USB linux rescue disk

[Joshua Judson Rosen]

Chris <fj1200 at gmail.com> writes:
>
> Is there a way for forcing the USB stick to emulate a SB CD-ROM or USB
> floppy, which might take preference over the onboard flash?

SanDisk made some USB flash sticks with some functionality called
"U3", quasi-recently, which I think is exactly what you're describing:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3

Wikipedia describes it U3 in past-tense, but it looks like newegg.com
has U3 flash-sticks in stock.

If I remember correctly, they show up as both a `USB mass storage' device
*and* a `CD-ROM' device simultaneously, with the two different
functions being backed by different segments of storage.

I gather the original rationale for the CD-ROM-alike function
was just so that Windows systems would autorun some preloaded software,
or something..., but there's a FOSS tool that allows Linux users
to replace the drive's embedded `virtual CD-ROM' image--called
"u3_tool"; it's available in Debian, Ubuntu, etc. as a package
called "u3-tool", e.g.:

    http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/u3-tool

... or you can get the source from upstream, if your distro doesn't
have it prepackaged:

    http://u3-tool.sourceforge.net/

-- 
"Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr))))."