Well, if one has a limited range of laptops (eeePC and different versions of MSI winds: they almost have the same HW), one can choose USB sticks which manage to boot, even in very little french province towns...
For power greediness of USB sticks : even 16G can be put on any plug of MSI winds.
For power needs of external USB CD drives: the only brand I found had only one plug (some cleverly designed external disks have a plug for USB and a plug for 5v, if needed), thus making it very dependant on the quality of its wire (one has to choose a evry short one). It somehow  works, but it is very unpleasant (and Y shaped USB wires, with a plug for +5v and onother for a full USB always lead to confusions).
Such configurations, when used with a "net""book", need external power supplies ("net""books" were meant? -sold, anyways- to be independant.)

As live CDs remain slow, an use USB sticks for the same function (eats less mAmps, is faster), once I find a brand which suits my computers (and my nephew's ones).

I noticed that external disks (real, rotating ones) could be used to boot, and were little power demanding : I tried with real installations of Mandriva, Fedora (14 to 16)  and Mageia  and read Debian could , too: the advantage I saw was one can use the package manager (installing software on a RO support such as a live CD or its image is difficult). This real installation could be achieved with sticks, but was very slow (USB sticks have long writing times -but short reading ones {a 1/5 ratio or worse} ; mechanical disks are fast enough, on reading and writing). The mAmps demands remained  modest, as I could carry my computer to a restaurant and use it.
This is cheaper per Go than USB sticks (an 1/20 ratio) and seems, with new disks, very comfortable.
There is another issue with CD's /DVDs : it is becoming harder and harder to find such things, but rotating disks and USB sticks seem easy to find, even in small towns....
Have nice days...



________________________________
 De : John C Nash <nashjc@uottawa.ca>

Cc : "mcheetha@usc.edu" <mcheetha@usc.edu>; "r-sig-debian@r-project.org" <r-sig-debian@r-project.org> 
Envoyé le : Dimanche 4 Décembre 2011 18h03
Objet : Re: [R-sig-Debian] Re :  Upgrading R on my EEE PC netbook

Our local Linux Users Group (oclug.on.ca) has been finding unfortunately that the issue
becomes one of which USB sticks will boot in which laptops. So far we keep finding some
combinations work fine, but others don't. That is, stick 1 that boots fine on A B and C
laptops won't boot on D and E, while stick 2 boots on A B and D but not C and E etc. This
has stopped us doing Linux promotions by offering a live-USB because we found too many
cases where novice users can't get their machine to boot.

I've had good success with several different USB CD/DVD reader/burners as long as I make
sure they are properly powered (there is usually a separate power input), especially on
burning. Some USB ports e.g., the LH one on some Asus Eee and UL30, don't seem to be fully
powered, so I tend to use a 5V "brick" or a nice little Belkin power bar that has a couple
of USB power slots meant for charging cell phones.

I'm probably getting into off-list territory here, but I've been finding in the last while
that a lot of "failures" or "unreliability" alleged in technical lists turn out to be
silly things like devices not getting power when apparently plugged in.

