[plug] Bootable USB hard drive

[Gavin Chester]

   >-----Original Message-----
   >From: Kev [mailto:kdownes at tpg.com.au]
   >Sent: Wednesday, 10 May 2006 19:05
   >To: plug at plug.org.au; sales at ecosolutions.com.au
   >Subject: Re: [plug] Bootable USB hard drive

-snip-

   >> As far as I know, if you _do_ manage to get your favourite
   >distro to boot
   >> from USB, what is going to happen when you sit in front a PC
   >that doesn't
   >> support USB booting devices?  In other words, the solution
   >you are chasing
   >> is not a universal one, but the floppy/Cd boot is universal.  Just a
   >> thought.

My thoughts above stem from none of the hardware I've dealt with offering
USB as a boot choice :-/  Mind you that experience is mostly with PI - PIII
hardware, and with only one PIV machine so far.  That's experience is what I
meant by your aim not being a universal boot option :-(

   >I figure that I'll have a go along that route, but I eventually want to
   >be able to boot from my USB devices.  What I don't understand
   >is, what's
   >the purpose of the USB***  selections in the "boot from" list
   >in the BIOS?

Can't say, myself.

   >During the boot process, the machine does attempt to boot from the USB
   >device, but it fails every time.  ie the BIOS is definitely attempting
   >to boot from the USB device.  As an aside, I also have a USB
   >CD-ROM, and
   >I can't boot from that either.  I've tried 5 different machines, with 4
   >different CDs of 3 different OSes.

To me that is ample evidence that this is just NOT going to work, and
reinforces my experience, that USB devices (keyboards, etc) are not
activated until the end of the BIOS boot sequence, if not even until the OS
starts booting.  The latter is what I've found, but YMMV.

Gavin.