USB booting :: USB thumb HDD install

Is it possible to install dsl to a 2g usb stick?(with HDD install not ZIP) I have been trying for a day or two now and can't get it. I know it must be a geometry issue and have read much on the subject. I guess I just don't understand what I am reading. I have roberts paper in the wiki, I have tried cbaggers method using the latest syslinux downloaded yesterday. I have done theinstall on 1 256m, 1 512m and several 1g sticks. I have used the install
from the dsl gui menu as well as dslinstall from the command prompt. This is what shows near the end of the install.

Appling syslinux to pendrive partition
/dev/sda1: Cluster sizes larger than 16K not supported

When I try to boot I get this.

Could not find kernek image: linux
boot:

I am sure some one else must have solved this. Please give me a hand.

David

if you install as a hdd you'll kill your usb stick faster because it reads and writes. have you tried partioning it into smaller partions so you can use some for regular storage accessable from any pc. i recoomend getting the gparted live cd for working with partions-> http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

Hi kerry,

Well the actual install I am trying to do and have done on the other thumb drives is from the apps>tools>install to usb pendrive>for usb-hdd pendrive. This does a frugal install. I have not cut the pendrive up into smaller partitions as I need to access from windows. XP will only see the first partition, so I need one large partition for XP access. I saw on these forums a way to swap a the large and small partition when using a usb-zip install, but that failed as well.

Thanks for the suggestion on gparted. I have used that for other things and it is great. I have a cd in my bag always.

I feel pretty sure there must be a way to partiton this 2g and have it work the way I need. I sure hope someone will enlighten me with a solution.

David

if all else fails, i say go for a freedos boot.+loadlin.
if you use fat16 i recommend freedos 8.3.
if you use fat32, use the new freedos 9.0.

Well I have come to the conclusion that syslinux just won't support a filesystem larger that 1g. Maybe that will be resolved someday. 80% of what I want to do I can do with embedded. I can do the 5way with a 1g but the windows part just takes so much room. Thank's for the response guys. I play with it embedded for a few days and see what else I can find.

David

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