by jtnew » Tue, 16 Jan 2001 01:36:24
by Dances With Cro » Tue, 16 Jan 2001 09:44:06
Booting the machine is a BIOS problem, not a Linux problem. It's not aQuote:>Is it possible to boot off of a USB floppy or USB CDROM disk yet in
>Linux 2.2 or 2.4?
If your motherboard allows booting from a USB floppy/CD-ROM, you will
probably have to tweak the BIOS settings to make the board see the USB
device as a "normal" device, since the standard PC BIOS knows nothing of
USB and expects to find standard floppy/hard drives at fixed locations.
(A similar BIOS hackaround allows you to use a USB keyboard as a normal
keyboard when using DOS or doing BIOS setup.)
I do not know how many motherboards have this capability. If you could
post details about your hardware and specifics of what you want to do,
it's possible that someone would be able to steer you in the right
direction.
If this is a laptop, that could make things even more difficult.
--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / Workin' in a code mine, hittin' Ctrl-Alt
http://www.brainbench.com / Workin' in a code mine, whoops!
-----------------------------/ I hit a seg fault....
by jtnew » Tue, 16 Jan 2001 09:56:42
> On Sun, 14 Jan 2001 11:36:24 -0500, jtnews staggered into the Black Sun
> and said:
> >Is it possible to boot off of a USB floppy or USB CDROM disk yet in
> >Linux 2.2 or 2.4?
> Booting the machine is a BIOS problem, not a Linux problem. It's not a
> Linux problem until the kernel is loaded! If the root filesystem you
> wish to mount is on the USB floppy/CD-ROM, the kernel will need USB
> support compiled in and possibly a few kernel parameters. If the root
> filesystem is on a compressed RAMdisk image, it should load OK provided
> the BIOS can find the boot block on the USB device.
> If your motherboard allows booting from a USB floppy/CD-ROM, you will
> probably have to tweak the BIOS settings to make the board see the USB
> device as a "normal" device, since the standard PC BIOS knows nothing of
> USB and expects to find standard floppy/hard drives at fixed locations.
> (A similar BIOS hackaround allows you to use a USB keyboard as a normal
> keyboard when using DOS or doing BIOS setup.)
> I do not know how many motherboards have this capability. If you could
> post details about your hardware and specifics of what you want to do,
> it's possible that someone would be able to steer you in the right
> direction.
> If this is a laptop, that could make things even more difficult.
> --
> Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
> Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / Workin' in a code mine, hittin' Ctrl-Alt
> http://www.brainbench.com / Workin' in a code mine, whoops!
> -----------------------------/ I hit a seg fault....
1. Booting off CD-ROM - possible?
What is the best way to boot Linux off a CD-ROM? Of course a floppy
will be necessary to load a kernel. After that - can you just tell the
kernel, through LILO, that the root filesystem is /dev/sonycd (for example)?
Or do I have to make a boot floppy with an /etc/fstab that mounts the
CD-ROM on /usr or somesuch?
Thanks,
Jeff
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