USB booting :: Convert ISO to USB Install Question



I followed Wiki Method II linux install and he uses the ISO.  I am able to bot with Two Desktop PC but no my Dell D820 Laptop,  It does boot the kernel but bombs out when it tried to read the knoppix image on the USB stick.

I just read this and now I am totally confused.

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki....llation


The embedded zip has the same issue though.  Is that above link old?  It sais the knoppix image is hard linked to the Cdrom Iso?  Yet the Extraction of the ISO works on some PC's.

So whast the deal with this?  Wiki sais to use the ISO not embedded method for Linux Install.

I've routinely installed DSL to USB sticks by unpacking the iso (not the embedded one) - I do not believe the the knoppix image is hardcoded to the cd (and as an aside the reason that DSL can only format a USB stick FAT16 is that the version of syslinux it uses is old).

There are several posts in the DSL forum and elsewhere about the problems of booting Dell laptops from USB (I have a D400 but it does not seem to have a problem) - it seems as a minimum, you need to disable USB keyboard/legacy emulation in the BIOS and use the noacpi boot code in DSL.

Ensuring the BIOS is the latest available would probably be a good idea too...

The pendrive installation scripts included within DSL use FAT16, because at the time, the standard was 64MB pendrives. Today, pendrives are much larger. However, which FAT to use is best determined by size of drive. See this.

Because DSL is so small, these very small pendrives 64MB to 512MB are still a very viable choice.

Given this situation, is why I think the pendrive installation scripts should be removed from DSL core. The choice on how best to format and install DSL should be moved to the Wiki and MyDSL extensions. The pendrive installation scripts were originally MyDSL extensions.

Because of limited support of permissions using FAT, I think it is best to have two partitions on pendrives. And from fourm comments, the first partition should be the larger "shared" one, used for backup and MyDSLextensions, and able to be seen by all versions of Windows. The second partition (50MB) used for DSL system files. Current pendrive installation scripts do not provide this.



well I have both  Kingston 4gig stick and a Monster 8 gig mini hard drive.

I have two partitions on each as the Method II install from Linux sais.  Wiki don's.

But now I am windering if my DSL partition is too big?  I have ti about 1 gig on the kingston and 2 gigs on the monster.

both fat32 and I use Fedora 7 to run all the scripts and create the pendrive to boot etc.

I have been unable to get a USB stick to boot with dsl or dsl-n unless the boot partition was <=512MB - regardless of whether I used fat or fat32 and even if I used the latest version of syslinux.

As mentioned earlier, any size of USB stick will boot when formatted ext2.

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