Is there a way to boot from a live cd but then run from usb hd - can't boot usb
 

Does anyone know how you can boot from live cd then continue running linux from a usb HD? My notebook can't boot usb but Freespire Live cd is a good fit since my internal HD died.

You could install some sort of boot loader on a cd, then use that to boot off of your usb hard drive. Or you could update your bios so you can boot the usb drive. Here is a link for you...

http://syslinux.zytor.com/iso.php

David

Hi,
You could use the 'sbootmgr'. I know it is for Slackware but no reason that you couldn't use it to boot from another device for other distro(s). It is a floppy based boot. But you could create a iso as budword suggested.

chroot
 

You might want to try to chroot into the system on your USB drive. As long as you remain in your chroot environment, it will use your USB-based system.

Use 'su username' unless you want to do everything as root and read chroot documentation to get confortable with it.

Regards,
SIMP

Fedora Development

Thanks Budword, Onebuck, and Simplicissimus.

All sound like good options. Now to find out which is easiest to try first.

I built up a grub boot disk to do this exact thing once. Try man grub (or searching google for grub manual) for details.

Thanks Mechdave

edit ...wrong post to reply

I see that you're using Freespire and I don't know if it will fit your criteria, but this type of thing is built into Puppy Linux. It might be worth checking out because if you can run your system from the CD, then you save some space on the USB stick.

onebuck

your link is beautiful.

I just tested a floppy image under virtualbox and a real floppy under virtual box and both are good at getting to a cd.

of course I used a diff command to the text file on that link..BTW that cat way thinks the image is called install.1....so its

for linux users.

EDIT
I had to change file.dsk to file.img to get floppy image to work in vbox

I think he wanted to get to a usb drive, and that he COULD already get to a cd, but maybe I read it wrong.

David

I read the OP as he wanted to boot from a CD and then run his system from a USB stick. That's fine and all, but not optimal. From the latest post it looks like it's doing whatever he was trying to, though.

That's what I wanted to do as a temporary solution, but with a 160G usb portable hard drive I already have.

I'm looking into Puppy Linux.

what was not clear to me was ....is there a bios option to boot a cd in the bios boot order in lieu of using a floppy.

2) leaping ahead...if cd is already a viable bios boot order option....the OP just needs to remaster a live cd....to either have the usb drive in /etc/fstab or as SIMP suggests a chroot.