boot from usb key?

[Daniel Wayne Armstrong]

On 10/28/07, Matt Price <matt.price-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
> i'm trying to install ubuntu on a thinkpad x31, which doesn't have a
> disk drive.  So i want to do it from a usb key, though i'd accept other
> methods if people think they're better.  Anyway, I tried following the
> directions on:

Hi Matt... I just bought a x31 myself off ebay and installed debian
using a usb stick. I don't know how transferable the steps taken are
to a ubuntu install... but this is what I did:

STEP 1

- configure the bios to support usb hd booting and place it before hd
booting... and enable usb bios support

STEP 2

- create a single FAT16 partition on the usb stick using cfdisk

STEP 3

- grab some files...

ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/etch/main/installer-i386/20070308etch1/images/hd-media/vmlinuz
ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/etch/main/installer-i386/20070308etch1/images/hd-media/initrd.gz
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/4.0_r1/i386/iso-cd/debian-40r1-i386-netinst.iso

STEP 4

- on my debian system I used to prepare the usb stick... install these pkgs...

apt-get install syslinux mtools dosfstools mbr

STEP 5

- configure the usb stick (**with the assumption that the device is sda**)

mkdosfs /dev/sda1
install-mbr /dev/sda
syslinux /dev/sda1
mount -t msdos /dev/sda1 /mnt
mv debian-40r1-i386-netinst.iso net40r1.iso
cp -v initrd.gz vmlinuz net40r1.iso /mnt/

STEP 6

- create the 'syslinux.cfg' file on the usb stick with these parameters...

default vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.gz ramdisk_size=12000 root=/dev/ram rw

STEP 7

- save and unmount...

sync
umount /dev/sda1

STEP 8

- plug the usb stick into the x31 and reboot... when you see...

MBR FA:

...hit 'a', which changes the prompt to...

MBR 1234A:

...hit '1' and the debian installer starts...

Hope this helps... Best of luck!
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