am currently looking forward to getting into Linux, and after some reading I decided to try out Ubuntu. As of the time of writing the latest version of Ubuntu is 19.04, and therefore that's the version I'll want.

My concerns are that I will be installing to a 32 GB USB 3.0 (hopefully) flash disk permanently. I've read ways to get around the 4 GB persistent limit, but those same pages warn about drivers, stating they might not be portable.

My goal is to install Ubuntu a 32 GB USB 3.0 (hopefully) flash disk permanently, formatting it as ext4. My questions are: will there any significant performance issues (I have a 500 GB 5400 rpm HDD, but I'm using that for Windows 10 already and it barely has any space for dual boot, plus it's not portable like a flash disk), and will I have any problems with drivers portability (can I set it up on a system, use it, then shutdown and plug it into another system and continue with the different hardware)?

In case it matters, the system it will stay on most often is a laptop with an Intel Core i5-4200U paired with an NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M with 8+4 GB of DDR3-1600 RAM and a Qualcomm Atheros AR9485WB-EG Wireless Network Adaptor, but again I'd like it compatible with other systems.

Extra: Would creating 2 disks (the other disk I have is an 8 GB USB 3.0 (maybe) flash disk) be helpful (in case something happens to the first disk)?

Thomas Ward
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Ubuntu 19.04 is not a long term service release, If you plan on upgrading Ubuntu every release, your portable USB should have a separate home partition, /home, to make your upgrades easier.

With a Full install portable drive there is no FAT32 4GB persistence size limit. A Windows/Linux shared data partition is an option. It is possible to install proprietary drivers on a Full install portable drive. Nowadays Nvidia video drivers are smart enough not to install when booting a machine missing Nvidia hardware.

Many proprietary drivers do not work on a persistent drive as they need to load before the casper-rw persistence partition opens. The only proprietary driver I run on my Full install flash drive is a Nvidia video driver. When I boot it in a machine without a Nvidia video card, there is no problem.

Your default machine should do well, I believe that with 12GB RAM, Ubuntu will mainly be running in RAM and USB speed will not be so important.

A spare flash drive with a persistent install is often handy, you can copy the /home partition from the Full install to home-rw partition on the Persistent drive as a usable backup.

C.S.Cameron
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