Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote: > One of the problems is that the / file system is not /dev/sdb1, even > though that is the USB drive. The root file system is really a file > on the USB drive. This is a compressed file system designed to be > used on read-only devices, and is not designed to be modified once > created. Because of the way the live CD does things, you can make > changes, but as you noticed, they do not survive a reboot. > > If you are interested in the details of how it works, you can read > up on cramfs. I believe it is also covered on most of the sites that > have live CD's, as this is a common way to pack more file then would > normally file on a CD into the live CD. > > If you want a fully functional Linux system that remember changes, > and lets you update packages, you have to use a more "conventional" > install that creates "standard" file systems on the drive. I know an > expert install from the install DVD or boot CD will let you do this, > but I don't remember if the live CD's will. You will have to fix the > Grub configuration after install, but that is not a big deal. Thanks very much for the info - that makes things clearer. I actually tried DSL (Damn Small Linux) first, but for some reason that did not work. I was quite surprised how well the Fedora KDE Live CD works on the USB stick. It actually seemed to run slightly faster than from the hard disk, though that is probably due to the junk I have accumulated ...
