Booting Knoppix from USB 2.0 Pendrives? 28
David Eliasson asks: "Ive been trying to make Knoppix boot on my Pendrive without success. Booting from USB hard drives seems to work, however, so I guess this drive could do the trick, but it doesn't support USB 2.0, making it rather slow. Does anyone have a better experience with this? I would like to use the local harddrive as a huge AFS-cache. Imagine carrying around your whole OS, and necessary data on an encrypted pendrive! If users have problems, then you just plug in the drive and reimage it. Isnt this a great idea!?"
mobile OS... (Score:1, Insightful)
yeah, really cool (Score:5, Insightful)
More likely:
Imagine carrying around your whole OS and data you've been working on, and then pulling your keys out of your pocket and the drive falls into a storm drain!
I'm really not too excited about ultra-tiny storage formats. A CD is about the right size to keep track of, a floppy in a hardcase is still OK. But...CompactFlash cards? Memory Stick? USB pendrives? Enough people lose their keys, socks, and wedding rings.
A USB watch drive would be a nice solution. It's always there. Just make the watch reasonably easy to take on and off, and you've got a winner. Adding USB storage to cell phones would be nice as well.
Re:yeah, really cool (Score:1)
Keys vs Watch (Score:1)
For me, it is Cross pens. The black one with gold accents is my weakness, and I buy (and lose) about 4 of them each year. Damn things are expensive enough to cry over when I lose them, but not valuable enough to warrant a drive across Austin (+/- 80 miles round trip) to recover one that gets found.
Just my luck, all the new rage is the 'Pen Drive - perfectly sized for Glonoinha to lose about 4 times a year.'
Re:yeah, really cool (Score:2)
See, with the watch drive, the beauty of it is the band is the cable. One end of the band is permanently connected to the watch. The other end is a standard USB connector, with the exception of a spring-loaded catch you have to squeeze before you can unplug it from the watch. So, all you do is squeeze the connector on both sides, where it is held in the watch, the connector is already in your fingers now and ready to plug in a nearby USB port. The band will be sold in several sizes, with spring tension on one end to pick up any slack.
Re:yeah, really cool (Score:5, Funny)
If it's too tiny for you, permanently attach it to a brick or a 2x4 or anything else you consider a handy size. Don't hobble everyone else with bulky formats just because you're prone to losing your keys. Given small things it's easy to make them larger, but it's much harder to make large things smaller.
Re:yeah, really cool (Score:2)
Re:yeah, really cool (Score:2)
Even with me looking for my data you'd hardly be the one laughing in that pose
Re:yeah, really cool (Score:1)
Re:yeah, really cool (Score:1)
Re:yeah, really cool (Score:1)
I'm really not too excited about ultra-tiny storage formats. A CD is about the right size to keep track of, a floppy in a hardcase is still OK. But...CompactFlash cards? Memory Stick? USB pendrives? Enough people lose their keys, socks, and wedding rings.
How about a subcutaneous solution? I've found limbs to be much more difficult to lose than car keys.
Re:yeah, really cool (Score:1)
How about a subcutaneous solution? I've found limbs to be much more difficult to lose than car keys.
what about a suppository shape? that way, you always have at least one pocket to stuff it in.
Re:yeah, really cool (Score:1)
A temporary tatoo of a 2D barcode? What a great idea for temporary storage. As long as you don't mind looking weird and don't plan on washing your hands/arms/[wherever you plan on putting it] before you use it.
Then again, I suppose there is no tecnical reason you couldn't implant memory storage that communicated via 802.11 or another wireless solution. You could power it by inductance in the same way that battery powered toothbrushes are charged.
Somehow, though I think people will stick with external storage.
Seriously, though, I agree that the current storage solutions for data need better carrying cases. I expect to see more products that are both wallets and flash card holders.
Actually, a little secure slot for memory cards in the tongue of a tennis shoe would be good for school students. After all, how often have you lost your shoes in the past few years?
My experience (Score:4, Informative)
A variation on the idea (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A variation on the idea (Score:3, Informative)
KNOPPIX-> Configure-> Save KNOPPIX configuration
The KNOPPIX site has more information on how to save and reload a configuration file from a floppy.
USB Hard Drive Link Is NOT A Hard Drive (Score:5, Informative)
That link is to a pen drive type device, note the size of the drive is "16MB to 128MB". There are USB hard drives that are bootable [exdevices.com], but require USB boot support in the BIOS.
How old is you PC, and what version is the BIOS? I would check with the BIOS manufacture and see if they claim USB booting is possible, you may need to flash your BIOS, or it may not be supported at all on your machine.
I use something like this.. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I use something like this.. (Score:2)
1. Pop computer open and clear CMOS, if you need to.
2. Place bootable rootfloppy or CDROM in computer.
3. Wreak untold havoc on xchino's system.
Re:I use something like this.. (Score:1)
A handier option (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A handier option (Score:2)
Why not just get a small pack of blank business card sized CDRs [cardiscs.com] and throw whatever bootable OS you want on it. Carry the OS and whatever other files you want in your wallet. Works for me, and most current BIOS's will at least boot via CD
Yeah, and get it lost in the tray-style CD-ROM drives because it happened to have stopped spinning in just the right direction. :-(
Why do you need to BOOT from USB? (Score:2, Interesting)
How are you going to fit 700MB on a thumb drive anyway?
Floppy (Score:3, Interesting)
I did something like this one to boot a linux install I did to a scsi zip drive hooked up to a non-bios-bootable scsi card. Kinda slow but that was the zip drive/disk fault.