[ale] syslinux problem making bootable usb

[Ken Cochran]

Ok, here's the scenario so far:

Friend wants me to reset (probably clear/delete) password on his
Win7 box.

Got both USB & ISO from http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/
USB worked jus fine some months ago, was someone's XP box IIRC.

Have had on hand gparted for some time, as I use it from time to
time.  Never had a problem with it.

Have on hand 2 cheap 2gb USB thumbdrives, one from Microcenter (they
tell me it's Kingston I think) & one from a tradeshow SWAG bowl.

Ok, before I try it out in the wild, let's try it on a couple of
my own systems:  HP 7200SFF and Lenovo T420, both Microcenter
refurbs and both having been repartitioned with USB-booted
gparted when acquired about a year ago & both been running fine.

Gparted works on either (cheap) USB device and on both computers.
Chntpw does not work with either USB device or on either computer.
Have tried chntpw via syslinux, YUMI & some thing called "rufus."
Just for fun tried gparted with YUMI & that didn't work either but
gparted works fine with its own setup, which uses syslinux I think.

I could use some Good & Proper way to handle the Top Item - what
I'm doing so far just Isn't Cutting It...  {sigh}  -kc

> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
> From: DJ-Pfulio <djpfulio at jdpfu.com>
> Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2016 06:21:49 -0500
> Subject: Re: [ale] syslinux problem making bootable usb
>
> Don't use USB3 devices or plugs.
> Folks say to avoid SanDisk flash drives too.
>
> There is no way to know for certain if a specific USB storage
> device will work with a specific USB port, until you try
> it and it fails.  Really old USB storage (1st-gen) doesn't
> work. About 5 yrs ago, I had good luck with almost any USB
> storage - pre-USB3.
>
> So - try different USB flash storage.  I use cheap no-name
> flash storage with the best luck. I've heard that Kingston
> and a-data work best. I dunno. Currently using an "HP" branded
> flash drive successfully to re-wipe ChromeOS over and over and
> over after about 20 attempts to get Linux installed **and**
> booting on a new Chromebook.
>
> Yumi is a very nice tool. Start by using one the already
> understood ISO options and build from there.  Oh - UEFI screws
> things up too, sometimes. Make certain legacy boot is enabled
> for USB storage.
>
> OTOH, dd is pretty stupid and easy if you just need a bootable
> ISO on flash storage.
>
> Unetbootin has never worked for me, but after the few 10
> failures, I stopped trying to use it.
>
> On 01/20/2016 11:42 PM, Ken Cochran wrote:
> > Yumi looks pretty good but so far I can't get it to make
> > a bootable USB, even of gparted, which has always worked.
> > {sigh}  -kc
> >
> >> From: DjPfulio <DjPfulio at jdpfu.com>
> >> Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2016 17:32:37 -0500
> >> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
> >> Subject: Re: [ale] syslinux problem making bootable usb
> >>
> >> For the last few years I've been using dd. Works with any bootable ISO Li=
> >> nux distribution. No multiboot allowed. Just a single ISO.
> >> Syslinux and other boot tools don't always work on newer computers. If yo=
> >> u must have some sort of a tool to do this, MKUSB has a GUI and there is =
> >> a CLI version with next to zero dependencies.
> >> If you want to use Windows for this, Yumi is the tool that has always wor=
> >> ked for me. It supports multiboot setups.
> >>
> >> 99% of the time, I just use dd.
> >>
> >> On 20 January 2016 17:14:44 GMT-05:00, Ken Cochran <kwc at shell.theworld.co=
> >> m> wrote:
> >>> Hey y'all is there some kinda -fu I'm missing in making a usb
> >>> flash drive bootable?  I'm trying to make a chntpw & it's not
> >>> working.  I can make & run gparted on the same media just fine.
> >>> Any nice alternatives to chntpw for "outside" resetting that
> >>> type of password?  As always, faq, doc & pointers to FMs to
> >>> RT are quite welcome. :)  -kc