What I'm trying to Accomplish: I would like to install Arch linux on an encrypted (lvm on luks) external USB hard drive and have it boot and run with the widest array of machines possible and before I get started I'd like to ask your advice on what sort of issues I should expect to encounter and their possible solutions.
My question: What considerations must be made to ensure it can be booted on the widest array of hardware?
Considerations that I perceive:
- System Architecture: I know I'll need to use 32bit software to make sure it's backwards compatible with older systems.
- Boot Loading: I'll need a boot loader that can support UEFI and BIOS, for this I was thinking of using Syslinux. The main issue I have here is:
- I don't know if the system can be configured to boot from both UEFI and BIOS simultaneously or if it must be one way or the other.
- Boot Partition Tables: I think it would almost be a requirement to go with GUID partition tables as there is a rather dynamic nature to partition assignment with MBR, and having the Unique Ids could help bypass that issue.
- Device Drivers: This is one problem that I'm not sure how to address elegantly. I imagine I could just download every driver in the repository but that doesn't sound very bright. Or I could just stick with the defaults that have the widest base and hope they work well enough.
- USB WiFi NIC I plan on carrying an external wifi dongle to ensure I have wireless access and thereby bypass all the pain that comes along with that.
