BIOS won't boot to USB, but create optical boot proxy?

[rutazoid]

Hi, new to Linux, still on WinXP, have just tried several distro ISOs, and PCLinuxOS KDE works the best for me, I love it. So far I'm booting from a DVD-RAM which is sorta cool as it allows saving settings. But, it's very slow to boot, maybe 3 minutes, and will eventually run out of room. So I'd prefer to install to my 8GB USB stick or my NTFS 320GB USB external HD.

However, my BIOS (ASUS Phoenix v.2302) doesn't support booting from USB. A friend suggested a possible workaround, a boot CD which works "as a proxy boot device, almost like a glorified master boot record.  The boot CD would include a pointer designed to 'hand off' the boot process to a boot partition in your external drive.  So even if your bios isn't hip enough to directly enable a boot volume on your USB drive, you should be able to accomplish this scenario using a CD as a workaround."

This would be very cool for me, either to my stick or my new drive, given two conditions. First, finding some way to make a CD as a proxy boot device to USB! Anyone know how? Second, these ISO docs I've read all say burning to USB requires formatting the drive. I wouldn't mind doing that IF I could still use the remaining drive space later for Windows stuff. Especially on this 320gb drive. Is that possible?

[rutazoid]

I was wrong, the DVD-RAM install doesn't save settings.

[Old-Polack]

Hi, new to Linux, still on WinXP, have just tried several distro ISOs, and PCLinuxOS KDE works the best for me, I love it. So far I'm booting from a DVD-RAM which is sorta cool as it allows saving settings. But, it's very slow to boot, maybe 3 minutes, and will eventually run out of room. So I'd prefer to install to my 8GB USB stick or my NTFS 320GB USB external HD.

However, my BIOS (ASUS Phoenix v.2302) doesn't support booting from USB. A friend suggested a possible workaround, a boot CD which works "as a proxy boot device, almost like a glorified master boot record.  The boot CD would include a pointer designed to 'hand off' the boot process to a boot partition in your external drive.  So even if your bios isn't hip enough to directly enable a boot volume on your USB drive, you should be able to accomplish this scenario using a CD as a workaround."

This would be very cool for me, either to my stick or my new drive, given two conditions. First, finding some way to make a CD as a proxy boot device to USB! Anyone know how? Second, these ISO docs I've read all say burning to USB requires formatting the drive. I wouldn't mind doing that IF I could still use the remaining drive space later for Windows stuff. Especially on this 320gb drive. Is that possible?

As an alternate method of booting to the USB external drive, you can shrink the partition holding the XP installation on your internal hard drive, then create a small boot partition of about 100 MB, formatted as a Linux ext3 partition. Using the liveCD, then proceed to partition and install PCLinuxOS on the USB external drive. Still using the liveCD, copy the entire /boot directory from the PCLinuxOS installation to the 100 MB ext3 boot partition on the internal hard drive, and install grub on the internal hard drive's MBR.

While the BIOS may not be able to see the USB external drive, the Linux kernel, booted from the 100 MB boot partition, will, and will use the installation partition's UUID number to locate, and boot to, the external drive's PCLInuxOS / partition.

[rutazoid]

As an alternate method of booting to the USB external drive...

Thanks! I'm emailing this to myself on Windows (now logged in on PCLOS). Also, I found this:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16822/boot-from-a-usb-drive-even-if-your-bios-wont-let-you/

I can't guess which is better or easier, but I must say I'm wary of partition operations. Whichever method I end up using I still don't know if I can use leftover USB space for Windoze files. If I can't then I'll use my 8gb stick.

[Just17]

For your USB device which you wish to use with Windows, make the first partition a Win filesystem ......  FAT or NTFS.
That can then be used by Win and also by PCLOS for exchange of data etc if necessary.

Yes you can make a CD/DVD or floppy which will (when booted from) enable you to boot from the USB drive. Some examples out there .......  SmartBootManage, PLOP, SuperGrub and lots of utility disks ....  just download the ISO and burn a CD and boot from it.

My personal preference would be to reduce the Win partition size on the HDD - which may be able to be done from within Win depending on which version is running - and then do a live install to the free space ......  or if there is sufficient space a 'proper' full install.
The live install could be arranged to retain changes .....  but that is not as comprehensive as a proper install.

There are lots of choices and we would all have our own preferred method.

Read a little more about the different methods and decide which suits you best, then go for it 

BTW ....  don't be afraid about reducing the Win partition size .... if you defrag several times beforehand it should work fine for you.

regards.

[rutazoid]

OK, I'm on XP Pro sp3. As for the partitioning process and question, a little more info from me might help here. I've never done any partitioning on my own, and again, I'm wary of doing it. But (long story) I've ended up with 5 partitions over 2 internal hard drives, plus now a 320gb USB external. Here's the Free Space breakdown:

BOOT D: 44GB
OLDBOOT C: 38GB (and I could wipe it clean)
APPS F: 215GB
MEDIA G: 424GB
DOCS H: 237GB
EXTERNAL USB: 227GB

So obviously I have plenty of space. Now that you know this info, what do you (or anyone) recommend? There's nothing on C I need any more (it ~was~ Vista), and would be happy to use that space for PCL if I knew how to edit/deal with my initial boot screen which still has XP and Vista. Or, I'm still happy with the USB option. Whatever's best...

[Just17]

It appears you do not have to do any partitioning .......  just use the "oldboot" partition to fully install PCLOS into.
There is no need to wipe it ....  that would be done during the install, after you have selected that partition as the target for your install.

