I'm writing this post to document my experience with installing Linux MINT 14 w/ MATE onto a system with no file storage other than a USB stick. I have the notion to update this thread as things go.

I made the following USB-tuning changes upon install: http://aandreasen.wordpress.com/2011...-memory-stick/

I am taking the viewpoint of trying to use MINT's default setup, and default offerings first.

First issue was getting SKYPE working, which was hindered by fact that the System Manager did not have the correct sources, and when it failed with no explanation, did not update itself to find the new packages. (that thread /solution is here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...te-4175446470/ )

Second issue is connecting my phone to the system. The first obstacle was when I tried to access the storage on the phone, I got something along the lines of:
Can't mount partition. Adding read ACL for uid 1000 to /media/' failed: Operation not supported.
I got around that with (from October 2012):
http://askubuntu.com/questions/20256...000-to-media-e

Now I can mount the drive, but when I try to browse the drive in the file explorer, I am getting:
Could not display "/media/[username]/[foldername]"
The location is not a folder.
So far googling is indicating a problem with exo-utils (http://askubuntu.com/questions/34260...-open-files-us ) that's been around since April 2011. I am running out of time at the moment, and have to run to do other things, so I don't know if that fix is possible or will work for me. I'll update later.

Any advice or warnings of other problems I'm likely to hit is appreciated.

Thanks,
James

"Now I can mount the drive, but when I try to browse the drive in the file explorer, I am getting:
Could not display "/media/[username]/[foldername]"
The location is not a folder."

My guess is that you used a faux or pendrive type of install. While that isn't really bad, it does in some cases mess with how the OS uses media. In your case, the cd image files are copied to the usb and added to a fuse filesystem from ramdrive so it seems to act like a real install when it is not.

Even in some distro's when you do a real install to a usb, it may not correctly use the usb as you think. It may or may not have the usb at /media. In any normal install to a hard drive, an inserted usb tends to show in /media in later distro's.

Time to do a real install to the usb. Be careful, use a VM to do this or be sure to remove internal hard drive(s) to prevent data loss.