On Wed, Feb 20, 2002 at 01:58:57AM +0000, p wrote: > debs, > > i'm thinking of a new laptop from http://www.qlilinux.com. the new gen2: > > p4 > 2.0 ghz > usb > firewire > combo dvd/cd-rw > (yada, yada, yada) > > my only resevation is that it ships with a usb floppy. > > in the event that i need to boot from a rescue floppy, i'd be sol 'cause > the usb floppy would only be recognized _after_ the box boots. > > questions: > > 1. what good is a usb floppy in linux?
My guess is that with a minor kernel patch you can boot from the usb floppy. I have a usb cdrw drive (as my only removable drive), which has the same problem when it comes to booting, but a small patch (50 lines) fixes that, and will probably work for the floppy also. The issue (as you point out) is that usb devices are recognized asynchronously, which makes for a race between them and the mounting of the root file system. All one need do is add a loop before mounting the root fs to keep checking whether the root device is available. Let me know if you're interested in the patch. > 2. is it possible to make a boot cd (with the "mkboot" command)? Sure. I made one using bootcd, which (surprise!) makes a boot cd. Requires a tad of work, but definitely worth it. Also, the boot cd is a full debian, so no matter how how hosed your hard drive gets, you have all your tools available. Of course, you can also specify the root filesystem to be your hard disk, at boot time, so it can act as a normal boot disk. -- David Roundy http://civet.berkeley.edu/droundy/
