I was unable to find if the Atom boards manufactured by Intel (namely this one: http://ark.intel.com/products/48951/Intel-Desktop-Board-D425KT) support booting from USB.
The D425KT has only two SATA ports and I need to set up a software RAID during Linux installation. For that reason, I'd have to run the installation from a USB stick.
2 Answers
I am writing this from a computer running on a intel Atom D510MO. This motherboard is running a 64 bit version of Ubuntu installed from a USB stick. As far as I know, the next series (D425 / D525) were very similar to mine, so, I assume that your motherboard will be able to boot from USB.
In fact, the uncommon thing currently are motherboards unable to boot from USB.
I have also installed Linux distributions from USB sticks on other different Atom motherboards: Atom D270 from Asus, and Atom N550 from Jetway. Booting (and installing the operating system) from USB has never been a problem.
After checking the manual, I can can't see any specific reference to USB booting - that being said it doesn't say that it supports optical/hard drive booting - which obviously it does. As it does say that it supports flashing from USB, this fully implies to me that it does support USB booting.
In addition, I haven't seen a single board released within the past few years that does not support USB booting.
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1I'd add that my atom 230 based DGCLF motherboard did, and its fairly old, so a current model should.– Journeyman Geek ♦Commented Nov 12, 2011 at 11:58