Overview

USB Key Linux distributions seem to be the craze at the moment. With sites like pendrivelinux.com giving Linux users detailed instructions on how to install their favorite Linux distribution to a USB key one might think that there is no need for a commercial Linux distriobution to offer up a USB key. Well, Mandriva Linux has done just that for sometime now. Starting with their 2 gig USB release and now with their latest release of Mandriva Flash 2008 on a 4 gig USB key.

The Mandriva Flash 2008 4 gig USB Key is bundled on a Dane-Elec USB Key. It's sturdy construction and proven reliability makes Dane-Elec a good chioce for Mandriva to place their OS on.

Bootup

With any USB Key Linux distribution you must make sure that your computer can boot from a USB port. Our Intel based motherboard had the proper BIOS settings to allow this function to happen. But, Mandriva is one step ahead of us as usual and on the USB Key they have place a boot.iso which is a small sized ISO image that will allow one to boot from a computer that may not have the ability to boot from a USB port. This is a great feature and small enough ISO image to be placed on a business card sized CDR. For my purpose of review I was able to boot from USB port but I did test the boot.iso and had no problems booting into the Mandriva Flash 2008 OS.

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