Topic: Install SME from USB pen?

[tariqf]

I think this would be brilliant if I could some how burn the ISO onto my USB pen.

This way I can order servers without CDROMS and subsequently have 1 hard disk on each IDE controller with RAID1 and reap the speed rewards for not having a CDROM as slave on one controller!

Does anyone know how I can do this?

[MSmith]

When I'm building a software RAID-1 SME box I specify the hardware without a CD-ROM then just hook one up temporarily, thus gaining the controller advantages you describe.  Your idea is an interesting one, though, and perhaps someone smarter than I will make it happen.

[drywalldude]

This should work if the motherboard supports booting to a usb device all you should have to do is copy the install disk to the pen, should be the same as botting to a usb cd drive

[tariqf]

So how would I go about copying the files to the usb pen from the sme cdrom? What fielsystem would I format the usb as etc?

[MSmith]

Format as FAT32, then just copy all the files however works for you.  Then try it on a motherboard that will boot from USB and when you get it working, let everybody know with a HOWTO.

[tariqf]

Ok I will be trying this this week and will post my results soon.....

[arne]

Hello !

I have not done these things, using a usb stick, but I am rather courious about how it can work.

One thing I have looked into is how to alter an existing bootable Linux iso. I found one program that can open the iso image, reedit it and store the new changes.  http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/

Reediting a Linx bootable image using ultraiso have been tried, and that worked out pretty well.

When it comes to making a boot from the usb, distribution  ... well I have not tried, but I wonder about if there will not ne any issues with boot sectors and things like that .. I don't know.

Possibly some of this info can be used:
http://rz-obrian.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/knoppix-usb/

Just another idea .. if a usb stick eventuelly should give problems, would it then be more easy to make a boot from a usb harddisk with the image on ?

And what about just an external USB CD ROM ?

Just some ideas ..

Please leave a message when you have obtained some experiences, even though it shoild not work at the first try ..

Being able to boot and install from an usb device sounds rather interresting, and of cource an usb stick would be the ultimate alternative ..

Best reg Arne.

[arne]

One other Link with some interesting info:
http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/32487/fid/1148

[arne]

I tried to fill up the sme installation files on a 512 MB USB stick and then boot from it. File system as delivered with the memoty stick, and I believe this is fat32.

Well it did not boot, and I had not expected it to boot either. Reason: When you are booting from a CD, from a HD or from a floppy, there is a first "main boot record" that is responsible to start it all, load operating system image and so on.

I then tried to download the dam small USB boot Linux ad to copy that over to my memory stick as well.

Actually it did not work either, and I believe the reason is the same, .. The usb stick file system does have to be modified in the one way or the other, so there will be a basic boot function equivalent to a floppy/CD/HD main boot record.

How to do that .. don't know yet, but I guess this can be solved in the one way or the other, and also I would expect that this problem will be common for making Linux "embeded system". I believe that the problem would/should be the same using some other electronic memory card. The issue about the missing MBR will allways be there ..

tariqf -> Please inform if things works if they does not work - quite an interesting thing this ..

Best reg Arne

[arne]

Think this looks interesting because it contains some info about how to build up data structures on the memory stick, to give it "a bootable structure". Have not testet yet:

http://d-i.pascal.at/

By the way .. if it should be right that the build up and structure of the "data structures" on the usb stick is a main issue, then it should eventually be possible to solve the same practical problem by just connecting a external usb cd rom ??? (As a replacement for the memory stick. The mbr should be there and the file structure should be the right one. Don't know if there still could be problems (when the sme linux image takes over from the boot image))

Best reg Arne.

[arne]

Hupe I just don't fill up your discussion with "junk" but I think this is a rather promising link about the more genreal question: "How to get a PC to boot from a usb stick"

http://arstechnica.com/columns/linux/linux-20041109.ars

[arne]

Did perform the last procedure on two different usb sticks. (Brand SanDisk and Apacher).

None of them did boot. Both hanged in the middle of the boot sequence like this L.. (Like a hd missing it's mbr and that is not able to load the Lilo boot loader.)

Looks like booting from a usb stick is not the most easy thing you can do ?!

[arne]

Try to "repair":
http://slax.linux-live.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3880

[arne]

Well after one night and 12 hours of work (and one angry wife) I were still not able to make the PC to boot from a usb stick using any of the methods above.

Tested with 3 different usb sticks.

I got the "feeling" that the problem might be related to the hardware, a Shuttle cube PC. Don't know.

By the way I notice that minor details can have influence on "how things does not work". It's for instance closer to make a boot if support for usb keyboard is enabled. Removing the power cable between rebbots can also have influence on "how it allmost reboots". (In the best case the Linux loader Lilo is hanging. In the worst case it is not detected at all.)

If anybody else should be able to make a PC to boot from a usb stick, the one way or the other, please leave a message !

It would be nice if it were just one simple detail I did not understand at all ..

Best reg Arne.

[drywalldude]

The following link to the manual has a section on installing to "flash memory" the process should be the equivelant by right know I don't have time to sift through it and see :

http://www.ipcop.org/1.4.0/en/install/install-en-1.4.0.html.zip