Linux from USB

[Off]

I recently got this new 16gb USB stick that has U3. I started messing around with U3 in XP and it is awesome and it brought up some questions.

1) Is there a U3 for Linux?
2) Can I boot to a Linux "live" like installation from my USB stick?

I think it would be neat to plug in my USB stick with a flavor of Linux on it and bam! my Linux OS comes up on any PC. With 16 gigs I have plenty of space to run and even work from.

[Jordan]

I don't know about U3 for Linux. I do know that they have just about every version of Linux running on a flashdrive. Check out this website: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ which has several tutorials for many Linux Versions.

[Jordan]

Using those guides I just installed PCLinuxOS on my thumb drive. It works great and isn't slow at all. I have my entire OS and all of the applications I need right there with me. Detected my Wireless, sound card and everything else.

The only problem I did run into was when I changed my resolution it messed up. I rebooted hoping to see the new resolution working correctly but instead found the old resolution. It didn't save my settings.

[cutiger95]

If you do this does your flash drive become your hard-drive effectively. Will my mail and everything else save to it so that I can take my PC with me wherever I go.

[Jordan]

Yes, it does. The PCLinuxOS distro I installed wasn't persistent so it would not allow this. I installed Ubuntu on my thumb drive which is persistent. Whatever you change/install will remain on the drive. It also runs on the FAT32 file system so you still have access from Windows.

[Wanch]

How do you enable persistent mode? I can't get anything to save.

[cutiger95]

Ok now that is really really cool. So if I pen drive install Ubuntu on an 8 gig drive then I can do everything that i normally do on any computer that I choose just about.

What an idea.

[Jordan]

It is an awesome concept. Carrying around your harddrive, essentially your computer on a thumb drive.

I'm actually in it right now. It seems volatile. The slightest change will corrupt the entire install. I had to re-install it 5 times earlier today.

[LinuxBomber]

Well, an awesome and useless concept if that gets the entire install corrupted....