Linux-on-a-chip: tiny thumbdrive with OpenSUSE Live 12.1 on the dumpster computer

Weeks ago I was amazed and inspired by an episode of NCIS: LA where LL Cool J plugs this itsy bitsy USB drive into somebody's computer at a bar and in ten seconds without any human intervention made a copy of every file on some suspect's computer while the guy was sitting at the bar being distracted by Daniela Ruah acting sexy. (She seems to play that card a lot on cases.)

I have my suspicions that the plug-and-drain method doesn't really exist, and know for certain that it would take way more than 10 seconds to get a copy of everything on a laptop, but the thought of sticking an almost-unnoticeable USB drive into a computer and gaining access to things the person believes are secure does have some appeal. Your average computer geek knows how -- forget trying to log into someone's Windows, boot something else that can read the hard drive, like Linux.

So I was at one of those office stores today and found they had Verbatim Clip-It 4gb thumbdrives for $6 ("$14 off today!", which sounds good until you shop around and see 8gb drives are presently going for $10-$15). I obtained one, then after weighing my options decided to put OpenSUSE Live 12.1 on instead of Ubuntu 11.10 [I may change this after Ubuntu 12's official release comes out in late April], and that's what you're seeing here... that wee black thing in the side is driving the computer.

Now, one thing I noticed is that the user profile is not persistant. Which is to be expectedf since despite this being an editable drive, it gets treated like a CD/DVD (which is what the image used on the stick is, afterall) so isn't written to Make changes to the desktop and on next boot they won't be there. I also noticed that while you can do an update to the OS under Ubuntu (if you have the room for the downloading and unpacking, or only do a little at a time), you can't change anything vital (edit the bootloader, update the OS or any of the software, etc.) on the OpenSUSE because the Live version was written with the expectation it would only be run from a CD. I suppose the on-the-fly profile creation is fine since the out-of-the-box bootups have everything you'd need, but being able to plug in a thumbdrive and have your desktop wallpaper of preference, optimal layout, and icons you're going to use most right there would be nice.

And as a side note: both OS's recognise my USB WiFi device, I'm happy to say.

Taken on: March 5, 2012

Tags:

linux

thumbdrive

opensuse

Sets appears in: • Random Nonsense - Stuff

Groups appears in: • Linux Screenshots

Camera: Kodak Z650 Zoom, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, 17.5mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Kodak Z650 Zoom
Aperture:	f/3.2
Exposure Time:	0.01 sec (1/100)
Focal Length:	17.5mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Auto, Fired
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
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