Is this possible? (Floppy boot from USB, no HD)

[Murska]

I was wondering if this kind of setup is possible?

I'm currently running my Ubuntu Server Edition 9.10 on my old pentium III based computer. I need to run this computer 24/7 and I am annoyed with the noisy hard drive of my computer. One option is to change the HD to less noisier one, but I thought, hell, why couldn't I use a USB stick? The problem is that the computer is old, and the BIOS wont support booting from a USB device. I have read though, that one could use a CD or floppy to start the linux from a USB device.

I am quite new with linux so I desperately need advice to do this. Is this even possible? What is the minimum size for the USB memory to hold ubuntu server edition? 2GB? How do I install linux to the USB stick? How do I make the boot floppy (or CD, preferably floppy though)? I would be really pleased if some linux guru could enlighten me with these. A step-by-step guide would be the best! : )

~Murska

[techieMoe]

You're likely going to have a lot less frustration just changing out the harddrive and going from there. Solid-state memory is still quite expensive in comparison to platter harddrives even if you don't need all the space. I'm not saying you can't give it a try; just that it's more trouble than it's worth, in my opinion.

::EDIT:: Brain not work. Swap words. Me go now.

[Murska]

You're likely going to have a lot less frustration just changing out the harddrive and going from there. Solid-state memory is still quite cheap in comparison to platter harddrives even if you don't need all the space. I'm not saying you can't give it a try; just that it's more trouble than it's worth, in my opinion.

The prices of even the smallest SSD HDs would be higher than all the old components of my computer. I wouldnt really like to spend my bucks on a old overpriced IDE SSD.

I know this won't be easy. If I wasn't so adventurous I already would have sticked some old HDD to replace the noisy one. I would really like to see the USB stick in action, thats why I came here!

[techieMoe]

I ended up saying the opposite of what I meant there. I meant to say that a regular old platter drive will be cheaper than a USB stick on memory-to-dollars, and won't cause you any trouble.

However, best of luck getting the USB drive going. I'll keep an eye out for your progress.

[Irithori]

I have not done this, but my approach would be:
- install ubuntu 9.10 server on that usb stick using a computer, that can boot from usb
- do a bare install, make sure it boots from usb
- plug the usb stick and a empty floppy disk in the old server
- boot the old server from CD. CD being the ubuntu 9.10 server. Use "Rescue a broken system" as a boot option
- this should give you a shell and access to both usb stick and floppy

- create a directory somewhere ( for example /mnt/usb-server ) and mount the root partition of the usb stick there
- if you should have a separate partition for /boot, then mount it to /mnt/usb-server/boot
- you will need proc: mount -t proc none /mnt/usb-server/proc
- chroot to the system on usb: chroot /mnt/usb-server
- call grub to install grub on the floppy disk. That means: grub needs to know, that its' root is on disk, but the actual setup of the mbr is on fd0 (floppy)
- exit the chroot, unmount everything you mounted earlier
- set the bios to boot from floppy

This is just what came to mind.
Might work, but I would rather prepare for lots of "fun", ie trial and error, rtfm, etc

Good luck

[RikedyP]

yeh changing hard drives makes sense if you're that worried about it, but wouldn't liveCD be really slow? unless you had a light distro and/or loaded the entire OS into a lots of ram

[Murska]

I know that it will be slow, even the fastest USB-memory sticks cant reach decent speeds. I just wan't to eliminate all the moving and noisy parts from my setup.

I'll post info about my progress when I manage to find a 1.44MB floppy and a spare USB stick to do the job! :P