I accidentally removed a xubuntu live usb from the computer while it was running but it seems to be working just fine. I can even launch applications that werent already open.
Is that expected? I have always thought you need to be careful to avoid bumping the usb drive or otherwise disturbing it.
Where is everything being stored? In RAM? Is the whole contents of the usb copied into RAM or just some parts?
Edit: tried it with manjaro and it fell apart. All kinds of never before seen errors. Replacing the usb didnt fix it. Couldnt even shut down the machine, had to hard power off.
The main reason to “eject” flash memory is if it is in the middle of a write operation because they are rather long due to how entire pages must be erased and rewritten. Depending on how this write process is managed and how the hardware is constructed it can cause corruption from removing something the wrong way.
I’m not sure about how the larger distros work, but with something like OpenWRT, everything is running in RAM. I’m pretty sure that is how Live USB always works.
I’m pretty sure even the distros that can run from USB with persistence are running an immutable OS that runs from RAM and then using an extra partition on the USB drive for persistent storage. The immutable nature hints that it is likely running in RAM.