1 Topic by aftermath

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Topic: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

Sorry for bringing up the stupid usb problem...But I've spent half a day's time on it and got quite annoyed. Every time when I selected USB disk on the boot menu it prompted me "Operation System Not Found." Here are what I have and what I did on the usb stick -

System : Ubuntu 6.10

root@Jason-laptop:~# uname -a
Linux Jason-laptop 2.6.17-10-generic #2 SMP Tue Dec 5 22:28:26 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux

Created a new Fat16 partition on the USB stick:

root@Jason-laptop:~# mkdosfs -F 16 /dev/sdb1
mkdosfs 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)

USB Stick Info:

root@Jason-laptop:~# parted /dev/sdb1 print

Disk /dev/sdb1: 1014MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Flags
 1      0.00kB  1014MB  1014MB  fat16             

Information: Don't forget to update /etc/fstab, if necessary.

Mounted gparted-livecd-0.3.4-5.iso onto /mnt/try

root@Jason-laptop:~# ls -R /mnt/try
/mnt/try:
boot  gparted.dat  syslinux

/mnt/try/boot:
boot.cat  gparted  gparted.igz  grub  help.msg  memtest86

/mnt/try/boot/grub:
clonezilla.lst  Gsplash.xpm.gz    minix_stage1_5     ufs2_stage1_5
e2fs_stage1_5   help.msg          reiserfs_stage1_5  vstafs_stage1_5
fat_stage1_5    iso9660_stage1_5  stage1             xfs_stage1_5
ffs_stage1_5    jfs_stage1_5      stage2
grub.conf       menu.lst          stage2_eltorito

/mnt/try/syslinux:
boot.msg  options.msg  splash.lss  syslinux.cfg

Mounted USB stick to /media/usbdisk and copied all necessary files to it

root@Jason-laptop:~# cd /mnt/try
root@Jason-laptop:/mnt/try# cp gparted.dat boot/gparted* syslinux/* /media/usbdisk 
root@Jason-laptop:/mnt/try# ls /media/usbdisk
boot.msg  gparted.dat  options.msg  syslinux.cfg
gparted   gparted.igz  splash.lss

Unmounted USB and write boot record onto it

root@Jason-laptop:/mnt/try# umount /dev/sdb1
root@Jason-laptop:/mnt/try# syslinux /dev/sdb1

Mounted it again and `ls` it

root@Jason-laptop:~# mount /dev/sdb1 /media/usbdisk/
root@Jason-laptop:~# ls /media/usbdisk/
boot.msg  gparted.dat  ldlinux.sys  splash.lss
gparted   gparted.igz  options.msg  syslinux.cfg

That's almost the end of the story... It wouldn't boot at all. Any input is appreciate!

2 Reply by LarryT

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

Hm, but you didn't set syslinux, right ?
You still need to run :

#### FIRST umount your stick
syslinux -s /dev/sdb1
Larry
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Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

3 Reply by aftermath

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

Actually I did write that in my original thread

Unmounted USB and write boot record onto it

root@Jason-laptop:/mnt/try# umount /dev/sdb1
root@Jason-laptop:/mnt/try# syslinux /dev/sdb1

I might just give the -s option one more shot.


LarryT wrote:

Hm, but you didn't set syslinux, right ?
You still need to run :

#### FIRST umount your stick
syslinux -s /dev/sdb1

4 Reply by aftermath

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

I tried the '-s' option and it didn't work as well. My machine is a 2005 IBM Thinkpad T43 1875, with the latest BIOS, v1.28, on it. -- Not sure if that helps..

5 Reply by LarryT

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

Well I got no problem at all.
I sent you the script I have built a couple of days ago.
Anyway, I guess the problem comes from your formatting .
try this :
mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1

Larry
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Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

6 Reply by aftermath

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

Thanks Larry! But it still doesn't work.... I just tried it for one more
time. That's no surprise because the script did exactly the same thing as
what I did manually.

Also I tried `mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1' but still no help. I am suspecting the
compatibility of my BIOS with syslinux now. I tried the hd-media boot image
for Debian Sarge installer using this:
        # zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/sdb1
and that doesn't boot either.

