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IBM Using iPod to boot Linux on PCs

Posted by Hemos on Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:41 PM
from the cool-tech dept.
IBM Operating Systems Software Technology (Apple) Windows Linux Technology
Applejack writes "Looks like iPod fever has caught on to Big Blue. IBM has a yet unreleased iPod-based software for rescue, restore, and recovery of failed Windows PCs. I read this description of the software on Amit Singh's blog, whose group at IBM apparently created this stuff. If I understand this correctly (and I think I do), the iPod contains IBM's rescue software along with Linux. A crashed PC boots into Linux from the iPod, after which you get all kinds of rescue & restore functionality ... web browsing and all, even if the PC's drive is totally hosed. All this while the iPod keeps working normally as a music player as it would. The blog has pointers to further information, including a Windows Media demo of the thing. " Should be noted this is not iPod specific; USB devices will do.
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  • No, Really? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Oculus Habent (562837) * <oculus DOT habent AT gmail DOT com> on Friday March 11 2005, @12:42PM (#11911896) Journal
    Recovery tools? On an external hardrive of some sort? What will they think of next?!

    • Re:No, Really? (Score:4, Informative)

      by networkBoy (774728) on Friday March 11 2005, @12:43PM (#11911918) Homepage Journal
      No kidding. I could keep the iPod in my pocket stuffed with tunes, and simply use a USB thumb drive. . . which I already do, using BartPE.
      -nB

      • Re:No, Really? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Rei (128717) on Friday March 11 2005, @12:57PM (#11912115) Homepage
        Well, the nice thing is that it's designed to work on something that's commodity item and probably won't get lost as easily as rescue CDs. Plus, a lot of people still recover from floppy disks, and we all know what a pain that is with the very limited space and frequent bad blocks :P

        • Re:No, Really? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by xstonedogx (814876) <xstonedogx@gmail.com> on Friday March 11 2005, @01:29PM (#11912561)
          I'm confused. Aren't USB thumb drives also a commodity item that probably won't get lost? Heck, you can stick one on your keychain and they cost less than an iPod.

              • Re:No, Really? (Score:5, Funny)

                by telstar (236404) on Friday March 11 2005, @02:17PM (#11913122)
                "Why not use a regular USB drive? It's still much less expensive than an iPod."
                • 'cause it wouldn't get written up on Slashdot. Duh!

                • Re:No, Really? (Score:3, Insightful)

                  by _Swank (118097)
                  This doesn't really contain recovery tools. This works specifically with IBM Rescue and Recovery which is a program which creates images of your hard disk and stores them for later restoration. Up until now, these images were, as far as I know, restricted to residing on a hidden partition on your hard drive. Depending on the size of actual applications and data on your OS partition, these images could VERY EASILY top 1GB. Do you want to split that 30GB image over 50CDs or stick it on the unused portion

    • Re:No, Really? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Kenja (541830) on Friday March 11 2005, @12:54PM (#11912077)
      Next they'll start using shinny discs with microscopic pock marks that are "readable" with a high focus laser diod. Naw, thats the stuff of science fiction.
    • Some sort of keyboard/display arrangement, and emacs on the ipod.
      But what sort of music would be suitable for the RMS ad campaign? The Residents [musicstack.com]?
      They have eyes, you know. ;)

  • Hello Help Desk (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nom du Keyboard (633989) on Friday March 11 2005, @12:43PM (#11911908)
    ...and then I deleted all that other stuff to make more room for my iTunes purchases, and now my system won't recover.

  • OOOOHHHH LOOK AT ME!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Thud457 (234763) on Friday March 11 2005, @12:43PM (#11911911) Homepage Journal
    I'm using my $699 iPod as a substitue for a $0.10 Knoppix liveCD!!!

  • hmmm... (Score:4, Funny)

    by thirteenVA (759860) on Friday March 11 2005, @12:43PM (#11911915)
    Is there anything the iPod can't do? ;)

  • Free (Score:5, Informative)

    by QMO (836285) on Friday March 11 2005, @12:44PM (#11911927) Homepage Journal
    Aren't there several free live linux distros already easily available with the same capability?
    • Yes, and they're very helpful. I can't count all the times a livecd has pulled one of my desperate friends out of a jam. They also serve as an introduction to linux for them, when they wouldn't have otherwise tried one.

      I guess the nice thing about this is that alot of people always have their iPods around, and you have something to write back to if you can recover some lost stuff off your drive.

    • Re:Free (Score:3, Interesting)

      by spongman (182339)
      You're right, there are.

      But it begs the question: why would anyone in their right mind boot to Linux to recover a windows machine?

      If you have a wayward Windows machine (or think you might have in the future), get this [ubcd4win.com] and stick it on a CD or USB Key.

      It's got many more windows-centric tools than the Linux liveCDs including anitivirus, malware removers, registry editor/recovery, NTFS defraggers, WPA tools, network support, web browsing, etc...

