Has anybody downloaded Linux onto a flash drive then burn to dvd then install? How big a flash drive would I need? How long would it take with fast library conection? Any ideas, pros cons? This would be for regular hard drive install, not live flash drive or cd. Should
I just buy a dvd?

Thanks,
reddog

How big the flash drive needs to be is determined by the size of the GNU/Linux distro you choose. For a DVD.iso you will need a flash drive bigger than 4gb. Make sure you use USB 2.0 or the process could take a while.

I don't think an iso file intended for a DVD can be booted from a flash drive, unless it is modified.

The reason is very simple. 95% of iso are booted by isolinux, a boot loader specially written for iso9660 filing format on a CD or DVD. The remaining 5% uses Grub but Grub has also a special file called stage2_eltorito specially rigged for reading iso9660 filing format too.

In a flash drive the CD/DVD-based boot loaders simply would not work because a flash drive cannot be formatted to iso9660. Flash drives are shipped with fat16 or fat32 format although one can change it to ext2/3 or reiserfs.

One can download a DVD iso and boot it from a flash drive if one substitutes isolinux with Grub. I have put 7 iso in a DVD and then into a 2Gb flash but only 3 of them boot in the latter, although all 7 work satisfactorily in a DVD. The others failed because their installers were written to read files from a CD drive.

I don't think the users intention is to boot the iso from the flash drive.

That really beats me. I thought he hasn't got a DVD and thinking of buying one.

Why would anybody want to put an iso onto a flash drive, so that the read/write speed is 3 times longer than an internal hard disk? unless the iso is not installed but run like a Live CD and hence can be used on any computer.

What's wrong of downloading into the hard disk? or even boot it from the hard disk without burning a CD or DVD?

My idea is to put several iso onto a rewriteable DVD or a flash drive and boot them off directly. The ultimate destination is the hard disk. The iso has no use after the installation so it doesn't matter which media we put the iso in as long as the media is reusable again.

Lol, I think this is the reason why. I'm guessing he either has a slow home connection (maybe dialup), or he has no home connection at all.

It may take a week in slow PC available from a public library. For some DVD on bittorrent it can be more than a day's time to download with a fast broadband.

It is much easier just buy a Linux magazine and use the enclosed free CD/DVD.