If I understand, I can do an fdisk, re-write the partition as a Linux partition, and then do an an mkfs -j .
Yes. That is exactly what you need to do. I don't know how USB storage devices are organized (if they have partitions at all, if they are optional or mandatory). It might be that you don't need partitions defined on the USB device at all, in which case you could just create file system on it, as you would do if it was floppy.
If there's partition table on the USB device, than you can simply change partition's system ID from FAT32 to Linux (83) using fdisk. If fdisk prints bunch of errors, when you start it, than there wasn't a partition table on the device (just like on good old floppies). In that case, forget about fdisk part, just use mkfs to build file system.
-- Aleksandar Milivojevic <amilivojevic@xxxxxx> Pollard Banknote Limited Systems Administrator 1499 Buffalo Place Tel: (204) 474-2323 ext 276 Winnipeg, MB R3T 1L7
