Booting from SD slot

Has anyone tried installing an OS on the SD card slot on the left? Does the BIOS support booting from it? or would you need a boot partition on the hard drive to boot and OS loaded on the SD slot?

i would like to install and run Ubuntu from an SDHC card.

 

There is no booting from SD slot in AA1... You can find couple of questions about this on this forum...

 

It's possible, I did it! Using grub installed on SSD FAT32 filesystem, I can boot Linpus on 4GB SDHC. The steps almost same as my guide on 'Installing Linpus on USB' (in Multi Booting thread) but you need a modified initrd to load SD/MMC kernel module.

 

That's interesting But only possible when you have GRUB/Linux installed. In case of Windows powered machines it's not that easy...

 

Technically, couldn't you load grub for SD Card booting yet still be using windows? Would anyone be able to post a guide for this? You can indeed use Grub as a Windows bootloader as well..

 

Is that MB limitation??? But I so hope this is do-able like the eeepc!!!

 

BlackHawk,

Can you PLEASE post detailed instructions to do that ? many people are looking for this option . Especially instructions for initrd

 

The problem that most people don't realize is that in order to boot from a device, that device must be controlled by the bios. Otherwise it is not a "true" boot. The SD Card readers on there are not a function of the bios, they have drivers that run them through Linux and Windows. So until a bios update comes out, you will never "truly" be able to boot from a SD card.

The people that are booting from SD cards now are still running through a Linux shell that pre-loads for them to boot, it is not a true boot. Any viruses, corruption etc on the original hard drive could still affect a boot disk, because it accesses the hard drive first.

Don't believe me? Take out your hard drive and see if you can boot to a SD card.

Bios Update is whats needed unfortunately.

 

Good info, and it puts it into perspective!

Thanks for the heads up.. Now.. Let's rally and get Acer to release an update!

 

What Kraegor fails to point out is that once a Linux box boots, it completely takes over all BIOS routines and the BIOS isn't used at all. In fact, all the BIOS needs to do is get to an MBR on a disk and from there it's the software that does the rest in terms of booting. Setting up Grub to dual boot is as much of a "real boot" as any other boot. That's true of Linux and Windoze.

Cheers.

 

i've tried installing vista on a usb drive. vista can detect but no option to do anything with it. same with xp. can't get it do a format to begin installing. you can transfer to usb to install that way. but you can't install to have an actual working usb drive. i've had linux boot from usb but windows won't install. and it don't mater what service pack you have injected. to either vista or xp.

 

check this out : http://www.a110wiki.de/wiki/Booting_from_SD

 

How to install XP into a usb drive/thumbdrive

http://www.ngine.de/article/id/8

 

You wouldn't happen to have a modified initrd lying around that you could post some place for those of us who want to give this a shot, would you? I know this would be greatly appreciated

 

Hum! tell me why it's so funny booting from SD: it's possible, check v1ck's post just above; but (linux or $ms, don't bother) you MUST have a bootable device (SSD, USB stick) with a standard MBR, and you'll never get a poor OS (like xp) working well on such a device ( I mean SD card)

 

Please read viewtopic.php?f=47&t=2741&p=18193#p18193

 

does anyone know if there will be a bios update soon that you can boot from sd? :?

 

I have an aspire laptop with the option to boot from MMC card set into its bios.

It has a 'USB Key' option (along with 'USB HDD' and 'USB FDD' boot options) under bios boot options which picks up the MMC/SD memory card when one is inserted in the built in Memory Card slots.

Can the same be achieved on a AOA150 ZG5 ???

Its such a 'MISS' especially for the fact that a ZG5 has two Memory Card slots.

Its a Shame

Any modds possible to achieve this ?
;(

PS : A 2 GB mod and mmc boot mod are the most elusive/impossible mods on an otherwise machine which enabled so many other mods on it !!! ...