Bootable DSL on U3 USB stick?Forum: USB booting Topic: Bootable DSL on U3 USB stick? started by: DC103 Posted by DC103 on Nov. 05 2006,13:29
Hi all, I have been poking around on my SanDisk 1.0GB U3 Micro trying to figure out how it is set up and if it might be possible to make it DSL bootable. Because I don't fully understand how the U3 system works yet I really do not want to format the stick. It has lots of U3 programs on it already as well as standard non U3 portable Win 2000/XP programs and it even has a working embbeded DSL that runs inside of Win 2000. I have the new Launchpad version 1,2,0,9 on it and this update allows the stick to be inserted in a Win box without auto starting the Launchpad. Instead I can go directly to drive F: and it looks just like a standard stick.I could not resist sticking it into my Linux box to check it out in more detail. When I do SUSE 10.1 thinks it is a CD, interesting. I clicked on do nothing then ran some commands: linux-xiwa:~ # umount /dev/sda1 linux-xiwa:/media/usbdisk # cfdisk /dev/sda cfdisk 2.12r Disk Drive: /dev/sda Size: 1021125120 bytes, 1021 MB Heads: 32 Sectors per Track: 63 Cylinders: 989 Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pri/Log Free Space 0.13* sda1 Primary FAT16 [NO NAME ] 1020.72* [Bootable] [ Delete ] [ Help ] [Maximize] [ Print ] [ Quit ] [ Type ] [ Units ] [ Write ] Toggle bootable flag of the current partition Remounted it and fround where the program files are: linux-xiwa:/media/usbdisk/System/Apps # ls -l total 256 drwxr-xr-x 4 dc root 16384 2006-05-24 13:43 0DE4F643-C398-46ec-9339-2362F2311932 drwxr-xr-x 4 dc root 16384 2006-10-28 15:11 1039E4D2-DE56-4bd2-B564-7D178F5DF6F0 linux-xiwa:/media/usbdisk/System/Apps # cd FEFECB84-0E05-42d8-B044-F2D0FCFF8C15 linux-xiwa:/media/usbdisk/System/Apps/FEFECB84-0E05-42d8-B044-F2D0FCFF8C15 # ls -l total 8096 drwxr-xr-x 3 dc root 16384 2006-10-28 15:08 Data drwxr-xr-x 4 dc root 16384 2006-10-28 15:08 Exec -rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 8251153 2006-10-28 15:08 thunderbird_u3_1.5.0.42_en-us.u3p The standard portable programs are in there own directory at: # cd /media/usbdisk linux-xiwa:/media/usbdisk # ls -l total 2992 drwxr-xr-x 5 dc root 16384 2006-10-28 16:05 7-ZipPortable -rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 110 2006-05-27 18:17 boot.msg drwxr-xr-x 8 dc root 16384 2006-05-24 13:43 Documents -rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 226 2006-05-27 18:17 dsl-linux.sh -rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 364 2006-05-27 18:17 dsl-windows.bat -rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 1592 2006-05-27 18:17 f2 -rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 1595 2006-05-27 18:17 f3 -rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 256 2006-05-27 18:17 german.kbd drwxr-xr-x 5 dc root 16384 2006-11-03 06:38 GIMPPortable drwxr-xr-x 2 dc root 16384 2006-05-27 18:17 knoppix -r-xr-xr-x 1 dc root 950272 2006-04-18 16:33 LaunchU3.exe -r-xr-xr-x 1 dc root 994807 2006-05-27 18:17 linux24 -rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 36649 2006-05-27 18:17 logo.16 -rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 801359 2006-05-27 18:17 minirt24.gz drwxr-xr-x 5 dc root 16384 2006-11-03 06:35 NVUPortable drwxr-xr-x 3 dc root 16384 2006-05-27 18:17 qemu -rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 468 2006-05-27 18:17 qemu-linux-notes.txt -rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 1965 2006-05-27 18:17 readme.txt -rwxr-xr-x 1 dc root 2075 2006-05-27 18:17 syslinux.cfg drwxr-xr-x 3 dc root 16384 2006-05-24 13:43 System I found the fact that the drive is already formated as FAT16. Thinking all it might take to make it bootable is: # syslinux -s /dev/sda1 Should I go for it? Any idea what the free space size 0.13 MB is for? Exploring this U3 stick sure was fun, I can't help my self I just have to hack on it ;-) DC Posted by ~thc on Nov. 05 2006,18:00
as far as i understand u3 it is simply triggered by the autorun/autoplay system in windows. it should not bother about any changes to the partition table boot loader or boot sector loader - as long as the data tables in both sectors stay intact.if you are unsure, simply create backups of both sectors before running syslinux: dd if=/dev/sda of=/home/me/masterbootrecord bs=512 count=1 dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/home/me/bootsector bs=512 count=1 |