Boot linux off hard drive and then switch to run from usb flash disk

Posted by Jesse on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Jesse
Published on 2010-09-18T18:22:57Z Indexed on 2011/01/08 18:56 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 373

Filed under:

linux

|

boot

|

flash-drive

I have an older laptop that I want to use as a simple media server on my home network. I would like to avoid using the internal hard drive except for booting (BIOS does NOT support booting from USB).

My thought was to mirror the hard drive (currently has current install of Arch Linux) onto the flash drive and then after booting switch over to run everything from the flash drive.

I read the following article about using a RAM disk (HOW-TO: Boot OS into RAM for speed and silence) but ran into problem because the USB subsystem does not seem to be initialized soon enough (I create root and home paritions on the flash disk and modified fstab to pick those - didn't work).

Any thoughts?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about linux

apt-get install and update fail

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I've got a problem with apt-get update and apt-get install ... commands . every time update or installing fails and errors are : Get:1 http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg [198B] Ign http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable/main Translation-en_US Get:2 http://dl… >>> More
kernel module compiling error

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
sh@ubuntu:/home/ccpp/helloworld$ make gcc-4.6 -O2 -DMODULE -D_KERNEL_ -W -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -isystem /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include -c -o hello-1.o hello-1.c hello-1.c:4:0: warning: "MODULE" redefined [enabled by default] <command-line>:0:0: note: this is… >>> More
Build-Essentials installation failing

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having trouble accessing the several critical header files that show to be a part of the build process. The "Ubuntu Software Center" shows "Build Essentials" as installed: Next I did the following two commands, which did not improve the problem: ~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential [sudo]… >>> More
Updating Debian kernel

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm trying to update my Debian machine to 2.6.32-46 (which is the new stable). However, after doing apt-get update my apt-cache search linux-image shows me: linux-headers-2.6.32-5-486 - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-486 linux-headers-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem linux-headers-2… >>> More
Serial connection over a single USB cable (Windows to linux, or linux to linux)

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm helping out with a project for an embedded device that only has USB and no serial. This device is running Linux. These days, when we need to connect to a serial port on a device we typically use a USB to serial adapter (on something like a phone system or a load balancing device, etc). I would… >>> More

Related posts about boot

Dual Boot issues with Windows 7 and Ubuntu

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I'm finding myself in a rather unique situation. I've read through just about every resource I can find about this and while things have helped me understand some background, I haven't yet been able to find a solution. So I'm asking here. I originally had just a Windows 7 64-bit OS installation on… >>> More
Windows 7 wont boot from any boot loader except for 'Windows Boot Manager' after partition resize

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have a triple boot system on a single SSD. OSX, Windows 7, and Ubuntu. I use Chimera (basically another version of Chameleon) as my boot loader. Usually I can boot all 3 without any issue, but after using GParted to make my Ubuntu partition 2 Gigs larger, Windows 7 throws me an error when trying… >>> More
Unable to boot Windows 7 after installing Ubuntu

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have Windows 7 on my machine and then installed Ubuntu 12.04 using a live CD. I can see both Windows 7 and Ubuntu in the grub menu, but when I select Windows 7 it shows a black screen for about 2 seconds and the returns to the Grub menu. But if I select Ubuntu it's working fine. This is the contents… >>> More
12.04 upgrade broke grub? (not wubi related)

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I just updated from 11.10 to 12.04, with no major problems (it took a while to get past a request to restart ssh, mysql and some other services, but I did no fiddling by myself, everything was done by the installer). However, after restarting, grub can't do anything. Picking the new linux installation… >>> More
Another "Windows 7 entry missing from Grub2" Question

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
Like many before me had the following problem that after installing Ubuntu (with windows 7 already installed), the grub boot loader wouldnt show windows 7 as a boot option, though i can boot fine if I use the "Choose Boot Device" options on the x220. The difference is that I try using UEFI only so… >>> More