So here's a question O-P, if I wanted to just store the OS on the USB stick, not install it to the stick, but have it available to boot from the stick using the option to load it all into ram (like you can from a liveCD), how would I do that? I assume the stick would still need to be formatted as ext3 or other linux FS, but would you just drag-and-drop the iso file from your computer to the empty stick?
From what little testing I did, it is not presently possible to run PCLOS from a device other than a CD/DVD and utilise copy2ram.
There may be a way .. but if so I have not yet come across it.
Well that seems counter-intuitive, USB 2 is still slow running an OS. Now USB 3 is a different story as it has much faster throughput, but it's still an attractive option to copy to ram. If you have USB 3 on your mobo to start with, then you've probably got DDR3 and quite a bit of it, 4-8 gigs + using one of the "Mini" versions of PCLOS = lightning on a stick.
Running live from optical media is not very old, and indeed was not taken up universally by Linux Distros at the time.
Running live from USB devices is even younger ... by a long way ... and a lot of distros still do not make it a simple matter.
In the case of PCLOS, the "live" running for USB was achieved by adapting the live optical use. The copy2ram section apparently was not done, or maybe wasn't possible, at the time.
That is not to say that it will not or can not .... just that it has not yet been done.
I have no idea if it has even been looked at or maybe it has and some problems have not yet been overcome. I have been considering it for some weeks now, but have not had any real time to devote to it.
A truly portable USB live session on an external drive is only possible in PCLOS less than 2 years now. Flash sticks can be treated as external drives for the best variety in uses, rather than be seen as 'floppy' or 'cdrom'. This is mighty important as the flash stick sizes grow, and people realise they can have multiple partitions on those as well as their internal HDDs, and can have, maybe, a variety of Linux installs on the stick booting from different partitions etc etc. It will happen .... although I know of no other OS besides PCLOS which has a utility for putting a live session on different partitions of a USB drive - yet.
I fully expect, given some development time, that we will have the facility to copy2ram from a USB live session in the coming year. That coupled with multiple partition use, and the ability to have several PCLOS versions reside together on one partition of the USB device, will make it all very adaptable and interesting for the future.
At least I hope so
regards.
Sounds great! An even better method of portable use, blazing ram speed and use on any computer, all from a little USB stick you can add to your keychain, nice and secure too for portable use as when you shutdown you leave no traces on the host computer.
Also interesting to me for daily use in desktop or laptop with a USB 3 connection for boot speed, run 100% in ram, keep your /home section small and manageable, and use hard-disk just for storing docs/media etc. Needs some method for persisting changes in the OS and /home without having to install OS to USB in the conventional way....Puppy linux does it with a special save file that contains settings/changes, the system looks at local drives at boot-time to see if such a file exists, if it does, it loads them when it loads the OS. I don't know if it works like that with their USB install as I have never done one. Something to play with in the future.
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