    • Re:Free (Score:3, Informative)

      by _Swank (118097)
      I will venture a guess that there are NO linux distros with the specific ability specified in the article. What it seems everybody is missing is that this is NOT a general recovery solution. This is a specific recovery solution that works with the XPoint software listed (also called IBM Rescue and Recovery). This software is installed now on every new IBM Thinkpad (and maybe their desktops as well) and essentially stores images of a person's hard drive on a hidden portion of their hard drive. For exampl

  • Not very cost-effective (Score:4, Insightful)

    by winkydink (650484) * <sv.dude@gmail.com> on Friday March 11 2005, @12:45PM (#11911953) Homepage Journal
    when compared to say, a CD containing said rescue sw? Sounds to me a lot more like justifying the iPod purchase.
    • Hey, if this gives you a way to get your employer to buy you an ipod as a rescue device, why the hell not?

      I think this should be carried to the extreme, can someone figure out a way to use one of the new Mustangs as a backup device? Maybe a RAID array designed to fit in the trunk, and the fast car keeps your data out of harm's way (ie impending fire, flood, etc.)
    • It's just a cool thing to do with an HD-based MP3 player. Chances are you'll have them with you most of the time, especially with the mini-sized devices, and with ~5 GB you probably can spare 100 to 500 MB for a small Linux install. With a flash MP3 player that might be half of your total memory. And in contrast to a CD-based Linux you are working with writable storage - this needn't be limited to rescue operations, you could carry around your $HOME with you, or your $HOME plus a minimal working system to u
    • It's very cost effective indeed if you already own an iPod

    • Thanks for the idea (Score:5, Funny)

      by phorm (591458) on Friday March 11 2005, @01:09PM (#11912266) Homepage Journal
      Purchase Request

      Item Name: Apple iPod

      Description: To be used as an external bootable storage device for diagnosing and recovering PC's with failed hard-disks.


      Hmmm, wonder if the boss would go for it...

  • Not ipod specific (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "Should be noted this is not iPod specific; USB devices will do."

    Thanks for this little sentence hidden at the end of the article. And somehow the headline looks rather sensationalist, doesn't it? They are using a USB mass storage device with Linux to rescue broken CDs. Wow. Why did nobody else have this idea before...

  • Recipe for front page news on Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 11 2005, @12:51PM (#11912025)
    1. Take any generic news item
    2. Try to work the iPod into the story, no matter how forced
    3. Front page!

  • Slashdot grammar (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I read this description of the software on Amit Singh's blog, who's group at IBM apparently created this stuff.

    He is "group at IBM apparently created this stuff"???

    That's a very long adjective!

  • In this [crn.com] CRN news article, Steven Welch, an "IBM distinguished Engineer", is quoted as saying, "One-touch IBM Rescue & Recovery On Linux all wrapped up in a portable media device under $300. Priceless. That is music to my ears."

    I wonder how his ears would respond to a free Knoppix CD?

  • very cool (Score:5, Funny)

    by helix_r (134185) on Friday March 11 2005, @12:52PM (#11912035)
    ....
    All this while the iPod keeps working normally as a music player as it would. ...

    Awesome!

    Now sysadmins can listen to chill-out music while repairing mission-critical workstations!

  • Why didn't the author realize... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...any USB (or Firewire, depending on the system)device will serve this purpose. Oh, Slashdot, what happened to you over the years?

  • Great Idea, IBM Developers (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rheagar (556811) on Friday March 11 2005, @12:54PM (#11912069) Homepage
    Seems to me that the developers are on the ball with this one. They get to requisition expensive iPods for, ahem, work. They also get media attention from slashdot. This is much sexier than burning knoppix.

  • Oh the irony... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Master_T (836808) on Friday March 11 2005, @12:57PM (#11912104)
    Microsoft machines repaired by apple hardware using linux.

    Thank you steve jobs for your magical machine of reconciliation. Do you think we could use IPODs to achieve peace in the mideast?

  • Cool. A write off. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nlinecomputers (602059) on Friday March 11 2005, @12:57PM (#11912106)
    Cool. Now I can write off my iPod as a "tool of trade" on my taxes!

  • What about the software? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Qwavel (733416) on Friday March 11 2005, @01:03PM (#11912180)
    As many of you have pointed out, this has little to do with the iPod.

    (But the iPod solution should be compared to a LiveCD - more like a LiveUSB key.)

    On the other hand, if IBM has created a Linux distro for managing and repairing Windows PC's then maybe it has some features that the other Linux distros (like Knoppix) don't have. For example, does it support captive for NTFS defragging and writing?

    Yes, I've tried BartPE. I find it's functionality to be quite limited.

  • Ultimate Boot CD (Score:5, Informative)

    by cjsnell (5825) on Friday March 11 2005, @01:05PM (#11912212) Journal
    If you're looking for a cheaper solution, check out the Ultimate Boot CD [sourceforge.net]. It has tools to test memory, CPUs, hard disks, and so much more.

    It's definitely something to keep handy and is much cheaper than an iPod.