7 Reply by johnroberts (edited by johnroberts 2007-04-03 13:05:06)

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

Booting from USB sticks can be quite temperamental. It depends both on the USB stick itself and the machine hardware/BIOS. Not ALL USB sticks have been known to boot on ALL hardware. A good test (for me) is using the Puppy LiveCD ("Puppy" as in "Puppy Linux" --> http://www.puppylinux.com/)
The LiveCD has the ability to automatically prep/install on a USB stick (look at the documentation...).
You boot from the LiveCD and then install on the USB stick. If you cannot boot from the LiveCD on the specific machine you can do it on any other machine. The USB stick installation is NOT hardware specific.
If you have the bandwidth to download the ~90MB ISO and burn it you can easily test if your machine/USB stick combination is bootable...


Greets

8 Reply by aftermath

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

johnroberts wrote:

Booting from USB sticks can be quite temperamental. It depends both on the USB stick itself and the machine hardware/BIOS. Not ALL USB sticks have been known to boot on ALL hardware.

I just installed the RIP Linux onto the USB stick and everything, including GParted, works fantastically well.  So both USB stick and hardware/BIOS should be good. Not sure if it is the problem with GParted or the Syslinux. In any case, I built the latest Syslinux from source just now and use that to write the boot sector. GParted USB still doesn't boot. But the RIP Linux uses Syslinux as well!!! So Syslinux is also fine with my laptop. I wouldn't say for sure it is the problem with GParted. But I do suspect so.

Is it possible that I caught a BUG in LiveUSB?

9 Reply by LarryT

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

aftermath wrote:

Is it possible that I caught a BUG in LiveUSB?

Yeah, sure !
Try to give as much info as you can.

Larry
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Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

10 Reply by aftermath

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

LarryT wrote:
aftermath wrote:

Is it possible that I caught a BUG in LiveUSB?

Yeah, sure !
Try to give as much info as you can.

These are the info I have when I was creating LiveUSB. Now I am in Ubuntu Edgy with kernel version 2.6.20-13-generic

Machine:     Thinkpad T43 1875-DMU
BIOS:            Phoenix FirstBIOS(tm) Notebook Pro Version 2.0 for ThinkPad
OS:               Ubuntu Edgy, Kernel 2.6.17-10-generic
Syslinux:     Release 3.36, built from source

Anything else of potential interest?

11 Reply by aftermath

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

The USB drive I have is Lenovo 1G. My mom bought it for me recently...Should be good smile

12 Reply by aftermath (edited by aftermath 2007-04-06 08:27:09)

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

aftermath wrote:

These are the info I have when I was creating LiveUSB. Now I am in Ubuntu Edgy with kernel version 2.6.20-13-generic

Machine:     Thinkpad T43 1875-DMU
BIOS:            Phoenix FirstBIOS(tm) Notebook Pro Version 2.0 for ThinkPad
OS:               Ubuntu Edgy, Kernel 2.6.17-10-generic
Syslinux:     Release 3.36, built from source

Anything else of potential interest?

The gcc and nasm I used to compile syslinx:

gcc :            Version 4.1.2, architecture i386
nasm:         Version 0.98.38

13 Reply by LarryT

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

What are the changes between enable RIPusb and GParted usb ?

Larry
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Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

14 Reply by aftermath

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

No change at all.

15 Reply by aftermath

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

I made the LiveUSB again with my new Feisty Fawn on a different USB stick. It still doesn't boot....

16 Reply by LarryT

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

Details EXACTLY what you do, please : step by step.
We need to point out the problem.

Larry
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Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

17 Reply by aftermath

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

All I did is mount my usb stick and run the shell script you sent me in email.

18 Reply by aftermath

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

Do you need the run result from your script?

19 Reply by LarryT

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

No. I needed to be sure that you copy the rights files to the right place, but the script does.
Anyway, here, I have one machine with 2 SATA and 2 external USB drives and 2 cd drives usb.
This PC is able to boot off usb, but it never booted off my usb stick. I need to remove ALL sata-usb-and_other_mess to do it....

Have no clue ATM. sorry sad

Larry
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Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

20 Reply by aftermath

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Re: Help!!! USB stick wouldn't boot!

Thanks Larry. It's not a big deal for me since I am already able to use GParted via RIP Linux.