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How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick?

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  How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Błażej Popławski <blazejpop@wp.pl> - 2017-05-11 22:50 +0200
    Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2017-05-11 23:00 +0200
      Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Lisi Reisz <lisi.reisz@gmail.com> - 2017-05-12 01:00 +0200
        Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Ben Caradoc-Davies <ben@transient.nz> - 2017-05-12 01:20 +0200
      Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-05-12 02:10 +0200
        Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-05-12 14:50 +0200
      Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2017-05-12 02:40 +0200
      Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2017-05-12 16:10 +0200
        Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-05-13 12:00 +0200
          Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2017-05-13 12:40 +0200
            Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-05-13 14:30 +0200
              Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Błażej Popławski <blazejpop@wp.pl> - 2017-05-14 10:20 +0200
        Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Błażej Popławski <blazejpop@wp.pl> - 2017-05-13 13:10 +0200
          Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Pascal Hambourg <pascal@plouf.fr.eu.org> - 2017-05-13 13:30 +0200
          Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-05-13 20:50 +0200
            Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Błażej Popławski <blazejpop@wp.pl> - 2017-05-14 10:20 +0200
              Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-05-15 09:00 +0200
    Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-05-11 23:10 +0200
      Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-05-12 15:00 +0200
        Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-05-12 19:40 +0200
          Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-05-12 21:30 +0200
            Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2017-05-12 21:50 +0200
            Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-05-12 23:40 +0200
              Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-05-13 12:00 +0200
                Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Pascal Hambourg <pascal@plouf.fr.eu.org> - 2017-05-13 12:40 +0200
                  Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-05-13 14:20 +0200
                Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-05-13 14:10 +0200
                  Re: How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-05-13 14:30 +0200

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#180939 — How to run Debian from SD card but booting from USB stick?

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I have a laptop which allows for booting from USB sticks but not from internal
SD card reader.
Is it possible to install Debian on SD card with /boot catalog and bootloader
on USB stick in such a way that it would work? I mean: boot Debian from USB
stick, but the whole system will be installed and will run from SD
card inserted
in internal SD card reader?
I've found such solution for Ubuntu (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot
<https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot=>FromSD) and I'm wondering if it
will work for Debian.

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#180940

On 05/11/2017 03:44 PM, Błażej Popławski wrote:
> I have a laptop which allows for booting from USB sticks but not from internal
> SD card reader.
> Is it possible to install Debian on SD card with /boot catalog and bootloader
> on USB stick in such a way that it would work? I mean: boot Debian from USB
> stick, but the whole system will be installed and will run from SD
> card inserted
> in internal SD card reader?
> I've found such solution for Ubuntu (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot
> <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot=>FromSD) and I'm wondering if it
> will work for Debian.
>

Your URL is garbled. I tried some quick fixes but didn't work.

Whether you can do so in general case is disputed on this forum.
However I have done it on a Lenovo T510.
I'll post more later, am hot on trail of documenting a bug, if not 
solving it.

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#180942

On Thursday 11 May 2017 21:58:09 Richard Owlett wrote:
> > <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot=>FromSD) and I'm wondering if it
> > will work for Debian.
>
> Your URL is garbled. I tried some quick fixes but didn't work.

Works fine for me. :-/

Lisi

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#180943

On 12/05/17 10:58, Lisi Reisz wrote:
> On Thursday 11 May 2017 21:58:09 Richard Owlett wrote:
>>> <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot=>FromSD) and I'm wondering if it
>>> will work for Debian.
>> Your URL is garbled. I tried some quick fixes but didn't work.
> Works fine for me. :-/
> Lisi

The original URL should have been 
<https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromSD>. The original text was 
wrapped by MIME quoted-printable 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quoted-printable>, which seems to have 
broken the URL for some email clients.

Appendix C of RFC 3986 <https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#appendix-C> 
recommends delimiting URIs in plain text with angle brackets. This is 
especially useful for URLs used in flowing text where the interpretation 
of trailing punctuation might be ambiguous. I do not know if this would 
have helped with MIME quoted-printable.

Kind regards,

-- 
Ben Caradoc-Davies <ben@transient.nz>
Director
Transient Software Limited <http://transient.nz/>
New Zealand

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#180944

On Thu 11 May 2017 at 15:58:09 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:

> On 05/11/2017 03:44 PM, Błażej Popławski wrote:
> >I have a laptop which allows for booting from USB sticks but not from internal
> >SD card reader.
> >Is it possible to install Debian on SD card with /boot catalog and bootloader
> >on USB stick in such a way that it would work? I mean: boot Debian from USB
> >stick, but the whole system will be installed and will run from SD
> >card inserted
> >in internal SD card reader?
> >I've found such solution for Ubuntu (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot
> ><https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot=>FromSD) and I'm wondering if it
> >will work for Debian.
> >
> 
> Your URL is garbled. I tried some quick fixes but didn't work.
> 
> Whether you can do so in general case is disputed on this forum.

