Thanks for your reply. Yes, I am using the 'Live' xubuntu version on the sticks. Yes, they are 4GB sticks - with 1.5GB of write-able space in theory.
I was never able to get a stratum miner running on the sticks with an success, so I went to the "proxy" route. I am running mining_proxy.exe on a windows box in my office and have all the xubuntu sticks point to the proxy. So far it is handling them all without problems.
One thing I did not try was to use a larger stick, convert\install all the OpenCL\SDK software that I needed, then delete the install packages and temp files, and then copy it back to a 4GB stick again.
One interesting bit of learning I did was using "USB Image Tool". This is a small, simple utility for copying USB boot drives from one stick to another. No messing with partitions and file systems. It dosen't matter the USB size or existing format, it just creates a copy of the source and 'restores' it to the destination. Works perfectly every time.
http://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/