"Mandriva Flash is a 2GB Dane-Elec USB key loaded with Mandriva Linux 2007. It gets points for style: the key is an attractive deep blue surrounded by a sturdy metal fence that leaves room on both ends to attach the key to a lanyard or keychain. The release notes say that the operating system and related files only take up half the space on the USB drive, leaving 1GB for my own files. This little powerhouse packs a lot of punch, once you get it up and running."
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Member since:2006-02-01
Member since:2005-07-05
Member since:2006-02-15
Here is a link on how to get Gentoo on a USB device:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Small_Footprint_Gentoo_on_USB
Member since:2005-10-20
Agreed that with gentoo we can create a USB stic containing many applications, what more we can do this with almost every Linux. However, the difference here is that Mandriva, as a company, is providing such a disk, end user like me does not have to do it.
I packs too many application in 1 GB leaving 1 GB for personal use. It is commendable to have Xorg, KDE( Oraganizer, Alarm, Kmail, Fax, Palm Pilot etc..), Gimp, OpenOffice, Firefox, Real Player and Networking support in just 1 GB.
Again I would say that, some of us can do this with any Linux, but does that deter us from appritiating a nice effort by Mandriva?
Member since:2005-07-06
That's got to do wonders for the life expectancy of the drive, considering all the write operations that a distro performs during it's normal operation.
AFAIR, Mandriva went the other way, doing what is essentially a livecd image on one partition of the USB stick with another partition providing a user writable area.
Edited 2006-12-13 10:11
Member since:2006-11-17
Making your own distro is trivial. Just follow the LFS book and that's it.
It may be trivial but people are still using distros like gentoo and mandriva because it is less work to use what others have already done for them and you.
Packaging a lot of softwares in a usb key is trivial but it takes time.
Member since:2005-11-16
Ha what is it with you people? Modding up sarcastic comments in reply to my "trivial" comment eh. All I see are hopeless people looking for an easy way out. Once again I will state what I has said for many years - if you find Linux and any other "free" concept too hard or you feel it owes you something then go get stuffed and use something else. Line someone elses pockets with money and they will Love you for it. If loading a distro onto a USB drive is too hard for you then don't do it (feel stupid about it) and don't use Linux. Especially Gentoo. We don't need you and we don't want your whining as you don't help anyone. Go back to Windows/OSX and whence you came.
Member since:
2005-11-16
Have been running Gentoo on a USB stick ever since I sold my laptop. Just rsync the distro from the laptop to the USB drive and compile a kernel with USB2/masstorage support in the kernel. Fixed grub to boot the device and that's it.