Using USB memory key as boot directory for older computer?

[Brian Kelsay]

On 6/28/07, Jonathan Hutchins <> wrote:
> On Thursday 28 June 2007 06:50:17 am Leo Mauler wrote:
>
> > Can anyone direct me to some assistance in getting a
> > distribution installer (CD distribution) to recognize
> > the USB memory key at boot time, so that it can be
> > used as /boot? Also, does the USB key need to be
> > initialized as bootable before beginning the Linux
> > installation?
>
> Does the BIOS allow booting from a USB device?  If not, it's not going to
> work.  I suppose you could boot off of a floppy, and redirect to either the
> USB or HD.

He said it would boot to USB.  On modern mobos, you toggle this in the
BIOS to put the USB first in line.  Oh, Leo, you shouldn't have to do
anything to the USB pendrive to make it bootable other than format it
as ext2/3 if you want to.  They all start out life as Fat32, due to
their size and expected use in a Winders box.  you should be able to
leave it as Fat32 as long as your fstab identifies it correctly and
sets it as r/w, but you may prefer to change to Ext2/3.  :-)   Not
sure if you should not do the journaling on the drive and just do
Ext2. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Brian