> Relevant laptop is so old I don't know if it can boot from a physical USB > device. I was suspecting that simplest thing would be copying suitable image > to hard drive and let GRUB earn its keep ;}
Indeed my trusty old Thinkpad X30 doesn't boot from USB keys (tho in theory it can boot from a USB floppy reader), so I use one of two alternative options: - Boot using the Grub on the X30's own HDD, and then ask Grub to boot the kernel+initrd found on the USB key (this is my favorite solution). - Copy the USB key's kernel+initrd to the /boot partition on the X30's HDD and boot from that. - Take the HDD out of the X30 and connect it to my desktop via some HDD<->USB adapter. Then do what I need to do to it from the comfort of my desktop computer, typically using `chroot` along the way (this is the second best). Stefan