OT: USB stick with write protect switch?

[David N. Lombard]

Amedee Van Gasse (on Ubuntu mailing lists) wrote:
> On Sat, October 10, 2009 18:29, Frans Ketelaars wrote:
>> On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:13:44 -0600, drew einhorn wrote:
>>
>>> The convenience of booting from a USB stick is great!
>>>
>>> It would be even better to be able to flip a switch on the stick and
>>> making it a read only device!
>>>
>>> Anybody know of a source?
>> This one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141488
>> has a write protection switch .
> 
> Can anyone confirm that these "hardware" R/O switches always work in all
> circumstances and that there is no way whatsoever that software can ignore
> the write protect?
> 
> Because I have read once that it was possible but I forgot to bookmark the
> source.

It's entirely possible some USB keys with r/o switches don't work 
reliably or can be circumvented.  But, as they say in Perl, TIMTOWTDI 
(there's more than one way to do it).  IOW, there's no "one-and-only" 
design for a r/o USB key.  In addition to hardware switches, I've also 
seen multiple-mount scenarios (first mount was r/w, unmount/remount 
within a small time window was r/o).

Bottom line: *anybody* that *ever* claims some method *always* works is 
confused (never assign to malice what can be explained by ignorance).

-- 
David N. Lombard