Is it possible to use usb startup disk creator to create an upgradable usb disk from the ubuntu live cd? There is information available on customizing the live cd, but it would be much better to boot from a usb stick and use apt-get to keep it up-to-date. My iMac will boot from a usb stick with an mbr installed and using the plop boot manager (won't work with refit), but any changes won't be persistent. Creating a file to hold changes won't help either because synaptic doesn't recognize it; besides I need more space for the package cache than fits into my RAM. And the maximum size for the storage file is 4 GB which still uses less than the available space (8 GB) on my stick. Can I tweak the filesystem on the stick to make changes persistent and use all the disk space? It is possible to install directly onto the stick, but this means it will be recognized as an external disk, and the iMac won't boot from it. Also, such an install is terribly slow.

I can't find the exact post I was looking for but I believe you want to use the flip bit deal. It changes how your flash is viewed by bios's. I assume it would work on mac's too if flipped in windows. Then do a normal install.

May have to edit grub if you move the flash to other systems.

There are some how to's on pendrivelinux.com for ways to and in persistant features to other distro's and flash installs.

Thanks. Downloaded the tool from http://www.getusb.info/flip-your-bit...e-local-drive/ - whether I dare use it or not I don't know yet. This is a Windows application, right? So I would have to install Wine.

Anyway, I had some partial success. I reinstalled on a 2GB stick (since a larger stick does not seem to make sense) and I was able to upgrade firefox and install some add-ons, which will be very useful, so I'll mark this as solved and post a new thread when something turns up. A full upgrade will not work though, especially a kernel upgrade gives an error from which I cannot recover without reinstalling the stick.

Just found this:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/uck/...l.deb/download

Seems like a better idea, now that I know that minor upgrades are possible. I would have to create an iso image and use usb startup disk creator to install it on a usb stick.

"especially a kernel upgrade gives an error from which I cannot recover without reinstalling the stick."

This may be another issue. It should work as any hard drive install after the flip bit. I'd guess it is something more to do with the mac.

Thanks for the update!