[U-Boot] Boot X86 PC from USB using U_boot

[Jerry Van Baren]

Sasi, Anoop IN BLR SISL wrote:
> Hi all please help me
> 
> Am a beginner in Linux. I have a PC with UBUNTU 9.04 installed .
> I was trying to boot Linux PC from USB. I could able to boot PC with GRUB installed
> in USB .
> 
>  Is it possible to boot the PC (X86 architecture) from USB with U-Boot in the USB?

Theoretically, yes.  Practically, it would be a *LOT* of work and 
require hardware details that you probably cannot get (chipset register 
definitions, how to initialize them, etc.).

With GRUB, the manufacturer's BIOS initialize the chipset and then boots 
GRUB -> linux based on the already configured hardware.  U-Boot 
initializes the hardware, so you need the information that the PC BIOS / 
hardware manufacturer has (and won't tell you) to replace BIOS+GRUB with 
U-Boot.

There is some support for x86 in u-boot, but it is for one (?) specific 
x86 CPU, the AMD sc520, and your PC probably isn't running that.
http://git.denx.de/?p=u-boot.git;a=tree;f=cpu/i386;h=cf975ccb545ea90c755b573c1c695fde12d2ba4c;hb=HEAD

> What all configuration changes I need do to make this possible?

That is a huge open-ended question.  We don't have an answer.

> I have downloaded U-boot then configured and build for X86 architecture (sc520_cdp_config)
> And made a bootable partition in usb and copied u-boot image in to it and tried to boot from usb but
> It is not working.

You probably don't have a sc520.

> Please help me in this.................

Use the BIOS + GRUB.  It works very well.

> With best regards,
> Anoop Sasi

Best regards,
gvb