Really? Where? Certainly not in the thread starting at

 https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/04/msg00329.html

Somewhere else? A link, please. Or maybe you are thinking of some other
disputed topic.

> However I have done it on a Lenovo T510.

No, you haven't. Read what the OP wants to do. The first post at

 https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/04/msg00329.html

describes what you did. Not a USB stick in sight when it came to booting.

-- 
Brian.

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#180950

On Fri 12 May 2017 at 01:03:55 +0100, Brian wrote:

> On Thu 11 May 2017 at 15:58:09 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:

[....]

> > However I have done it on a Lenovo T510.
> 
> No, you haven't. Read what the OP wants to do. The first post at
> 
>  https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/04/msg00329.html
> 
> describes what you did. Not a USB stick in sight when it came to booting.

An unthinking comment; your HD took the place of a USB stick. So, yes,
you have done it.

-- 
Brian.

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#180945

On Thu 11 May 2017 at 15:58:09 (-0500), Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 05/11/2017 03:44 PM, Błażej Popławski wrote:
> >I have a laptop which allows for booting from USB sticks but not from internal
> >SD card reader.
> >Is it possible to install Debian on SD card with /boot catalog and bootloader
> >on USB stick in such a way that it would work? I mean: boot Debian from USB
> >stick, but the whole system will be installed and will run from SD
> >card inserted
> >in internal SD card reader?
> >I've found such solution for Ubuntu (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot
> ><https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot=>FromSD) and I'm wondering if it
> >will work for Debian.
> >
> 
> Your URL is garbled. I tried some quick fixes but didn't work.
> 
> Whether you can do so in general case is disputed on this forum.

It was discussed. Any dispute arose from stretching the terminology
beyond what Brian crystallised nicely in the terms "boot from" and
"boot into".

What the OP describes above is clearly "booting into". However, the
web page referred to is a good example of careless language:

Heading:
"How to install and boot *from* an SD card"
The next sentence contradicts it:
"…where the BIOS cannot boot *from* SD"

> However I have done it on a Lenovo T510.
> I'll post more later, am hot on trail of documenting a bug, if not
> solving it.

Cheers,
David.

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#180953

On 05/11/2017 03:58 PM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 05/11/2017 03:44 PM, Błażej Popławski wrote:
>> I have a laptop which allows for booting from USB sticks but not from
>> internal
>> SD card reader.
>> Is it possible to install Debian on SD card with /boot catalog and
>> bootloader
>> on USB stick in such a way that it would work? I mean: boot Debian
>> from USB
>> stick, but the whole system will be installed and will run from SD
>> card inserted
>> in internal SD card reader?
>> I've found such solution for Ubuntu
>> (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot
>> <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot=>FromSD) and I'm wondering if it
>> will work for Debian.
>>
>
> Your URL is garbled. I tried some quick fixes but didn't work.

As mentioned elsewhere in this thread the original URL should have been 
shown as <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromSD>.

>
> Whether you can do so in general case is disputed on this forum.
> However I have done it on a Lenovo T510.
> I'll post more later, am hot on trail of documenting a bug, if not
> solving it.

I've given the referenced article an initial read.
I can not comment on the details as that is not how I did it.
It does raise two important questions:
   1. Why do it?
   2. Why do it in a specific manner?

In that author's case he gives a partial answer to the first and none 
for the second.

In my case I needed a test to demonstrate whether or not a particular SD 
could/would function in a recently purchased *USED* laptop with an 
unknown history.
As I said in https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/04/msg00329.html
   "... the agreement with the store was if the card did not work in
    this machine I would not have to purchase it. My acceptance test
    was to install Jessie using a flash drive with DVD 1 of 13 of
    Debian 8.6.0."

In your case "Why install part of the OS to the SD card if you have to 
have the flash drive at all times to launch the OS?"

Other questions that could lead to better answers:
What is the specific laptop?
What is the current OS?
How much free space is on the hard-drive?
How important is speed? {In my particular case I found running from the 
flash drive significantly faster than running from the SD card.}

HTH

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#180967

On Fri 12 May 2017 at 09:08:50 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:

> In your case "Why install part of the OS to the SD card if you have to have
> the flash drive at all times to launch the OS?"

In your case "Why install part of the OS to the SD card if you have to have
the hard disk drive at all times to launch the OS?"

-- 
Brian.

