Using USBForum: Other Help Topics Topic: Using USB started by: streetwild Posted by streetwild on Aug. 19 2004,01:59
I've messed around with DSL a little, and so here is what I am trying to do with it. I have a bunch of systems with Proprietary McGann software running on WINNT 4.0 with both NTFS and FAT. Occasionally I need to pull off files for debugging that won't fit on a floppy, and of course, NT does not support USB. The IT mangler will not allow CD burners, modems, or any other OS on these systems. I do have the OK to use a USB device to pull off these files, because he probably thinks I won't be able to do it, and trying to use a windows based splitter across floppies for 200 MB files is not my desired option. lol I would like to use the bootable DSL cd to accomplish this. Any ideas folks? thanks golfputz@htc.net
Posted by cbagger01 on Aug. 19 2004,02:42
If your USB device is MASS STORAGE COMPLIANT, it should work fine with DSL.Usually a device is compliant if you can plug it into a Windows 2000/Windows XP computer and use it like a Removable Drive without the need to install any additional drivers. Most "thumb drives" are mass storage compliant. Mass storage compliant drives also are commonly are listed as supported for use with Mac computers. Another way to check is to see if your device is listed at the linux usb web site: < http://www.qbik.ch/usb/devices/ > And obviously the best way to learn is to try it and see if it works. Basically, you should do the following: (1) Set your computer's BIOS to allow booting from the CDROM device, or if your computer does not support booting from CDROM, then you can follow the instructions for creating a boot floppy. (2) Insert your DSL CD disk (and boot floppy if needed) and close the CDROM tray. Turn off the computer. (3) Insert your USB device into an available USB port. (4) Turn on your computer and boot DSL. Search the forums for help if you have any problems with booting. (5) Once you are up and running, you can "mount" your USB drive and your hard drive partitions by using the Mount.app icon in the lower right corner of the desktop. The USB device is usually located at "sda1". Your hard drive partitions are defined as follows. FAT partitions can be accessed for reading or writing. NTFS partitions can be used for read only. Primary IDE Disk #0 Partition number Partition Type Linux Name 1 Primary hda1 2 Primary hda2 3 Primary hda3 4 Primary hda4 Extended Partitions are stored inside primary partitions. They are referred as MSDOS extended partitions by Microsoft: 5 Extended hda5 6 Extended hda6 7 Extended hda7 etc... and for IDE disk #1, the nomenclature is hdb1, hdb2, hdb3, etc Secondary controller IDE disk #0 (aka IDE disk 3) is hdc1, hdc2, hdc3 etc... Use the Emelfm file manager to move files to your usb device. Point the right window pane to directory named /mnt/sda1 and point the left window pane to directory named /mnt/hda1 (substitute hda1 for your appropriate disk partition name). Highlight the file or files that you wish to copy and press the "Copy" button and the files will be copied into the right pane location. If you want to move files back to your hard drive, highlight the files in your right pane and press the "Copy" button and the files will be moved into the directory located inside your left window pane. When you are done copying, close down emelfm and go back to your mount.app and "Unmount" device sda1 (push the button so the green light goes out). Then it is safe to remove your USB drive. If you right click on a blank part of the desktop, a "Start" menu will appear with a choice to power down. This will shut down the computer. Remove the CDROM (and boot floppy if needed) when you are prompted. Then reboot and you are back in MS Windows-land. HTH Posted by streetwild on Aug. 19 2004,02:55
WOW! thanks. I was always able to get DSL booted and running ok on just about any system, and was able to mount the floppy but nothing else. The info you've just given may be exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to try this. And yes, I have a couple of 256MB USB flash devices that work flawlessly in XP. AND now I know what what the sda1 partition is. I kept seeing it pop up under REDHAT, but didn't quite know what is was LOL. Defenitely a Linux newbie here, but excited about learning. Thanks a bunch golfputz
Posted by cbagger01 on Aug. 19 2004,04:22
FYI,There are two potential "gotchas" that you should know about. (1) It is important to plug in your USB device BEFORE you boot up DSL. Although USB devices are hot-pluggable, the script that creates the "sda1" mount point only runs at boot time. So if your USB device is not plugged in at boot time, "sda1" will not appear inside the mount.app icon. USB is still hot-pluggable, however. So once you are finished booting you can unmount and unplug your USB device or re-insert it and re-mount it a hundred times if you wish. (2) On some computers (especially Dells and Compaqs), the first partition is not your MSWindows partition. There is a small paritition called a "Dell Diagnostics Paritition" or a "Compaq Restore Partition" that is located at the beginning of the hard drive. So don't get confused if your expected "first" partition actually shows up as the second partition. And if you have an add-on IDE controller you may even have more hard drives to choose from like: PriIDE0: hda1 PriIDE1: hdb1 SecIDE0: hdc SecIDE1:hdd AddonboardIDE0: hde1 AddonboardIDE1: hdf1 and so on... And if you happen to encounter a computer that uses a SCSI disk controller, the drive device names start with an "s" instead of an "h". USB storage devices are defined in the Linux system as emulated (IE: fake) SCSI drives, which is why your USB flash drive usually appears as "sda1" Hope this helps. Posted by streetwild on Aug. 20 2004,01:49
cbagger01 I owe you a drink. I followed the steps you gave me, and it turned out to be quite simple. I was able to move files off an NTFS, a FAT, and a FAT32 partition to my USB devices with absolutely no problems. This is great, and exactly one of the things I had hoped to accomplish with DSL. I can't possibly thank you enough. GREAT JOB!
Posted by tpzdsl on Aug. 31 2004,11:14
You can have problems if you use a CFlash in an USB adapter. The USB driver seems slow while detecting them. I had to change the original "sleep 4" in the linuxrc script to "sleep 25". Otherwise the Knoppix directory was not detected. The procedure to change the linuxrc script : Copy miniroot.gz from the USB boot floppy to your Linux host. Then gunzip miniroot.gz. Create a directory e.g. "root" and as superuser, mount the image : mount -o loop miniroot root Then cd to root and edit your linuxrc script. Umount root saves your changes to the image, gzip miniroot and copy the new miniroot.gz to the usb boot floppy. Posted by alb1954 on Sep. 15 2004,00:08
Can the ntfs files be copied back to the hard drive from the usb drive with DSL? I have been told DSL is ntfs read only.
Posted by streetwild on Sep. 15 2004,02:07
Ya know, I need to try that. I usually only transfer one way. As soon as I get a chance to test that, I will let you know.
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