Has anyone successfully gotten a persistent install to work on a memory stick? By persistent, I mean changes are saved when the system is rebooted. If so, what distro and is there a website with directions?

I have been trying to get up a persistent ubuntu 9.04. Have tried ubuntu's usb-creator, unetbootin, pendrivelinux.com, salvassn's queasy quagmire wubi approach. Either I get only a liveCD on a stick (not persistent) or it doesn't boot at all.

I don't care if changes are saved in an external file like a casper, or if they saved into the stick's filesystem as they would be with the wubi, so long as they are saved, and it works every time.

A liveCD will not suit my purposes, I already know how to make one, please don't suggest it.

Thanks for any clues!

duckslammer

You can install any Linux in a memory stick the same way you install it on an internal hard disk but not all of them have been assembled to boot from a USB device. It is something to do with putting the necessary drivers in the ramdisk to enable the installer to recongise the USB devices.

I suggest you try Puppy which support all types of installation.

In a Live CD form the footprint of the Linux, say if it is a Ubuntu, is small and about the same size as the CD. In persisitent install it will be expanded 4 to 5 times larger and run considerably slower than say an external hard disk. Therefore your best bet is put the distro on an external hard disk unless you can tolerate the slow response.

Puppy Linux LiveCD allows you to save your changes that will be loaded on rebooting. I mean, you use your LiveCD (it runs from the RAM, so it's fast), in the end it prompts you where to save the changes. When you use Puppy again, the LiveCD will search for the file with the changes and if it exists, load them.
I've never tried this myself, but I believe it should work OK.

Puppy actually provides alternative as a normal installation so that the partition inside has /boot, /home, /usr, /etc etc.

The saving of the setting described by ANO1453 is just a function within the Live CD type installation which is also called "Frugal" install. In that installation type the entire Puppy filing system is rolled up and compressed into a single file which can be store inside a Fat partition. There is no trace of Puppy after it has been used and you can't access the files inside until you boot Puppy again and uncompressed the tar ball.