Can the Acer one boot from the SD storage slot?

[aja]

Does the Acer aspire one support booting from the SD storage slot? The one that is supposed to be used for expanding the main storage. I'm looking at options for dual booting...

Thanks for any help!

[aja]

Answered my own question:

Storage Expansion Slot
There is also an SD/SDHC storage expansion slot on all models for additional storage. On Linux versions this automatically expands the space of the SSD or HDD using aufs. Windows XP models treat it as a normal removable drive. A second slot acts as a standard multi-in-1 flash memory card reader. However the BIOS does not support booting an operating system from these slots. It is possible to "update" or "flash" the BIOS to allow booting from these card reader slots.

reference (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspire_One)

[c6burns]

That reference to wikipedia is a whole lot of nothing.

[aja]

well as it happens it is true, but misleading. A BIOS update is needed, but it doesn't exist yet.

You have to use GRUB installed on the main HDD or a USB stick in order to boot from the SD slot

[c6burns]

I see no evidence with european or north american models of the ability to boot from SD readers. There is no mention of this feature in any BIOS release notes. I am running the latest BIOS available to canadian modles v3009. v3114 is the latest for european. Neither mention SD boot in release notes nor does my v3009 give any SD boot options of any kind with cards in either slot. Nor is the GRUB bootloader able to access SD cards (afaik) =D

Wikipedia article updated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspire_One#Storage

[c6burns]

well as it happens it is true, but misleading. A BIOS update is needed, but it doesn't exist yet.

You have to use GRUB installed on the main HDD or a USB stick in order to boot from the SD slot

You are mistaken. You are referring to booting off the MBR of the internal drive or USB, and then loading an initrd with the mmc modules to then further boot from SD. This is complex and also is NOT the same as booting from SD.

[sekai]

so to start off, aja, is the winner.
c6burns, you should read all over again.


so to start off.
aja asked if booting from the SDslot on the AAO was possible.
then, later on he then said he had found info saying " However the BIOS does not support booting an operating system from these slots. It is possible to "update" or "flash" the BIOS to allow booting from these card reader slots. "

he is not saying that the AAO can do this already in real time but IT CAN do it only IF there would be and update to the bios wich would give it the power to do so.

but you, c6burns, jumped in and said that you see nothing relating to this in any bios release notes.
this is true, but you said in a way, that the AAO will never be able to boot off the SDslot on any model of the AAO.

FALSE.
the bios could be able to boot off the SD slot IF in my opinion, the SD slot is treated as a USB device, so the SD slot could act just like any USB stick.
but also, even if the slot is not made as a USB device, the bios could maybe be programed, by an update, to be able to use this SDslot.

so basicly, you are thinking that aja was saying that its possible right now, but he never said it, this is why is was refering to using GRUB to boot and then get in the SD.

you just said its WAY TO COMPLICATED to do so... i dont see why it would be.
have you ever done it?
since you said its not possible, do you have solid proof its impossible?
i my self is using the AA0 atm, the canadian ZG5 model, i'm making this response from it lawl.

so to get back to the point.
you are taking this as if aja said its possible in real time wen he is saying only IF there was a bios update.
he clearly said it would require one to do so.

"well as it happens it is true, but misleading. A BIOS update is needed, but it doesn't exist yet."

so yeah... end of my point.

and one last thing..

c6burns said : "That reference to wikipedia is a whole lot of nothing."
next time you do a comment like this... you should proly' add details about why you said that...
anyways.


i'm off, prove me wrong all you want i wont ignore you if you do.
i may be wrong, true, but i'm just saying my point in waht you said back to him.

and why post a bunch of difrent post wen you could off all made them in one... "your time laps between all of them are very short."
maybe edit your first next time to add your stuff?
unless a new comment was left by somone els.

blah i'm ranting now xD
the end have a nice day and take care.

[aja]

You are mistaken. You are referring to booting off the MBR of the internal drive or USB, and then loading an initrd with the mmc modules to then further boot from SD. This is complex and also is NOT the same as booting from SD.

Yes, booting off the MBR is not true booting off the SD card, but it is a means to boot an operating system on the SD card.

so to start off, aja, is the winner.
c6burns, you should read all over again.


so to start off.
aja asked if booting from the SDslot on the AAO was possible.
then, later on he then said he had found info saying " However the BIOS does not support booting an operating system from these slots. It is possible to "update" or "flash" the BIOS to allow booting from these card reader slots. "

he is not saying that the AAO can do this already in real time but IT CAN do it only IF there would be and update to the bios wich would give it the power to do so.

but you, c6burns, jumped in and said that you see nothing relating to this in any bios release notes.
this is true, but you said in a way, that the AAO will never be able to boot off the SDslot on any model of the AAO.

FALSE.
the bios could be able to boot off the SD slot IF in my opinion, the SD slot is treated as a USB device, so the SD slot could act just like any USB stick.
but also, even if the slot is not made as a USB device, the bios could maybe be programed, by an update, to be able to use this SDslot.

so basicly, you are thinking that aja was saying that its possible right now, but he never said it, this is why is was refering to using GRUB to boot and then get in the SD.

you just said its WAY TO COMPLICATED to do so... i dont see why it would be.
have you ever done it?
since you said its not possible, do you have solid proof its impossible?
i my self is using the AA0 atm, the canadian ZG5 model, i'm making this response from it lawl.

so to get back to the point.
you are taking this as if aja said its possible in real time wen he is saying only IF there was a bios update.
he clearly said it would require one to do so.

"well as it happens it is true, but misleading. A BIOS update is needed, but it doesn't exist yet."
blah i'm ranting now xD
the end have a nice day and take care.

hehe slow down there cowboy! I was confused in the beginning as well. Hope there are no hard feelings c6burns :D

Turns out the SD adapter uses the PCIe bus and the BIOS only supports booting directly from USB devices. Fixing this should be a simple BIOS update from Acer, yet I really doubt that will happen any time soon. I am tired of waiting for updates from companies. Creative lost me as a customer since I waited for a looooong time for an XP x64 driver update.

The AAO is a great lappy, I just wished Acer had the same technically minded approach that Asus has with the EeePC.

On an unrelated note, have you tried eeebuntu (http://www.eeebuntu.org/) yet? It seems interesting!

[c6burns]

grub does not even support booting from mmcblk dev, but it will very very soon. other netbooks that boot from sd do so because the sd slot is actually a usb dev. as i found out after purchase and aja corectly points out, aspire one is pci.

boot from sd means you are booting from the sd card ... if u boot from hd its not from sd. plain and simple, cut and dried. i bought the acer one specifically with that function in mind. the distinction being made is important because booting from hd initrd -> sd requires modding the filesystem the unit ships with.

i appreciate your opinions on booting from sd on the aspire one, sekai, but im afraid you are reading things in my posts that arent there. i am simply being incredibly clear about the aspire one's ability to boot from sd card. it cannot do so on any model at this time. booting from hd initrd -> sd is complex. dont fool yourself ... ask your grandmother to do it? ... walk your friend through it over the phone? Doubtful. Apologies for being blunt to you aja ... i wasnt mad at you of course. i was mad at me for buying a netbook that cant boot from sd when thats what i wanted. but now at least ppl who research their hardware as poorly as me using wikipedia (maybe) wont make the same mistake.

i still like the unit its pretty sweet =D yes i dont expect the bios update soon either, but who knows

[aja]

You might find this (http://www.osnews.com/story/20743/Eeebuntu_2_0_SD_Card_Installation_on_the_Aspire_On e) interesting - eeebuntu on the SD card. Not a true boot or whatever, but it seems to work for this guy...