USB flash drive support/usage

[Alan Gerber]

Kenneth W Cochran wrote:

>Hello:
>
>I have some questions about the little USB flash drives...
>
>Is there a FAQ or some documentation on them?  So far I haven't
>found much in the Handbook or manpages.  Pointers welcome.  :)
>  
>
I haven't done any checking, but I'm sure there is *something* in the 
Handbook about them.

>Do I need any driver(s) besides umass(4) & its required kernel options?
>  
>
In my experience, any drive that works in Windows (2000 or XP) without 
needing special drivers will work in FreeBSD.  I can't say that 
definitively, of course, but it has been my experience.

>Any differences between 4.x and 5.x support for them?
>  
>
5.x has better USB support overall, but I think there was talk about 
putting effort into porting this back to 4.x.  I'd suggest starting with 
5.x to begin with, since it represents the next generation of the 
FreeBSD system.

>Apparently they come setup for a FAT32 filesystem - can I format
>them for other filesystems (e.g. linux-ext2, BSD UFS/UFS2, MS
>NTFS) & expect them to work reliably?
>  
>
I've never tried this - why change something when it is working just fine?

>Assuming they work (well) with FreeBSD, how do I properly set
>them up for UFS/UFS2?  Do I need to fdisk and {disk,bsd}label first?
>  
>
See above response.

>Any favorite/least-favorite brands/models or recommendations as
>to which one(s) to seek/avoid for use with FreeBSD?
>  
>
I love my Lexar Jumpdrive.  I have the 512MB version, but they're up to 
1GB now, IIRC.

>Thanks,
>
>-kc
>  
>
--
Alan Gerber