Damn Small Linux - Not!

dougz · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 29

USB boot message "SYSLINUX 2.04 (Debian 2003-06-06) Boot failed"

No problems running CD version. Booting from USB port that successfully boots DSL, using pendrive that boots DSL. Mobo is ASROCK K7VM2 with KM266/VT8235 nb/sb.

Any workarounds?

[dougz@fedora ~]$ ls -l /media/usbdisk
total 2464
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dougz dougz 2048 May 18 2006 boot.cat
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dougz dougz 141 May 18 2006 boot.msg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dougz dougz 1592 May 18 2006 f2
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dougz dougz 1595 May 18 2006 f3
drwxr-xr-x 2 dougz dougz 8192 May 18 2006 knoppix
-r-xr-xr-x 1 dougz dougz 7836 May 18 08:55 ldlinux.sys
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dougz dougz 1531698 May 18 2006 linux
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dougz dougz 26700 May 18 2006 logo.16
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dougz dougz 900385 May 18 2006 minirt.gz
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dougz dougz 2200 May 18 2006 syslinux.cfg
[dougz@fedora ~]$ ls -l /media/usbdisk/knoppix
total 82672
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dougz dougz 84655945 May 18 2006 knoppix

roberts · Joined: 17 Apr 2006 Posts: 320 Location: OC CA USA

Let me guess, a USB-ZIP type install? And on what size pendrive?

dougz · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 29

[quote]Let me guess, a USB-ZIP type install? And on what size pendrive?[/quote]
Not USB-ZIP. I repeated the install process just to verify that it wasn't a user error. Did another USB-HDD install. Verified USB-[b]HDD[/b] messages; all messages were success. Read drive in Fedora just to verify that fresh install was done -- fine.

Pendrive is a PNY Attache 512 MB. I use it for learning DSL & DSL-N on same machine & USB port. No problems noted in DSL. Boots & reads fine.

One other anomaly in DSL-N. Booted via CD & inserted pendrive after DSL-N was stable. The mount tool (slit?) area was totally white. I invoked another mount tool, but it did not offer me the option to mount or unmount the pendrive. All other drives were there. The mount tool, mounts & unmounts work fine with that pendrive on DSL.

Both times I did the USB-HDD installs, the "Display your USB storage device information" step did not result in any output. That step results in "/dev/sda" on DSL, as I recall.

Since I didn't get the device output, I used "uba" when doing the DSL-N USB-HDD installs. I read the pendrive on Fedora to ensure that the writes had been done successfully.

Any other tests I an do to help narrow this down?

roberts · Joined: 17 Apr 2006 Posts: 320 Location: OC CA USA

The pendrive device is uba in 2.6 kernel not sda.
Also check your partition table.
fdisk -l /dev/uba
If you see Unknown or it is not aligned that you should fix it.

dougz · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 29

[quote]The pendrive device is uba in 2.6 kernel not sda.[/quote]
As I said[quote]I used "uba" when doing the DSL-N USB-HDD[/quote]
[quote]Also check your partition table.
fdisk -l /dev/uba [/quote]
I get a normal fdisk result of a single FAT16 partition, flagged bootable. If I manually mount it, I get the expected files & the knoppix directory. This time, the mount tool in the slit sees it.

If I then umount it and reboot, BIOS [b]doesn't see the drive as bootable[/b]. No SYSLINUX error, can't boot. OK, booted DSL (not-N) to see how it saw the pendrive. DSL fdisk complained about boundary alignment issues. Couldn't mount. Fedora could mount, didn't fdisk.

More testing shows that the only consistent thing is inconsistency. I have trouble getting repeatable results with DSL-N, while DSL is consistent.

One thing that I have noticed is artifacts in the /mnt directory, apparently from the install script. If I had more time, I would use Fedora's fdisk to delete the partiton (don't see how to do in DSL-N), reboot into DSL-N, ensure that there are no directories like staging or pendrive under /mnt & try again. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to quit now due to lack of time.

