I just got a nice USB flash drive from RatShack.
(512mb). Units of 2GB are now available.

Has anybody ever tried to put a bootable Linux system
on one of these? (Most bios probably won't boot a
usb drive, but could probably be done via a second stage
boot on a floppy).

On Sun, 01 Jan 2006 18:55:47 -0500, Ken Scharf wrote:

> I just got a nice USB flash drive from RatShack.
> (512mb). Units of 2GB are now available.
>
> Has anybody ever tried to put a bootable Linux system
> on one of these? (Most bios probably won't boot a
> usb drive, but could probably be done via a second stage
> boot on a floppy).

Yes. I have a version of 'puppy' on a flash disk. To have it boot on my
system I had to tell the bios to boot from 'usb zip drive'. I would not
want to use one on a regular basis - they're not that fast, and flash
memory is good for a finite number of writes.

ray wrote:
> On Sun, 01 Jan 2006 18:55:47 -0500, Ken Scharf wrote:
>
>
>>I just got a nice USB flash drive from RatShack.
>>(512mb). Units of 2GB are now available.
>>
>>Has anybody ever tried to put a bootable Linux system
>>on one of these? (Most bios probably won't boot a
>>usb drive, but could probably be done via a second stage
>>boot on a floppy).
>
>
> Yes. I have a version of 'puppy' on a flash disk. To have it boot on my
> system I had to tell the bios to boot from 'usb zip drive'. I would not
> want to use one on a regular basis - they're not that fast, and flash
> memory is good for a finite number of writes.
>
True, a flash based system would have to be built in the same way
as a live CD. No writes to the boot media and use a ram disk for
the "working" image.

BTW I think a flash disk would be faster than the average CD
drive.

On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 21:29:26 -0500, Ken Scharf wrote:

> ray wrote:
>> On Sun, 01 Jan 2006 18:55:47 -0500, Ken Scharf wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I just got a nice USB flash drive from RatShack.
>>>(512mb). Units of 2GB are now available.
>>>
>>>Has anybody ever tried to put a bootable Linux system
>>>on one of these? (Most bios probably won't boot a
>>>usb drive, but could probably be done via a second stage
>>>boot on a floppy).
>>
>>
>> Yes. I have a version of 'puppy' on a flash disk. To have it boot on my
>> system I had to tell the bios to boot from 'usb zip drive'. I would not
>> want to use one on a regular basis - they're not that fast, and flash
>> memory is good for a finite number of writes.
>>
> True, a flash based system would have to be built in the same way
> as a live CD. No writes to the boot media and use a ram disk for
> the "working" image.

I guess it could, but I don't think it's necessary. I haven't booted the
puppy flash drive for some time, but I believe it is indeed read/write.


>
> BTW I think a flash disk would be faster than the average CD
> drive.

Ken Scharf wrote:
> Has anybody ever tried to put a bootable Linux system
> on one of these? (Most bios probably won't boot a
> usb drive, but could probably be done via a second stage
> boot on a floppy).

It surely is possible to put a bootable Linux system on an USB-stick - you can
even buy preinstalled ones, and I think there are some kind of image files
somewhere on the net, which you can simply download to the stick.
But I don't think gentoo is a good choice for this purpose, since you can't take
any advantage of optimization since you probably use it on different machines
with possibly different CPUs. It will have to do a lot of hardware-detection and
stuff. I would suggest something like knoppix.

Christian <derbrain@gmx.net> wrote:
> Ken Scharf wrote:
>> Has anybody ever tried to put a bootable Linux system
>> on one of these? (Most bios probably won't boot a
>> usb drive, but could probably be done via a second stage
>> boot on a floppy).
>
> It surely is possible to put a bootable Linux system on an USB-stick
> - you can even buy preinstalled ones, and I think there are some kind
> of image files somewhere on the net, which you can simply download to
> the stick.
> But I don't think gentoo is a good choice for this purpose, since you
> can't take any advantage of optimization since you probably use it on
> different machines with possibly different CPUs. It will have to do a
> lot of hardware-detection and stuff. I would suggest something like
> knoppix.

Also, there's no way to fit Gentoo and a multitude of drivers on any of
the commonly available memory sticks, without forgoing most of the X and
GUI. There's "Embedded Gentoo", but that's not really meant for this
kind of use.
There's multiple mini-distros specifically made for single CDs or memory
sticks. Damn Small Linux is another distro that's very popular, and
better suited for booting from an USB stick than Knoppix (which is
designed for booting from a CD).

Regards,
--
*Art

On Fri, 20 Jan 2006 11:02:38 +0100, Christian wrote:

> Ken Scharf wrote:
>> Has anybody ever tried to put a bootable Linux system
>> on one of these? (Most bios probably won't boot a
>> usb drive, but could probably be done via a second stage
>> boot on a floppy).
>
> It surely is possible to put a bootable Linux system on an USB-stick - you can
> even buy preinstalled ones, and I think there are some kind of image files
> somewhere on the net, which you can simply download to the stick.
> But I don't think gentoo is a good choice for this purpose, since you can't take
> any advantage of optimization since you probably use it on different machines
> with possibly different CPUs. It will have to do a lot of hardware-detection and
> stuff. I would suggest something like knoppix.

or read http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml

Hth

I did not <NOSPAM@keepyourspam.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Jan 2006 11:02:38 +0100, Christian wrote:
>
>> Ken Scharf wrote:
>>> Has anybody ever tried to put a bootable Linux system
>>> on one of these? (Most bios probably won't boot a
>>> usb drive, but could probably be done via a second stage
>>> boot on a floppy).
>>
>> It surely is possible to put a bootable Linux system on an USB-stick
>> - you can even buy preinstalled ones, and I think there are some
>> kind of image files somewhere on the net, which you can simply
>> download to the stick.
>> But I don't think gentoo is a good choice for this purpose, since
>> you can't take any advantage of optimization since you probably use
>> it on different machines with possibly different CPUs. It will have
>> to do a lot of hardware-detection and stuff. I would suggest
>> something like knoppix.
>
> or read http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml

That's for making a livecd to install from, not for making a full
working system like I think the OP was referring to. You can certainly
modify a livecd to have different packages, but it still won't have any
read/write area to store your data or tools for storing/restoring data
offsite, like a real keychain linux will. Adding that is the tough
part, and I would recommend using a distro that's designed for carrying
around.

Regards,
--
*Art