linux in usb?

is it possible to have linux installed on a usb drive, and have no driver issues if you use it on different computers?

like, for example, have a <4gb persistant os on a portable usb stick that you can simply plug and play with any computer(that supports usb booting).

IF so, any suggestions on a light-weight linux distro?? most i'll need is probably good wireless/internet support, vim, ssh/ftp/scp, and languages.

thanks.

 

Yes it is easy.

I suggest downloading unetbootin-windows.

Use that program to mount the ISO image to a USB drive.
I did it recently with a 700mb linux distro (ubuntu-9.04) on a 1gb usb drive.

 

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

Great site for usb linux.

 

Try crunchbang, it's lightweight and based on Ubuntu.

 

Seems to be a nice program. Has anyone done a thorough check of the source code ?

I dont want any trojans on my linux install

 

I'm not sure, but the program has been around for a while.
I have used it several times and neither avira or AVG picked up a virus.

But I can't say for sure because I only have the most basic programing skills.

 

I use unetbootin all the time, I give it a thumbs up.

 

I tried a bunch of distros, fedora, ubuntu, ubuntu netbook, DSL, DSL-N, crunchbang. I've come to like crunchbang the best I think, except the proxy firefox uses seem to be slow/stalls, or something weird like that...

Also, if I use my usb boot on someones windows computer, it sets their firefox settings to my own, and resets desktop icons, etc.... lots of side effects.. none harmful however, just annoying.

 

You can also install right into thumbdrive, and install a bootloader into the MBR. However, you might want to compress it with squashfs if you do that.

It really shouldn't do that. Try disabling auto-mounting of partitions if it continues.