USB Boot: "Flashy Cursor of Death"
Forum: User Feedback
Topic: USB Boot: "Flashy Cursor of Death"
started by: emmet
Posted by emmet on Sep. 08 2004,12:13
First things first.....WOW! I downloaded DSL yesterday and booted from the CD on my Dell Latitude D800 and it is _just_ amazing. It detected almost all the hardware on this machine (with the exception of a weird security card reader that I never use). Well done to everyone who has worked long and hard to get this working. Thanks.Okay, now for the problem that I have. I've been reading through the posts on this board, and noticed that someone else had (what they call) a "Flashy Cursor of Death". Let me explain.
I've gone through all the instructions to create a boot image on the USB. I've formatted it as Type 6 (took me a little while to find out what that meant) and I've sucessfully booted from the USB by using the CD-ROM as the first step and then the options to continue booting from the USB. So, this works.
The problem is that when I try and boot directly from the USB, it flashes during the POST (so it has been detected by the BIOS) and then all I get is a flashing _ cursor at the top-left of the screen. Nothing else...it just sits there.
Now, I noticed that when booting from the CD-ROM, it also gives the flashing cursor, but just for half-a-second or so, and then bootstraps into Linux.
Does anyone have any words of advice for me here? I'm now at a loss at what to try.
Many thanks in advance,
Emmet
Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 08 2004,16:01
Post up your output of "cfdisk /dev/sda"The USBkey boot is particular about your partitioning..
73
ke4nt
Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Sep. 08 2004,16:43
YAY!!! i got my generic usb drive to work!! but the lexar one is still teh death.on topic, though, i used to have to manually syslinux my drive several times to get it to work. i guess sometimes it just doesn't take on the first try.
but the script works great on my generic one! *celebrates*
-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed
Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 08 2004,18:12
As long as you have the logic of the drive reading 32 sectors/track, the frugal_usb script works fine...I had to use "sfdisk S 32 /dev/sda" to get the c,h,s to be correct,
Probably from repartioning and reformatting my USBkey for other things prior to using it under linux..
When I would run either fdisk or cfdisk, it would partition to a 64 sector/track count all by itself.. Then no bootski ..
Time and time again I tried to repartition and reformat.. type 6 , type 4 , all nogo ..
The boot would either error out with a " boot failed " error, or the blinky, blinky, blinky cursor..
As my key is 512MB, another obstacle is the cylinder count .. With 32 sectors/track , I have 1982 cylinders ..
Dos limit of 1024 is in effect for a type 6 partition, so I made 2 partitions, and all was right with the world.
sda1 = 75 MB , great for upgrading to the next DSL version
Nothing here but the DSL install ..
sda2 = 425MB , every extension to date under " /optional ", dsl-dpkg, gnu-utils, and dsl-aterm in the / ,
The boot*.img's, frugal scripts, a few mp3's, and some personal files in /storage .. Even room left for a backup.tar.gz !
Once you have the USBkey booting properly, and working fine, full of files, mail, backups, personal files, etc ,
another version of DSL will rollout to the masses .. :-) Then, you will want to upgrade your key to the latest version ..
Running the frugal_usb.sh again won't work, because the script looks for an unformatted partition before installing to sda1 ..
I didn't want to repartition the key again for fear of losing all my stuff in sda2, or having the sector/track count jump to
64 again.. , and end up with a non-booting keydrive. Remember the issues about partitioning " out-of-order " ?
I didn't want to delete sda1 , leaving sda2, then try to come in before sda2, and make a new sda1 , which would actually be
created AFTER sda2.. I seen screwy things happen with that situation.. cfdisk reads " partitions are out of order " , etc...
So, I commented out the mkdosfs command and the if statements to detect the formatted partition in frugal_usb.sh.
( it was already correct, right? )
Then I deleted all the existing files out of the sda1 partition. Ran the edited frugal_usb.sh, and boom, upgraded and bootable.
And all my stuff on sda2 was untouched .
Bootup with " dsl dma toram mydsl=sda2 restore=sda2 " and " playtime " !!
