Another USB Booting thread

Forum: DSL Ideas and Suggestions
Topic: Another USB Booting thread
started by: BoggyB

Posted by BoggyB on Aug. 17 2004,11:42

Right, first thing's first, yes, i am a noob, so if something i say here makes no sense, be gentle.

So anyway, my goal, like in the rest of these kinds of threads, is to get a USB flash drive booting with DSL, but, i want to know whether or not this is possible with out any 'official' USB booting options. This may sound stupid, and more than likely, it is, but hear me out.

I skimmed through a few of these DSL USB boot threads, but they all end up having to use something else (Floppy disk, for example) to boot the USB drive. And that defeats the purpose of this whole idea, you may as well just burn a 8cm CD.

Now, as far as i know, only the more recent motherboards support USB booting. Now, correct me if i'm wrong, but most of the older ones still pick up USB keyboards and the like, before booting to the OS, so there must be some kind of communication there. So, is it possible to use that communication to boot the USB drive? Maybe through a modified RUNT or something, also on the drive.

If this is impossible, then i'd like to know when USB booting came into the scene, what is the general age of motherboards that support it? Etc.

So, as flimsy as this entire prospect is, it's worth a shot, and if that communication is indeed useable, then concider this a suggestion for a future version.