[marsbt]

For those who are interested in playing with the MacBook Pro hardware and still want to keep the original Mac OS X install as it is. I was able to install Debian Linux on a USB stick connected to my MBP without even touching the internal hard disk. Details here here. Leave comments here for suggestions.

PS: this installation does not use the monstrous install of Boot Camp either

[tavin64]

I just installed debian on my 1gb flash drive and it worked like a charm. I am pretty sure this method will work for any distribution you want. I went to Fry's earlier today and they had a Memorex 6gb usb flash drive on sale for $49 and now it gives me a reason to get one .

Maybe this method would also work for windows xp as long as you use a big enough flash drive.

[marsbt]

Me too looking for a cheap 4GB USB flash disk.

Other major distributions should work too. I was going to try this first with Ubuntu but it did could not give me the live desktop from the LIVE CD. I could have gone via the commandline mode but then I popped in the Debian CD and it worked pretty nicely. Will try Ubuntu in the next few days though.

I don't know if installing XP will work this way. I wonder what its boot loader will do if installed on the USB disk. Also, the drivers for the Macbook Pro are there in Boot Camp. Do comment here if you can install Windows XP on an MBP with touching the internel HDD.

[tavin64]

Use the Ubuntu Alternate CD instead of the Desktop Live CD. The alternate cd is exactly like the debian net-install. Only problem is that you will need a flash disk greater than 1gb to install ubuntu. Unless you go for Xubuntu which is smaller than the kde or gnome iterations.

[ixus_123]

that's cool.

Don't use a swap partition or a journaling filesystem on the USB stick though or you'll trash it (Flash drives can only handle so many writes & swap & journaling write constantly).

[marsbt]

While it is a good practice to not use a journaling filesystem on a USB flash media, but if you think about it practically it doesn't really matter. I say that because I don't care if the disk dies about an year or so of usage they are less than $10 these days (1GB). Also, flash disks are smart these days to not write on bad sectors and hence you can use them for much longer. So go use flash media for your system. I wonder if they support SMART though

[marsbt]

Originally Posted by tavin64 

Use the Ubuntu Alternate CD instead of the Desktop Live CD. The alternate cd is exactly like the debian net-install. Only problem is that you will need a flash disk greater than 1gb to install ubuntu. Unless you go for Xubuntu which is smaller than the kde or gnome iterations.

Ah, yes. That was what I had in mind earlier but completely forgot when was trying to install. But I am a bit surprised that the alternate install requires more than 1GB of space. Doesn't it give an option of the base-install like the debian-installer? Now I am more inclined to try it out to test what it gives! You got me started again

[marsbt]

Uhh huh! The Ubuntu Alternate disc is 696MB and my CD-RW is only 650MB. With such a size, the alternate disc definitely has much much more than the d-i's base install and installer. Another reason for me to love the choice Debian offers

[tavin64]

Originally Posted by marsbt 

Uhh huh! The Ubuntu Alternate disc is 696MB and my CD-RW is only 650MB. With such a size, the alternate disc definitely has much much more than the d-i's base install and installer. Another reason for me to love the choice Debian offers

You can choose what to actually install with the Alternate disc. If you just want to install the base system like debian you can do that.

[Big Mac]

What purpose would this serve?

[utw-Mephisto]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

What purpose would this serve?

Considering the affordable USB stick size this is probably just a geek factor

[marsbt]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

What purpose would this serve?

Chioce