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Wishes warning! This article or section documents one or more OpenMoko Wish List items, the features described here may or may not be implemented in the future. |
NOTE: this page may be renamed: portable destkop
An openmoko device could act as the perfect geeky swiss knive: go anywhere with your Linux desktop and tools.
YES, there are tons of liveCDs out there, but CDs/DVDs:
YES, there are LiveUSB distros but:
The biggest argument against these ones is that you'd have to carry an USB cable with you... But it's a standard one, which is good news :)
Similar functionality can be found in the Wizpy portable media player
When the openmoko device is in mass storage mode, a host computer should be able to boot on it, presenting a grub menu offering to boot into several images / partitions (payloads) on the transflash: memtest, UBCD (the ultimate boot cd), a lightweight security oriented livecd distro, you name it...
It's sometimes called Live USB: from Wikipedia LiveUSB definition, A live USB is a USB flash drive containing a full operating system which can be booted from. Live USBs are closely related to Live CDs, and are sometimes used interchangeably. Like Live CDs, Live USBs can be used for system administration, data recovery, or the testing of operating system distributions without committing to a permanent installation on the local hard drive. Many of the smaller Linux distributions can also be used from a USB flash drive.
Usually, all you need for this with an USB storage device (flash USB stick or external drive) is a partition, flagged "bootable" (see fdisk), containing a boot loader (say grub). But the problem is that specifications vary between motherboards, so there are variants and mandatory requirements to define (here would be a good idea), so that one can optimize/maximize the compatibility.
We may want to start our own distro with the following constraints:
Optimally, being able to charge the device while plugged in would be great too.
From DSL Wiki:
Older computer BIOS usually do not support direct booting from a USB device. Around 2001, PC motherboard manufacturers started to add USB boot support.
There are two common BIOS methods for direct USB booting:
Most computers (just about all Dells, for example) made today have a BIOS that supports the USBHDD method so I expect that this will eventually become the standard way to boot a USB device. However, many motherboards will support BOTH methods, and many older motherboards have USBZIP support.
Some newer BIOSs which support USB 2.0 will not boot from an older pen drive. Using a USB 2.0 compliant one usually solves this problem. Also, some older BIOSs which only support USB 1.1 will not boot from newer drives which support USB 2.0!
Some USB keys don't boot. If this is the case, it may be possible to fix them by installing a new master boot record. (Most keys boot OK by default; some cannot be fixed even by doing this. However, it helps in some cases). Run the command:
lilo -M /dev/sda
Although there is very little information about it, the g_storage kernel module is responsible for the Neo's mass storage mode. So the boot-or-not criteria might rely on this very module.
Testing/further research has to be conducted to determine:
In short:
* Flash installation via Windows: XUbuntu, DSL, Knoppix, Slax, MiniMe * Flash installation via Linux: Ubuntu Edgy, Knoppix, PCLinuxOS
Transflash partitioning schema example
The limitation of this method is that the booted OS is static (not-self modifiable). There's the option to install linux using the partition, but it's not really mobility-oriented (liveCDs are optimized for maximum autoconfiguration).
The ideal way of doing it would be to have a bootloader on the usb flash, which would offer booting directly from an iso (stored on the very same device). This way, just download the new iso, and it's updated !
Hints to explore:
If you want to boot from a iso file on a harddisk, do something in menu.lst like title Boot from iso on a harddisk map (hdX,Y)/your.iso (hdZ) map --rehook chainloader (hdZ)+1 rootnoverify (hdZ) boot
Grub & memdisk can boot floppy images, but (AFAIK) not isos. Example from the stock /boot/grub/menu.lst ubuntu:
title Ubuntu, memtest86+ root (hd0,2) kernel /memtest86+.bin quiet boot
Using the memdisk kernel from the syslinux package, you can load disk images and execute them in a non-emulated environment.
bootfrom=/dev/hda1/KNX.iso
Bootfrom needs access to a running Knoppix-System with the same Kernel as the Bootkernel, before it is able to mount the partition / ISO-Image.
For limited storage devices (such as a transflash device), zero-install systems can be very interesting: you can download and run software, without installing it.
The most interesting projects so far seem to be:
One may choose/begin a zero-install-enabled distro for minimal footprint.
The following tutorial explains how to use Qemu to boot Linux from a portable USB flash device while still working within Windows. This Enables the user to have both systems running at the same time eliminating the need to restart the PC and set your BIOS options to boot Linux.
That's another alternative :)
"When plugged into the host computer’s USB port, BlackDog starts up, automatically launching the X Window system for Windows Xming and a software NAT router via an autorun application that the BlackDog presents to the host through a virtual USB CD-ROM. Once those applications are running, the virtual USB CD-ROM drive disconnects, and a virtual USB-to-Ethernet adapter is connected to provide the communications link.
The host machine’s monitor, keyboard, mouse, and Internet connection are used by the BlackDog for the duration of the session."
The BlackDog server project has lots of interesting concepts (and software).
System diagnostics / recovery
General purpose
Security-oriented: pentesting, forensics, anonymous webbrowsing
The SabayonLinux distro offers a lot of boot cheatcodes, such as booting onto GeexBox. We should take a look at the method used.
List of live distros @ livecdlist.com Includes sizes
List of live distros @ wikipedia