I've done it twice now, with different versions of DSL. Works great..
I am hoping someone will duplicate my efforts here, and verify my findings..
73
ke4nt
Posted by emmet on Sep. 08 2004,19:30
Thanks for the hints!I found that I had 56 sectors per track, so I learnt how to use sfdisk (I think) and reformatted the key with two partitions (thanks for the hint ke4nt). The problem is that I still can't boot (flashy cursor).
As requested, here is the output of cfdisk:
Disk Drive: /dev/sda
Size: 262144000 bytes, 262 MB
Heads: 9 Sectors per Track: 32 Cylinders: 1777
sda1 Boot Primary FAT16 51.61
sda2 Primary FAT16 210.42
Is there anything else that I can do, except break down in a heap on the floor?
Thanks
Emmet
Posted by roberts on Sep. 08 2004,20:04
Syslinux is stuck with the old dos limits because it is emulating a dos boot floppy. So, try this to force the sectors to 32 and the cyclinders to 1024sfdisk -S 32 -C 1024 /dev/sda
Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 08 2004,20:41
Make sure you have your bios set to boot from USB-ZIP .And check to see that you have
USB keyboard enabled, if you have it ..
When you ran the sfdisk command, did you make partitions then?
I did ..
I used :
1: 0 75
2: 76 1982 ( my last cylinder )
3: skip
4: skip
save/write/exit
This made two ( type 83 - linux ) partitions on my USBkey ..
Then after a reboot to sync the partition tables to the OS,
I went back in to CFDISK to CHANGE them to type 6 partitions..
DO NOT FORMAT .. DO NOT REPARTITION.. ONLY CHANGE TYPE
I rebooted again to sync, just in case ..
Next, run the frugal_usb.sh from the frugal_usb.tar.gz
Once it starts, It takes a LONG TIME to return to the prompt..
This is all done as root user..
I went in later, after a successful boot, and formatted the second partition..
I used fat32 for it.. - just my choice.. It's larger than 1024 cylinders..
73
ke4nt
Posted by caulktel on Sep. 10 2004,01:43
I also am having problems with my thumb drive. I have always been able to use it in the past with DSL, infact I can mount and use it now with the mount app in DSL 8.1, but the install script gets to the point where it asks me if I'm sure because it is going to destroy everything on sda1, then it just sits there forever, it never mounts it because I never see the led blink. Not sure what the problem is because I have run Runt from it before also. Any ideas?Joel
KB6QVI
Posted by roberts on Sep. 10 2004,01:54
Joel, Please show us your partition table. The target partition must be 32 sectors/track and within the first 1024 cyclinders and type 6.
Posted by caulktel on Sep. 10 2004,02:31
Robert,Here is partition table:
Disk /dev/sda: 132 MB, 132120576 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 126 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 63 64496 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda2 64 126 64512 b W95 FAT32
Joel
Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 10 2004,02:48
Welcome Joel,Type 6 partitions are FAT16 , not W95 FAT32
I have made non-bootable partitions this way,
but so far, only type 6 have worked for me.
It needs to emulate a floppy..
Try changing partition TYPE only with "cfdisk /dev/sda"
remember to reboot so the new partition table will be
recognized by autoconfig BEFORE you attempt to make it
a bootable install again..
Also, you might turn on the DOS boot flag.
Some USBkeys don't need this , as I have witnessed ..
But I don't know if that applies to ALL USBkeys
73 de Kent
ke4nt
Posted by caulktel on Sep. 10 2004,03:34
Kent,Must be a vanity call, I should do that, I have had this call forever.
Anyway I tried changing the partition id's to 6, and turning on the bootable flag on sda1, but still no go. The terminal box just goes away when I type y to the last chance message. The led does flutter for just a second though. Am I understanding this right, that this script puts a frugal install on the thumb drive, right? For a moment, I thought that all this did was put the floppy image on the drive, but that wouldn't be of much use. Here is new table:
Disk /dev/sda: 132 MB, 132120576 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 126 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 63 64496 6 FAT16
/dev/sda2 64 126 64512 b W95 FAT32
Any help would be apreciated.
