Mailing List Archive: CHAINing to a USB Thumb Drive

CHAINing to a USB Thumb Drive

Feb 25, 2008, 2:17 AM

Post #1 of 6 (13378 views)

I was doing a laptop repair job today and needed to boot from a USB
thumb drive, in order to free up the CD/DVD burner. Fortunately, the
laptop to be repaired permitted one to boot from a USB thumb drive.
However, there are still PCs out there that can't boot from a thumb
drive (I have two), so I was wondering if it's pos to use the CHAIN
module to boot from a thumb drive ? I looked at the source for the
module, but no joy there.

If CHAIN can't be used, does anyone on the list have a suggestion for
enhancing my SYSLINUX project w/ a tiny Linux distro, which could be
used as a simple USB thumb drive bootstrap ? TIA....Jet

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Re: CHAINing to a USB Thumb Drive [ In reply to ]

stappers at stappers

Feb 25, 2008, 4:03 AM

Post #2 of 6 (13030 views)

Permalink

Op 25-02-2008 om 05:17 schreef Mr Roboto:
> I was doing a laptop repair job today and needed to boot from a USB
> thumb drive, in order to free up the CD/DVD burner. Fortunately, the
> laptop to be repaired permitted one to boot from a USB thumb drive.
> However, there are still PCs out there that can't boot from a thumb
> drive (I have two), so I was wondering if it's pos to use the CHAIN
> module to boot from a thumb drive ? I looked at the source for the
> module, but no joy there.

Bootloaders like syslinux load kernels and start (boot) them.

They need to be loaded and started them self,
it is the software in ROM who does so.

When the computer lacks USB thumb drive boot software,
then are "second stage" bootloaders helpless

> If CHAIN can't be used, does anyone on the list have a suggestion for
> enhancing my SYSLINUX project w/ a tiny Linux distro, which could be
> used as a simple USB thumb drive bootstrap ? TIA....Jet

Look for "first stage" bootloaders like coreboot and gPXE.

http://www.coreboot.org
http://www.etherboot.org

Cheers
Geert Stappers

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Re: CHAINing to a USB Thumb Drive [ In reply to ]

hpa at zytor

Feb 25, 2008, 4:22 PM

Post #3 of 6 (12942 views)

Permalink

Mr Roboto wrote:
> I was doing a laptop repair job today and needed to boot from a USB
> thumb drive, in order to free up the CD/DVD burner. Fortunately, the
> laptop to be repaired permitted one to boot from a USB thumb drive.
> However, there are still PCs out there that can't boot from a thumb
> drive (I have two), so I was wondering if it's pos to use the CHAIN
> module to boot from a thumb drive ? I looked at the source for the
> module, but no joy there.
>
> If CHAIN can't be used, does anyone on the list have a suggestion for
> enhancing my SYSLINUX project w/ a tiny Linux distro, which could be
> used as a simple USB thumb drive bootstrap ? TIA....Jet

Perhaps the first question would be: where are you chaining *from*?

-hpa

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Re: CHAINing to a USB Thumb Drive [ In reply to ]

mr-roboto at linuxmail

Feb 26, 2008, 12:06 PM

Post #4 of 6 (12937 views)

Permalink

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: syslinux-request@zytor.com
> To: syslinux@zytor.com
> Subject: SYSLINUX Digest, Vol 59, Issue 23
> Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:00:05 -0800
> Op 25-02-2008 om 05:17 schreef Mr Roboto:
> > I was doing a laptop repair job today and needed to boot from a USB
> > thumb drive, in order to free up the CD/DVD burner. Fortunately, the
> > laptop to be repaired permitted one to boot from a USB thumb drive.
> > However, there are still PCs out there that can't boot from a thumb
> > drive (I have two), so I was wondering if it's pos to use the CHAIN
> > module to boot from a thumb drive ? I looked at the source for the
> > module, but no joy there.
>
> Bootloaders like syslinux load kernels and start (boot) them.
>
> They need to be loaded and started them self,
> it is the software in ROM who does so.
>
> When the computer lacks USB thumb drive boot software,
> then are "second stage" bootloaders helpless
>
> > If CHAIN can't be used, does anyone on the list have a suggestion for
> > enhancing my SYSLINUX project w/ a tiny Linux distro, which could be
> > used as a simple USB thumb drive bootstrap ? TIA....Jet
>
> Look for "first stage" bootloaders like coreboot and gPXE.
>
>
> http://www.coreboot.org
> http://www.etherboot.org

COREBOOT seems/looks promising ! Thanx for the heads-up. Further
reading will be needed to determine if a *generic* CD-based, 1st-stage
boot (via COREBOOT) is pos, but this is at least new and purposeful info
(to me.)

Thanx again....Jet

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Re: CHAINing to a USB Thumb Drive [ In reply to ]

mr-roboto at linuxmail

Feb 26, 2008, 12:28 PM

Post #5 of 6 (12936 views)

Permalink

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Re: CHAINing to a USB Thumb Drive [ In reply to ]

bblaauw at home

Feb 26, 2008, 2:07 PM

Post #6 of 6 (12957 views)

Permalink

>
> COREBOOT seems/looks promising ! Thanx for the heads-up. Further
> reading will be needed to determine if a *generic* CD-based, 1st-stage
> boot (via COREBOOT) is pos, but this is at least new and purposeful info
> (to me.)
>

Coreboot is the new name for the LinuxBIOS project. It's quite
interesting, as it's an opensource BIOS replacement with
additional/different abilities compared to traditional BIOS.
I have no idea if any project has a complete isolated software El-Torito
stack to allow CD booting. Smart Boot Manager has one, but it's
integrated into the program itself. GRUB might be able to do CD booting
as well. There exists a COM32 port (done by Jeremy Davis) of Smart Boot
Manager, and it's included in one of the bootdisks made for an old
version of the Freedos project:
http://www.fdos.org/ripcord/beta9sr1/disksets/1440KB/B9BOOT01.IMG

Bernd

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