"liveusb-creator" versus "livecd-iso-to-disk"?

[Fred Smith]

On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 02:02:36PM -0500, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Jan 2014, Fernando Cassia wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 3:25 PM, Mark Haney <mhaney at practichem.com> wrote:
> > > and I've created bootable CentOS drives (including 6.5) several times
> > > with it and it works fine.
> >
> > ...Until the writable space fills up.
> 
>   just to be clear, what i'm after is a full, bootable (and
> modifiable) linux system, booting totally from USB drive. in my case,
> it needs to be centos 6.5, and it needs to allow students to do *some*
> persistent mods to their system -- not a lot, basic configuration,
> that sort of thing.
> 
>   so, does liveusb-creator handle that? if so, i'll go with that.

Robert:

I've been able to use one or the other of those tools to create a live
system with "persistence". What persistence does NOT mean, however, is
the ability to install a newer kernel, since the update gets stored in
the persistence area instead of in /boot. there may be similar/related
issues with kernel modules as well.

Something else I've done, successfully, several times, is to do an
actual install onto a USB stick, so that when booted, it is the same
as a "normal" installation except it boots and runs from USB instead of
built-in storage in the PC.

I'm told that this risks wear-related issues on the USB stick, but have
not encountered any such problems myself.

I'd guess that this latter is probably more like what you want. I'd
think you could build one then clone it onto as many USB devices as you
want. You may want to boot each and assign different hostnames, etc.,
depending upon your students' needs.

Fred

-- 
---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us -----------------------------
                      The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, 
                    keeping watch on the wicked and the good.
----------------------------- Proverbs 15:3 (niv) -----------------------------