SanDisk 256 limited shell

Forum: USB booting
Topic: SanDisk 256 limited shell
started by: spotslayer

Posted by spotslayer on May 06 2005,22:20

Well I have been trying to make my sandisk 256 boot. This stick starts the process fine but gets to the part where it is looking for the image on sda1. The system will hang there for 3 or 4 minutes and then drop into a message that tells me that the knoppix cannot be found. Dropping into a very limited shell. I am at a # prompt, but ls -s reveals nothing. I also have a lexar 1g stick that boot fine. I have used the 5way script to prepare both these pens. I did rem out the wget part and put the files needed in the subdirectories so the script could find them. I am using 1.0.1 on the lexar. I changed the 5way script to use the new 1.1 for the 256,(I'm not really a bleedin edge guy) so I don't want to break my 1g. I do both installs from the command prompt and both complete without errors. The 1g will boot any/every way I have tried. The 256 will boot inside windows and with a boot diskette but not by itself. I have tried the toram switch and I have made sure I have 32 sectors.

Any suggestions?

David

Posted by du2br on May 07 2005,04:54

Same here. I've got a sandisk 256 and had a similar experience.

Posted by pbot on May 09 2005,13:11

I have the same issue with a Sandisk Cruzer 512

Posted by dslnote on May 10 2005,14:17

I've a sandisk 256mb cruzer micro. Used the install to pen usb script from dsl 1.01 and it does boot. However it only boots when I restart the computer after booting into WinXp first.

Tried the same script in dsl 1.1 and I'm unable to boot now. Any ideas?

Posted by spotslayer on May 10 2005,23:44

I used the penhdd script and it worked real good.

David

Posted by dslnote on May 11 2005,15:27

got my 256 sandisk working now. used the hp util to get syslinux working on the usb drive. next i extracted the relevant knoppix folder and the other files on the iso and transfered them directly to the usb drive. i did this from windows and used isobuster which is a freeware.

as for the booting, i make it a habit now to press the relevant key at boot where I can select the boot device. this prevents the not knowing of whether windows or dsl is gonna start especially on the first power on.

hth

Posted by ak123 on May 16 2005,19:58

I tried all the options to get it work but was not successful and still got the "limited shell" problem. Then I found one article in Feb 2005 www.linux-magazine.com saying " Linux on a stick" that what made my USB (sandisk 128) work. hurrray ...:)

Do follow the steps and you shld be abe to boot from the USB:

1)format the USB with FAT ( I used windows format option). You can use fdisk if doing from Linux just be sure it has to be FAT 16.
2)dwnld the lates dsl-1.1.iso.
3) mkdir dsl1
4)mkdir usbdsl.
5)#mount -o loop dsl-1.1.iso dsl1
6)cp -a dsl1/* usbdsl
7)cd usbdsl/
8)mv boot/isolinux/* ./
9)rmdir boot -r
10)mv isolinux.bin syslinux.bin
11)mv isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg
12)cd..
Now copy all the files from usbdsl to your usd drive (/mnt/usb).
Unmount usb drive
now run #syslinux /dev/sda1 (this will make usb bootable)
reboot the system with the USB in the system and you should see DSL booting screen (if your system boots from USB boot(option) )

thanks and happy linuxing