USB Memory Key booting

[Eric W. Biederman]

Steve Gehlbach <steve at nexpath.com> writes:

> Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> 
> > I don't think there is USB-IDE.  I think the stack looks like USB-SCSI.
> > The challenge is that the USB stack is fairly tall.
> > We should be able to incorporate a version of that into etherboot or FILO.
> > I don't think we want a version of that in the core of LinuxBIOS, but
> > I can be surprised.
> 
> I checked the latest EPIA BIOS and it says USB-HDD.
> 
> I figured the USB stack was deep; I may do some experimenting with Linux and
> booting from one of these and see what is involved.
> 
> I haven't checked the price to see how these compare with Compact Flash, but the
> 
> small size and ease of customer installation is attractive.  The CF requires an
> adaptor to IDE that is a little awkward.  The USB flash memory can be installed
> by a customer without opening the case, and saves the price of a CDROM drive
> (and the mechanical failure problems with a CDROM drive).  All of this is from
> the standpoint of an embedded system and may be of no interest to clusters.

I totally think USB is interesting.

My only concern is that we will have more problems getting it right than
we did IDE.

Eric