run linpus from a thumb drive?

Okay, just spent a good while looking through all the posts I could find on this forum and can't seem to get a clear definitive answer for this... some seem to imply it works some seem to imply the opposite. I have the linpus ssd model on which I've installed XP. Before I did that though I made an image of the linpus install using Acronis True Image (put to an external drive). I'd kinda like to occasionally boot linpus but not often enough to warrant having it permanently installed on my SSD. So, I've seen some posts that implied that you can install and boot most Linux distributions on usb thumb drives, but haven't seen any that said anyone is successfully doing it with the linpus install. I was hoping that I could restore the linpus image to a thumb drive and then use f12 to boot it whenever I wanted. I know that there are some things I would need to do to make the drive bootable and I'm guessing that there would be some config files I'd need to edit to make the install point to the usb drive instead of the ssd drive.... so, any know for sure one way or another if it's possible? thx...

 

I haven't tried it, but here's my guess:
1. Create one ext2 partition on the usb stick marked bootable.
2. Restore Linpus to the usb stick.
3. I'm assuming the AA1's drive (SSD or HDD, doesn't matter) is /dev/sda and usb stick is /dev/sdb)
Edit /etc/mtab and /etc/fstab on the usb stick such that root is /dev/sdb1.
4. Install grub to mbr of usb stick
5. Boot from usb stick and curse extensively if the above doesn't work.

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply... I'm going to try this in the next day or two and will post back with my results. Is it pretty much just the mtab and fstab only that I'd need to modify as far as you know? Thanks again...

 

Now that you've got me thinking about it, there's probably something in the /boot/grub/grub.conf file that'll need to be changed. I'm not on my AA1 right now, so I can't be very precise, but in the entry for Linpus, there will be a title line followed by a line that says something like

Code:

root (hd0,0)

hd0 is the system hard drive (/dev/sda); so the above line should probably be changed to reference hd1

 

Cool, thanks again for replying. In originally researching this on the forum I found a bunch of questions but no difinitive answers so if I can get it working it'll be good to have all the steps in one place (for the next poor sap that tries). And if it doesn't work out at least I'll document why...

 

Just a reference: viewtopic.php?f=47&t=2741

 

Thanks for that... yeah, I think I'd seen that before but for some reason didn't catch it on my last searches. It looks like it pretty much follows along with what you'd described (once the image is on the drive) so that's good. Just got the drive today so hopefully will get a chance to try it tonight. Thx...