installing an OS onto a flash drive

[astromech_kuhns]

Hello all. not many post's here.

i know you can make bootable flash drives. but besides that, if i have a flash drive with enough storage, could you install a OS onto that flash drive? mainly a *nix OS. so lets say the OS is 2 GB big once installed, and i had a 4 GB big flash drive, can i get it to use that other 2 gigs as storage? basically i want to install a OS onto a tiny hard drive.... thats the goal anyway. and it would be like carrying around a HD except it would be a flash drive.

i figure you would have to change the file system to something like ext2 or so.... but is this possible?

or are we confined to bootable sticks?

Thanks,

Kolton

[fashizzlepop]

or are we confined to bootable sticks?

To answer your question, yes. And when you do it will still be a "bootable stick."

Load your favourite *nix OS live cd and install it but point it at the flash drive, that should work.

[astromech_kuhns]

i know how to make the flash drive a live CD. the problem with that is it cannot store files once pulled out. which is why i wanted to actually install the OS to my flashdrive instead of burn the .iso image....

EDIT: are you saying to install it to a flash drive and what i want to work will work but it will still be called a bootable usb stick, or are you just suggesting the live CD by burning the iso to it?

[fashizzlepop]

are you saying to install it to a flash drive and what i want to work will work but it will still be called a bootable usb stick

This one. Just like you would use a live cd to install linux to an external HD. Just point it at your flash drive. It will make it bootable and therefore your so called "bootable stick."

[astromech_kuhns]

do i need to change the file system? to like ext2? and it will use extra space for storage correct?

[fashizzlepop]

do i need to change the file system? to like ext2? and it will use extra space for storage correct?

When you install it it will format it how it needs. You dont need to worry about that part ahead of time.

And yes, you are not making it a live USB. It's as if you are installing on a normal HD.

Try it out. You will probably answer most of your questions.

[Goatboy]

unetbootin

'nuff said

[thetan]

unetbootin is basically the oposite of what the OP wants. He doesn't want a liveCD on USB, he wants a full fledged OS on USB, complete with writable FS. Sure you can do this with livecd-ish persistent storage hacks, but seeing how were using USB you can indeed do as fashizzlepop has suggested and just install the OS on the USB as if it were any other HDD and all should be well in the magical kingdom

[sanddbox]

Keep in mind that that will rape the USB's lifetime.

[insomaniacal]

Keep in mind that that will rape the USB's lifetime.

Indeed, which is why this probably isn't the best idea. A bootable Live-CD enviroment is much better suited to USB devices than an everyday OS.