Debian on a USB Thumbdrive++

There is a great guide by Dave Vehrs on how to install Debian to a USB thumb drive. I followed the guide, and had quite an adventure. While the idea was prompted by Dave, the result is entirely my own.

Features:

• Entirely functional bootable Debian Etch installation including window manager (fluxbox) on a 1GB USB drive
• 2.8GB of extended space via gmailfs, mounted through a script bound to a desktop icon
• Ability to detect and automount local filesystems
• 60mb partition that Windows can still utilize for transferring files (which is automounted when booting Debian)
• Auto-cleanup scripts that run on shutdown

The scripts and processes necessary to mock my implementation are pretty clear. I’m sure anyone with some spare time and the inclination could do the same. Here’s one hint: if you fry your USB stick (which I did while getting the partitions lain out correctly so it would both boot to linux but have a partition readable by windows), use HP’s usb recovery tool to bring it back to working order.