View source for Wishlist/LiveUSB distro

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Return to Wishlist/LiveUSB distro.

Retrieved from "http://openmoko.org/wiki/Wishlist/LiveUSB_distro"
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An openmoko device could act as the perfect geeky swiss knive: go anywhere with your Linux desktop and tools

When in storage device 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...

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.

Similar functionality can be found in the Wizpy portable media player: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizpy

The booted payloads must'nt rely on dedicated partitionning; for instance, Ubuntu's boot menu offers memtest execution, here's the grub config line (/boot/grub/menu.lst):

title Ubuntu, memtest86+ root (hd0,2) kernel /memtest86+.bin quiet boot

The file is located /boot/memtest86+.bin What's this file? An ISO? ....

TODO: - can one do the same with a distro - how to have a writable system (to keep changes) - can it already be done? - partitions or binary images? - what are the compatibility tricks?

Requirements: - The booted OS should be able to access to openmoko's personal data (ex contacts directory, media files...) - the device should charge at the same time - integrate qemu for in-other-OSes loading (without rebooting) - if possible, the device should still work normally: act as gprs modem, phone

The only function used by the host computer is the storage device