Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

2007-08-06 Thread Reid Linnemann

Written by fbsd2 on 08/04/07 07:42
I was really taken with the idea for using a USB flash stick disk drive to install FreeBSD from. I used the script from the mentioned URL below as the starting point. After some changes to the script I got it to work. I was able to boot off the USB flash stick disk drive, But then was faced with a show stopper. During the sysinstall process after it asks for hard drive fdisk and bsdlable info it asks you for where to get the install files from (IE: cdrom, remote ftp, floppy, dos partition, ECT) there is no option to tell the sysinstall program to use USB-dd as source location. 


So in summary, this idea is un-usable until the sysinstall program gets updated 
to include an option to use USB-dd as an install source.  This brings to light 
another problem. That is using floppies to install FreeBSD from. PC 
manufactures are no longer building systems with floppies drives included. 
Combining the FreeBSD floppy images to a single USB-dd image would be away to 
continue to offer this method of installing FreeBSD.

Included below is my working script to populate a 1GB USB flash stick disk with 
the FreeBSD cd1 iso file.


#!/bin/sh
#Purpose = Use to transfer the FreeBSD install cd1 to 
#  a bootable 1GB USB flash drive so it can be used to install from. 
#  First fetch the FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso to your

#  hard drive /usr. Then execute this script from the command line
# fbsd2usb /usr/6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso /usr/6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.img
# Change system bios to boot from USB-dd and away you go. 


# NOTE: This script has to be run from root and your 1GB USB flash drive
#   has to be plugged in before running this script. 


# On the command line enter fbsd2usb iso-path img-path

# You can set some variables here. Edit them to fit your needs.

# Set serial variable to 0 if you don't want serial console at all,
# 1 if you want comconsole and 2 if you want comconsole and vidconsole
serial=0

set -u

if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
echo Usage: $0 source-iso-path output-img-path
exit 1
fi

isoimage=$1; shift
imgoutfile=$1; shift

# Temp  directory to be used later
#export tmpdir=$(mktemp -d -t fbsdmount)
export tmpdir=$(mktemp -d /usr/fbsdmount)

export isodev=$(mdconfig -a -t vnode -f ${isoimage})

ISOSIZE=$(du -k ${isoimage} | awk '{print $1}')
SECTS=$((($ISOSIZE + ($ISOSIZE/5))*4))
#SECTS=$((($ISOSIZE + ($ISOSIZE/5))*2))


echo  
echo ### Initializing image File started ###
echo ### This will take about 4 minutes ###
date
dd if=/dev/zero of=${imgoutfile} count=${SECTS}
echo ### Initializing image File completed ###
date

echo  
ls -l ${imgoutfile}
export imgdev=$(mdconfig -a -t vnode -f ${imgoutfile})

bsdlabel -w -B ${imgdev}
newfs -O1 /dev/${imgdev}a

mkdir -p ${tmpdir}/iso ${tmpdir}/img

mount -t cd9660 /dev/${isodev} ${tmpdir}/iso
mount /dev/${imgdev}a ${tmpdir}/img

echo  
echo ### Started Copying files to the image now ###
echo ### This will take about 15 minutes ###
date

( cd ${tmpdir}/iso  find . -print -depth | cpio -dump ${tmpdir}/img )

echo ### Completed Copying files to the image ###
date


if [ ${serial} -eq 2 ]; then
echo -D  ${tmpdir}/img/boot.config
echo 'console=comconsole, vidconsole'  
${tmpdir}/img/boot/loader.conf
elif [ ${serial} -eq 1 ]; then
echo -h  ${tmpdir}/img/boot.config
echo 'console=comconsole'  ${tmpdir}/img/boot/loader.conf
fi

echo  
echo ### Started writing image to flash drive now ###
echo ### This will take about 30 minutes ###
date
dd if=${imgoutfile} of=/dev/da0 bs=1m
echo ### Completed writing image to flash drive at ###
date

cleanup() {
umount ${tmpdir}/iso
mdconfig -d -u ${isodev}
umount ${tmpdir}/img
mdconfig -d -u ${imgdev}
rm -rf ${tmpdir} 
}


cleanup

ls -lh ${imgoutfile}

echo ### Script finished ###



-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ross Penner
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 2:34 PM
To: User questions
Subject: Installing from USB Flash Drive

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical 
drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a 
messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
(http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html) 
about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into 
one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used  and coverted it without 
issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so 
executed

#dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0
I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure, as I'm 
quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the drive to 
boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the drive was 
succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot from 
USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image.


Thanks for any insight you can provide me.

Ross

--
sig ho!


Please don't top-post.

You are correct, 

RE: Installing from USB Flash Drive

2007-08-06 Thread fbsd2



You are correct, there is no option for a USB flash drive for your
installation media. However, it is not a show stopper - you have the
file system media option. You should mount the flash disk and use this
option.


-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Reid Linnemann
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 8:54 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: Ross Penner; User questions
Subject: Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

When booting the USB flash drive which contains the install cd1 iso you go
into sysinstall by default.
There is no way to stay in the sysinstall pgm and issue a mount command for
da0 that I can find.
Exiting sysinstall just causes a reboot and you are right back at point you
just left.

Please explain how to mount USB flash drive when it's all ready used to boot
from.





