[ale] making a usb thumb drive bootable from a dvd install disk

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Fri, 2008-03-28 at 14:49 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
> Michael H. Warfield wrote:
> > On Fri, 2008-03-28 at 13:15 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
> >> Anyone got any pointers how I can create a bootable usb thumbdrive from 
> >> my Red Hat DVD install disk?
> > 
> > 	Start here:
> > 
> > 	http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/LiveCDHowTo
> > 
> > 	From there follow to here:
> > 
> > 	http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/USBHowTo
> > 
> > 	I've done this with F8 but they claim it should be largely distro
> > agnostic (presuming yum based since you use yum to install the Live
> > Tools).

> Thanks for the link.  It says it was successful, but I've try to boot 
> from it on two different boxes, neither works.  I might try to recreate 
> it and try again.

> Both boxes saw the usb drive, but neither would boot from it.

	Did you check your BIOS settings?

	Lots of times the USB drives are either not enabled for boot or are
lower down on the boot order.  If you BIOS supports it, jump into the
boot selection menu and try to manually select the USB for boot.

	When you are in your BIOS, check if it's set for USB-ZIP or USB-HDD or
USB-120 (?) mode.  The Live Scripts set drives up for USB-HDD.  There
are some magical tricks which can be played to create a drive that works
for all three but that takes some research.  IIRC, USB-ZIP requires
certain partitions and certain geometry settings.  USB-120 has no
partitioning at all and looks like a big fat floppy (someone correct me
if I'm wrong on this one, I'm working from memory) and USB-HDD just
looks like a partitioned LBA hard drive.

	The one that always has worked most reliably for me is USB-HDD.  If
your BIOS supports is, select that one and make sure it's first in the
boot pecking order.  If it doesn't support USB-HDD, you may have to
tweak those builds somehow.

> -- 
> Until later, Geoffrey
> 
> Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
> temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
>   - Benjamin Franklin

-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
   /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (678) 463-0932 |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
   NIC whois: MHW9          | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
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