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Topic: DSL/USB hides other usb partitions on XP, a problem when installing dsl on myflash

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nuaimat

Group: Members
Posts: 3
Joined: June 2006

Posted: July 06 2006,00:17

hi , sorry guys , i didn't reply earlier because my flash was lost

i've found it today , and try the USB-HDD method , after finishing it correctly reports the whole 256MB on XP , but when i restart the PC and try to boot it , the bios says something like "Not a bootable device"

any suggestions ??

deslock

Group: Members
Posts: 5
Joined: July 2006

Posted: July 12 2006,00:05

Quote (humpty @ June 26 2006,13:10)

If you can't boot from usb-hdd install. post again, I have a dirty method for swapping the two usb-zip partitions (yes you can have all you cake and eat it).

I'm in the same boat as nuaimat. My PC (Compaq EVO) will boot DSL from my USB flash drive if it was created with the USB-ZIP method (from within DSL ala Apps >> Tools >> Install to USB Pendrive), but not with USB-HDD method. With the USB-ZIP method, both partitions show up fine under Linux and OSX, but Windows only sees the 50MB DSL partition.

I also tried creating the flash drive for DSL following steps I read at pendrivelinux.com , but it wouldn't boot at all.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

humpty

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Posts: 655
Joined: Sep. 2005

Posted: July 13 2006,14:33

Alright, this is for those of you who can only boot from USB-ZIP but want the 1st partition as the big partition that XP can see.

There's basically 3 steps.
a) reverse the partition sizes by hacking 1 line of code in the usb-zip script. run it.

b) move the knoppix image from 1st partition to the 2nd.

c) change the boot line in syslinux.cfg.

Details are found here: http://petepr.hopto.org/dsl/guides.html#Boot_Pen_Swap

deslock

Group: Members
Posts: 5
Joined: July 2006

Posted: July 13 2006,14:47

Quote (humpty @ July 13 2006,10:33)

thanks!

deslock

Group: Members
Posts: 5
Joined: July 2006

Posted: July 14 2006,21:19

Quote (humpty @ July 13 2006,10:33)

http://petepr.hopto.org/dsl/guides.html#Boot_Pen_Swap

Damn! Damn damn! I'm SOL as I have a 2GB pendrive and mkdiskimage has a 1024 cylinder limit (according to the error message that came up). More on this here:
http://syslinux.zytor.com/archives/2006-May/006856.html
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24549

However, I was able to follow the steps to setup a friend's 512MB drive: it now boots DSL and also displays the large partition in Windows. Oddly enogh, the last step wasn't needed: I looked in syslinux.cfg for the bootline and didn't see it. I moved the Knoppix file to the 50MB partition and it still boots even with syslinux.cfg not being edited.

For posterity (in case the original page disappears), here are the complete steps:

Quote

1. Do a normal usb-zip install.
2. Open bash shell terminal and: sudo sfdisk /dev/sda

This will show you how many cylinders are taken up.
basically 1 cylinder is about 1M. So the 1st partition will be 50, but your
interested in the value of the 2nd partition, say 'X' cylinders. Write this down.

3. Make a copy of pendrive_usbzip.sh,
cp /usr/sbin/pendrive_usbzip.sh ~/dirty_job.sh
Edit the copy and look for this line: mkdiskimage -1 /dev/$DEVICE 50 64 32
Change '50' to 'X' (the value you found before).
Save the script.

4. Run the script
sudo ./dirty_job.sh
This will create a big partition 1 and a 50 mb partition 2.

5. Move the /knoppix directory from the big partition to the small
partition.

6. Edit syslinux.cfg (in the big partition) and edit the bootline
to boot the knoppix image on sda2 and get other files from sda1.
i.e fromhd=/dev/sda2 restore=sda1 mydsl=sda1

9 replies since June 23 2006,17:13

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