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

[Geoffrey]

Michael H. Warfield wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-03-28 at 16:07 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
>> Jeff Lightner wrote:
>>> If the DVD drive is itself USB based that may be why you can't boot from
>>> it.   
>>>
>>> I saw this on RHEL5 DVD.  Essentially what happens is the system's BIOS
>>> does the original mount of DVD but after the boot the RHEL5 Ramdisk is
>>> what is trying to mount/read from the DVD and it doesn't have the
>>> drivers.
> 
>> No bios, it's a Macbook pro.
> 
> 	Crud...  It has a BIOS, just not a PC BIOS.
> 
> 	All bets are off.  I didn't notice you mentioning it was a Macbook pro
> earlier.
> 
>> The box obviously can read the disk, as it boots from it.
>>
>>> At AUUG early in the month Mike Warfield (I think) said he could tell
>>> what drivers to use for USB mount but I hadn't had a chance to follow up
>>> since then.  Maybe he will share since he's already reading this thread?
> 
> 	What I have to do is add the following to mkinitrd to add the usb and
> scsi modules to the initrd so it can find stuff early in the boot...
> 
> 	--with=ehci-hcd --with=uhci-hcd --with=usb-storage 
> 	--with=scsi_mod --with=sd_mod 
> 
> 	If you need cd-rom support early on, you'll probably need --with=sr_mod
> as well.
> 
>> Mike did post some links to creating a bootable usb device, but it did 
>> not work for me.  I'm thinking I might look for an external dvd reader.
> 
> 	Ok...  Back to first principles.  Not saying this can even be solved
> for a Macbook, but...  What errors did you get?  Did it just ignore the
> USB drive?  Do you even know it can boot ANYTHING from a thumb drive?
> Did it boot the kernel and then bomb on locating the root file system
> (prime red letter sign it's an initrd problem)?

When the Mac boots, it looks for bootable devices and lists them.  You 
select the one you want to boot.  For example, If I just boot it now, I 
see an apple logo and a tux logo.  Selecting either does what you 
expect.  Now if I stick the thumb drive in before booting, I get a third 
logo, when I highlight it, it says: 'boot legacy OS from ???'.  If I 
select to boot from it, it appears to try, but then ends up booting the 
fedora 8.

> 
>> Weird thing is, I installed Fedora 8 fine.  That is why I think it might 
>> be something with the particular kernel on the rh.
> 
> 	More likely to be something in the initrd.  Missing some drivers or
> something.  Generally missing one of the usb host controllers or scsi
> modules.  But that's a wild ass guess without more to go on with how far
> you get and what errors you get.

What I see in the log is:

ide-cd: cmd 0x28 timed out
hda: DMA interrupt recovery
lost interrupt
lost interrupt
lost interrupt
lost interrupt

> 
> 	And a Macbook, I just don't know.  My next step would be to find a key,
> any key, that would boot the thing and then look at its disk structure.

Well, I successfully installed Fedora 8, and am trying to get the 
wireless configured now.

> 
> 	I'm not even sure syslinux (at the core of most bootable USB keys) will
> work on that Macbook.  I'm afraid syslinux may be too tied to the BIOS
> services and you may be just SOL because syslinux can not deal with your
> BIOS (or lack there of).

This could likely be the case.

-- 
Until later, Geoffrey

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