Hi, I know there are a few Ubuntu/Linux users around here, so I thought I'd ask about this here rather than register on the Ubuntu forums. Although, I should state that I am a total 'Linux' virgin and am just going with Ubuntu as it seems to be the most popular/easiest to use. Any suggestions for other distros to try are definitely welcome.

I've got a large USB flash drive here that I'm interested in using to create a bootable drive running Ubuntu. My computer at work is shared, so I can't really set anything up how I like it. Therefore, the idea of carrying a portable OS in my pocket with all of my programs and documents is very tempting.

I've tooled around with a few 'USB creator' programs, which unpack the Ubuntu ISO and set it up on the USB drive, but this has been a very problematic experience so far. Issues I've seen range from rendering the USB drive unable to boot after a few uses to actually altering the bootloader on the Windows drive (to the extent that I couldn't boot my Windows computer without the USB drive inserted!). So far, no real success.

So, I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with trying to do something like this, and might know of a 'surefire' way to get an install of Ubuntu or other Linux distro running on a bootable USB drive.

Take a look at OpenSUSE. I run 11.4 on my desktop but the new release is out. There are Gnome and KDE versions that are listed as bootable from USB drives.

OpenSUSE has been a quite complete and robust distribution for me.
http://software.opensuse.org/121/en

All my USB flash drives are simply too slow to actually run an OS. I guess the new USB 3.0 flash drives coming out now would run OK.

IMO Mint is the easiest to get used to and "Windows-like". OpenSUSE is a close 2nd, I like it a lot too.

Thanks very much for the suggestions. The few times Ubuntu was actually able to fully boot and let me log in, performance (even on USB 1.0) was not much different than the harddrive-based Windows install, certainly acceptable. I'll take a look at OpenSUSE and Mint, hopefully they'll be a bit more USB friendly than Ubuntu has so far been.

If you're keeping it on a usb drive or disc, you need to run it as a livecd so it runs out of the computer's memory. It just loads off of the usb drive or disc. The thing is that this is temporary, and any files you create etc are gone after you shut down if not stored in the right places. Good for troubleshooting, but not a good option for normal day to day use.

If you want an actual install, start with the live cd and you'll have the option to install the OS on your harddrive, beside Windows--actually, around it. You'll have the option to keep Windows. The main thing to get used to with Linux is how it uses partitions. You'll have hundreds, most not even used. Windows will be in one.
I run Mint with XP on my netbook, it's a nice way to have it.
Obviously if this is a work pc you don't want to do this.

I've been booting the UBuntu Live DVD w/ no problems.

I never "Installed" to a USB Drive, as It would constantly have to re-load drivers for new devices as I take it from System to System.

I Started Booting 7.10 from a DvD-R or USB Stick it loads up and is fully functional in the "Try UBuntu" state, Minus the "Specialized/Proprietary Drivers".

I only found 1 system that didnt load "Generic" drivers for network, and that was because his system's Network Chip was newer than the build I had at the time..

I Save any data I need to an External USB Harddisk.

Running in 'Live' mode from USB was almost trivial, however I quickly found that none of my settings to personalize the install were being saved between reboots. As you note, RK, this is not acceptable for day-to-day use.

Most of the USB installers (like Universal USB-Installer) seem to have an option for enabling 'persistence,' which means that they create a cache file of whatever size you choose to store those settings. Good results while it lasted in Ubuntu, but eventually the device stopped booting. Admittedly I didn't spend a whole lot of time troubleshooting, but I presume Ubuntu just doesn't really like being run this way.

The USB installers also have the benefit of allowing the drive to be formatted in FAT32, meaning it can be read by a normal Windows machine and used for file storage.

Installing from Live CD to USB had the nasty side effect of overwriting the Windows bootloader on my C:\ drive with GNU GRUB, so that I could not start into Windows without the USB stick inserted. I'm not sure if there's a way to prevent the installer from doing this; perhaps by physically disconnecting the harddrive before installing?

run the install from DVD-> USB w/ no drives connected :p