I'm running Ubuntu off a USB drive and I can't install it to the hard-drive yet. Is there a way for me to install more applications on the USB drive so that everytime I boot I can use them without re-installing?
LiveCD/USB – How to Install Applications on LiveCD/USB
installationlive-usbpackage-management
Related Solutions
GUI Solution:
First and foremost make sure you have gparted and gksudoinstalled:
sudo apt-get install gparted gksu
Then start it with:
gksudo gparted
Now in the UI switch to your pen-drive via the selector, make sure it is your pen-drive because all what you do from now on will delete all on the selected drive.
Now click on the shown partition entry(s) and select unmount. After that select 'Create Partition Table ...' from the 'Device' menu and choose as partition type 'msdos'.
When that is finished it will show you an 'unallocated' entry for that pen-drive. Right click on it and choose new. In the following dialog choose the file system you want to have it (i.e. FAT, FAT32, ext1-4, this is up to you) and click on 'Add'. Then simply click on the green check-mark to apply your wishes and you're done
Best Answer
I can say that yes it is possible to run Ubuntu from a usb in that fashion, but I would not suggest it.
Flash drives have a set number of writes, hundred of thousands in some cases, and that sounds large but for an OS saving and reading files constantly, it wont take long before that pen drive reaches its limit.
Short answer: yes, its possible and as an experiment interesting. As a permanent solution no.