[lubuntu-users] Boot from SD card? Why not?

[Nio Wiklund]

Hi Basil,

This is a good summary :-)

Best regards
Nio

Den 2016-06-07 kl. 00:26, skrev Basil Fernie:
> Hi Nio,
>
> Yes, thank you for your earlier reply with pix which arrived too late
> for me to acknowledge in my latest e-mail to you.
>
> To summarise my current understanding:
>
>     There is nothing inherent in the design of SDHC cards and adapters
>     to make them unfit as boot devices for laptops etc. Certain laptops
>     (e.g. some Asus eee's) are known to boot direct from the card-reader
>     slot. Some other machines will boot from a card if it is fitted via
>     a card-to-USB adapter.
>
>     The adapter is needed to provide a target for the boot system to
>     know it must look amongst listed USB devices (of a "stick" type) for
>     the boot device. Thus the adapter allows the machine's USB system to
>     drive the card in all respects as if it were a USB stick.
>
>     Therefore there is no need for a machine to have a special SD reader
>     system if it already has USB, it could have been designed for the
>     reader slot to appear internally as just another USB device listed
>     in the boot options menu.
>
>     No amount of unetbootln, mkusb or Startup Disk Creator activity on
>     the SD card itself will enable your laptop to boot from it if the
>     card reader slot is not accessible via the boot device menu,
>     possibly via a USB proxy.
>
>     It may or may not be possible to coerce your laptop's boot menu to
>     include a card reader, but at present I do not feel confident about
>     imposing thus successfully on the firmware.
>
> However with the information on the links you have provided, I may be
> able to report a more favourable status quite soon. Here's hoping, and
> thanks again!
>
> Best regards
> Basil Fernie
>
>
>
>
> On 06/06/2016 07:31 PM, Nio Wiklund wrote:
>> Hi Basil,
>>
>> You get the acknowledgement, that I have read you message like this: a
>> reply :-)
>>
>> At least older Asus eeePCs boot from the card reader slot. See this link
>>
>> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1981199
>>
>> At that time I recommended the naked dd command. Now that I have made
>> mkusb, I recommend to use it in order to wrap a safety belt around dd.
>>
>> I don't know about 'full size' Asus laptops.
>>
>> There are work-arounds for computers that will not boot directly from
>> an SD slot, 'chainloading'. See these links
>>
>> http://www.barryhubbard.com/linux/booting-acer-aspire-one-from-sd-card/
>>
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick#Chainloading
>>
>> I think there are many methods to use chainloading, some easier, some
>> more complicated. This method for Acer Aspire looks complicated to me,
>> but gives you an idea of what people do to achieve similar things to
>> what you want.
>>
>> -o-
>>
>> Notice that you sent this mail only to me (at least no other visible
>> receiver). If you want replies from other people, please send to the
>> mailing lists. The reason why I sent the mail 'only to you' is that
>> the mailing lists do not accept big mails, and the attached pictures
>> make them exceed that limit (if I remember correctly 40 kB).
>>
>> Best regards
>> Nio
>>
>> Den 2016-06-06 kl. 18:47, skrev Basil Fernie:
>>>   Hi Nio, Nice collection!
>>>
>>> Now I am thinking of your 2nd-pic, bottom-RH corner, pretty-well
>>> universal SD-SDHC adaptor which, when pushed into the slot at the side
>>> of the Samsung, projects all of 3 or 4mm. The one I use more or less
>>> permanently on my Lenovo projects all of 1mm, virtually invisible and
>>> virtually undamageable, not at all intrusive. Might as well be installed
>>> internally - except that I can take it out very easily when I wish, and
>>> I can put in another when I wish. Unlike an internal HDD.
>>>
>>> Why would I want to insert that into a rather clumsy USB adapter when
>>> the USB-adapting could be done internally?
>>>
>>> I have quite a collection of USB sticks, also HDDs going all the way
>>> back to Seagate 20MB units(!), and a handful of SDHC cards which I have
>>> slowly been realising I have not been using to their full potential. Or
>>> at least to their full /potential/ potential, which is being made
>>> inaccessible by unimaginative system designers who prevent routine
>>> booting from SDHCs.
>>>
>>> Rant over, thank you for listening and contributing. Anyone who knows of
>>> laptop brands or models that routinely enable booting from SD/SDHC
>>> cards, please alert me.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Basil Fernie
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 6/2016 07:34 AM, Nio Wiklund wrote:
>>>> Den 2016-06-05 kl. 23:31, skrev Basil Fernie:
>>>>> I'm not looking for more USB slots, but for fewer sticking-out or
>>>>> cabley
>>>>> things.
>>>>
>>>> Hi Basil,
>>>>
>>>> Sticking out, yes, cabley, no :-)
>>>>
>>>> My smallest adapter is very small but not very rugged. The bigger ones
>>>> seem more able to take some mechanical abuse.
>>>>
>>>> Best regards
>>>> Nio