USB booting :: Making bootable USB stick, Linux & Embedded DSL

Hi all, I'm trying to make a bootable 512MB PNY Attache USB stick.

Found a quick howto at: http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki....h_Drive

Used the Linux directions but when I ran cfdisk I found the stick was already FAT16 and set bootable:
---
cfdisk 2.12r

Disk Drive: /dev/sda
Size: 514850816 bytes, 514 MB
Heads: 16 Sectors per Track: 32 Cylinders: 1964

Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sda1 Boot Primary W95 FAT16 (LBA) 514.86

[Bootable] [ Delete ] [ Help ] [Maximize] [ Print ]
[ Quit ] [ Type ] [ Units ] [ Write ]
Illegal command
Toggle bootable flag of the current partition

So I skipped the format and unzipped the embedded DSL onto the stick.
---
linux-xiwa:/media/usbdisk # ls -l
total 1984
-rw-r--r-- 1 dc root 110 2006-05-27 17:17 boot.msg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 226 2006-05-27 17:17 dsl-linux.sh
-rw-r--r-- 1 dc root 364 2006-05-27 17:17 dsl-windows.bat
-rw-r--r-- 1 dc root 1592 2006-05-27 17:17 f2
-rw-r--r-- 1 dc root 1595 2006-05-27 17:17 f3
-rw-r--r-- 1 dc root 256 2006-05-27 17:16 german.kbd
drwxr-xr-x 2 dc root 16384 2006-05-27 17:17 knoppix
-r--r--r-- 1 dc root 994807 2006-05-27 17:16 linux24
-rw-r--r-- 1 dc root 36649 2006-05-27 17:16 logo.16
-rw-r--r-- 1 dc root 801359 2006-05-27 17:17 minirt24.gz
drwxr-xr-x 3 dc root 16384 2006-05-27 17:17 qemu
-rw-r--r-- 1 dc root 468 2006-05-27 17:17 qemu-linux-notes.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 dc root 1965 2006-05-27 17:17 readme.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 dc root 2075 2006-05-27 17:17 syslinux.cfg

Then I ran:
linux-xiwa:~ # syslinux -s /dev/sda1
to make it bootable.

I tried to boot it on the computer that has the BIOS boot option but I got a no OS message.

Now I don't know if the problem is with the stick or the computer.

Is there a way to look at the stick and see if it at least has all the needed files. I seem to recall that on bootable DOS floppy there were a couple of files that would be there. Like command.com and another I can't recall.

Does the embedded DSL us something like this?

I'm not completely clear on how embedded DSL works, can it boot from a USB stick or is it only for running inside of Windows?

BTW - the sick does run in side of Windows 2000 Pro just fine.

What I was hoping to be able to do is make a stick that can boot DSL on a computer that has BIOS support for USB and also use it inside of Windows 2000, XP. Being able to use portable Windows programs would be nice too.

Thanks for any info on sorting out this no OS problem, DC

Did you try running syslinux without the -s switch? The man page says to use it only as a last resort...

Otherwise I'd guess its some problem regarding the geometry setup of the drive.

Quote (^thehatsrule^ @ Nov. 04 2006,23:30)

Did you try running syslinux without the -s switch? The man page says to use it only as a last resort...

Otherwise I'd guess its some problem regarding the geometry setup of the drive.

Quote

Did you try running syslinux without the -s switch? The man page says to use it only as a last resort...

Hi thehatsrule and the group, I seem to be missing the man pages for syslinux on my SUSE 10.1 box. It had syslinux installed as part of the base package but no man page. Last night I did run a google search on syslinux and learned it uses a couple of files for the booting process. I took a look and I do have them: one showed up only after running syslinux:
-r-xr-xr-x 1 dc root 12508 2006-11-04 07:07 ldlinux.sys
The other was there after unpacking:
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 2075 2006-05-27 17:17 syslinux.cfg

I learned that embedded DSL uses linux24 and knoppix for booting and both are there; however, knoppix is in the knoppix directory but I don't this this is the problem as I don't think it's getting that far.
---cut from syslinux.cfg---
KERNEL linux24
APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us vga=normal atapicd nosound noapic noacpi acpi=off noscsi noapm nousb nopcmcia nofirewire noagp nomce nodhcp xmodule=vesa initrd=minirt24.gz BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix frugal

Found a good read at: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8906

I will try syslinux without the -s and I will also try replacing the MBR

WIll report back to this list on how it goes, DC

Hi all, I went back and reviewed what I had done and thought I might have found the problem. The stick was not FAT16 but W95 FAT16 (LBA) instead.
cfdisk shows two different FAT16 file types so I went back and changed it then ran all this:
---4th try---
linux-xiwa:~ # umount /dev/sda1
linux-xiwa:~ # cfdisk /dev/sda

cfdisk 2.12r

Disk Drive: /dev/sda
Size: 514850816 bytes, 514 MB
Heads: 16 Sectors per Track: 32 Cylinders: 1964

Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sda1 Boot Primary FAT16 514.86

[Bootable] [ Delete ] [ Help ] [Maximize] [ Print ]
[ Quit ] [ Type ] [ Units ] [ Write ]

Toggle bootable flag of the current partition

linux-xiwa:~ # mkdosfs -F 16 /dev/sda1

linux-xiwa:~ # mkdosfs -F 16 /dev/sda1
mkdosfs 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
linux-xiwa:~ #

Remount the stick (unplug and plug in again worked for me)

linux-xiwa:~ # cd /home/dc
linux-xiwa:/home/dc #
linux-xiwa:/home/dc # unzip dsl-3.0.1-embedded.zip -d /media/usbdisk

linux-xiwa:/home/dc # umount /dev/sda1

linux-xiwa:/home/dc # syslinux -s /dev/sda1
Tried but no os so I plugged it back into the Linux box.
linux-xiwa:/home/dc # umount /dev/sda1

linux-xiwa:/home/dc # lilo -M /dev/sda
/boot/boot.0800 exists - no /dev/sda backup copy made.
The Master Boot Record of /dev/sda has been updated.
linux-xiwa:/home/dc #

linux-xiwa:/home/dc # syslinux -s /dev/sda1

I also tried syslinux without the -s option but still no os.

Maybe it is the older computer, has support for USB booting but this is the one I can't get to boot from the USB. My newer computer (less then 1 year old) that has Linux on it but it does not support USB booting. Strange the newer one is the one with out the USB support.

I need to try and find another computer to test on.

I will keep trying, DC

original here.