too many Cylinders....
Forum: USB booting
Topic: too many Cylinders....
started by: Mr Green
Posted by Mr Green on Jan. 25 2005,21:26
Hi,I have followed USB install form docs. ..but changing flash drive to less than 1024 Cylinders has got me stumped
I have got 32 sectors/track 9 heads but 1776 Cylinders....
Changing them using sfdisk is not problem but I cannot work out the correct geometry ....
Flash drive is PQI 256mb
Thanks in Advance
Mr Green
Posted by goldenratiophi on Jan. 25 2005,23:45
The easy solution is to just use fdisk to delete the partition and repartition it will all the default values (except for the partition type: it needs to be FAT, or type 6). Then it will work. I've tried it on a SanDisk Cruzer mini and a PNY Attaché 256MB, and they both worked.
Posted by ke4nt1 on Jan. 25 2005,23:47
| Quote |
| I have got 32 sectors/track 9 heads but 1776 Cylinders.... |
OK, try this..
32 * 9 * 1776 = 511488 total
So lets double our heads, and halve our cylinders
32 * 18 * 888 = 511488 total
Now your sector count stays at 32,
and your cylinder count is below 1024 ..
sfdisk -f -S32 -H18 /dev/sda
This configuration should work nicely
with the "Install to Pendrive" script,
and booting from bios using USB-ZIP..
73
ke4nt
Posted by Mr Green on Jan. 26 2005,12:05
Thank you very much drive is set now ....I cannot boot it yet have not figured out if I need to set something else in BIOS other than USB-ZIP ..
On boot up it just sits there .... atm
USB-ZIP is first booting device but does bios know its bootable
Hope that makes sense .....
How tos are confusing as some say to set filesystem type (mkfs) others do not mention it ...
I guess with so many different types of PC's & Usb pendrives it hard to cover all bases....
Back to Grind
Mr Green
Posted by ke4nt1 on Jan. 26 2005,13:29
I also have to set my USB Keyboard to "enabled" ( in bios ) to make my USBKey bootup..
Let us know..
73
ke4nt
Posted by Mr Green on Jan. 26 2005,19:23
Hi,I just checked pen drive in cfdisk its now showing 9 heads 56 sectors & 1014 cylinders
what gives ....
Must have done something wrong
I'll check on USB keyboard when I'm in BIOS again
Later
Posted by ke4nt1 on Jan. 26 2005,20:49
That happens when you exit sfdisk, and go into cfdisk or fdisk.You need to setup the partitions IN sfdisk ..
After your initial execute parameters, you are given choices
about 4 possible partitions ( the primaries )
If you wish to make ONE large partition, try this ...
1:0 888 6 *
2:0 0
3:0 0
4:0 0
Then write changes to partition table, and it exits..
I don't know how you wish to setup your partitions,
but the first ( or only ) one needs to be setup
as a fat16 ( type 06 ).
DO NOT USE CFDISK OR FDISK
unless you have made partitions FIRST using sfdisk,
otherwise , a default geometry may be used instead.
Then partition using the dosfstools.dsl package as your
sources for dos utilities ..
' mkdosfs /dev/sda1 '
I like to make a 128 MB fat partition, for the 5 way.tar.gz
script in the repository, which adds the qemu to your pen.
Then make the other 128MB of the drive another partition,
and format it as ext2 for use in backups and extensions.
Then you would use this in your root shell ..
sfdisk -f -H18 -S32 -C888 /dev/sda
1: 0 444 6
2: 445 888 83
3: 0 0
4: 0 0
write/exit
mkdosfs /dev/sda1
mke2fs /dev/sda2
Here is the info for the 5 way pendrive.
It supercedes the older "Install to Pendrive" routine.
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....and+way >
Also , these threads give some more details procedures for
using the sfdisk tool to correctly setup your pendrive geometry..
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....8;st=10 >
or
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....=sfdisk >
Let us know..
73
ke4nt
Posted by Mr Green on Jan. 27 2005,13:39
Well ... its like this ..sfdisk -f -H18 -S32 /dev/sda
followed your route 0 888 6 *....
sfdisk asks for me to dd= first 512 bytes on drive ?? not sure if I should do that on /dev/sda or /dev/sda1 ??
mkdosfs /dev/sda1 no problems
reboot
do Install to Pen drive .... drops out with error
mtools_skip_check (have exported this to 1)
reran ok ...
(in cfdisk /dev/sda1 shows as boot ,NC ??)
Going to check if it works ...
Ok so I'm letting you know where I'm at ;-)
Installing my distro was easier than this lol