In your situation I would take this route .....  yes it has the effect of overwriting the Win boot manager link in the MBR with Grub, but if you need to revert later it can be easily done from a Win CD.
The Grub boot manager will give you an entry to boot into Windows as well as the options for PCLOS.

If going this route there is one thing to keep in mind .....

under 'normal' circumstances the automatic install would create three partition .....  one for the OS itself designated " / " , another for user files designated " /home "  and a third a Swap partition for cases where you may run low on memory.

When installing to a single partition you only use  " / "  and the user files are automatically placed in the same partition. It is not "ideal" in lots of cases, but should be sufficient until you become more familiar with such schemes and want to change things.

If you should discover you need Swap due to running low on memory, then a Swap file could be created, rather than a partition allocated to Swap.

That is just my view of things .......  others no doubt will have different ideas ....... that is the difficulty with Linux ---  you are expected to make choices 

Hopefully there will be other suggestions for you to consider 

Oh!  Almost forgot ........  Welcome to the forum 

regards.

[rutazoid]

In your situation I would take this route .....  yes it has the effect of overwriting the Win boot manager link in the MBR with Grub, but if you need to revert later it can be easily done from a Win CD.
The Grub boot manager will give you an entry to boot into Windows as well as the options for PCLOS.

So if I get what you're saying, when I boot the computer I'll get a choice of my regular XP or PCLOS. That would be great. And by Win CD I guess you mean an XP install CD? Or something more like Ultimate Boot CD?

When installing to a single partition you only use  " / "  and the user files are automatically placed in the same partition. It is not "ideal" in lots of cases, but should be sufficient until you become more familiar with such schemes and want to change things.

You mean the PCLOS installer, when pointed at my C, will expect me to type in a /  ?? Not too hard! Or did you mean something else? Sorry to be dense.

Oh!  Almost forgot ........  Welcome to the forum 

Thanks, and thanks for all your help, old-polack too.

[Just17]

In your situation I would take this route .....  yes it has the effect of overwriting the Win boot manager link in the MBR with Grub, but if you need to revert later it can be easily done from a Win CD.
The Grub boot manager will give you an entry to boot into Windows as well as the options for PCLOS.

So if I get what you're saying, when I boot the computer I'll get a choice of my regular XP or PCLOS. That would be great. And by Win CD I guess you mean an XP install CD? Or something more like Ultimate Boot CD?

yes a Windows install CD ......  but there are other third party programmes out there too

When installing to a single partition you only use  " / "  and the user files are automatically placed in the same partition. It is not "ideal" in lots of cases, but should be sufficient until you become more familiar with such schemes and want to change things.

You mean the PCLOS installer, when pointed at my C, will expect me to type in a /  ?? Not too hard! Or did you mean something else? Sorry to be dense.

I think it might put the " / " in there for you  ........  or you may have to put it there yourself.
Either way, you should make sure the " / " is in the correct place and that there is no " /home " marked for any of the other partitions. You don't want to unwittingly wipe one of the others 

Oh!  Almost forgot ........  Welcome to the forum 

Thanks, and thanks for all your help, old-polack too.

YW ... 

Ask away .....  you need to be confident you have all the info you require to make the job as painless as possible.

Are you familiar with the different naming convention for partitions in Linux as opposed to what MS uses in Win?
If not then familiarising yourself with the differences would help a lot.

We all have our pet hates and the MS 'thing' of calling partitions - "drives" - is one that gets to me 

regards

[melodie]

Hi,

Just18, almost 17, I have kept aside the floppy img you made some time ago and it is available here. I have also been waiting for a new opportunity to ask you if you would create the same for burning to CD, as you said it would not be a problem for you.

Regards,
Mélodie

[Just17]

Hi,

Just18, almost 17, I have kept aside the floppy img you made some time ago and it is available here. I have also been waiting for a new opportunity to ask you if you would create the same for burning to CD, as you said it would not be a problem for you.

Regards,
Mélodie

Melodie .....  this is directly from PLOP and I haven't tested it but it should be correct .......


I think this is it


http://min.us/lbkOW1lmr5WApa

It appears the server didn't like an ISO file, so I renamed it by adding ".BAK"

[djohnston]

Melodie,

You can also download an iso from their site here. Their main page.

[rutazoid]

Are you familiar with the different naming convention for partitions in Linux as opposed to what MS uses in Win?
If not then familiarising yourself with the differences would help a lot.

We all have our pet hates and the MS 'thing' of calling partitions - "drives" - is one that gets to me 

No, not familiar, got some learning to do, and yes calling partitions "drives" just muddies the water. Now, I intend to proceed with this C partition install, but thinking it over I'll still look to a USB install also because unlike my hard drives it's brand new and portable. And so... since the C will be wiped, OK, I assume the USB will be wiped. And then part of my original question's still open - can I still use the remaining drive space later for Windows stuff? Or will the Linux file system prevent that?

[melodie]

http://min.us/lbkOW1lmr5WApa

Thanks !

Code: [Select]

$ md5sum PlopCD-Image.iso
87cdc6de3f21e10939a00251b8f0d37b  PlopCD-Image.iso
Is that correct ?

[melodie]

Melodie,

You can also download an iso from their site

Darrel,

Maybe one day I will be able to, but up to now the only thing I would do on this site is get lost among all the information.

Thanks anyway.