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

[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
>>
>
>

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