[syslinux] Booting linux install on usb key using extlinux

[Shocky]

On Wednesday 23 September 2009 04:09:19 Luciano Rocha wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 05:52:00PM -0600, Shocky wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > The examples for making a bootable usb key using extlinux just transfer a
> > live cd to usb. To me, this misses the advantage of usb keys (other than
> > size), that they are writable. I would like to have a full linux install
> > on a usb key and be able to boot it using extlinux. This way I can
> > install new packages and make other changes without jumping through
> > squashfs hoops. Is there reason why this won't work? Any advice on how to
> > configure extlinux to make this work?
>
> That's nothing to do with extlinux. You can install standard distros
> (Fedora, Ubuntu, etc.) in a USB pen, with their default boot loader.
>
> You can then install extlinux over their bootloader, but you miss
> automatic configuration updates for kernel upgrades.
>
> You can even do a rsync or dd of an existing Linux system, change fstab
> and re-create the initrd with USB modules, and then install extlinux or
> the original bootloader.

Thanks for the reply. That's what I thought, that it shouldn't matter live or 
installed. I forgot to mention that I already tried it, and couldn't get it 
to boot with extlinux (kept complaining about not being able to find the 
root). That combined with the exclusive focus of numerous articles on live 
usb made me wonder if I was trying to do something that doesn't work. But I 
probably just had the extlinux config wrong.

According to one article, grub doesn't work well because the usb key will be 
assigned a different drive number on different machines, based on the number 
of hard drives and partitions on it. Not portable. Though I could always just 
boot to the grub command line and do it manually. But the article also said 
extlinux doesn't suffer from that limitation, so it sounds like the way to 
go.

Anyone here happen to have a working usb install with extlinux or syslinux? If 
so can you show me the config file, to see how to do it properly? In 
particular, what do I pass to the kernel for the root partition?


Thanks,
Shocky
-- 
These are my opinions. Get your own.