[clug] Ubuntu 7.04

[Rainer Klein]

Bob,

The Knoppix community has worked out some clever concepts. There Wiki is

	http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Main_Page
and
	http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/USB_Based_FAQ


There are multiple articles as early as from 2003 liket:

	Running KNOPPIX from HD or CF Without Actually Installing it
	@ http://staff.washington.edu/gray/KnoppixCFguide.html

or
	A Nearly Noiseless Knoppix Server
	@ http://staff.washington.edu/gray/kserver.html


or this article on  

	Building a solid-state mini-ITX Linux recording studio
	@ http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT8275095591.html

There is also a specific Linux project called:

	Compact Flash Linux Project
@ 
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/Compact-Flash-Linux-Project-2064.shtml

Other distributions specialized in running on Via & compact flash:

	Welcome to iMedia Linux @ http://www.imedialinux.com/


Hope this helps a little.

Cheers,
Rainer


On Monday 30 April 2007 09:34, Robert Edwards wrote:
> Thanks for the replies.
>
> I have set up various Linuxes in the past to boot from a CF card on an
> IDE bus (especially on mini-ITX mobos). That works fine, as Michael
> says, it just looks like a regular /dev/hdx to the BIOS and to the
> kernel.
>
> One thing that can cause a problem is that write speed on a CF card can
> be a whole lot slower than on a regular hard drive and can also "wear"
> the flash memory chips. So it is a good idea to use a non-journalling
> file-system (like ext2) and to turn off access time updating (with the
> "noatime" option to mount in /etc/fstab). This seems to noticably speed
> up the system.
>
> Another "trick" I use is to use a RAM-based root filesystem (from
> initrd) and to mount stuff like /home, /var and /usr (read-only) from
> the drive. Requires some fiddling to work with a standard distribution.
>
> Anyway, what I was hoping for was any good references to what the BIOS
> is actually looking for on the USB memory device in order to boot from
> it. I have determined that it needs to be a VFAT (or FAT) filesystem,
> but where does the kernel need to be and what bootloader works? Has
> anyone found any good references on how to "roll your own", or a script
> that does it for you?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bob Edwards.
>
> Michael Cohen wrote:
> > Rodney,
> >   I have a CF/IDE adapter which makes the CF look exactly like a hdd. It
> >   connects to a regular PATA cable. I think its nothing but a connection
> >   adapter because the CF itself supports ATA and appears like an IDE
> > device. This kind of CF device will always boot because as far as the
> > mobo is concerned its a hdd. Similarly installation on it is identical to
> > installing on a hdd. (only caveat is i think it does not support slave
> > mode so you can only have one of those per bus)
> >
> >   I think if you do a google for a CF/IDE adapter you could get some
> > options. If you like I can try to find its exact model
> > number/manufacturer. I think it cost about $20 quite a few years ago.
> >
> >   Michael.
> >
> > On Sat, Apr 28, 2007 at 05:37:58PM +1000, Rodney Peters wrote:
> >> I have not done this, but the IPCop firewall supports running from CF,
> >> without a HDD.  Their docs, available from http:// www.ipcop.org, give
> >> an overview of the installation process.  However, they are confining
> >> their discussions to those  mini-ITX style mobo which have a CF slot on
> >> board in lieu IDE connector.
> >>
> >> If you install and setup GRUB on the CF drive, then notionally the
> >> kernel should be bootable (however, the syntax of the "kernel" command
> >> would depend on whether the CF drive is seen as sda, sdb etc).
> >>
> >> You would still be up against what boot devices the BIOS supports.  On
> >> my recent mobo, a message appears during POST indicating which "hot-key"
> >> to press to get a menu of boot devices.  For my mobo (both Award-Phoenix
> >> BIOS), pressing Esc and F11 respectively brings up a menu of all
> >> bootable devices (whether they are actually present or not)  Even the
> >> later one does not support booting from USB Card Reader or even USB
> >> flash drive.
> >>
> >>
> >> Rod
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> linux mailing list
> linux at lists.samba.org
> https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/linux
>
>
> End of linux Digest, Vol 52, Issue 33
> *************************************