My subject says it all, and I need your help. First, I'll be honest and say I know nothing about Linux, and since it is not required of me in my job to support Linux, my desire to learn all the ins and outs of it is really non-existent. I only want to find out how to make the subject line work, and be able to save the steps in case of program updates in the future. I also know the previous statement may not help in obtaining help here, but I did want to be upfront with everyone, so please at least review my scenario: My job is to build and test PCs, running vendor-specific diagnostics on each. These diagnostics are on CDs, and I currently have table space to build and test 24 PCs at one time. However, more and more of our PCs are being built without CDROM or DVDROM drives. This requires me to attach a CDROM drive to each of the 24 to test. After testing, the CDROM drives must be disconnected and returned to the shelf. As you can imagine, this can become quite tedious. I've approached our software support group with the idea of placing these linux-based diags on a USB thumb drive, but they said they didn't have time for a project such as that, nor did they want to have to support such a venture in the future, in case the vendor releases a newer version of diagnostics. So, I approached a friend of mine that has some knowledge of these things, and he has the thumb drive booting fine to a certain point, but then it goes out and looks for the diags on the CD. Of course, with no CD, it hangs. He has tested this approach by copying one of the files/folders from the original diagnostic CD over to a non-bootable CD, and booting from the thumb. It then finds the file/folder it's looking for on the non-bootable CD, and the diag program runs. My question is, how do we go about finding out where this "mapping script" is and changing it? In short, how do we tell the program "Don't look for the CD, look HERE on the thumb?" Thanks in advance for your patience, and any assistance.
Ask the devs who make whatever distro you're trying to (ab)use. There are also guides on the net for making USB live setups, that'll be a Google job. It can by all means be done, but you're asking in the wrong place I think.
it's not something i've done as i've always got access to cd/dvd drive to run live cd's from, plus i don't think any of my machines support booting from USB (never really thought about i anyway) but just did a quick google and found a couple of useful links for you - http://pendrivelinux.com/ http://pendrivelinux.com/2006/09/19/all-in-one-usb-pclinuxos-minimezip Pasted that 2nd link as i use PCLinuxOS on a couple of my machines and it's an excuse to recommend PCLinuxOS
OzMick, thanks. I'll check out the USB live setups Creaky, I've been to that pendrive site many times, and it seems to be about 42 miles over my head. There are many sites out there to assist in booting to the USB thumb, but I've already got that far. I just need to tell the program to quit looking for the CD - it will find all the files it needs on the thumb. Thanks again.
Is it a possibility to maybe get an external CD/DVD drive and boot from that? They don't cost a great deal these days, and are probably an easier solution. The time it'll save the company will probably pay itself off within a day, so you'd have a strong argument for having them pay for it.
Oz, Actually, that's what our software support people suggested, and I'll use that as a last resort, but thumb drives would be easier, cheaper, and there would be 24 less cables on my workbenches = neater. Last I checked, a USB CDROM drive was about $80 each. 1GB thumb goes for about $16. Many thanks.
