iB::Topic::Can't boot. Old Bios or my bad?

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Topic: Can't boot. Old Bios or my bad?

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daniel_victoria Offline

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Posts: 5
Joined: Dec. 2006

Posted: Dec. 13 2006,20:13

I followed the procedures from the Wiki for installing DSL on a Pen drive (Cruzer Mini 512Mb), that is:

1) Format pen drive
2) syslinux <drive letter>
3) copy files to pen drive

My computer has a AMIBIOS release 7/12/2001 (I know, it's old) and it has the option USB-FDD for boot devices but, setting the computer to boot from USB-FDD does not work. It says there is no boot device.

So, is this an unsuported BIOS problem or a DSL installation problem?

I was able to run DSL from the pen drive using Qemu. I also tried inverting the installation procedure, copy the files then run syslinux but no changes...

Thanks

Juanito

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Posts: 1601
Joined: Sep. 2005

Posted: Dec. 14 2006,04:53

I would guess this is a BIOS problem - unless you have a USB-HDD option, I would guess you are stuck.

You could create a boot floppy and then use the fromusb boot option.

daniel_victoria Offline

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Posted: Dec. 14 2006,11:22

Is there a correct order for the installation procedure, that is, should I copy the files first and then run syslinux, run syslinux and then copy the files or it does not matter?

Juanito

Group: Members
Posts: 1601
Joined: Sep. 2005

Posted: Dec. 14 2006,12:12

I'm not sure if you are speaking of the boot floppy or the USB boot:

The boot floppy is created from an image file so you don't need to worry about syslinux. If you use the fromusb boot option, your system will boot from the floppy and then load the dsl/knoppix files from your USB stick (see http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Boot_Floppies).

All instructions I have seen for creating a bootable USB stick mention syslinux before they mention copying files but I am not sure if this is essential or not - in any case, as per your post above, your BIOS does not support booting from USB-HDD so this is irrelevant, no?