USB booting :: cant get dsl to boot



If you chose the install to USBHDD pendrive script from the menu, it should automatically be made bootable.

However, you also need to enable USB booting in your computer's BIOS menu
I tried a different PC (an older one though).
Here I was able to select 'USB-ZIP' as a boot device.
It now seems to recognize my usb stick as a bootable device, but all I get is a message saying 'boot failed'. Pressing any key just outputs more 'boot failed.' messages -  all I can do is ctrl-alt-del into a reboot.



EDIT:
I tried the USB-ZIP install method.
Installation looked, ok, I booted once more (still with boot device set to usb zip) and it seems to work now.....

Back in windows I noticed that my 256 Megs USB stick has only 2 of 50 Megs free.
Is there any way to still make use of the 'missing' 200 Megs while remaining bootable?

once more ty in advance...
It should be possible to create a single partition size of 250MB for a fake ZIP drive (IE, USBZIP) and install both the DSL files and also use the same partition for your backups and restores.

In the distant past in order to to backup/restores in DSL, you needed to have a second data partition.  This arrangement was usually:

1st Partition: 50MB FAT partition for the DSL system files (\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX, etc)
2nd Partition: 200MB Linux EXT2 partition for the DSL backup/restore space.

However, MS Windows has two problems with this arrangement:

1) Windows can only display the contents of a USB drive's 1st partition only.
2) Windows cannot understand how to read/write to a Linux EXT2 partition.


But in newer versions of DSL, you CAN backup and restore to the same data partition as long as the cheatcode "frugal" was added to the default list of boot parameters.

So it should be possible to repartition your USB drive so that it has a single 250MB FAT data partition, with backup/restore set to device "sda1" and the rest will be available for storage in both Windows and in Linux.

However, you do lose the 6MB at the end of the drive because the original ZIP format was 250MB and not 256MB

Unless someone has a script to do this automatically, you will need to manually do this using utilities like

sudo cfdisk /dev/sda

and

1) Install dosfstools from the myDSL respository and

sudo mkfs -t msdos /dev/sda1

and then manually copy over the livecd files, making sure that KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX is all uppercase letters.

Finally, edit the syslinux.cfg file so that the word "frugal" is added to the append lines

It is not for the faint of heart, but I am confident that it can be done.
Ok, I'm done with the usb-zip install since I know for sure It won't work on one of my machines. So I'm back at trying to make a usb-hdd installation work.

My situation is this:
I set first boot device to 'USB-HDD' in my freshly flashed phoenix bios.
I booted the livecd, installed dsl to my pendrive with apps\tools\install to pendrive\usb-hdd install.

Installation is completed successfully.

I reboot.

I see the bios recognizes the usb stick, since it appears in the device listing, but still it doesn't boot of it.

I can mount my pendrive under linux and access it from windows just fine, cfdisk /dev/sda shows a single bootable fat16 partition.
When mounted, an ls on the pendrive gives me this:
--
KNOPPIX       f2            ldlinux.sys   minirt24.gz
boot.cat      f3            linux24       syslinux.cfg
boot.msg      german.kbd    logo.16
--
(looks okay from what i know)

the syslinux.cfg looks like this:

--
DEFAULT linux24
APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=minirt24.gz nomce noapic quiet frugal restore=sda1 frugal  BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
TIMEOUT 300

PROMPT 1
DISPLAY boot.msg
F1 boot.msg
F2 f2
F3 f3
LABEL dsl
KERNEL linux24
APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=minirt24.gz nomce noapic quiet frugal restore=sda1 frugal  BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
...
--

Why won't it boot?
Am I missing some important point?

thx in advance.
No, you are doing everything right.

At this point, your device should "just boot".

However, I have noticed a few related BIOS parameters that have affected my USB boots in the past.

1) Disable "quick boot" or "fast boot" if such an option exists in the BIOS

2) Enable USB keyboard emulation.

3) Try plugging the drive into the rear USB ports on your computer instead of any front mounted ones.  Also, don't use a USB hub in-between your pendrive and your PC.

If you suspect the pendrive is the problem, try booting it up from another (different model) computer system that supports USB booting.

Other than this, I am out of advice on the subject.
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