Syslinux - Feb 2008 - CHAINing to a USB Thumb Drive

I was doing a laptop repair job today and needed to boot from a USB
thumb drive, in order to free up the CD/DVD burner.  Fortunately, the
laptop to be repaired permitted one to boot from a USB thumb drive.
However, there are still PCs out there that can't boot from a thumb
drive (I have two), so I was wondering if it's pos to use the CHAIN
module to boot from a thumb drive ?  I looked at the source for the
module, but no joy there.

If CHAIN can't be used, does anyone on the list have a suggestion for
enhancing my SYSLINUX project w/ a tiny Linux distro, which could be
used as a simple USB thumb drive bootstrap ?  TIA....Jet


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Op 25-02-2008 om 05:17 schreef Mr Roboto:
> I was doing a laptop repair job today and needed to boot from a USB
> thumb drive, in order to free up the CD/DVD burner.  Fortunately, the
> laptop to be repaired permitted one to boot from a USB thumb drive.
> However, there are still PCs out there that can't boot from a thumb
> drive (I have two), so I was wondering if it's pos to use the CHAIN
> module to boot from a thumb drive ?  I looked at the source for the
> module, but no joy there.
Bootloaders like syslinux load kernels and start (boot) them.

They need to be loaded and started them self,
it is the software in ROM who does so.

When the computer lacks USB thumb drive boot software,
then are "second stage" bootloaders helpless
> If CHAIN can't be used, does anyone on the list have a suggestion for
> enhancing my SYSLINUX project w/ a tiny Linux distro, which could be
> used as a simple USB thumb drive bootstrap ?  TIA....Jet
Look for "first stage" bootloaders like coreboot and gPXE.


 http://www.coreboot.org
 http://www.etherboot.org


Cheers
Geert Stappers

Mr Roboto wrote:
> I was doing a laptop repair job today and needed to boot from a USB
> thumb drive, in order to free up the CD/DVD burner.  Fortunately, the
> laptop to be repaired permitted one to boot from a USB thumb drive.
> However, there are still PCs out there that can't boot from a thumb
> drive (I have two), so I was wondering if it's pos to use the CHAIN
> module to boot from a thumb drive ?  I looked at the source for the
> module, but no joy there.
> 
> If CHAIN can't be used, does anyone on the list have a suggestion for
> enhancing my SYSLINUX project w/ a tiny Linux distro, which could be
> used as a simple USB thumb drive bootstrap ?  TIA....Jet
Perhaps the first question would be: where are you chaining *from*?

	-hpa

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: syslinux-request at zytor.com
> To: syslinux at zytor.com
> Subject: SYSLINUX Digest, Vol 59, Issue 23
> Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:00:05 -0800
> Op 25-02-2008 om 05:17 schreef Mr Roboto:
> > I was doing a laptop repair job today and needed to boot from a USB
> > thumb drive, in order to free up the CD/DVD burner.  Fortunately, the
> > laptop to be repaired permitted one to boot from a USB thumb drive.
> > However, there are still PCs out there that can't boot from a
thumb
> > drive (I have two), so I was wondering if it's pos to use the
CHAIN
> > module to boot from a thumb drive ?  I looked at the source for the
> > module, but no joy there.
> 
> Bootloaders like syslinux load kernels and start (boot) them.
> 
> They need to be loaded and started them self,
> it is the software in ROM who does so.
> 
> When the computer lacks USB thumb drive boot software,
> then are "second stage" bootloaders helpless
> 
> > If CHAIN can't be used, does anyone on the list have a suggestion
for
> > enhancing my SYSLINUX project w/ a tiny Linux distro, which could be
> > used as a simple USB thumb drive bootstrap ?  TIA....Jet
> 
> Look for "first stage" bootloaders like coreboot and gPXE.
> 
> 
>   http://www.coreboot.org
>   http://www.etherboot.org
COREBOOT seems/looks promising !  Thanx for the heads-up.  Further 
reading will be needed to determine if a *generic* CD-based, 1st-stage 
boot (via COREBOOT) is pos, but this is at least new and purposeful info 
(to me.) 

Thanx again....Jet

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