Boot from SD slot.

Hello -

I'm waiting for and Aspire one and passing the time be working out what I'm going to do with it. I really want to put a proper distro on, both Ubuntu and Fedora Core seem viable with various caveats, because I'd like to be able to use the machine for such tasks as remote access to the computers in my lab, running Latex, etc.

To the point: going to get one of the HDD equipped ones, not sure what I'l use all the space for, I've had the idea of install the OS on an SD card and booting off that - thus having a HDD for write and space intensive tasks but also an SSD for the main OS and application storage, hopefully helping with battery life and boot time.

So feasible to boot off one of the SD card slots or not?

Cheers,
Pete

(PS sorry if this is already discussed, but tried searching and hit the problem of all the obvious terms being too common.)

 

I am really wanting to know this too - I just bought my AAO, having bought my daughter an Eee PC 4G Surf (Linux) a few months ago. We were so happy with her subnotebook, I wanted one for me, so I could leave my big PowerBook at home and travel lighter.

I chose the AAO because of the nicer keyboard, brilliant screen, and dual HDSD slots. I bought the "Linux" version, expecting the same performance of the Eee, which was very similar to that of my Mac.

I really didn't realize that this was "Linpus", and have had nothing but problems with it - connectivity sucks, the file manager is awful, and there is a long list of gripes. I've tried installing a bunch of updates with marginal improvements.

I really want to install a full version of Fidora 9 on an SDHC card and boot off that - is this possible? ANy hep would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

 

I am not saying it cant be done, but I have not seen it reported yet.

If you dont like Linpus just replace it with the distro of your choice, there are loads of threads here on those subjects.
Be aware that people are still working on getting all the features running, it will happen, just not at this present time.
If you dont want to replace the OS, try dual booting, or boot from an external drive or a USB drive.

If you already run a Mac, try the thread about OSX, that also runs on the One.

Above all remember what the One was designed for, "lightweight mobile computing" web browsing, email, etc.
It was never designed as a desktop replacement, it's just good fortune for us that lots of folk can make the One do many other things.

Buying a One and complaining it is not a full system, is like buying a bicycle and complaining it is not a car.
A bike and a car both get you from A to B, but in different ways, and some people can modify bikes to enable lots of car like features, but in the end you have to eventually concede that you bought a bike.

Enjoy it for what it is.

 

Okay, leaving aside the 'it's not a Powerbook', 'no it's not a Powerbook' thing...

Anyone know how the SD slots are connected to the system? By some internal USB port appearing as a mass storage device, by some SD to ATA bridge, onto a PCI-e bus?

 

This is the PCI device list for an 8gb One.
General info - There is a 4gb SDHC loaded in the expansion slot and 1.5gig ram.

-[0000:00]-+-00.0 Intel 945GME Express Memory Controller Hub
+-02.0 Intel 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller
+-02.1 Intel Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller
+-1b.0 Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) HD Audio Controller: Realtek ALC662G/268
+-1c.0-[0000:01]--
+-1c.1-[0000:02]----00.0 Realtek RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
+-1c.2-[0000:03]----00.0 Atheros AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter
+-1c.3-[0000:04]--+-00.0 JMicron Technologies, Inc. JMircon SD/MMC OHCI Host Controller
| +-00.2 JMicron Technologies, Inc. JMircon SD Host Controller
| +-00.3 JMicron Technologies, Inc. JMircon MS Host Controller
| \-00.4 JMicron Technologies, Inc. JMircon xD Host Controller
+-1d.0 Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
+-1d.1 Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
+-1d.2 Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
+-1d.3 Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
+-1d.7 Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller
+-1e.0-[0000:05]--
+-1f.0 Intel 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge
+-1f.2 Intel 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller
\-1f.3 Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller

 

I certainly can't boot off the internal slots of my AA1. If you want to use a SD card to house an OS you could put the boot files on the internal drive to start off the boot process, but still keep the rest of the OS on a SD card.

 

That's disapointing because booting from sd was my plan, along with keeping the ssd factory fresh. I hadn't got aroung to trying yet, but i'm currently booting fine from a usb flash/stick/pendrive/thingy.

 

First of all, I'm a newcomer to the AAO, so assume I don't know what I'm talking about, but...
Doesn't a card in the right side slot show up in fstab? Couldn't GRUB or LILO boot off that?

 

right, everythings in the post. now the waiting.

Consensus seem to be the SD cards don't show up in the boot options.

Plan A will be to instal an OS (Ubuntu, FC9, of Linupus with a proper desktop) onto an 8GB SD card and GRUB onto the HDD, boot GRUB and thus boot the OS.

Plan B will involve solder. And result in an internal USB port with a sd card attached to it, and booting off usb.

Sensible?

 

The fstab is a table of filesystems to be mounted, devices do not show up there and GRUB and LILO do not use it.

GRUB and LILO are bootloaders, they run before Linux does so they don't necessarily have access to the same devices Linux does, they are also limited in size and functionality which means they are reliant on the BIOS to access devices and can only access what the BIOS lets them. In this case the BIOS doesn't and possibly isn't able to read the SD slots, so bootloaders don't get to access them either.

 

Just to confirm, the current Aspire One bios does not boot from sd/sdhc cards. (I have the 120gb model, is the 8gb ssd different?)

This is disappointing, since even the early Asus eee pcs supported this