Re: Anyone booted from USB key drive?

From: Dances With Crows (danSPANceswitTRAPhcrows_at_gmail.com)
Date: 01/18/05 

Date: 18 Jan 2005 20:54:25 GMT

On 18 Jan 2005 20:28:59 GMT, William Park staggered into the Black Sun
and said:
> Has anyone ever booted Linux from USB key (flash) drive?

Yes. The motherboard you have must support booting from a USB Mass
Storage device. This is a relatively new feature, so it's not present
everywhere. I have a relatively new motherboard (Abit NF7-something,
manufactured in October 2004) and I don't think the board supports
booting from a USB device. ICBW, but my dead-tree manuals are not
easily accessible right now.

> If you have, please tell me which motherboard and USB key drive.

The brand/model of USB device shouldn't matter as long as the device
conforms to the USB Mass Storage standards. The motherboard info will
be the important stuff here.

> I can boot from floppy and then mount USB key as root filesystem
> (after 5sec wait, of course). But, so far, I have been unable to load
> the kernel directly from USB key.

Look in your motherboard's manual. If it doesn't say "FoobarTech 12345
model motherboard is supporting 'boot-from-USB' option" somewhere, then
you'll have to use a different motherboard. 

-- 
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin /    mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
http://www.brainbench.com     /                Hire me! 
-----------------------------/ http://crow202.dyndns.org/~mhgraham/resume

Relevant Pages

  • Building Skybucks Dream PC, Early/Preemptive Report :) was Re: How to connect 7-in-1 floppyd
    ... Your 1x4 connector on the cardreader, ... I wasn't sure what to do since the USB ports/header on my motherboard ... (I actually switch to vga to connect my old computer lol... ...
    (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)
  • More on: USB Device not Recognized
    ... I've just installed a new motherboard into a PC - a brand new ASRock ... I'm unable to use *any* USB device in the machine at all. ... which installs without problem. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: More on: USB Device not Recognized
    ... I've just installed a new motherboard into a PC - a brand new ASRock ... I'm unable to use *any* USB device in the machine at all. ... which installs without problem. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Officejet incomplete printing
    ... reinstall XP Home. ... We can't use the network connection on the 7310 as starting up iTunes causes the printer itself to blue-screen and crash Other than Windows having been reinstalled onto a new drive, all the cables and USB hubs are UNCHANGED from before. ... Maybe the Motherboard isn't communicating properly with the new hard drive now and then, but not so badly that it raises flags. ... I just got through diagnosing a bad motherboard after trying unsuccessfully to install a stable Linux on the hard drive on and off for about three months. ...
    (comp.periphs.printers)
  • Re: New Mother Board Installation
    ... versus those in the old motherboard, which I hope that you wrote down ... and maybe separately for USB 2.0. ... What's strange here is that the computer will not even recognize the sound ... Yes I've been hearing about this REPAIR installation! ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)