[ltp] finding thinkpads which boot from usb 2.0 disk

[Joel Ebel]

I've set up a whole distribution based on this.  Check out
http://ncsu.edu/project/runt
You can use any boot loader you like, but the trick to being able to 
mount a root filesystem on a USB storage device is either modifying the 
kernel to wait, or including an initrd with a short sleep to allow the 
device to initialize.  Also, your kernel needs to support USB devices or 
you need an initrd to load the modules.  RUNT uses the initrd method for 
both.  RUNT may not be what you're looking for, but the principles used 
in it may help you to set up the distribution you want.

Joel

Peter Lemken wrote:
> On Sunday 09 October 2005 07:37, Joel Ebel wrote:
>> The T40 definitely supports USB 2.0 and booting from it.  Originally it
>> suffered from the BIOS not remembering the boot order if the USB drive
>> was removed, but with a BIOS update, that's fixed.  It can remember to
>> boot from USB first.
> 
> Actually, how do you do it?
> 
> I've waded through
> 
> http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fireboot.html
> 
> and found no way of booting the kernel AND the root file system on an external 
> device. Can you tell us, what your internal HDD looks like in term of 
> bootmanager and how you made the kernel understand to mount an external 
> device at root fs?
> 
> I've managed to boot from the external usb disk, but never managed to mount 
> the root fs on the same device.
> 
> 
> Peter Lemken
> Berlin