I really think you have winner with DSL-N. Modern kernel, modern device support, simple & clear menus, applications that are easier & more accessible than DSL while lighter than Knoppix. Amazingly stable for an Alpha. Keep up the good work.

dougz · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 29

Ran the [b]usbtree[/b] perl script under Fedora to map out my usb hardware. The output:
[quote][dougz@fedora USB Stuff]$ perl usbtree.pl
/: Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=uhci_hcd/2p, 12M
/: Bus 03.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=uhci_hcd/2p, 12M
/: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=uhci_hcd/2p, 12M
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci_hcd/6p, 480M

Second invocation with pendrive in USB23 (recommended port for boot)

[dougz@fedora USB Stuff]$ perl usbtree.pl
/: Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=uhci_hcd/2p, 12M
/: Bus 03.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=uhci_hcd/2p, 12M
/: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=uhci_hcd/2p, 12M
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci_hcd/6p, 480M
|__ Port 4: Dev 2, If 0, Class=stor., Driver=usb-storage, 480M
[/quote]
The raw data from [b]cat /proc/bus/usb/devices[/b] under fedora
[quote]
T: Bus=04 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=12 MxCh= 2
B: Alloc= 0/900 us ( 0%), #Int= 0, #Iso= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06
S: Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.12-1.1381_FC3 uhci_hcd
S: Product=UHCI Host Controller
S: SerialNumber=0000:00:10.2
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr= 0mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 2 Ivl=255ms

T: Bus=03 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=12 MxCh= 2
B: Alloc= 0/900 us ( 0%), #Int= 0, #Iso= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06
S: Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.12-1.1381_FC3 uhci_hcd
S: Product=UHCI Host Controller
S: SerialNumber=0000:00:10.1
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr= 0mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 2 Ivl=255ms

T: Bus=02 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=12 MxCh= 2
B: Alloc= 0/900 us ( 0%), #Int= 0, #Iso= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06
S: Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.12-1.1381_FC3 uhci_hcd
S: Product=UHCI Host Controller
S: SerialNumber=0000:00:10.0
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr= 0mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 2 Ivl=255ms

T: Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=480 MxCh= 6
B: Alloc= 0/800 us ( 0%), #Int= 0, #Iso= 0
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06
S: Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.12-1.1381_FC3 ehci_hcd
S: Product=EHCI Host Controller
S: SerialNumber=0000:00:10.3
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr= 0mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 2 Ivl=256ms

T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=01 Cnt=01 Dev#= 2 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0930 ProdID=6533 Rev= 1.00
S: Product=USB Flash Memory
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=100mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E: Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=31875us
E: Ad=83(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 8 Ivl=64ms
[/quote]
I'm not seeing anything wrong, but I'm new to USB stuff.

Noted that there is a BIOS update [quote]Bootable USB device can be detected after hardware reset from OS.
[url]http://www.asrock.com/support/download.asp?Model=K7VM2[/url][/quote]
OK, I did have problems with BIOS reliably detecting the USB device. I did the flash update to version 1.90.

USB detection did improve, but the DSL-N boot problem remains:
-- DSL 2.4 reliably boots from pen drive
-- DSL-N reliably boots from CD
-- DSL-N USB-HDD pendrive looks fine with "fdisk -l" and when mounted as /dev/uda1
-- DSL-N never boots from pen drive. Always gives message[quote]USB boot message "SYSLINUX 2.04 (Debian 2003-06-06) Boot failed" [/quote]
I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions as to how I can troubleshoot?

dougz · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 29

Booted DSL-N and tried changing the pendrive geometry to have 32 sectors/track.

I used /sbin/sfdisk, wrote the changes, reboooted DSL-N, and checked the geometry with fdisk -l. OK, the geometry change worked.

Ran the USB-HDD install. Install script reported success. Before rebooting, I decided to recheck the geometry. Surprise, I was back to 63 sectors/track.

It would appear that this geometry must be OK...

dougz · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 29

Discussed in post "Sun May 28, 2006 10:38 pm Post subject:
and some that can't boot USB-HDD can boot USB-ZIP..."
on thread [url]http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-n/f/viewtopic.php?t=146[/url]