Joel
KB6QVI
Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 10 2004,03:53
I'm curious to see the error message that flashes..Rather than use the menu selection, start a root shell
( use your mouse to select Xshells>Root Access from the menu )
Then run "/usr/sbin/dsl-usbinstall"
When you hit the error, hopefully the shell should stay open.
Then we can see the error..
73
ke4nt
( and I'm in 5 land , only the 4 was available )
Posted by caulktel on Sep. 10 2004,12:50
Kent,Here is what it says:
Setting up boot loader on /mnt/sda1
sh: line1: mcopy: command not found error writing boot sector.
So it's saying that it can't find the mcopy command? I hope this helps.
Joel
KB6QVI
On another note, (b flat I think), my usb mouse gets detected and works, but wont scroll tilll I dump the Xserver and run xsetup.sh then start the server again. I dont know if that would have to be done before copying to the usb drive, so that the scroll would work. I guess it wouldn't matter because it is going out and getting a image from somewhere else.
Posted by guest on Sep. 10 2004,13:36
i think there is a little problem in the dsl-usbinstall.shif you start a root shell and run "/usr/sbin/dsl-usbinstall"
this installs itself into /home/dsl. that is it unpack all code needed
and than runs: sudo ./frugal_usb.sh
now this is i think where it goes wrong:
sudo runs frugal_usb.sh in the ROOT enviromet (not in /home/dsl) and sinds there is no PATH to /home/dsl/mcopy it tries to find it in the /
Posted by roberts on Sep. 10 2004,16:14
There was a problem with path. I should not have opened a root shell to run it. Bad way to test. Too lazy to type sudo. Anyway,I have posted the fixed version of frugal_usb.tar.gz on ibiblio.org
Tested it from the menu no problems.
Tested from regular shell prompt as sudo ./frugal_usb.sh no problems
Please download the latest version, at least this download is very small.
Posted by emmet on Sep. 10 2004,18:29
Hello everyone,I just thought you'd like to know that I now have my USB-drive booting into DSL 0.8.1.1 !!!
After various different tries the final procedure was:
1: Delete all partitions with fdisk
2: Create two new partitions with cfdisk (one 50BM, the other 200Mb)
3: Make the type on both partitions to 6
4: Make sda1 bootable
5: Write changes
6: Use the frugal_usb.h script
It worked!
I know that this wasn't following any guidelines, but I was at the point of "what the heck, let's see what happens..."
For the record, the USB-key was a Sony MicroVault USB 2.0 256Mb.
Many thanks to everyone, both in this thread and others, who has given suggestions to newbies like me on getting the USB install working.
If I may add one suggestion (as if this post wasn't long enough already!!): Does anyone know if it is possible to create some kind of image (like and .iso file for CDs) for USB keys? Since they come in standard sizes, like 64, 128, 256Mb etc, then a set of these would make it a lot easier to get the install going. I realise this might not be possible, but I thought I'd ask anyway.
Many thanks again!
Emmet
Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 10 2004,22:45
Congrats..Let us know what your drive geometry is for that USBkey ..
"cfdisk /dev/sda" will show you at the top of the window ..
73
ke4nt
Posted by emmet on Sep. 10 2004,23:31
Here you go....Disk Drive: /dev/sda
Size: 262144000 bytes, 262 MB
Heads: 9 Sectors per Track: 56 Cylinders: 1015
Yes - I realise - the sectors are 56 instead of 32 per track. I didn't try and change it.... but I'm writing this on DSL booted from that same USB key. I've just reproduced the process from scratch just to ensure it wasn't a fluke.
One step I forgot is that I had to run mkdosfs on the second partition in order to make it mountable, but no other problems.
Cheers
Emmet
Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 11 2004,01:11
No problem, and thanks ..this is good information..
Just being able to boot from USB with 56 sectors/track is unusual
from all the keys I've been able to look at..
The 32 sectors/track issue may be needed for only certain keys/drives..
