Can you boot Ubuntu from an IDE flash drive?

[wgoldfarb]

I am a complete Linux newbie, looking to install it for the first time. After some reading I chose Ubuntu, as it seems one of the more "newbie friendly" distributions. I want to install it on a system where silence is key, and performance/speed are not that big of a deal.

While looking for silent HDD options I came accross these two options:

Cheaper:CF to IDE adapter (combined with a CF card)

More expensive: IDE Solid State drive

It would seem I can --in principle-- replace the system's HDD with one of these devices. The question: Is it possible to install Ubuntu on one of these? More important, would Ubuntu be able to boot from such a device?

The only information I found was about Windows (not Linux) and it said that Windows cannot boot from such devices, so I am not sure if other OSs can do so or not. (just for clarification, this will be installed in a laptop, so the adapter I eventually get will have to be a 44 pin IDE interface, but I just linked to the ones above for illustration of what I mean)

 

[drag]

I have a server at home that I boot up using a USB pen-drive. There is some monkying around with that to make it work 100% reliably, but it's not that big of deal.

With those IDE to flash adapters then you aren't going to even have those problems.

After the install you probably will want to do a few things, like mount a tmpfs to the /tmp directory (basicly a ramdisk) so to avoid unnessicary disk activity. But that is completely optional.

 

[wgoldfarb]

Thanks!

BTW, the guides in your sig are great. I have lots of reading to do!

 

[hasu]

I saw this a while ago, never tried yet though!

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

 

[elcamino74ss]

I carry a 512mb usb drive with a "live" install of damn small linux on it. lightweight os with a filesystem I can write to.

 

[wgoldfarb]

I am not familiar with Damn Small Linux, but I will definitely look into it. Thanks!