JN


On 12/04/2011 11:02 AM, denis brion wrote:
> Well, the idea of being lent (or buying) an USB/CD drive might be unpleasant:
> cheap USB CD/DVD readers can be unreliable, and there is a better (IMHO) solution based on unetbootin (a google search can find the link, a nice review is here:
> http://distrowatch.gds.tuwien.ac.at/weekly.php?issue=20110404 ):
> unetbootin  transforms  CD images (*.iso) into an USB bootable stick (and leaves the unused space free for Window$ and Linux : linux-sect specific tools do not).
> You then can use the USB stick as a live CD/DVD (but it is _faster_, as there are no mechanical parts) or as an installation device.
> 
> It works on Scientific Linux  (which has already R installed on its live version) , Gentoo(live installer) , Sabayon and Vector Linux {vers.6} (from what I tried, on a MSI wind "net""book" and on my nephews eeePCs).
> 
> and it is claimed to work with  Ubuntu and SlitaZ (debian derived).
> 
> This HW problems are independent on the GNU linux sects...
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________
>  De : Mike Cheetham <mcheetha@usc.edu>
> À : r-sig-debian@r-project.org; Michael Dewey <info@aghmed.fsnet.co.uk>
> Envoyé le : Jeudi 1 Décembre 2011 20h48
> Objet : Re: [R-sig-Debian] Upgrading R on my EEE PC netbook
> 
> I think switching from Xandros may be the simplest answer in the long term.
> 
> I abandoned Xandros on my Eee 701 and switched it to Ubuntu 10.10 which 
> I found an OK combination (I haven't upgraded as I hardly ever use that 
> machine now, I use 11.10 on my main PC).  Installation (rather than 
> running the entire OS) from a USB stick was not too difficult as I 
> recall, although if you can find someone who will lend you a USB CD 
> drive installation from a CD would be incredibly simple.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Mike
> 
> On 12/01/2011 03:00 AM, r-sig-debian-request@r-project.org wrote:
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:33:10 +0000
>> From: Michael Dewey<info@aghmed.fsnet.co.uk>
>> To: r-sig-debian@r-project.org
>> Subject: [R-sig-Debian] Upgrading R on my EEE PC netbook
>> Message-ID:<Zen-1RVm9O-0008RP-T3@smarthost03.mail.zen.net.uk>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>>
>> I have been successfully been using R on my EEE PC for some while
>> now. Although it uses Xandros I have been able to install various
>> pieces of software by pretending that it was Debian etch. Johannes
>> was kind enough to continue providing binaries on CRAN for a while
>> but I think I am the only person still living in the past as CRAN
>> etch is currently stuck at 2.11.0 and I cannot rely on him to be my
>> personal IT support for ever. So I decided to go it alone despite all
>> the warnings against such behaviour on this list.
>>
>> My plan A was to go for a mixed installation by installing from
>> squeeze and risk that this would update some other software and
>> chance it breaking something.
>> So I pointed my entries in sources.list at the squeeze Debian
>> repository and at the CRAN squeeze repository and did
>> sudo apt-get update
>> sudo -s install r-base r-base-dev
>> and got the following response
>> Reading package lists...
>> Building dependency tree...
>> Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
>> requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
>> distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
>> or been moved out of Incoming.
>> The following information may help to resolve the situation:
>>
>> The following packages have unmet dependencies:
>>      r-base-dev: Depends: build-essential but it is not going to be installed
>>                  Depends: g++ but it is not going to be installed
>>                  Depends: gfortran but it is not going to be installed
>>                  Depends: libncurses5-dev but it is not going to be installed
>>                  Depends: libreadline-dev
>>                  Depends: libjpeg-dev
>>                  Depends: libpcre3-dev but it is not going to be installed
>>                  Depends: libpng12-dev but it is not going to be installed
>>                  Depends: zlib1g-dev but it is not going to be installed
>>                  Depends: libbz2-dev but it is not going to be installed
>>
>> Now the funny thing is that if I do
>> which gfortran
>> it tells me I have gfortran on my path.
>>
>> Before I move on to Plan B which is to download the sources and
>> compile them myself would anyone like to advise me what is going
>> wrong and whether this will mean that Plan B is doomed to fail before I start.
>>
>> Plan C is to run one of the Debian or Ubuntu tailored EEE PC versions
>> off a USB stuck but I find the documentation for doing that hard to grasp.
>>
>> You might find it helpful to know that more or less all I know of
>> Linux is gained from reading this list and that I am still at the
