Tach Eric, You wrote: > > I tried the following: > > - cleared any partition information: > > dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=8k count=2
um, well, it actually *was* necessary, as I had, in earlier attemps, munged the old partition table :(((( > That would not have been necessary :-(. > > > - created new partition-table: > > fdisk /dev/sdb > > - created primary partition 1 and marked as bootable > > It would have been enough to mark the EXISTING primary FAT > partition as bootable, WITHOUT formatting and repartitioning everything :-(. see above :) > > - tried to run "sys-freedos.pl": > > sys-freedos.pl --disk=/dev/sdb > > which reports: "not 512 bytes per sector" > > Yikes. You tried to overwrite the MBR with a boot sector. The correct > disk to use is /dev/sdb1, NOT /dev/sdb. You only write a boot sector > to the FAT partition sdb1. > > And you do NOT have to mkdosfs /dev/sdb1 either. The USB stick already > came with: > - proper partition information > - proper MBR > - proper FAT formatted partition > and you only have to add > - bootable flag in partition information > - boot sector in FAT partition > > Never touch a running system - in particular, you should assume that > the MBR, partition information and FAT filesystem which are on the > USB stick when it leaves the factory are just fine. Probably BETTER > that those which can be created by Linux fdisk / mkdosfs. Only change > what HAS to be changed: Mark the partition as bootable and create a > FreeDOS boot sector. And of course copy the files (e.g. kernel, shell) > to the partition (mount the partition or use mcopy). > > So again, do not "dd", do not delete partitions, do not mkdosfs... > and use, IF your "FAT partition on USB stick" is /dev/sdb1, the > "perl sys-freedos.pl --disk=/dev/sdb1" command to install a boot sector. I see your point, and in the future I will use the existing config on a USB stick. On the other hand, when I'm looking for the solution to a problem, and I come across one somewhere in which the author has described a solution starting from an assumed existing configuration that I don't have, I get *very* frustrated. I think it's always better to describe completely how to solve a problem, from first principles, so to speak. In such a description one can, and probably should, include the recommendation not to overwrite exising MBR/PT information... So how to I get an decent MBR onto the stick now??? :( Grub? cheers, Rob Urban > You may want to try different boot settings in your BIOS setup, too, > but some BIOSes simply do not allow a specific setting apart from the > mere "boot from USB" one. ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
