USB booting :: Freezes during USB booting of kernel



Alright so I'm trying to make my 256mb USB boot DSL. I followed the USB guide, consisting of

HP formatting tool --> Format my USB drive to FAT
Download and extract dsl_embedded.zip to the USB stick.
Syslinux from a DOS prompt on the USB drive
Reboot, and set my BIOS to boot the USB before Windows XP.


I get the splash screen, press F2, use the "dsl vga=normal" option to avoid framebuffer and get any text at all, and I get this:

Code Sample
boot: dsl vga=normal
Loading linux24............
Loading minirt24.gz...........
Ready.
Uncompressing Linux...Ok, booting the kernel


... and its frozen. What surprises me is that I dont get any error messages, it just freezes.

Any suggestions as to what could be going wrong at this stage of booting? Any help would be appreciated.

PS. Yes, I did try failsafe, in fact, I did try every boot option available, none worked, and the only one that spat out text, was the "dsl vga=normal" one.

Does DSL boot fine if you use a cd?
Does your system support either usb-zip or usb-hdd?

When it freezes, are you left with a black screen? Any keyboard lights?

1. I dont have the resources to check that at the moment. Why?

2. Its an Acer laptop from 2004, so I suspect it supports both... But since i get the splash screen, it must support something... correct? Where do I check?

3. Yes, I am left with a black screen, unless I use the "dsl vga=normal" option, then it spits out the quoted above, below the F2 menu.

1. to see if its a usb specific problem

2. I suppose it should work then... you could check your BIOS or motherboard manual

3. I'm guessing this is a laptop of sorts? Try using noacpi and/or acpi=off

Does this key work on another computer?  I suppose you had checked the md5 of your download.


original here.