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

[H. Peter Anvin]

On 07/26/2011 10:30 AM, Timothy Way wrote:
> 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:
> 

Why not simply use Syslinux as the boot loader to run Ubuntu?

> /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.
> 

That should work, if you really need to go via Grub.

	-hpa