USB almost boots

Forum: USB booting
Topic: USB almost boots
started by: stephend

Posted by stephend on Mar. 17 2005,19:30

I succeed in installing to the USB pendrive, but it will not boot very far.

It goes as far as
Accessing DSL Linux at /dev/sda1
but then says
cat: no file /KNOPPIX/etc/ld.so.cache
Setting paths: /linuxrc: /KNOPPIX/bin/rm: not found
etc etc
until
FAT: bogus logical sector size 0
Kernel Panic: VFS: unable to mountroot fs on 01:03

I read earlier posts, one indicating that the problem might be related to
the case of the KNOPPIX file. I put the stick on a linux computer, and dsl and
KNOPPIX definitely appears as knoppix, but under windows it appears as KNOPPIX. Regardless, I modified linuxrc's KNOPPIX_NAME as suggested
but that had no effect.

Any ideas?

Posted by stephend on Mar. 18 2005,00:21

Ok, reading up, everyone is on about geometry, which I have to agree with...

So, I redid the stick by doing 'cfdisk -z -s 32' and divided the stick into two partitions with 32 sectors per cylinder and under 1024 cylinders.

Exact same outcome.

Posted by pbot on Mar. 18 2005,15:22

In my experience with the Cruzer Micro, it either finds DSL on sda1 or not randomly. I have never had it find DSL on sda1 and not boot though. The most common problem I experience is not finding dsl on sda1 and I need to warm boot and it usually works. Plugging the usb device into any ports other than the usb ports on the motherboard seem to increase the chances it will not boot.

Posted by clivesay on Mar. 18 2005,15:58

What do you mean by 'warm boot'? My cruzer seems to be a little difficult also. My cheapo PNY boots like a dream.

I have also discovered that my front usb ports on my Antec case will not normally boot. I have to use the mobo ports.

Chris

Posted by pbot on Mar. 19 2005,02:54

By warm boot I mean hitting the reset button instead of the power button when booting fails. It probably has more to do with the bios/mboard but that's what works for me.

Posted by stephend on Mar. 19 2005,03:30

I got myself a 128MB jumpdrive (lexar). I had to partition it down to 64 & 64 to get under 1024 cyl, but when I did, it booted first time.
Rather mysterious.

Soon as I get a chance I will retry the Cruzer and make sure that my geometry was right.

Pretty mysterious.