[prog] USB keys

[Christine Bussman]

On Monday 10 May 2004 02:44 pm, daniel.richter at wimba.com wrote:

> I'm going to buy a USB key (I think some people call it
> a memory stick). I've never bought one before (I've
> scarcely used them before), so I have a lot of
> questions. How standardized are they? Do they all use
> the same drivers? Which ones are best supported by
> Linux? Do you have any recommendations?

I haven't had any trouble with these.  If you compile your own kernel, there 
are a few options you need
-scsi support (even in 2.6 kernel)
-scsi emulation (only 2.4)
-then the drive option itself (they're under usb)

if you have certain kinds, you need to select particular options in the 
driver.  I always compile my own kernels, and I have used sandisk drives with 
no problem (although they do require an option on the kernel module, and 
there are 2 sandisk options, I just selected both and it worked great).  I've 
heard of some issues with using/not using hotplug, but that would be the same 
whichever brand/kind you pick.  

One small suggestion:  I remember reading somewhere that these drives have the 
capacity for a limited number of writes, and so it is better to use nosync or 
async in your fstab to avoid using a lot of these writes up without needing 
to.  I don't know how true it is, but better safe than sorry.