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#180969

On 05/13/2017 04:59 AM, Brian wrote:
> On Fri 12 May 2017 at 09:08:50 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
>
>> In your case "Why install part of the OS to the SD card if you have to have
>> the flash drive at all times to launch the OS?"
>
> In your case "Why install part of the OS to the SD card if you have to have
> the hard disk drive at all times to launch the OS?"
>

*ROFL* *!!!*
Please *READ* content before snipping.
I strongly suggest reading paragraph beginning "In my case I needed ..." 
in potion you snipped ;/

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#180977

On Sat 13 May 2017 at 05:36:56 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:

> On 05/13/2017 04:59 AM, Brian wrote:
> >On Fri 12 May 2017 at 09:08:50 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> >
> >>In your case "Why install part of the OS to the SD card if you have to have
> >>the flash drive at all times to launch the OS?"
> >
> >In your case "Why install part of the OS to the SD card if you have to have
> >the hard disk drive at all times to launch the OS?"
> >
> 
> *ROFL* *!!!*
> Please *READ* content before snipping.
> I strongly suggest reading paragraph beginning "In my case I needed ..." in
> potion you snipped ;/

So the OP has no desire to test or demonstrate whether or not an SD card
would function in his machine?

-- 
Brian.

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#180995

2017-05-13 14:28 GMT+02:00 Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk>:
> On Sat 13 May 2017 at 05:36:56 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
>
>> On 05/13/2017 04:59 AM, Brian wrote:
>> >On Fri 12 May 2017 at 09:08:50 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
>> >
>> >>In your case "Why install part of the OS to the SD card if you have to have
>> >>the flash drive at all times to launch the OS?"
>> >
>> >In your case "Why install part of the OS to the SD card if you have to have
>> >the hard disk drive at all times to launch the OS?"
>> >
>>
>> *ROFL* *!!!*
>> Please *READ* content before snipping.
>> I strongly suggest reading paragraph beginning "In my case I needed ..." in
>> potion you snipped ;/
>
> So the OP has no desire to test or demonstrate whether or not an SD card
> would function in his machine?
>
> --
> Brian.
>
>

There is a desire.
But I also have other things to do. I'm sorry but I cannot keep up to
date with the thread.

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#180971

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

I don't have to do this for purpose. I was just wondering if it can be done
without much work spent on it.

This laptop is an old Toshiba Satellite A300.
Main OS is Win7.
I have plenty of space on my hard drive. As I wrote, I'm just curious about
the answer.

2017-05-12 16:08 GMT+02:00 Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net>:

> On 05/11/2017 03:58 PM, Richard Owlett wrote:
>
>> On 05/11/2017 03:44 PM, Błażej Popławski wrote:
>>
>>> I have a laptop which allows for booting from USB sticks but not from
>>> internal
>>> SD card reader.
>>> Is it possible to install Debian on SD card with /boot catalog and
>>> bootloader
>>> on USB stick in such a way that it would work? I mean: boot Debian
>>> from USB
>>> stick, but the whole system will be installed and will run from SD
>>> card inserted
>>> in internal SD card reader?
>>> I've found such solution for Ubuntu
>>> (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot
>>> <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot=>FromSD) and I'm wondering if it
>>> will work for Debian.
>>>
>>>
>> Your URL is garbled. I tried some quick fixes but didn't work.
>>
>
> As mentioned elsewhere in this thread the original URL should have been
> shown as <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromSD>.
>
>
>> Whether you can do so in general case is disputed on this forum.
>> However I have done it on a Lenovo T510.
>> I'll post more later, am hot on trail of documenting a bug, if not
>> solving it.
>>
>
> I've given the referenced article an initial read.
> I can not comment on the details as that is not how I did it.
> It does raise two important questions:
>   1. Why do it?
>   2. Why do it in a specific manner?
>
> In that author's case he gives a partial answer to the first and none for
> the second.
>
> In my case I needed a test to demonstrate whether or not a particular SD
> could/would function in a recently purchased *USED* laptop with an unknown
> history.
> As I said in https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/04/msg00329.html
>   "... the agreement with the store was if the card did not work in
>    this machine I would not have to purchase it. My acceptance test
>    was to install Jessie using a flash drive with DVD 1 of 13 of
>    Debian 8.6.0."
>
> In your case "Why install part of the OS to the SD card if you have to
> have the flash drive at all times to launch the OS?"
>
> Other questions that could lead to better answers:
> What is the specific laptop?
> What is the current OS?
> How much free space is on the hard-drive?
> How important is speed? {In my particular case I found running from the
> flash drive significantly faster than running from the SD card.}
>
> HTH
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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#180972

Le 13/05/2017 à 13:07, Błażej Popławski a écrit :
> I don't have to do this for purpose. I was just wondering if it can be done
> without much work spent on it.
>
> This laptop is an old Toshiba Satellite A300.
> Main OS is Win7.
> I have plenty of space on my hard drive. As I wrote, I'm just curious about
> the answer.

