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This page is about boot Linux via ["USB"] pendrives in any computer with USB-BIOS capability. | This page is about boot Linux via ["USB"] pendrives in any computer with or without USB-BIOS capability (in this last case, using a BootFloppy). |
This page is about boot Linux via ["USB"] pendrives in any computer with or without USB-BIOS capability (in this last case, using a ?BootFloppy).
BIOS and USB standard mass storage interface
There are two common BIOS methods for direct USB booting:
- One method is called the "USBHDD" method and it is used to support the booting of standard USB mass storage devices that are configured like a normal PC hard drive.
- The other method is called the "USBZIP" method and it supports booting from a USB storage device that behaves like the original IOMEGA ZIP drive with USB support.
Most computers (just about all Dells, for example) made today have a BIOS that supports the USBHDD method so I expect that this will eventually become the standard way to boot a USB device. However, many motherboards will support BOTH methods, and many older motherboards have USBZIP support.
You need a USB device with standard mass storage interface and with, at least, 128 MBytes (the distros uses generally 50 -64 MB) to work with Linux.
See StandardPendrive.
USB pendrive location and mount
Most USB pendrives are located at device name "?sda" after they are plugged into the USB port.
However, you can verify this location by typing this command inside a terminal window:
- dmesg | grep scsi -A 3
and it should tell you the device name for your USB (SCSI emulated) devices and vendor name.
See : ["dmesg"].
If you cannot find it, you have to load the ?UsbStorage ["module"] (type in a ["terminal"] modprobe usb-storage) and ["mount"] the usb FileSystem s (mount -t usb-devfs none /proc/bus/usb ).
Store your USB pendrive data and the ["root"] used must format it with ["fdisk"] (the USB key must not be mounted). Press P to see the list of all ["partition"]s and D to exclude the first partition. Unmark all partitions and clean them. Create a new partitin pressing N , P and L . Make it a boot partition selecting the A option (t > 6 create a FAT16 partition, that detects upto 4 GB volumens) and finally press W to store and exit from fdisk.
There is two installation methods:
To install DamnSmallLinux download the ISO image and as root user go the directory with the dsl-0.9.2.iso file and : See also IsoBuster .
DamnSmallLinux, that uses FluxBox , where the majority of Debian USB distros are based . Flonix : based on DamnSmallLinux, but uses IceWM instead of FluxBox . Fedora / RedHat: ?PuppyLinux , that uses FVWM-95 graphical environment.
[http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.powerpc/ch04s04.html Preparing Files for USB Memory Stick Booting]. [http://www.pcquest.com/content/linux/104010505.asp Booting Linux off USB Storage]. [http://d-i.pascal.at/Installing Debian Sarge from a USB memory stick (USB key)]. [http://rz-obrian.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/knoppix-usb/ Boot KNOPPIX from an USB Memory Stick]. [http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2004/11/msg01601.html Reboot from USB]. [http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Damn Small Linux USB boot]. [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bootflashlinux Mail list about booting Debian from a USB flashdrive]. See also: ?BootingFromFloppyToUsb . Format the USB key
Installation methods
Unburned using DSL
USB Debian distros
More information