Booting Linux from USB harddisk without BIOS USB booting support

From: balabek (Balabek_at_gmail.com)
Date: 09/19/05 

Date: 18 Sep 2005 17:18:33 -0700

Hi,

I have a laptop with Windows XP. The harddisk space is pretty small, so
I got an external harddisk and would like to install Linux there
(currently trying Ubuntu 5.04). The problem is BIOS does not support
booting from USB storage devices.

I have tried to install it on external harddisk. Before installation I
had disabled internal disk from BIOS, so it does not mess up the MBR.

I have tried to get GRUB (not GRUB 2) on a floppy disk. After booting
from floppy, I can see only (hd0,*), which is the internal harddisk,
but cannot find device hd1.

My understanding is that GRUB cannot see the external USB device at
all, so it cannot boot from it.

Are there any other solutions? Can I boot the kernel from floppy,
enable USB harddisk, the continue without the floppy?

I don't mind installing Linux on internal harddisk, but I cannot
allocate large amount of disk space.

Is the following possible?
I map specific folders used for booting to internal harddisk. Say, I
can allocate up to 500 MB of storage for that. The rest of file system
will reside in external disk.
Would this work?
Would it be enough if I map the folder /boot to internal harddisk, and
leave everything out in external drive? Will it be able to load USB
drivers before continuing with the rest of the boot process?

Bala.

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