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| - | ==== Booting off a USB-stick ==== | + | ==== EtherBoot from USB flash ==== |
| - | Booting from USB flash media, perhaps a flash key or drive is quite simple provided that your BIOS can in fact boot from USB in the first place. Most modern ones can. | + | An EtherBoot initial load from USB flash media is quite staightforward provided of course that your BIOS can boot from USB in the first place. A modern machine will probably be able to do this. |
| - | It is assumed that you have booted Linux, that you have inserted and mounted a USB flash key and that you can read and write to it. | + | - BIOS |
| - | + | - USB master boot record | |
| - | You ''must'' be ''certain'' which device name refers to your key your key is the contents will be irreviocably erased. | + | - USB partition boot record |
| + | - SYSLINUX | ||
| + | - EtherBoot | ||
| + | - Linux kernel | ||
| + | Your BIOS should really be able to boot from any sensible arrangement of partitions and boot sectors, but it might insist that a ZIP DRIVE geometry be used. | ||
| - | There are two possible boot layouts and your BIOS may be able to boot from only one of them: | + | Required: |
| - | ===== Preparing a USB-ZIP format | + | [[http://syslinux.zytor.com/|SYSLINUX]] |
| - | People reported that Knoppix can be installed on those USB "hard drives", using grub or lilo, and installing EtherBoot is quite similar: Just install the EtherBoot ''.zlilo'' file instead of the Linux Kernel. | + | [[http://www.etherboot.org|EtherBoot]] |
| - | A recipe can be found [[http://www.beezmo.com/FloobyDustDir/FDKnoppixUsbDir/FDKnoppixUsb.htm|here]], with another source of information [[http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/grub_intro|here]]. | + | Once Linux is running with USB storage support, an inserted USB key will appear as a SCSI drive and be called something like ///dev/sda//, ///dev/sdb//, ///dev/sdc//,... in the following guide, the key is referred to as ///dev/sda//. |
| - | *FIXME* A step-by-step description would be welcome. | + | ** Be certain which device name refers to your flash key as this device is about to be irrevocably erased ** |
| + | |||
| + | ===== USB Flash EtherBoot - General hard disk boot geometry ===== | ||
| + | |||
| + | * If necessary, prepare Linux to handle USB storage devices. This is up to your configuration and distribution. For example, you might find these modules present if they are not already linked into the kernel: | ||
| + | |||
| + | Module Size Used by | ||
| + | sd_mod 19472 0 | ||
| + | usb_storage 35588 0 | ||
| + | libusual 14864 1 usb_storage | ||
| + | uhci_hcd 25100 0 | ||
| + | usbcore 141956 4 usb_storage,libusual,uhci_hcd | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Insert USB flash key and examine //dmesg// output | ||
| + | |||
| + | sda: sda1 | ||
| + | sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sda | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Wipe the master boot record ** losing all data ** | ||
| + | |||
| + | dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1k count=128 | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Create new partition | ||
| + | |||
| + | sfdisk /dev/sda [ENTER for defaults then (w)rite partition table] | ||
| + | |||
| + | Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System | ||
| + | /dev/sda1 0+ 1021 1022- 124683+ 83 Linux | ||
| + | /dev/sda2 0 - 0 0 0 Empty | ||
| + | /dev/sda3 0 - 0 0 0 Empty | ||
| + | /dev/sda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Mark the partition as active: | ||
| + | |||
| + | sfdisk /dev/sda -A1 | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Create a DOS filesystem on the newly created active partition | ||
| + | |||
| + | mkdosfs /dev/sda1 | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Install SYSLINUX onto it | ||
| + | |||
| + | syslinux /dev/sda1 | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Mount the device and copy over required //networkcard.zlilo// file and corresponding //syslinux.cfg// [[eb_imagetypes#Using lilo on a floppy|just as in a diskette boot]]. There will now be three files on the flash device | ||
| + | |||
| + | root@shark(/flash)# ls | ||
| + | ldlinux.sys r8169.zli syslinux.cfg | ||
| + | |||
| + | root@shark(/flash)# cat syslinux.cfg | ||
| + | default r8169.zli | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Unmount the device, shutdown and reboot from the network. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===== USB Flash EtherBoot - ZIP drive geometry ===== | ||
| + | An older machine may insist on a geometry which appears to your BIOS as a standard ZIP drive having 64 heads and 32 sectors per track. The number of cylinders depends on the capacity of the drive. A ZIP drive boots from partition 4. | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Use the mkdiskimage script from SYSLINUX to create a blank DOS-formatted image on your flash key, letting mkdiskimage work out the size of the device. This may take a little while to complete. | ||
| + | |||
| + | mkdiskimage -4 /dev/sda 0 64 32 | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Install SYSLINUX onto the key. | ||
| + | |||
| + | syslinux /dev/sda4 | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Mount /dev/sda4 and copy over required //networkcard.zlilo// file and corresponding //syslinux.cfg// [[eb_imagetypes#Using lilo on a floppy|just as in a diskette boot]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Unmount the device, shutdown and reboot from the network. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | More recipies can be found [[http://www.beezmo.com/FloobyDustDir/FDKnoppixUsbDir/FDKnoppixUsb.htm|here]], with another source of information [[http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/grub_intro|here]]. | ||
| ===== PXE bootstrap loader (.zpxe) ===== | ===== PXE bootstrap loader (.zpxe) ===== | ||
