Let’s see how much we have in common with our backpack inventories.
An emergency Linux install USB drive?? In what scenario would you imagine you would need that?
Probably one that can live boot and run right off of USB. There’s a computer, you might be able to use it without knowing how to log on by booting from that stick. Now you might send/receive messages in a dire circumstance.
Also, having a live USB is really handy for doing PC maintenance when the installed OS gets borked somehow.
Check out Ventoy, it’s a utility that lets you boot up any disk image from usb storage. For me, it condensed a keyring full of single-purpose flash drives down to just one.
Oh man, if you like Live Boot USBs, just wait til you see this thing: https://www.newegg.com/zalman-ve400/p/N82E16817379030
There’s probably an updated version available somewhere. Slap a drive in and load any ISO, and it can mount it as a virtual disc drive, or you can switch it to be detected as a regular external drive if you prefer, or both at the same time. I use it for booting my copy of Hiren’s Boot CD I’ve been lugging around for eighteen years, live-boot Linux and Windows PE/recovery environments, it’s brilliant.