Wow! What a lot of good info. I'll post later when I sort it all out and 
(hopefully) get something working.

Thanks, all!

-mj-

Dazed_75 wrote:
> Great info and references Joseph.  But it looks to me like neither one 
> does quite what he asked about.  That could be my misread of the 
> reference material (see below)
> 
> On 11/14/06, * Joseph Sinclair* <plug-discussion@stcaz.net 
> <mailto:plug-discussion@stcaz.net>> wrote:
> 
>     Actually, the install of DSL designed just for Flash drives
>     currently allows you to store your settings (home dir) in a file on
>     the same drive
>     (
>     http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ#How_do_I_save_my_settings.3F)
> 
> 
> This one looks to me like DSL can save whatever you want but only by 
> virtue of altering a backup configuration to save what you want saved 
> and perhaps (it may be automagic) having to then do a restore after a 
> reboot.
> 
>     Puppy Linux also is designed to work correctly entirely off the
>     flash drive, including /home (/root actually, since it defaults to
>     running as root).  It uses UnionFS to unify the flash partition(s)
>     (Puppy stores them in files for speed of boot, since it copies the
>     whole system into RAM) along with a user partition stored in a
>     special file on the same drive (all changes end up here).  It's done
>     that way to enable efficient copy-on-change for the whole system,
>     still permit auto-detect to work, and work with a unified image for
>     both flash and CD (the CD has the same support for a writable file
>     for the user's changes).
>     (http://puppylinux.org/wikka/FlashDetail)
> 
> 
> And this makes me think Puppy only saves new and changed contents of 
> roots home directory (/root).  Seems like this could include things like 
> presentations and so on, but maybe not printer setups like he was 
> looking for. 
> 
>     In both cases, you get a functioning system that does exactly what
>     was originally asked, that is that it runs well from USB flash (both
>     systems have no swap partition, but will use one if available
>     otherwise), and retains settings between sessions, like any normal
>     install. 
> 
> 
> Does seem very handy if one understands the limitations and perhaps 
> gaining that understanding is the real issue.  These references help a 
> lot though.  It does seem like one should be able to purposefully create 
> data files directly on the Flash device so the  issues would hopefully 
> be mostly the kind of changes one might want to make to other parts of 
> the file system (such as devices like printers).  This is another of 
> those projects I would like to play with but never seem to get to.
> 
>     It's not terribly obvious on the sites for both systems, but it does
>     work this way.  The way both systems store the data (in a file) is
>     done for three reasons:
>     1) Both systems are designed to be EXTREMELY frugal about writes to
>     flash, and the settings file is only updated on shutdown (it's all
>     in memory the rest of the time).
>     2) Using a file like this works better with UnionFS and with loading
>     the whole system into RAM (which really speeds up the system).
>     3) The file can often be stored on someone else's filesystem
>     (Windows NTFS/FAT16/FAT32, Linux Ext3, etc...), enabling you to
>     share a friend/roommate's computer without disturbing their OS,
>     regardless of their choice of OS.
> 
>     ==Joseph++
> 
> 
> 
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