>> stage where I regard setting up a symbolic link as a major achievement.
>>
>>
>> Michael Dewey
>> info@aghmed.fsnet.co.uk
>> http://www.aghmed.fsnet.co.uk/home.html
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:51:30 -0500
>> From: John C Nash<nashjc@uottawa.ca>
>> To: Michael Dewey<info@aghmed.fsnet.co.uk>
>> Cc: r-sig-debian@r-project.org
>> Subject: Re: [R-sig-Debian] Upgrading R on my EEE PC netbook
>> Message-ID:<4ED65102.4040605@uottawa.ca>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>
>> I don't know how committed you are to the Xandros interface. I am friends with some of the
>> people who built that distro here in Ottawa. They did a good job, but the distro is now
>> dead, and they don't use it themselves any more, so you will definitely be on your own.
>>
>> For what it is worth, I've found R runs very nicely on the Eee's using CrunchBang linux,
>> which is a debian squeeze variant. I can use the R debian packages.
>>
>> Best, JN
>>
>>
>> On 11/30/2011 10:33 AM, Michael Dewey wrote:
>>> I have been successfully been using R on my EEE PC for some while now. Although it uses
>>> Xandros I have been able to install various pieces of software by pretending that it was
>>> Debian etch. Johannes was kind enough to continue providing binaries on CRAN for a while
>>> but I think I am the only person still living in the past as CRAN etch is currently stuck
>>> at 2.11.0 and I cannot rely on him to be my personal IT support for ever. So I decided to
>>> go it alone despite all the warnings against such behaviour on this list.
>>>
>>> My plan A was to go for a mixed installation by installing from squeeze and risk that this
>>> would update some other software and chance it breaking something.
>>> So I pointed my entries in sources.list at the squeeze Debian repository and at the CRAN
>>> squeeze repository and did
>>> sudo apt-get update
>>> sudo -s install r-base r-base-dev
>>> and got the following response
>>> Reading package lists...
>>> Building dependency tree...
>>> Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
>>> requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
>>> distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
>>> or been moved out of Incoming.
>>> The following information may help to resolve the situation:
>>>
>>> The following packages have unmet dependencies:
>>>     r-base-dev: Depends: build-essential but it is not going to be installed
>>>                 Depends: g++ but it is not going to be installed
>>>                 Depends: gfortran but it is not going to be installed
>>>                 Depends: libncurses5-dev but it is not going to be installed
>>>                 Depends: libreadline-dev
>>>                 Depends: libjpeg-dev
>>>                 Depends: libpcre3-dev but it is not going to be installed
>>>                 Depends: libpng12-dev but it is not going to be installed
>>>                 Depends: zlib1g-dev but it is not going to be installed
>>>                 Depends: libbz2-dev but it is not going to be installed
>>>
>>> Now the funny thing is that if I do
>>> which gfortran
>>> it tells me I have gfortran on my path.
>>>
>>> Before I move on to Plan B which is to download the sources and compile them myself would
>>> anyone like to advise me what is going wrong and whether this will mean that Plan B is
>>> doomed to fail before I start.
>>>
>>> Plan C is to run one of the Debian or Ubuntu tailored EEE PC versions off a USB stuck but
>>> I find the documentation for doing that hard to grasp.
>>>
>>> You might find it helpful to know that more or less all I know of Linux is gained from
>>> reading this list and that I am still at the stage where I regard setting up a symbolic
>>> link as a major achievement.
>>>
>>>
>>> Michael Dewey
>>> info@aghmed.fsnet.co.uk
>>> http://www.aghmed.fsnet.co.uk/home.html
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> R-SIG-Debian mailing list
>>> R-SIG-Debian@r-project.org
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-debian
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:52:42 -0800
>> From: "Kingsley G. Morse Jr."<kingsley@loaner.com>
>> To: John C Nash<nashjc@uottawa.ca>
>> Cc: r-sig-debian@r-project.org
>> Subject: Re: [R-sig-Debian] Upgrading R on my EEE PC netbook
>> Message-ID:<20111130205242.GB7946@loaner.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>>
>> On 11/30/11 10:51, John C Nash wrote:
>>> [...]
>>> CrunchBang linux, which is a debian squeeze
>>> variant. I can use the R debian packages.
>> Nice!
>>
>> ~K
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> R-SIG-Debian mailing list
>> R-SIG-Debian@r-project.org
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-debian
>>
>>
>> End of R-SIG-Debian Digest, Vol 76, Issue 1
>> *******************************************
> 
> 
> 
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