Flash Drive

Robert Heller heller at deepsoft.com
Fri Jul 14 14:58:52 EDT 2017


At Fri, 14 Jul 2017 12:00:33 -0500 David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> Perhaps this is not sensible, but I once experimented with installing
> Gnucash on a USB key configured as a Tails OS with persistent storage.
> That is based on Debian Linux.  It worked, but it was somewhat clumsy.  The
> nice thing is that all the data is completely encrypted and insulated from
> intruders, "sandboxed" if you will.

Tails is a "special case" -- it is specificly designed to live on a (possibly
encrypted) flash drive as a "security" feature. "Normal" desktop Linux systems
that have been installed properly on a PC or Laptop hard drive will not let
you run random programs living on random removable media (thumb & optical 
drives).  The "default" mount options include "noexec"...  This prevents 
someone from breaking your system by offering a "trogan horse" program on such 
media or using a break-in program to attack your computer.

> 
> David C
> 
> On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 10:30 AM, Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com> wrote:
> 
> > At Fri, 14 Jul 2017 14:39:17 +0100 Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > On this list you have to use Reply All to reply otherwise the message
> > > just goes to the previous user (as this did). Forwarding this to the
> > > list for information.  Also see reply below.
> > >
> > > On 14 July 2017 at 12:31, John Wright <minimuddler at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > Colin,
> > > >
> > > > Sorry for the confusion.  I what to just run gnucash from the flash
> > drive.
> > > > Fedora will be installed on the pc and gnucash as well as all the
> > gnucash
> > > > data will be on the flash drive.
> > >
> > > To be pedantic you don't want to run gnucash from the flash drive, you
> > > want to run gnucash from the HDD and write and read the accounts file
> > > to the removable drive, which should be no problem. Gnucash does not
> > > care where you save to and read from. If you want saved reports to be
> > > on the drive there may be a little more work.
> >
> > Most (all?) sensibly setup and configured Linux systems will refuse to
> > *run*
> > programs on removable media, since that is a massive security risk.
> >
> > Also, gnucash is generally dynamicaly linked and depends on various
> > [shared]
> > libraries that would need to be installed in system places (eg
> > /usr/lib[64]/)
> > from various dependent packages. So it is unlikely that putting *just* the
> > gnucash exe file on the flash drive will work. Gnucash itself expects to
> > find
> > stuff in /usr/share/gnucash, which won't be on the flash drive. And also
> > has
> > its own pile of .so files in /usr/lib[64]/ that it will need to access.
> > And
> > it is likely that gnucash built for, say Ubuntu, may not run *as is* under
> > fedora, becase of different library versions (and whatnot).  You really
> > need
> > to just install the fedora build of gnucash on the fedora (there most
> > likely
> > is a gnucash-<mumble>.rpm out there somewhere, probably in the fedora
> > repository, so a 'sudo yum install gnucash' will do everything needful.)
> >
> > But otherwise, having the *data* files on the thumb drive is a perfectly
> > sensible thing to do.  And is possible fairly secure as well.
> >
> > >
> > > Colin
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Thanks.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 07/14/2017 06:04 AM, Colin Law wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >> On 14 July 2017 at 03:12, ov10fac <ov10fac at cox.net> wrote:
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Does anyone know if gnucash can be run from a flash drive using
> > fedora?
> > > >>
> > > >> Do you mean you want the program on a flash drive or the data file? If
> > > >> you want the data file on the flash drive with gnucash installed in
> > > >> fedora on the PC then that is no problem. If you want to install the
> > > >> program itself onto the flashdrive, with Fedora on the PC, then that
> > > >> is more problematic. Or do you mean you want to run Fedora itself and
> > > >> gnucash from the flash drive?
> > > >>
> > > >> Colin
> > > >
> > > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > >
> >
> > --
> > Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
> > Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
> > http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
> > heller at deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services
> >
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> 
>                                                                                                          

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
heller at deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services
                                                     


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