Hi! > -----Original Message----- > From: Charles Steinkuehler [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <snip> > > IIRC, a USB keys can be formatted as a "floppy" type device > (ie: one partition), or as a HDD (ie: 4 primary partitions). > > It should be possible to make an image that has an HDD > partition table with a smallish (ie: maybe 8 Megs or so, > still a *LOT* bigger than a > floppy) FAT partition containing the boot files as the first > partition. > The remaining space could be unused, or formatted and used > once the LEAF system was up and running. > > This should make it unnecessary to know the size of the USB > key (as long as the key is bigger than the boot partition > size). The geometry issue shouldn't generally be a > problem...the CHS geometry of the FAT filesystem is > essentially embedded in the partition table, so would be > written when the image is burned onto the USB key.
>From what i've read so far for the last 3 years or so in the syslinux list, this may or may not be true. It all depends on how the BIOS boot mechanism was designed by the mainboard manufacturer. Of course we could create one test image and ask for volunteers to test it is several machines with several USB sticks. But I guess I know the result already... no deterministic results. See, the BIOS manufacturers are Windoze centric, they couldn't care less about Linux, *BSD or other unixes. They say it's not their problem, since it boots Windoze ok... But I'm willing to 'sacrifice' one of my USB sticks to make tests in the 3 or 4 different machines I have access that can do boot from USB, and yes, that includes some hp servers :) Luis Correia Bering uClibc Team Member PGP Fingerprint: BC44 D7DA 5A17 F92A CA21 9ABE DFF0 3540 2322 21F6 Key Server: http://pgp.mit.edu ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=110944&bid=241720&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ leaf-devel mailing list leaf-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-devel
