[syslinux] Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server on a USB Flash Drive

[Timothy Way]

I'm trying to get Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server to install and run (boot) on a USB
Flash Drive.

The actual install process works without a problem and will complete without
an error. It by default wants to install grub and place it on the MBR. Doing
this completes the installation but my BIOS will not boot the USB disk. My
partition table at this point looks like:

/dev/sda1 - 8 GB - EXT4 (Ubuntu)

I'm hoping to use Syslinux and install GRUB to the partition instead of the
MBR. I'm thinking one of you can tell me if that will work or if there would
be a better way to do this. I'm envisioning my partition table would look
like this:

/dev/sda1 - 512 MB - FAT (Syslinux)
/dev/sda2 - 7.5 GB - EXT4 (Ubuntu)

They why is generated mostly around the fact I have USB drives coming out of
everywhere and I lack spare hard drives. The end usage of this particular
machine will be a simple firewall. The idea came from VMWare running ESXi on
SD cards in servers as of late instead of using more expensive local disks
for the operating system or PXE boot.

I appreciate anyone's input.

Tim