Puppy on Gizmo USB Flash drive

[dvw86]

Has anybody had any experience with the "Gizmo" USB flash drives sold by Crucial RAM? I was going to buy one and install Puppy on it. However I know that some USB flash drives work better as boot devices than others. Thanks in advance for any advice.

EDIT
Sorry for putting this in the wrong forum. I thought I was in "User" and not "HOWTO".

[nduanetesh]

Hi,

Sorry, no experience with the Gizmo, but I did just buy a 128MB Super Talent flash drive specifically to use with puppy, and it's been working perfectly. I got it for $14 with free shipping from www.bestbargainpc.com. It's 128MB, USB2.0, made to be compatible as a bootable drive, super cheap, super tiny, and super....uh...super dooper! ("super tiny" = about the size of three sticks of gum stacked. i.e. does not interfere with stacked usb ports) The one they sent me doesn't look at all like the product pictured, btw...it's much smaller. I'm not on the payroll, I'm just really happy with my purchase, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a USB key to use with puppy. If you're interested, follow the link, then click "flash memory/pen drives" on the menu on the left. My time from order to delivery was about a week.

ND

[dvw86]

Hey thanks, that looks interesting.

[BarryK]

If it states on the package that no driver needs to be installed for XP, then it is probably a standard usb mass storage interface that is bootable and will work with Linux.

I bought one recently, 512M for A$58 (quickly whips out one of Puppy's calculators...) that's about US$45.
Didn't even have a installation CD, cos it's a standard interface, doesn't need any installation in XP.

[nduanetesh]

I have found booting with usb keys to be a spotty proposition. Of the three that I've had, only this last one actually claimed "can be made bootable", and it's the only one that has consistantly booted on every computer I've tried. (None of the three required drivers for XP, btw.) The first was a 64MB CigarDrive Pro, which was a $40 (at the time) piece of puppy poo that didn't boot on anything. The second is a 256MB Lexar JumpDrive with which I am very happy. It boots on my own computer just fine, but it doesn't boot on my parents' computer for some reason. The third is the aforementioned 128MB Super Talent drive, which I really only bought because it was really cheap, but it has turned out to be a very good drive. So, for the sake of avoiding inexplicable boot problems, I recommend sticking with a drive that specifically indicates that it can be made bootable. And I also recommend www.pricewatch.com for all of your computer part price comparison needs.

ND

PS, I think I just thought of a new page for the wikki.
PPS, astute readers will be wondering, "how was this guy trying to boot puppy on a 64MB pen drive?" Well, this was before mu puppy days...I was trying to make a win98 boot drive out of it.

[duane]

I have gotten Chubby Puppy 1.05 to boot from

512 Mb PNY Attache USB thumb drive 256 Mb pup001 on thumb sda1
1 Gig Lexar USB Jump Drive 512 Mb pup001 on thumb sda1

Notebook: Dell Inspiron 5150 with 1.25 Gigs of Ram
DVD is hda1 and 40 Gig NTFS Hard Disk is hdc2

I also have Chubby Puppy 1.05 booting from CD version
with 512 Mb pup001 on hard disk with usr_cram.fs file

512 Mb PNY syslinux.cfg
default vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=100000 initrd=image.gz vga=791
append PSLEEP=25 w PHOME=sda1 PFILE=pup100-none-262144 PFKEYS=us

1 Gig Lexar syslinux.cfg
default vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=100000 initrd=image.gz vga=791
append PSLEEP=25 w PHOME=sda1 PFILE=pup100-none-524288 PFKEYS=us

Note: vga=791 gives me a 1024x768 screen during boot for messages.

CD version syslinux.cfg is default from Chubby Puppy iso image.
I am using the Dlink AirPlus DWL-G630 Rev c2 usa
This wifi cardbus uses the Atheros chip set for wifi connection after installing the madwifi.tar.gz
from http://mymirrors.homelinux.org/puppy/wireless site

I love Puppy!! I am hoping to get OpenOffice working soon.