USB booting :: USB boot compatability list
Corsair Flash Voyager 1GB USB Flash Drive
Prepare the USB flash drive
Boot Linux with the drive connected (I’ve used a live Knoppix 3.6 CD)
Switch to root (not required if you boot “knoppix 1”)
# su
Check the current geometry on the drive (most likely recognized by the kernel as /dev/sda)
# sfdisk -l /dev/sda
Mine showed the following results:
63488 cylinders, 1 head, 32 sectors
Multiply the three to obtain the total number of sectors:
63488 x 1 x 32 = 2031616
Supposedly, the boot partition should be less than 1024 cylinders, and 32 sectors per cylinder. So, I’ve adjusted the geometry as follows: total number of sectors / 32 / 1024 = # of heads
2031616 / 32 / 1024 = 62
And so, I’ve adjusted my geometry using sfdisk
# sfdisk -f -C1024 -H62 -S32 /dev/sda
sfdisk will next ask for the partition info. I’ve decided to have everything on one partition:
sda1:0 1024 e *
Press <ENTER> for all the others, (sda2, sda3, sda4)
Basically, this sets the first primary partition (/dev/sda1) to start with cylinder 0 and end with cylinder 1024, it’s of type “e” (Win95 FAT (LBA)), and bootable (“*”)
Reboot to reload with correct partition table for the USB flash drive
Format the USB flash drive
Boot Linux with the drive connected (I’ve used a live Knoppix 3.6 CD)
Switch to root (not required if you boot “knoppix 1”)
# su
Format the drive
# mkdosfs /dev/sda1
Make the USB flash drive bootable
Boot Linux with the drive connected (I’ve used a live Knoppix 3.6 CD)
You will need to download the bootusb and the DSL image files. I’ve used bootusb-0.8.img and dsl-1.0.1.iso, and put them in my /home directory. If you’re not able to copy the DSL image file to the /home directory, then store it at another location on your hard drive(s) and use that instead of “/home” below.
Switch to root (not required if you boot “knoppix 1”)
# su
Write the boot sector
# syslinux -s -o /home/bootusb-0.8.img /dev/sda1
Now, mount the drive
# mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
Create a temp directory and mount the bootusb image file
# mkdir /mnt/tmp
# mount -t vfat -o loop=/dev/loop0 /home/bootusb-0.8.img /mnt/tmp
Copy files over to the drive and unmount the bootusb image file
# cp /mnt/tmp/* /mnt/sda1
# umount /mnt/tmp
Mount the DSL image file
# mount -t iso9660 -o loop=/dev/loop0 /home/dsl-1.0.1.iso /mnt/tmp
Copy files over to the drive and unmount the DSL image file
# cp -r /mnt/tmp/KNOPPIX /mnt/sda1
# umount /mnt/sda1
All done. Try it on a PC that supports booting from USB.
Sony Microvault 256MB USB 2.0 works fine with qemu and booting from USB-ZIP in the bios. This is the smallest USB drive I've ever seen. Nice LED activity light too.
I can add the Seagate 5Gb USB 2.0 pocket drive to the list. http://www.seagate.com/products/retail/pocket/
I have had it booting on several machines:
intel 865 mobo
Dell 875 mobo PE400SC
Dell Inspiron Laptop
UFF, I have the ASUS A7N8X-X version bios 1010, LG 1G usbkey but nothing. I receive the message "missing operation system".
Some solution?
PNY 256meg <-- system will only boot to this if bios is set to usb 1.1/2.0 it wont use it as a boot divice if its set to high speed (480 mbps) full speed is only 11mbps or usb 1.1
1) format with FAT
2) write boot.img to flash drive and tell it YES enlarge the image (all this does is copy the files to the root of the drive, i have no idea why its doing that)
3) open current.img and copy ONLY KNOPPIX and lost+found folder and index.htm fil do NOT copy boot folder over otherwise the thumb drive goes into kernel panic immediately after booting and it says it cant find a bunch of files.
4) after going thru the boot process it initializes all devices fine and says its initiateing run level 5 and then the screen goes black and thats all. nothing else. The monitor light is still green so that means its getting a signal but thats all nothing else. I've waiting like 20 minutes once and still nothing , should i wait longer ?
what is happening when the screen goes black and won't go any further and why is it happening ? does anyone know ?
AMD64 3200+
ASUS K8N-E Deluxe AMIBios
1 gig ram
BBA ATI 9800 XT
Dell 2005FP using DVI connector
I've trie using the frugal, vga=normal and xsetup switches and nothing helps.
anyone have any ideas on what happening and how to fix it.?
ive tried all kinds of configurations with the files and nothing seems to fix it.
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