The Mac can boot a USB device, but I don't think that you'll have luck booting anything other than the Mac OS without a lot of work. If you want to boot Linux, then BIOS emulation has to be going before the Linux distro boots. Maybe some of them can boot with EFI, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to say. I doubt that a majority of distros would, though.
A good way to start would be to dig in to how BootCamp modifies the system on a low level in order to boot Windows. There is probably a flag that is set on a partition to tell the Mac boot loader to start BIOS emulation before attempting to boot the OS on that partition. You could almost certainly install Linux directly on the hard drive by setting up for BootCamp, and then installing Linux instead of Windows. However, if you figured out the flag or other tech detail that flags a partition as needing BIOS to boot, then you could manually tweak your flashdisk to appear that way to the boot loader. I'd love to hear about what you discover. Besides using flashdisks, it would be even better if we could use the same trick to install Windows or Linux on an external USB hard drive. Bryan -----Original Message----- From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com [mailto:macvisionar...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Esther Sent: Monday, January 11, 2010 12:52 PM To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com Subject: Bootable flash drives [was Re: using fdisk] Hi Scott, I think if I were trying to set up a bootable Linux distribution on a USB flash drive I would do this on a Linux machine. However, for your entertainment, you might want to read Ted Landau's old MacFixIt column (from April 2008) titled, "Create a Leopard Startup Flash Drive": http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20080422095414936 Note that I haven't tried this myself, and have no idea whether it's doable for Snow Leopard. Cheers, Esther On Jan 11, 2010, at 06:57, Scott Howell wrote: > Hi Sandi, > > Thanks for the clarification. If I unmount the drive, it no longer > can be referenced by the device node in /dev, which is interesting. > It is as though once unmounted, the OS forgets about it, but I suspect > it has something to do with the disk subsystem and how it handles > devices. Well I'll keep digging because the info is out there > somewhere . :) > > THanks, > On Jan 4, 2001, at 3:18 PM, sandi sørensen wrote: > >> first of all, have never used fdisk under osx so i can be very wrong. >> but when i have done it on linux i usually unmount the drive i wanna >> fdisk and then takes contact with it from the dev folder. >> Therefore i said as i did. >> try eventually before you mess with it too see how huge it is with >> fdisk. >> /sandi >> >> >> >> On Jan 11, 2010, at 7:29 AM, Scott Howell wrote: >> >>> Sandi, >>> >>> Sorry, I'm not clear on what you are saying here. The device, / >>> dev/disk1 does exist, but unlike a "normal" or static /dev file >>> system, I assume that perhaps this works more like the DevFS found >>> in some LInux distros? I have to admit that I am not that familiar >>> with the newer file systems, which is my fault for letting my >>> knowledge get rusty. >>> Can you please clarify what you mean? >>> >>> THanks, >>> On Jan 4, 2001, at 1:41 PM, sandi sørensen wrote: >>> >>>> try getting a hold of it from /dev/ >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Jan 11, 2010, at 6:17 AM, Scott Howell wrote: >>>> >>>>> James, I perhaps should be more clear. >>>>> >>>>> The issue is I cannot find a way to address the device. To explain >>>>> further, the flash drive when mounted, shows up as /dev/ disk1s1. >>>>> However, to properly address the device with fdisk, the device >>>>> must be umounted, but when attempting to address the device by >>>>> fdisk /dev/disk1 I receive a "file not found" error. So, my >>>>> assumption is that the disk subsystem handles unmounted devices >>>>> differently than I gather most OpenBSD systems perhaps. I of >>>>> course do not know for sure and any thoughts you have would be >>>>> appreciated. The man page did not provide any information on how >>>>> to address the problem. >>>>> >>>>> THanks, >>>>> On Jan 11, 2010, at 6:24 AM, James & Nash wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Hi Scott, >>>>>> >>>>>> You wrote: >>>>>>> Have any of you used fdisk from the Terminal in order to set >>>>>>> the boot flag on a file system, which is contained on a USB >>>>>>> flash drive/Thumb drive? I want to creat a bootable usb stick >>>>>>> that I can load a small Linux distro on. >>>>>> >>>>>> I haven't, but I will look into it for you if you like. In >>>>>> theory, there should be no problem using fdisk as the Terminal >>>>>> is pretty accessible with Voice Over. >>>>>> >>>>>> TC >>>>>> James >>>>>> On 11 Jan 2010, at 02:01, Scott Howell wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>> Folks, >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Have any of you used fdisk from the Terminal in order to set >>>>>>> the boot flag on a file system, which is contained on a USB >>>>>>> flash drive/Thumb drive? I want to creat a bootable usb stick >>>>>>> that I can load a small Linux distro on. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> tnx,--
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