On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 03:14, Caroline Meeks <[email protected]> wrote: > Hmm, This is all very interesting and in the field pretty confusing. > > We need to take this knowledge and use it in two ways. > > 1. Simple recommendations today, for naive users, on how to be most likely > to create a working stick. > > 2. Recommendations for the developers of the teacher Stick Creator activity > that runs off of Sugar and lets teachers clone their system including apps, > language settings, network settings etc. and create fresh sticks for their > students. > > Anyone want to take a shot at summarizing what we know into actionable > information for either of these uses?
Shouldn't we offer on-disk.com as an alternative for the less technically adventurous? Regards, Tomeu > On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 3:57 AM, Jonas Smedegaard <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >> Hash: SHA1 >> >> On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 09:06:15PM -0400, Caroline Meeks wrote: >> >Ahh, this maybe where some of the confusing behavior we were seeing >> >comes from. Let me repeat what I think I understand so I can see if I >> >have it right. >> > >> >FAT is the same thing as FAT16 >> >FAT is only an option for USB sticks 2 GB or less. You can only format >> >a USB stick larger then 2 GB as FAT32. >> >Some computers will not boot from a FAT32 formatted stick but some >> >will. >> > >> >Thus if you put SoaS onto a 4 GB USB it will fail on some computers and >> >not others. >> > >> >A partition allows you to have one part of the USB formatted >> >differently then another part. >> > >> >Thus a work around if you want to use a USB stick larger then 2GB would >> >be to create a smaller partition for the boot area and format that as >> >FAT. >> > >> >Let me know what I have right and wrong! >> >> You got it right. But there are more works in that can: >> >> FAT is _often_ FAT16. In addition to FAT16 and FAT32 there is also >> FAT12, which some BIOSed might expect in USB-FDD mode. >> >> Also, some BIOSes do not support booting from a USB stick containing >> more than a single partition...: >> >> The various bugs in BIOS implementations apart, there are 3 kinds of >> boot methods for USB storage devices: USB-FDD, USB-HDD and USB-ZIP. >> >> USB-FDD expects no MBR (Master Boot Record), but instead one single >> unpartitioned whole - like a very large floppy disk. >> >> USB-FDD expects an MBR with standard DOS partition table - like a >> harddisk. >> >> USB-ZIP expects an MBR with specific DOS partition table - like a ZIP >> drive. >> >> >> makebootfat includes a special "mbrfat" combination that makes the >> device look like an unpartitioned single whole to BIOSes expecting >> USB-FDD, while presenting an MBR with a DOS partition table for BIOS-HDD >> use (and possibly BIOS-ZIP too). >> >> >> I strongly recommend to read the manpage for makebootfat. >> >> >> I don't know any tools to reverse-engineer boot sectors, which means it >> is not enough to say "yes, it works with makebootfat" - you need to >> document *what* works for *which* machine setup to use *what* USB access >> method. >> >> If you want to approach this systematically, to gain knowledge on what >> hardware supports which combinations of boot methods and tricks, then I >> strongly suggest that you try use makebootfat to prepare the USB sticks, >> or closely read documentation and/or code of other chosen tools to >> understand what exactly they do in comparison. >> >> >> Kind regards, >> >> - Jonas >> >> - -- >> * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist og Internet-arkitekt >> * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/ >> >> [x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- >> Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) >> >> iEYEARECAAYFAknoNn0ACgkQn7DbMsAkQLiifgCfZLRgzR6DWrxOpEMBODwpQOa3 >> tlkAn370vm1hW+efS+0rQtvC7THSglkh >> =Rm6F >> -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- >> _______________________________________________ >> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) >> [email protected] >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep > > > > -- > Caroline Meeks > Solution Grove > [email protected] > > 617-500-3488 - Office > 505-213-3268 - Fax > > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > [email protected] > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep > _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
