[syslinux] USB boot

[Norm Petterson]

A nice summary of getting a syslinux-bootable USB Linux:
http://rz-obrian.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/knoppix-usb/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Mattes" <David.Mattes at boeing.com>
To: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa at zytor.com>
Cc: <syslinux at zytor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 1:28 PM
Subject: Re: [syslinux] USB boot


> H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>
> > David Mattes wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I have a M-Systems DiskOnKey USB Storage Device that I would like to
> >> use to boot a computer into Linux.  I think this is possible but I'm
> >> having problems and have some questions:
> >>
> >> 1.  What should be on the MBR of the USB device?  I have tried using
> >> the mbr.bin in the syslinux-2.07 distro.
> >>
> >> 2.  How does this device appear to the BIOS, i.e. what should the
> >> boot device be?  USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, or USB-HDD?
> >>
> >
> > It depends on your device and on your BIOS.  If the answer is anything
> > but USB-HDD, then you shouldn't have an MBR on the disk at all.
>
> Does it matter which USB port the device is plugged into?  USB0-4?
>
> >
> >
> > I suspect the answer is USB-HDD (that seems to be the case for most
> > the USB keys I've seen), but I don't know for sure.
>
> So if it is a USB-HDD, what should be on the MBR?
>
> >
> >
> >     -hpa
> >
> So, I think I've really screwed up my device, putting MBR's on it,
> formatting it ext3, etc. etc.  I want to start with a blank slate (and
> of course I didn't dd the original image off of it).  Should I
> reinitialize the device with a Win2k format command (FAT16) in order to
> work with syslinux?  What about the MBR, should it be zeroed out?
>
> Thanks,
> David
>
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