I created a bootable CD of Linux Mint 8, I booted from that and then used that env to create a bootable USB (2G Thumb drive) version of Linux Mint 8. It runs great, even all the graphic additions that I added. And it saves all the files and changes that I add to the thumb drive for future use - the ultimate portable PC.
So, like I said, it's running great from my PC (Cat5 directly connected to our router/Internet).
My son wanted to try it on his PC. He connects using a cheap Dynex wireless USB dongle. With Windows it runs great. When booted to Mint 8 he couldn't connect to the network wirelessly. We did some google research and learned about wrapping Dynex's windows ndis drivers for use by Linux. We copied the Windows NDIS drivers off the Dynex install CD and made them available to the Linux OS. We tried running ndiswrapper (1.56) and it didn't work. So other sites suggested I get the device ID from lsusb and go from there. And so we tried lsusb, and it just hung there doing nothing. So I decided to bring the USB drive and his wireless USB adapter down to my PC to try it out again.
This is when we found out that even simple calls to lsusb caused an uninteruptable sleep (freeze) on the Terminal where I ran the command (as root) lsusb. Ctl-C doesn't even work.
I booted from my original Mint 8 CD and lsusb comes back right away with lots of good info. Reboot off the USB thumb drive again and it's back to sleeply land for lsusb.
I have not seen any threads here or anywhere that link the usb troubles to booting from a USB drive. I'm hoping someone here has some helpful tips/info.