[Cialug] got USB Floppy Drive?

[Tim Champion]

On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Paul Gray <gray at cs.uni.edu> wrote:
> Aaron Porter wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 6:41 PM, Tim Champion <timchampion at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> It also has PXE boot option, so if anybody has a PXE network boot
>>> environment already set up, that might be nice too.
>>>
>>
>> Setting up a PXE environment can be really easy and might be a really
>> great time investment (most new hardware can PXE, VMware can pxe,
>> etc). As an example, a Debian server/router on a "spare" subnet (host
>> ip of 192.168.0.1) to handle Debian/i386 installs:
>>
>> apt-get install dhcp3-server tftpd-hpa
>> cd /var/lib/tftpboot && rsync -av --progress
>>
>> ftp.nl.debian.org::debian/dists/testing/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/
>> .
>>
>
> Nice and succinct!
>
> But why reach all the way over to the netherlands?
> http.us.debian.org and ftp.us.debian.org are both official rsync servers, as
> are servers from MSU:
> ftp.egr.msu.edu and ike.egr.msu.edu which would make a huge difference if
> you're pulling over Internet2.
>
>
> -PG
>
>
>

Since I didn't get any quick responses, I went ahead and set up a PXE
"server" at home using a spare PC.  Hooked up the lifebook with a
crossover cable, and got it to boot Puppy Linux over PXE.  It took a
lot of trial and error, but I figured it out.  After it loaded the
kernel, it had access to the USB flash drive, so I put puppy's SFS
file on the flash drive.

Since puppy linux boots into RAM, it doesn't need the boot medium
after its initial boot, so set up the wifi, and unplugged it from the
PXE server, and I'm good to go.  I just have to plug in the network
cable to the PXE server if I want to boot it again.

I woke my wife up at 11:00 last night when I got it working. She was a
good sport.  :)  ... acted happy for me!

Tim Champion
timchampion at gmail.com