Is it possible to use Ubuntu installed on an external HDD for web development?

Question

Programming

I often program not only at work but also at home. You constantly have to raise new projects, install and configure packages, and much more. Doing this on different machines is quite time consuming. I thought about buying a laptop, but a really good laptop is quite expensive (at least 30k in my city). In addition, the laptop will have to be constantly carried with you, there is also little pleasant. I recently came up with the idea of ​​installing the system on an external HDD so that I can carry it around and connect it to the computers on which I will develop. On the Internet, I did not find a clear answer as to how it is possible to use such a scheme for development. The narrowest question is probably speed, because. not everywhere yet USB 3.0
If anyone has experience using external HDDs with an installed OS for development, please share.
PS I develop in PHP, CMF Drupal.

Answer 1

I have a system installed on a flash drive, for conspiratorial and restoration work. Works on any hardware (do not install the main driver for the video, atoms X will not start on another computer). I can share the image or provide assistance in installation and configuration.

Answer 2

Yes, everything will be ok with iron, because. the most popular modules (drivers) are already included in the distribution. I just had a situation where only a hard with ubuntu remained from the system - I threw it on a completely new platform and continued to work. But USB 2.0 for comfortable work may not be enough.

Answer 3

There is little chance that an axis configured for a certain hardware will work on another, I would try it through a virtual machine if I were you. I have an ubuntu disk image downloading from the hospital to the laptop without any problems.

Answer 4

it is possible to create your own livecd / liveusb / in your case livehdd) which will automatically load all the necessary modules

Answer 5

Why make it so difficult? try using some cvs or dropbox at the very end. From myself I recommend git and github.

Answer 6

Yes, you can do this, everything will work with a bang and immediately. The only thing that can cause troubles with the Internet is if you have a different connection at home and at work (for example, at home the router issues IP via DHCP, and at work you need to register statics), but in this case everything can be solved with almost a one-button solution by writing a couple scripts, poking in the right places you will get the Internet settings you need.

Answer 7

I work without problems like this - VirtualBox + Ubuntu on an external SSD. VirtualBox doesn't slow down.

Answer 8

You don't need a really good laptop for web development. I took a laptop with a 17 "diagonal and a full keyboard for work for 20k. And for everything else, I have a desktop;)

Answer 9

Thanks to everyone for the answers, I see that it makes sense to try, besides several options :)

Answer 10

I've been living like this for almost a year, I went to the university for labs with my disk and loaded onto it. Everything works great.
Pitfalls: video card drivers are very poorly combined with each other. fglrx, nvidia-current, open-vm-tools together prevent 3D acceleration from being used. Only when left alone.
But under Windows 7 everything is fine: it immediately picks up the drivers needed on this machine. // said for educational purposes only

Answer 11

Something seems to me, xorg is 100% right, but it may not take off with the right drivers. I'm not sure, because I don't use Ubuntu, but still.

Answer 12

I don't see any significant problems.
1. It is important that hardware support be available as modules, or compiled into the kernel.
2. You may have to pay attention to the automatic raising of the network interface, but there should not be any unsolvable problems.
3. There may be problems with the video driver, which are solved in one minute.

Answer 13

The fact that everything will work when transferred without problems has already been written, but I do not advise you to put proprietary firewood on the video. And to avoid problems with slow usb, I would use eSata. True, it will not be available in very cheap office nurses, but it is not a problem to deliver a controller with it.

Answer 14

USB Multi Boot Creator