Arch Linux

graysky

Wiki Maintainer

From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,675

Website

is there an external boot option?

What I mean by this is booting a kernel without installed a bootloader.  For example, put Arch on a macbook pro and boot to it from the live CD again without installing grub/grub2 and use refit?

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CPU-optimized Linux-ck packages @ Repo-ck  • AUR packages • Zsh and other configs

fredo1664

Member

From: Ireland (but I'm French)

Registered: 2011-08-09

Posts: 29

Re: is there an external boot option?

Not sure it's what you want to do, but the Grub wiki explains how to install grub on a floppy disk instead of the MBR. I suppose you can also install it on a USB stick?

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I'm French and French people can't speak English, so please please please excuse the terrible English!

toad

Member

From: if only I knew

Registered: 2008-12-22

Posts: 1,775

Website

Re: is there an external boot option?

Or you could try supergrubdisk.org, I _think_ it recognizes kernels but am not 100% sure.

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never trust a toad...
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Gusar

Member

Registered: 2009-08-25

Posts: 3,606

Re: is there an external boot option?

I've just been reading this: http://refit.sourceforge.net/myths/ <- You don't need refit to boot Linux. Just install grub on the Arch partition instead of system-wide. If you do want to use refit, you can install it on a cd or usb-stick.

graysky

Wiki Maintainer

From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,675

Website

Re: is there an external boot option?

Thanks for the link Gusar - if I can put refit on a usb, and boot to linux preserving the native macosx loader, this would be the optimal solution.  I'll try it and post the results.

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CPU-optimized Linux-ck packages @ Repo-ck  • AUR packages • Zsh and other configs