Deloptes' first reply provided the answer. To summarize :
- the boot loader and /boot must be on a bootable media,
- the kernel or initramfs must embed the drivers to access / and /usr.

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#180988

On Sat 13 May 2017 at 13:07:31 +0200, Błażej Popławski wrote:

> I don't have to do this for purpose. I was just wondering if it can be done
> without much work spent on it.
> 
> This laptop is an old Toshiba Satellite A300.
> Main OS is Win7.
> I have plenty of space on my hard drive. As I wrote, I'm just curious about
> the answer.

Does your curiosity extend to trying out any of the ideas expressed in
this thread? Those who participated (and others) would find it useful to
know how you went about booting into a Debian OS from a USB stick. The
work involved seems very slight.

-- 
Brian.

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#180994

2017-05-13 20:44 GMT+02:00 Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk>:
>
> On Sat 13 May 2017 at 13:07:31 +0200, Błażej Popławski wrote:
>
> > I don't have to do this for purpose. I was just wondering if it can be done
> > without much work spent on it.
> >
> > This laptop is an old Toshiba Satellite A300.
> > Main OS is Win7.
> > I have plenty of space on my hard drive. As I wrote, I'm just curious about
> > the answer.
>
> Does your curiosity extend to trying out any of the ideas expressed in
> this thread? Those who participated (and others) would find it useful to
> know how you went about booting into a Debian OS from a USB stick. The
> work involved seems very slight.
>
> --
> Brian.
>
>

As for now I've tried to do the same thing (for Ubuntu) as the author
of the wiki page which I linked at the beginning. But it didn't work
for me.
I saw that someone wrote, that the drivers for SD are loaded at the
booting time, so I assume that it should be straightforward: install
OS (Debian) on SD with /boot and bootloader on USB stick. Without any
additional work.
I've done it once but it didn't started and in the act of anger I
formatted both, SD and USB stick. Then I realized that I didn't set
the boot flag for USB. :)
Installation took long hours (I read something about that issue) and
for now I don't have the time to repeat that process.

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#181015

Błażej Popławski wrote:

> I saw that someone wrote, that the drivers for SD are loaded at the
> booting time, so I assume that it should be straightforward: install
> OS (Debian) on SD with /boot and bootloader on USB stick. Without any
> additional work.

We've said that boot should be on USB as well

> I've done it once but it didn't started and in the act of anger I
> formatted both, SD and USB stick. Then I realized that I didn't set
> the boot flag for USB. :)

no surprise here
BTW boot flag shouldn't be an issue, but it depends on the bios.

> Installation took long hours (I read something about that issue) and
> for now I don't have the time to repeat that process.

Different issue.

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#180941

Błażej Popławski wrote:

> I have a laptop which allows for booting from USB sticks but not from
> internal SD card reader.
> Is it possible to install Debian on SD card with /boot catalog and
> bootloader on USB stick in such a way that it would work? I mean: boot
> Debian from USB stick, but the whole system will be installed and will run
> from SD card inserted
> in internal SD card reader?
> I've found such solution for Ubuntu
> (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot
> <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot=>FromSD) and I'm wondering if it
> will work for Debian.

You need the bootloader on the usb stick (grub). The bootloader would pass
the loading of the kernel and initrd to the device where it is located. So
it is advisable to put your boot directory on the usb stick as well. When
you create the initrd, you should enable/include the drivers for the card
reader, so that the boot process may find the root file system and start
init/systemd 

regards

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#180951

On Thu 11 May 2017 at 23:04:29 +0200, deloptes wrote:

> Błażej Popławski wrote:
> 
> > I have a laptop which allows for booting from USB sticks but not from
> > internal SD card reader.
> > Is it possible to install Debian on SD card with /boot catalog and
> > bootloader on USB stick in such a way that it would work? I mean: boot
> > Debian from USB stick, but the whole system will be installed and will run
> > from SD card inserted
> > in internal SD card reader?
> > I've found such solution for Ubuntu
> > (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot
> > <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot=>FromSD) and I'm wondering if it
> > will work for Debian.
> 
> You need the bootloader on the usb stick (grub). The bootloader would pass
> the loading of the kernel and initrd to the device where it is located. So
> it is advisable to put your boot directory on the usb stick as well. When
> you create the initrd, you should enable/include the drivers for the card
> reader, so that the boot process may find the root file system and start
> init/systemd 

Would creating an initrd really be necessary?

-- 
Brian.

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#180955

Brian wrote:

> Would creating an initrd really be necessary?

Using stock kernel in most cases yes. Using custom kernel, you can compile
the modules in and won't need initrd.

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