Booting from an iPod

Forum: USB booting
Topic: Booting from an iPod
started by: Neotje

Posted by Neotje on Dec. 20 2006,16:28

Well just like i said in the title and description my question is: is it possible to boot DSL from an iPod?

And if i install/place DSL on my ipod/usb drive will there be erased any files? (or i must say will there be any changes on the actual flash drive? )

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Dec. 20 2006,19:30

I'd probably make another partition to keep it contained, but it should work. Copying anything, installing, etc. , of course, will change the contents of your flash drive.

If you have a 'windows' ipod, you will already have a 2nd partition that's vfat though.

Posted by Neotje on Dec. 21 2006,16:24

So it doesn't instals on the ''upper'' patition (the one you can see if you view it with windows ''explorer'')
Because i allready have more then 1 (and if its originaly 2 more then 2) partition: i got ipodlinux installed too...

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Dec. 21 2006,17:58

Well, you'll need to run syslinux and that will modify the bootsector. Don't know if it does just that partition though. You could always backup your device, and restore it later though.

That vfat partition is probably the 2nd one as I stated in my previous post. The first/upper one contains the ipod firmware.

Posted by Neotje on Dec. 23 2006,09:40

Hmmmm.... ok but because i dont know exactly what the iPL installer does with the partitions.... i think i am going to ask that on the iPL forum first

And here i ask the question:
What does this ''instaler'' do with the partitions

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Dec. 31 2006,17:54

Well, how I installed iPL, was that I created an ext2 partition as the 3rd partition, which I installed the userland data to. Then I modified the boot firmware (1st partition) for Loader 2.x. Since I did this manually, I won't know if its the same for this "installer" you used.

Afaik the dsl data can be stored on the same partition or another/new one. From what I'd read, users run syslinux on the usb device, which modifies the bootsector of the whole thing - this is the tricky part. Don't know if that is already being used by the default ipod setup, but again, you can always make a backup in case you mess up :P I'm also assuming you're trying an USB-HDD installation here.

Posted by Neotje on Jan. 05 2007,18:42

Well i just used the installer...
How would you let me backup the device? i cant realy open all the partitions...

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Jan. 05 2007,21:51

You can use 'dd' if you're in linux.

To be safe, I had already backed-up my partitions before I modified my ipod firmware to keep an original.