System extremely slow under light load

[Torfinn Ingolfsen]

On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:23:37 +0200
Bartosz Fabianowski <freebsd at chillt.de> wrote:

> > Try Knoppix, or Ubuntu LiveCD.  I tend to use the former for rescue
> > situations:
> 
> Thanks. I am aware of both - but neither boots from USB (and I have no 
> CD-Rs at hand). I am running UNetbootin under Windows XP in VirtualBox 
> right now to try and get Xubuntu 10.04 onto a USB key. It is really sad 
> that almost all Linux distributions require this detour via a 
> proprietary operating system.

Have you tried just using dd to copy the iso image of a Ubuntu / Linux
LiveCD to a suitably sized USB memory stick?
It has worked for me in the past.
YMMV.
-- 
Torfinn