this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
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Just picked up a 128GB USB A/C stick that can go on my keyring. What are some things I should put on it to have access to at all times?

I already have self hosted services accessible over my VPN, so this would be for when I can't access that.

I'm thinking at least Ventoy and some common ISOs, then I'm not sure what else.

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[–] Rogue@feddit.uk 148 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (24 children)

The reason you're struggling to think of anything to put on it is because you don't need to be carrying a USB drive.

No aircraft cabin crew have ever put out a call asking if there are any Linux sysadmin onboard with a copy of GParted Live v1.5.0 for 32bit ARM devices .

[–] smeeps@lemmy.mtate.me.uk 27 points 5 months ago (19 children)

Well I carry it anyway for impromptu file transfers. I've just added 1gig of survival PDFs. Probably never need them but who knows

[–] Rogue@feddit.uk 3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Isn't it just far easier to transfer documents using one of the thousands of cloud apps though? Since Dropbox and such became a thing I've not had a use for USBs. If it's privacy that concerns you then you already mentioned self hosted services and I'm sure there's a few Dropbox clones among them.

There's not much point in survival PDFs unless you're also carrying a laptop to view them on.

If you really do want to go full apocalypse prepper then track down an archive of Wikipedia and various how-to websites.

[–] smeeps@lemmy.mtate.me.uk 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Sure, for devices that already are logged in then yes. But to log into my Proton Drive I have to enter my password and authenticate with my Yubikey and it might not be a trusted computer, or the internet connection might be slow. And my self hosted services including my Seafile are behind a VPN so I'd have to log into my VPN on that PC to access them. I definitely transfer files by USB on occasion.

I guess I can put a VPN config file on my USB in the encrypted folder so I can connect to it from any trusted PC

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 8 points 5 months ago

Another common use case is for when I need to give someone else a file when we're in the same room. It's not worth the hassle of trying to transfer it over a network or wirelessly, especially if they are large files or we are on a different OS/ecosystem.

The USB stick just works.

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