BIOS on EMMC, to boot ubuntu from usb drive (with persistent storage)

#1

Hi,

I’m currently pretty happy with my RZ1s.

I’m building a pocket device (battery, touchscreen, Keyboard with Mousepad, 4USB outputs) I got it working pretty fine with both “Armbian” and the “native/original Radxa” Ubuntu Image. I’m putting it all together into a compact alu case (+ a hinge). This should work…

and now:
My original Idea would be, to boot my Ubuntu Image from my small Samsung USB stick(with a persistent memory) Getting a Lock and Key mechanism in one sense and having my os and data handy/deployable on any other mashine.

The questions are:

  1. What do I have to burn on to the (RZ1)EMMC to make Ubuntu boot from the USB?
  2. I suppose that the Hub that I use to get my multiple USB outputs, may not work with a BIOS? (I have no Idea)

I hope that it is possible to use/burn a BIOS on to the EMMC, it would be very handy to use my working enviroment on multiple mashines, without the need of the internet to sync the systems or without the need of a VPS for example. (Connecting from a “thin client” to a VPS = virtual private server on the cloud, hosted server, ect…) Having my work, tools and projects in my pocket feels pretty cool. I really care about making this possible.

I would be very happy to share the endresult with the community.
(I will also share a documentation)

Best Regards

#2

It’s possible, just set your rootfs to /dev/sda1. Which distro do you plan to run?

#3

I’m currently running Ubuntu minimal, (occasionally with GUI). I’m pretty confident with any distro, but I usually play(experiment) with Ubuntu, because of the support groups and the support I get on the net. I’m considering Debian for definitive projects, just because its said/considered more stable and secure. (at least thats what my teachers say) I’ll do my research about which distro community is putting more stress on the security side of things. Generally I also play with super lightweight distros (and I like them), but my choices finally come down to distros that are optimized for RISC/ARM architectures. (I’m taking the bet for ARM, because I believe that they are the future)

Thankyou for the Help. I will also try to design the alu case so I can access the SD-slot and do the magic by simply using an interchangable microSD that I can take with me. It should do the job by allowing me to take the enviroment with me (I will test if I can boot the system (from the microSD) when using it on a regular enviroment)

Best Regards