> > Andrew Pritchard wrote: > > I was given a rather funky Xmas present - a USB flashdrive/watch > > (http://www.memixdirect.com) which says it's bootable. It also claims to be > > Linux 2.4 compatible, though I've not yet tried connecting it to a Linux > > box. > > At 256 mb, that's big enough to include a full debian installation on > the watch. You should be able to fit debian and maybe X and some > personal files (gpg key?) on there.
Unfortunately it's only the 128mb version. Still far larger than I will probably need. Would have been nice to have the USB 2.0 interface though. > Another option is that debian's next-generation installation system can > use such a USB drive as install media instead of a CDROM. You can then > boot many computers from your watch, and do a debian install on them. > This would eat about 128 MB and could be made to cooexist with other > uses of the watch with some work; see > http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ for details. I don't need to install debian, just access the files on the watch whilst on a machine who's only OS doesn't support USB - let alone USB flash drives. > > I'd also like to create a bootdisk, which has a Linux kernel on it as my NT > > box at work won't talk to anything USB (gaahh we hateessss NT! *sorry - been > > watching too much LotR*). Specifically so it can talk to the NTFS partition > > on my machine at work. Alternatively I'll repartition the machine and create > > a FAT partition so Linux can talk to that. The machine at work isn't new > > enough to be able to boot from a USB device :( > > > > Has anyone tried either/both of these? Can anyone give me some pointers > > about where to start with either of these projects? > > Joey Hess said: > > The debian-installer project includes a boot floppy which has the > necessary USB drivers. You boot from the floppy, and it will find a USB > device with an initrd.gz on it, then mount the initrd and chroot into > it, and run its init. While this is intended to boot d-i in > circumstances like you describe, there's no reason you could not build > your own initrd.gz with anything you like in it and boot it this way. Thanks Joey - I was dreading trying to create a disk. I've mangled the floppy-image's initrd.gz so that it now starts the rudimentry shell (ash I think), and mounts the usb partition on /usb. How can I get the system to default to a UK keyboard when I'm booting like this? How can I get bash into the initrd.gz? How can I get it to support NTFS natively, so I don't have to have a 128mb partition on my work machine? (I know NTFS read/write is a bit dodge, but it's not going to be doing anything to the system volume, and I can loose what's on the drive without too much worry) And in the process learnt some more things about Linux, at a lower level than before. Which is definitely a good thing. The new installer looks really cool - keep up the good work guys and gals. > > Hoping you all had a Merry Christmas, and going to have a happy new year! > > No toys that fun (and I don't like wearing a watch).. Hope you have fun > with it! Certainly intend to. Means I can now carry albums of mp3's into work. And I can access my college work from my usb watch, at work. Cheers, Andrew -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
