Comments on: Multiarchitecture Linux?

Question: Multiarchitecture Linux?

jackofsaxons — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 12:47:05 -0800

Is there such a distribution of linux that is multiarchitectural and designed to run off of a flash drive?

By: randomstriker

randomstriker — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 12:49:21 -0800

By: jackofsaxons

jackofsaxons — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 12:53:26 -0800

By multiarchitectural I was referring to the UniversalBinary standard that Apple has implemented. In other words, can I install a distro of linux on my thumbdrive that will boot from both powerpc and intel?

By: xil

xil — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 12:56:26 -0800

the UniversalBinary standard that Apple has implemented

Which is only for OS X, not Linux.

By: jackofsaxons

jackofsaxons — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 12:57:50 -0800

Let me simplify.

Can I put Linux on a thumbdrive that can boot off of any computer I stick it in?

By: SpecialK

SpecialK — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 13:00:03 -0800

No. Next question?

By: SpecialK

SpecialK — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 13:01:05 -0800

(Actually, you could put a bootloader on the drive that would let you select the kernel you use from a menu to be compatible with the architecture you're on ... but no, there is no globally compatible linux kernel.)

By: jackofsaxons

jackofsaxons — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 13:01:45 -0800

That's what I was looking for, thanks...

By: johannes

johannes — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 13:24:22 -0800

Actually, I don't think you'd be able to put a bootloader on the drive that will boot from a PowerPC or x86 machine. There are a few problems ranging from how the firmware/BIOS on each system recognizes the boot record, to the instruction set each system runs.

Of course, there is no UniversalBinary standard for Linux either, but that's only a problem if you can boot the system first.

By: mendel

mendel — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 13:46:53 -0800

Before you get to the "Linux" part, you have a simpler problem: Can you put a bootloader on a disk, thumb drive or otherwise, that will execute on both PowerPC and x86? That's the first fundamental "no", and the rest of it is moot.

By: jackofsaxons

jackofsaxons — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 14:46:21 -0800

Why not? I was under the impression you could boot off of a usb flash drive...

By: jackofsaxons

jackofsaxons — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 14:47:56 -0800

nevermind my last comment, I didn't read your full answer... durrr.

By: Zed_Lopez

Zed_Lopez — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:57:27 -0800

It might be possible to have both Windows and Mac versions of the Qemu emulator on your thumbdrive and have them emulate the same Linux environment. (You couldn't boot from the thumbdrive, though.)