USB booting :: usb mounting at /cdrom as read only

I've been using DSL to basically carry around a persistent desktop with me wherever I go. I recently started using it on an Acer TravelMate 4150 that my school lends out to students. I can boot with the USB key, but while Tux is sitting in the corner of the screen (While it loads the scsi modules maybe?) the USB ports stop responding, so it cannot find a KNOPPIX image, and kicks out to the very limited shell. Grr... While using the expert boot, the USB works fine, except that then the USB key is mounted READ ONLY at /cdrom, so I cannot save anything I do. The backup fails on shutdown, since the USB is mounted as a read only file system. Can anybody help on this one?

Does booting with the:

expert frugal

command work?

That worked perfectly... What exactly is frugal? it's not on the F2 boot page...

frugal tells DSL that you're running the system from a writeable device instead of a cdrom. This way it will allow you to write to the boot media, and you won't be prompted to remove a cd when you shutdown/reboot

unlike the above person, the expert frugal command doesnt work for me, with dsl 2.1 and a AVB 1GB Rugged FlashDrive. any ideas anyone?

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