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

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Fri, 2008-03-28 at 21:08 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
> Michael H. Warfield wrote:
> > 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.

> On one, I did enable it in boot and it did try to boot.  It appeared it 
> was possibly trying to load a kernel via network:

> PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
> PXE-M0f: Exiting PXE ROM

> Keeps repeating that over and over.

	PXE boot is a net boot.  It's trying to boot from the network and
doesn't like it.  Almost sounds like it can't find the network at all
(check cable).

> The Macbook doesn't have a bios, but when I boot it, I do see an extra 
> device to boot from, when I select it, it apparently tries, but then 
> boots the existing Fedora installation.

	I got a bad feeling that syslinux does not like that BIOS.

	I've never tried it but you might try grub on that USB thumb drive.
Since you're able to boot from the hard drive using Grub, I would guess
it's managing to talk to the BIOS and get what it needs to pull the
kernel and initrd.

> > 	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.
> 
> I suspect that my problem is that I tried to shortcut the whole process. 
>   I simply used the script to create a bootable usb device from the Red 
> Hat 5 dvd iso. :(
> 
> > 	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.
> 
> I'll have to revisit this and RTFI again.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Until later, Geoffrey
> 
> Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
> temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
>   - Benjamin Franklin

	Mike
-- 
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
 PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471        | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 307 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20080328/b7409350/attachment.bin