Installing Ubuntu onto USB pen drive

[Tom Harling]

What's the difference between ext2 and ext3? Looking here: 
(http://lists.terrasoftsolutions.com/pipermail/yellowdog-newbie/2003-August/004188.html) 
it seems that using ext3 is safer. How much would using ext3 wear out my 
drive (I'm not totally concerned about this. . .  the pen drive has a 10 
year warranty, which I only just noticed written on the box)? I've never 
heard of a loopback mount before. . . what is it?

Sorry if my questions are rather simplistic - I haven't used Linux that 
much before.

Thanks
Tom

Paul M wrote:
> Tom Harling wrote:
>> I have a 32gb USB pen drive ( 
>> http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=514882 but 32gb). If I 
>> want to install Ubuntu Linux 8 onto it, can I simply connect the 
>> drive to my computer, put in a Ubuntu live CD and press install? I 
>> guess that since it is 32gb and not something small like 2gb I can 
>> just install it as if it were a normal HDD?
>
> mostly, yes. however, various suggestions I have come across are
>
> * use ext2 not ext3, the latter will wear the drive out faster
>
> * instead of installing directly to the drive, do it with a loopback 
> mount of a temporary file of the right size first.
>
>
> I'd also suggest leaving some FAT32 space on the drive to make it 
> useful for transferring files to non linux machines.
>
> more info here:
> http://www.pendrivelinux.com/