[olug] Best Brand for Bootable USB Thumb Drives

[Rob Townley]

On 9/11/07, Dan Linder <dan at linder.org> wrote:
>
>  Rob Townley wrote:
>
> deja-vu!  Had this same problem with bootable cds many years ago, the answer
> was an OpenSource BIOS like LinuxBios or OpenBios.
>
> Shortly thereafter, i had a problem with pxe/mba v.99n and again the answer
> was an OpenSource BIOS.
>
> Now, bootable usb sticks require an OpenSource BIOS.
>
> You would think they would have learned by now.  If you can't tell, this has
> really got me aggravated.
>
>
> But you can't just install the OpenBIOS on just any motherboard/BIOS, or
> has it progressed that far?  (Forgive me, I haven't Googled yet and thought
> I'd ask since you appear to have recent experience with it.)
>
> Dan
>
> --
> - - - -
> "Wait for that wisest of all counselors, time." -- Pericles "I do not
> fear computers, I fear the lack of them." -- Isaac Asimov
>
>
Apologies .... i simply wished to emphasize the potential of an OpenSource
BIOS to do things that the BIOS vendors do not such as boot up my machine.
At the very least, it forces the BIOS manufacturers to compete.

The LinuxBios supported hardware list is rather long now at:

 http://www.linuxbios.org/Supported_Motherboards

 The OLPC project used LinuxBios for a while, then used LinuxBios with
OpenFirmware, and now it uses assembly with OpenFirmware.  This method
allows them to startup in about 2 seconds and resume in a few milliseconds.