USB/Linux newbie ...

Forum: USB booting
Topic: USB/Linux newbie ...
started by: thiothixene

Posted by thiothixene on Oct. 21 2004,16:38

** I am an hardcore Linux Newbie ** :-)

Now that you have been warned, the question ...

How do I do this !? I have a Lexar 512mb Jumpdrive ... Do I only need to put the "iso" (What's inside anyway) on it (Like on a CDR) or is there some manipulation to do ?

Thanx !!

* Sorry about posting previously in the wrong topic !
* I can manage my way around in Linux easily but have only install it once (Debian) a very long time ago ...

Posted by AwPhuch on Oct. 21 2004,16:59

Load DSL

Right mouse click: Apps/Tools/Install to USB Pendrive

Done!

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by soinsg on Oct. 21 2004,18:02

I've got a 256mb version and I've spent all day with sfdisk fiddling with different numbers of cylinders to try and get rid of this error:

Quote

Setting up boot loader on /mnt/sda1
Total number of sectors not a multiple of sectors per track!
Add mtools_skip_check=1 to your .mtoolsrc file to skip this test
Error writing boot sector

There seem to be four/4 partitions but I only setup the first one. I've tried some values I found on this board like '0 75' (that's a no no as IT DOESN"T GIVE YOU 75mb), '0 267' and a lot around 256 '0 256', someone else had a 262mb card '0 233'.

Quote

sfdisk -S32 /dev/sda

Here I set the first partition to type 6 FAT16. I played with the bootable flag and making the second remainder partition type b win95 fat32 and plain deleting it.

Quote

cfdisk /dev/sda

Quote

/usr/sbin/dsl-usbinstall

Edit a little while later:
I finally got it to work on my dell laptop, I think I was rebooting in the wrong place. I was rebooting after cfdisk instead of after sfdisk. Also the dell and hp windows usb formatters didn't work on my win98se. I initially used '0 256' in sfdisk, but deleted and remade the partitions in cfdisk after rebooting.

Code Sample

Disk /dev/sda: 257 MB, 257949696 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 984 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 267 68336 6 FAT16
/dev/sda2 268 984 183552 b Win95 FAT32

Posted by thiothixene on Oct. 22 2004,01:34

and me to think that this was gonna be simple ...

OK thanks ! I guess that my weekend is now set ! :S

Posted by wierdthing on Oct. 23 2004,13:42

Ok i have the same problem

so in simple terms (linux noob)
what do you actually have to do to get the 256mb USB drive to have 32 sectors/track

Posted by soinsg on Oct. 25 2004,10:19

I'm just repeating what is said here by ke4nt1:
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....8;st=14 >

This is for a 256mb pendrive.
In a terminal: ($ is normal prompt, # is root prompt)

Quote

$ sudo su
# sfdisk -S 32 /dev/sda
0 256
<blank, just hit enter>
<blank, just hit enter>
<blank, just hit enter>
y
# shutdown -r now

(just close the CD drive so it boots dsl again).

After restarting:

Quote

$ sudo su
# cfdisk /dev/sda
Delete all the paritions
Then create a new primary partition with size 70 (leaves you 20mb for 'dsl restore=sda1')
Then change the type to 6 (which is FAT16)
You can optionally create another (primary) partition using all remaining space to store other stuff (I chose Win95 FAT32 which is type 'b')

Then run the install script inside a term/shell so you can see any errors:

Quote

$ /usr/sbin/dsl-usbinstall