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Topic: floppy + write-protected USB-ZIP > boot fails

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humpty

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Posts: 655
Joined: Sep. 2005

Posted: June 11 2006,22:41

ok, i tried it and your observation can be verified. so at least you can sleep better at nights.

the floppy boot files (either the minirt24.gz or linux24) are smaller than the standard cd/hd/usb boot files in order to fit on the floppy. so i can only guess that they are lacking something to recognise a write protected boot device.

i don't know if you can specify something different like initrd=/dev/sda1/minirt24.gz
in syslinux.cfg (hmm thinking about it probably not, it's a chicken/egg situation). but it would be nice to know.

perhaps it's better to forget all about this and just boot 'toram',
then re-mount the usb-drive as read-only ?

Key

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Posts: 115
Joined: Mar. 2006

Posted: June 12 2006,21:18

Thank you very much for your investigations, humpty.
Now it is evident.

I also thought, that this problem must be related to the usb-bootfloppy imagefile. But I'm wondering if there is no possibility to make this usb-bootfloppy imagefile working with write-protectable USB-pens?

Maybe I will try your proposal soon, with "initrd=/dev/sda1/minirt24.gz" in syslinux.cfg. Let's check if this will work.

Key

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Posts: 115
Joined: Mar. 2006

Posted: July 02 2006,08:58

Quote (Key @ June 12 2006,17:18)

Maybe I will try your proposal soon, with "initrd=/dev/sda1/minirt24.gz" in syslinux.cfg. Let's check if this will work.

I have tried now to modify the syslinux.cfg file on the bootfloppy, but with next boot, I discovered that no changes have been made there, although I have saved the file without an error. I don't know what the problem was.

But again to the bootfloppy image file:
Is there no way to update it, so that it will work with write-protected USB-pens?
I don't know, if there will be also updates on the bootfloppy image files?
Maybe there is a better compression possible or something other could be removed from the bootfloppy for more space?
Who can tell us more about this?

Thank you in advance.

humpty

Group: Members
Posts: 655
Joined: Sep. 2005

Posted: July 02 2006,17:09

it seems like you need the floppy to boot your laptop.

does your laptop show the usb-pen as a drive letter if
you boot with a dos-disk ?
if so, you can use a bootable dos-floppy-disk to cd into
your usb-pen. From there it can use loadlin to boot into dsl.

Key

Group: Members
Posts: 115
Joined: Mar. 2006

Posted: Nov. 11 2006,16:02

//

Quote (roberts @ Nov. 10 2006,13:42)

Key, This is not really an RC issue. But nevertheless, I did try with USB-ZIP write protected and write protected boot floppy. Worked just fine. I know my write protect switch is functioning, as USB-ZIP creates two partitions. When I try to mount the second partition, it gives the warning about a write-protected device. I use the standard boot floppy with the fromusb boot option. Also was able to boot directly from write protected USB-ZIP. It's too bad that there are not better standards in usb booting from the actual pendrives, geometry and sometimes hidden drives, to the computer bios and their ability to find and boot based on the myriad of these drive parameters. Reminds me of the early days of cdrom drives and each needed their own dos drivers.

//

Thank you for your investigations in this case, roberts, although this is of course no RC issue.

But now I know, that it must work in some way.

I will buy another write-protectable usb-pen, get the latest DSL version and use the fromusb boot option with a standard boot floppy. Hope it will work then.

Thanks again

//

>>>>

NEW STATUS REPORT OF FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS:

I have tried now 3 different usb-pens with write-protect switches:

- Twin-Mos (possible to password-protect)
- Trekstor (simple usb-pen without special features)
- Intenso (simple usb-pen without special features)

All these 3 usb-pens do fail to boot when a bootfloppy has been used before and the usb-pen is set to write-protected. Therefore I do not think, that the usb-pen is the problem.

Roberts wrote, that he had success, trying a kingston usb-pen.

What could be the problem?

Roberts wrote, that he has used a standard boot floppy with the "fromusb" boot option.

I have always used an usb-bootfloppy.
Could this be the reason?

Is there a difference between:
a) an usb-bootfloppy
b) a standard bootfloppy with "fromusb" option
?

What is the difference?

I have not tried it yet, but I will do it soon.
Looking for further information on this issue. Thanks.

32 replies since April 09 2006,12:15

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