From owner-cvs-src@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Mar 26 15:22:56 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: cvs-src@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A704D37B407 for ; Wed, 26 Mar 2003 15:22:56 -0800 (PST) Received: from rootlabs.com (root.org [67.118.192.226]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 1F60743FBD for ; Wed, 26 Mar 2003 15:22:55 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from nate@rootlabs.com) Received: (qmail 28311 invoked by uid 1000); 26 Mar 2003 23:22:38 -0000 Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 15:22:38 -0800 (PST) From: Nate Lawson To: Anders Nordby In-Reply-To: <20030326220019.GA42913@totem.fix.no> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-22.3 required=5.0 tests=AWL,EMAIL_ATTRIBUTION,IN_REP_TO,QUOTED_EMAIL_TEXT, REPLY_WITH_QUOTES,USER_AGENT_PINE autolearn=ham version=2.50 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.50 (1.173-2003-02-20-exp) cc: cvs-src@FreeBSD.org cc: src-committers@FreeBSD.org cc: cvs-all@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/dev/usb umass.c X-BeenThere: cvs-src@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: CVS commit messages for the src tree List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 23:22:58 -0000 On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, Anders Nordby wrote: > On Tue, Mar 25, 2003 at 06:21:16PM +0100, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote: > > Booting from USB devices ? > > Booting from USB devices is particularly interesting when it comes to > these small flash disks etc. If only the BIOSes could support them > (don't know if there are some that do this yet). Given that CD-Roms > need to be burned, and floppies are obsolete, I was hoping we could boot > from small devices like this.. Surprise, you can. Compact flash speaks ATA so you just need a converter from compact flash to 3.5 or 1.5" standard hard drive connectors. They cost about $20 online. The USB CF adapters have a chip in them that speaks UMASS (SCSI over USB) on the host side and ATA on the flash side. So if you can boot an ATA drive, you can boot CF(*). ATA and SCSI aren't that different nowadays. -Nate * Modulo some systems that have bios bugs in addressing CF