Install to jump drive?

[Knute Johnson]

>On Sun, 2008-02-03 at 13:41 -0600, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
>> Knute Johnson wrote:
>> > Can anybody explain to me in terms that a Linux blivet can 
>> > understand, why you can't do a regular install to a USB jump drive?
>> > 
>> > Thanks very much,
>> > 
>>  From what I remember, you have to use the expert mode to install to 
>> a USB storage device. I didn't check when I did the install of F8, 
>> but with earlier versions, the installer would not see the USB drive 
>> in the normal install mode.
>
>I have an F7 memory stick in my hand that boots fine.
>As suggested install using expert mode.
>grub.conf may need to vary depending on how the BIOS sees the drives.  I
>have two machines that see the stick as a hard drive when you hit Esc
>during boot
>and select the boot device and make this hd0
>
>> 
>> It sort of makes sense, because you have to know a bit more to do a 
>> USB install. If you are going to boot from the USB drive, using the 
>> BIOS option to boot from a USB drive, then you have to tell Grub 
>> that the drive will be hd0 when you boot, even though it will be 
>> some other drive during the install. This is because most BIOSs will 
>> map the internal drive(s) before the USB drives when booting from 
>> anything but the USB drive.
>> 
>> You may also run into problem of shortened life on the jump drive 
>> with a normal install. (There has been a lot of debate on how much 
>> of a factor that will be.)
>
>The latest memory sticks have wear levelling that solves this problem.
>Corsair Flash Voyager (GT) 8GB runs very well with F7 and KDE.
>It has static wear levelling and a 5 year warranty.
>I don't get the quoted 33MBytes/sec when simple test with hdparm. More
>like 25MB/s
>
>I just haven't got round to trying F8 but assume that it would be OK
>
>
>> 
>> As another option, you can install a live CD image to a jump drive. 
>> I don't have the link handy that gives the detailed instructions. It 
>> gives you the advantage of lower ware on the jump drive. You can 
>> also install to a smaller drive, because of the compressed file 
>> system used in the live CDs. The disadvantage is that you have a 
>> hard time updating or adding packages.
>> 

How does one get it into 'expert' mode?

Thanks,



-- 

Knute Johnson
Molon Labe...