Please post the last lines from your fdisk display..
similar to this :
| Quote |
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 267 68336 6 FAT16 /dev/sda2 268 1982 439040 b Win95 FAT32 |
73
ke4nt
Posted by emmet on Sep. 11 2004,09:37
Here you are:Disk /dev/sda: 262 MB, 262144000 bytes
9 heads, 56 sectors/track, 1015 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 504 * 512 = 258048 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 233 58688 6 FAT16
/dev/sda2 234 1015 197064 b Win95 FAT32
I hope that this is useful
Emmet
Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 11 2004,12:49
Thanks, very good info ..One more thing ..
What USB item did you set your BIOS to
USB-ZIP, USB-FDD, USB HDD,
USB-DOS, or USBKeyboard enabled?
73
ke4nt
Posted by emmet on Sep. 11 2004,15:50
Hi,The entry in my BIOS is "USB Storage Device"
The computer is a Dell Latitude D800 (about 10 months old)
BIOS version A09
I hope this helps,
Emmet
Posted by jdmml on Sep. 21 2004,23:05
when I try booting I recieve the error Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility I have been trying forever and it is starting to drive me crazy~! Help would be greatly appreciated
Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 22 2004,03:44
Hi.I am doing some experimenting with USB flash drives, Dell Computers (in this case a 400SC and a GX260) and DSL. The original DSL frugal usb install method did not work even after I got rid of the error message by deleting and re-partitioning my drive in Linux using fdisk.
I do not have a polished solution yet but I can report on my progress so far.
First, the hardware:
Sandisk Cruzer Micro 128MB USB2.0 flash drive
Dell Poweredge 400SC server with A05 BIOS
Then, the BIOS settings changes I made:
"Hard-Disk Drive Sequence" order of priority:
1. USB Device
2. System BIOS Boot Devices
"Boot Sequence"
1. Diskette
2. CDROM
3. Hard Drive
LegacySelect: "USB Emulation" = ON
"Fast Boot" = OFF
OK, now the flash drive preparations:
1. Download and install the Dell memory key boot utility program. This program will format many USB flash devices, not just the "Dell" branded ones. Get it here at: < http://www.bay-wolf.com/utility/usb_memkey.zip >
2. Use the program to format your flash drive and make it bootable. It will create a FREEDOS bootable flash drive.
3. Copy the "\knoppix" directory from your DSL livecd over to the flash drive.
4. Download the DSL 0.8 usb boot floppy image:
< http://ibiblio.org/pub....0.8.img >
5. Download and install a floppy image writer program like rawrite32. It can be found here: < http://www.duskware.com/download/rawrite.zip >
6. Use the rawrite32 program to create a floppy image. FIRST INSERT A BLANK FLOPPY DISK. Then select the image file from step 5 by choosing "*.* All Files" from the open file dialog box filter. The image will immediately be written out to your floppy disk.
7. Copy the "linux24" and "minirt24.gz" files from the floppy over to your flash drive.
8. Download and unzip the loadlin DOS linux loader program. It is located here: < http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/looplinux/loadlin.zip >
9. Copy the unzipped files over to your flash drive.
10. Reboot the computer. Immediately press the F12 key on bootup.
11. Your flash drive LED should light up. If not, try using the rear USB ports on your computer instead of the front ones. You also may need to turn on USB legacy keyboard emulation in your BIOS. If it lights up properly, choose the "USB device" option from the boot menu.
12. You should then see the FREEDOS bootup messages and eventually you will get to a good old DOS "C:\" prompt.
13. Type in the following at the C:\ prompt:
C:\loadlin.exe linux24 /dev/ram rw initrd=minirt24.gz
And DSL should begin to boot up. Once I figure out loadlin a little more I will create an AUTOEXEC.BAT file and a parameters file to automatically boot up DSL with the proper boot command line parameters, but I haven't gotten that far yet.
FYI, with these BIOS settings you should be able to automatically boot up with your flash drive by just plugging it in and turning the computer on. In other words, the F12 boot menu step is probably uneccessary.
Hope this helps.
Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 22 2004,04:21
cbagger01,Here are some partition tables of SUCCESSFUL frugal installs to USBkeys
using the "Install to USB Pendrive" or frugal_usb.sh script ..
These 4 were provided by roberts..
> > Kingston:
> > Disk /dev/sdb: 64 MB, 64487424 bytes
> > 4 heads, 32 sectors/track, 984 cylinders
> > Units = cylinders of 128 * 512 = 65536 bytes
> >
> > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> > /dev/sdb1 * 1 983 62896 6 FAT16
> >
> > Lexar:
> >
> > Disk /dev/sda: 129 MB, 129499136 bytes
> > 33 heads, 32 sectors/track, 239 cylinders
> > Units = cylinders of 1056 * 512 = 540672 bytes
> >
> > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> > /dev/sda1 1 239 126176 6 FAT16
> >
> > Sandisk:
> >
> > Disk /dev/sdb: 64 MB, 64487424 bytes
> > 4 heads, 32 sectors/track, 984 cylinders
> > Units = cylinders of 128 * 512 = 65536 bytes
> >
> > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> > /dev/sdb1 * 1 983 62896 6 FAT16
> >
> > Iomega:
> >
> > Disk /dev/sdb: 65 MB, 65011712 bytes
> > 32 heads, 32 sectors/track, 124 cylinders
> > Units = cylinders of 1024 * 512 = 524288 bytes
> >
> > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> > /dev/sdb1 * 1 124 63472 6 FAT16
And this one is from my key
SuperTalentFlash:
Disk /dev/sda: 519 MB, 519569408 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 1982 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 267 68336 6 FAT16
/dev/sda2 268 1982 439040 b Win95 FAT32
Notice they all use 32sectors/track with syslinux ..
I had to use "sfdisk -S 32" to force mine to 32 s/t
73
ke4nt
Posted by roberts on Sep. 22 2004,05:14
The MBR from SPB linux (spb2_mbr.sec) is helpful for stubborn devices. I may make it an option to the frugal_usb script.However, the DSL team has only a limited access to a number of various devices and machines. When the script was in testing mode. It passed quite an array of devices. Both ke4nt and I have asked to see the format and machines that have an issue so that the script may be improved to handle even more devices and machines.
My goal is to always try to provide an all Linux soultion whenever possible and not have to reply on other OS in order make DSL boot/work.
Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 22 2004,06:42
FYI,The above comment was not meant to be a criticism of the frugal install script. The script itself is cool and seems to work for most people. The only downside that I noticed was that when running from the Fluxbox menu, you could not see the error message because the rxvt window would disappear quickly. Maybe a "sleep 3" in the script would allow the user to see the error messages. However it was easy to read the error when run from a root terminal window command line.
I also needed to play with some settings in the BIOS to get the DELL-formatted USB drive to be recognized.
I also learned that if you push the <F12> key too quickly at bootup (before the USB drive LED lights up) you will not get a USB flash device option on the boot menu.
So I am tempted to blow away my custom FREEDOS/LOADLIN/DSL boot partition and start over from scratch with the usb frugal install script just to see if it will work this time around.
Or try out that special MBR.
Here is my post-DELL formatted bootable USB device partition table. Note that there is a small amount of unpartitioned space so the whole drive is not being used:
Disk /dev/sda: 131 MB, 131072000 bytes
8 heads, 32 sectors/track, 1000 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 256 * 512 = 131072 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 979 125296 6 FAT16
My original frugal usb partition table was also set to "32 sectors/track" although I am pretty sure that the other geometry-related values were different than the post-DELL formatted table.
Posted by Guest on Sep. 27 2004,13:37
rawrite32 won't write to A: drive under WinXP, how else can I get "linux24" and "minirt24.gz" ? 
Posted by henk1955 on Sep. 27 2004,13:50
@guest1. linux24 and minirt24.gz are on the cdrom in /boot/isolinux
2. try to find winrawrite
Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 27 2004,16:05
rawrite32 worked fine for me in Windows XP SP1.I have a normal desktop floppy drive and not an external USB floppy device.