I'm going to use x86 for testing and I was planning to use a pendrive to store OpenWrt. My question is if it is recommended and how long can it be on. The pendrive has been used since 2011, so I don't know how long it will last.
- openwrt is optimised for flash filesystems ( use squashfs )
- x86 is built for "pendrive" use
neither do we... as a general rule... use a disk(ssd/rotational) if your running anything data write intensive... otherwise your chances of issues are low... that said, just;
- run a scheduled backup / export of config + packages
which everyone should do anyways...
( caveat: some specific drives fail with dd operations... "sandisk cruzer blade" is one to never use )
I use a Kingston DT101 G2. The packages I'm going to use are these luci-ssl-nginx ariang-nginx htop nano curl wget luci-i18n-transmission-es transmission-daemon-openssl transmission-cli-openssl transmission-web transmission-remote-openssl luci-i18n-base-es luci-i18n-base-en luci-i18n-opkg-es luci-i18n-firewall-es luci-i18n-wireguard-es luci-i18n-sqm-es luci-i18n-ddns-es iperf3 luci-theme-openwrt-2020 wpa-supplicant-mesh-openssl hostapd-openssl hostapd-utils batctl-full kmod-batman-adv kmod-rtl8192ce kmod-rt2800-usb qrencode luci-i18n-samba4-es luci-i18n-upnp-es luci-i18n-commands-es luci-i18n-adblock-es luci-i18n-vnstat2-es luci-i18n-wifischedule-es luci-i18n-minidlna-es cfdisk fdisk luci-i18n-hd-idle-es kmod-fs-ntfs kmod-fs-nfs kmod-fs-ext4 kmod-fs-exfat kmod-usb-core kmod-usb-storage kmod-usb-uhci kmod-usb-ohci kmod-usb2 kmod-usb3 kmod-usb-net kmod-usb-net-rndis kmod-usb-net-cdc-ether kmod-usb-net-ipheth usbmuxd libimobiledevice usbutils block-mount gdisk ntfs-3g irqbalance luci-theme-material mc kmod-rtl8192cu luci-proto-relay kmod-trelay aircrack-ng luci-i18n-aria2-es webui-aria2 stubby speedtest-netperf netperf netdata dnsmasq-full