  • More "innovation".. (Score:4, Funny)

    by The Wookie (31006) on Friday March 11 2005, @01:13PM (#11912322)
    Not to be outdone, Microsoft is reportedly working on a way to crash and iPod when Windows crashes.

  • Come on editors... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anti Frozt (655515) <chris.buffett@gmail. c o m> on Friday March 11 2005, @01:29PM (#11912562)

    "IBM has a yet unreleased iPod-based software for rescue, restore, and recovery of failed Windows PCs."

    So IBM has not unreleased this software. I know that delays are inevitable in development, but actually moving backwards through time. This puts Duke Nukem Forever to shame.

  • Slashdot ipod commision? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by theLOUDroom (556455) on Friday March 11 2005, @02:05PM (#11912993)
    "Should be noted this is not iPod specific; USB devices will do."

    DUH!
    Seems like five times a week we see some new story involving "ipods", that really isn't ipod-specfic at all. Does slashdot make a comission off every ipod sold or something?
    Otherwise, why be such blatant whores for apple?

    Here are some exampmles:
    1. ipod shuffle RAID [slashdot.org], so you can make an array of USB drives using ANY USB drive, and someone did it with an ipod. Big deal.
    2. Crank recharged ipod. [slashdot.org] Was anyone NOT aware that mechanical energy can be converted to electrical energy and that ipods are powered by electricity?
    3. Bootable linux on an ipod. [slashdot.org] Not the ipod actually RUNNING linux, just being used like any other mass storagte device. Not ipod specfic at all.


    If you have news about the ipod that's actually ipod-specfic, then fine, otherwise PLEASE STOP WHORING A SPECFIC BRAND NAME. THIS IS SLASHDOT, WE ARE SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW WHAT A "MASS STORAGE DEVICE" IS.

  • This just in. (Score:5, Funny)

    by SomeOtherGuy (179082) on Friday March 11 2005, @02:18PM (#11913141) Journal
    It was a windy day and I had a stack of papers that I wanted to sit down on the bench next to me....There were no rocks in site.

    I made an awesome discovery. It just hit me. I could use my iPod layed at just the right angle on top of those papers to keep them from blowing away.

    I had done it -- I had invented the first paper weight that could also play music. How did we all survive before iPods. This damn swiss army knife in my back pocket seems so useless now.

    • Re:ERD (Score:4, Informative)

      by prisoner (133137) on Friday March 11 2005, @12:52PM (#11912034)
      Because it costs $150 for a single-seat, limited-use license?
    • How about just because you will always have the iPod with you and won't necessarily be toting around your toolkit.

      I agree this doesn't make a whole lot of sense for system admins who should be carrying around (or have handy) a whole toolkit though. When the iPod first came out, I thought that the coolest thing was that I could have my entire system on it and any Mac I encountered could boot my system (rather like the original NeXT idea).

      • Re:ERD (Score:5, Informative)

        by poot_rootbeer (188613) on Friday March 11 2005, @01:06PM (#11912234)
        When the iPod first came out, I thought that the coolest thing was that I could have my entire system on it and any Mac I encountered could boot my system

        Cool, yes. Practical?

        The tiny Toshiba drives in the iPods aren't designed for sustained use as a computer's system volume.

        You could easily thrash the poor little thing to death doing anything more demanding than playing back MP3's in shuffle mode, and then good luck finding a replacement. There are virtually no 1.8" hard drives available in the end-user market right now, as the demand for new iPods means Toshiba is selling pretty much their entire production runs directly to Apple.

          • Re:ERD (Score:3, Informative)

            by poot_rootbeer (188613)
            1. The parent was talking about a universal boot disk, not something to use in place of a standard fixed boot HD.

            I will admit, I'm not an expert on Mac hardware nor OS design, but can a Mac really boot from one device and then transfer the system volumne designation to another device once booted?

            Modern OSes are too big to be loaded into memory all at once. I would expect that if you booted a Mac from an iPod drive, the system would have to go back to the iPod occasionally to load device drivers, access

    • Where to save your data (Score:3, Informative)

      by milesw (91604)
      If you boot up from your Knoppix CD where do you plan on saving your data when you recover?

      1. Any USB/Firewire device
      2. Another internal hard drive
      3. Any other PC connected through virtually any connection (serial, parallel, cross-over cable, SSH, FTP, etc)
      4. Floppy!

    • Re:boot from iPod (Score:4, Informative)

      by zonker (1158) on Friday March 11 2005, @01:22PM (#11912446) Homepage Journal
      it depends a lot on what generation ipod you have. with older ipods you have to put the ipod itself into 'disk mode' for windows to see it as a drive. newer ipods (the mini included) this is no longer the case and they work out of the box as a normal usb storage device.

      not sure what is going on with your 4th gen (i have a 40g 4th gen and a 4g 1st gen mini), because any computer with firewire and/or usb should be able to read it as a hard drive without installing any software at all.

      many (most?) windows machines lack the firmware to be able to boot directly off a usb or firewire drive.

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