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Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

2007-08-06 Thread Reid Linnemann

Written by fbsd2 on 08/06/07 09:08




You are correct, there is no option for a USB flash drive for your
installation media. However, it is not a show stopper - you have the
file system media option. You should mount the flash disk and use this
option.



-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Reid Linnemann
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 8:54 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: Ross Penner; User questions
Subject: Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

When booting the USB flash drive which contains the install cd1 iso you go
into sysinstall by default.
There is no way to stay in the sysinstall pgm and issue a mount command for
da0 that I can find.
Exiting sysinstall just causes a reboot and you are right back at point you
just left.

Please explain how to mount USB flash drive when it's all ready used to boot
from.




As I recall, the system starts up a shell on ttyv3 and you also have the 
root menu option Fixit to enter a shell.

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RE: Installing from USB Flash Drive

2007-08-06 Thread fbsd2
Written by fbsd2 on 08/06/07 09:08


 You are correct, there is no option for a USB flash drive for your
 installation media. However, it is not a show stopper - you have the
 file system media option. You should mount the flash disk and use this
 option.


 -Original Message-
 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Reid Linnemann
 Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 8:54 AM
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Cc: Ross Penner; User questions
 Subject: Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

 When booting the USB flash drive which contains the install cd1 iso you go
 into sysinstall by default.
 There is no way to stay in the sysinstall pgm and issue a mount command
for
 da0 that I can find.
 Exiting sysinstall just causes a reboot and you are right back at point
you
 just left.

 Please explain how to mount USB flash drive when it's all ready used to
boot
 from.



As I recall, the system starts up a shell on ttyv3 and you also have the
root menu option Fixit to enter a shell.


-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Reid Linnemann
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 11:53 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: User questions
Subject: Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

I already tried that.  Fixit starts tty4 and I issued   mount /dev/da0 
/mnt
and got  mount not found
Alt f2  is the default debug session and mount /dev/da0 /mnt worked from
there, but still no joy.
When sysinstall try's to get the source to install it says unable to
transfer distribution source from ufs.
Still looks like a showstopper to me.
I am ready submitted a bug report to add USB-dd as supported install 
media
in sysinstall.


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RE: Installing from USB Flash Drive

2007-08-04 Thread fbsd2
I was really taken with the idea for using a USB flash stick disk drive to 
install FreeBSD from. I used the script from the mentioned URL below as the 
starting point. After some changes to the script I got it to work. I was able 
to boot off the USB flash stick disk drive, But then was faced with a show 
stopper. During the sysinstall process after it asks for hard drive fdisk and 
bsdlable info it asks you for where to get the install files from (IE: cdrom, 
remote ftp, floppy, dos partition, ECT) there is no option to tell the 
sysinstall program to use USB-dd as source location. 

So in summary, this idea is un-usable until the sysinstall program gets updated 
to include an option to use USB-dd as an install source.  This brings to light 
another problem. That is using floppies to install FreeBSD from. PC 
manufactures are no longer building systems with floppies drives included. 
Combining the FreeBSD floppy images to a single USB-dd image would be away to 
continue to offer this method of installing FreeBSD.

Included below is my working script to populate a 1GB USB flash stick disk with 
the FreeBSD cd1 iso file.


#!/bin/sh
#Purpose = Use to transfer the FreeBSD install cd1 to 
#  a bootable 1GB USB flash drive so it can be used to install from. 
#  First fetch the FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso to your
#  hard drive /usr. Then execute this script from the command line
# fbsd2usb /usr/6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso /usr/6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.img
# Change system bios to boot from USB-dd and away you go. 

# NOTE: This script has to be run from root and your 1GB USB flash drive
#   has to be plugged in before running this script. 

# On the command line enter fbsd2usb iso-path img-path

# You can set some variables here. Edit them to fit your needs.

# Set serial variable to 0 if you don't want serial console at all,
# 1 if you want comconsole and 2 if you want comconsole and vidconsole
serial=0

set -u

if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
echo Usage: $0 source-iso-path output-img-path
exit 1
fi

isoimage=$1; shift
imgoutfile=$1; shift

# Temp  directory to be used later
#export tmpdir=$(mktemp -d -t fbsdmount)
export tmpdir=$(mktemp -d /usr/fbsdmount)

export isodev=$(mdconfig -a -t vnode -f ${isoimage})

ISOSIZE=$(du -k ${isoimage} | awk '{print $1}')
SECTS=$((($ISOSIZE + ($ISOSIZE/5))*4))
#SECTS=$((($ISOSIZE + ($ISOSIZE/5))*2))


echo  
echo ### Initializing image File started ###
echo ### This will take about 4 minutes ###
date
dd if=/dev/zero of=${imgoutfile} count=${SECTS}
echo ### Initializing image File completed ###
date

echo  
ls -l ${imgoutfile}
export imgdev=$(mdconfig -a -t vnode -f ${imgoutfile})

bsdlabel -w -B ${imgdev}
newfs -O1 /dev/${imgdev}a

mkdir -p ${tmpdir}/iso ${tmpdir}/img

mount -t cd9660 /dev/${isodev} ${tmpdir}/iso
mount /dev/${imgdev}a ${tmpdir}/img

echo  
echo ### Started Copying files to the image now ###
echo ### This will take about 15 minutes ###
date

( cd ${tmpdir}/iso  find . -print -depth | cpio -dump ${tmpdir}/img )

echo ### Completed Copying files to the image ###
date


if [ ${serial} -eq 2 ]; then
echo -D  ${tmpdir}/img/boot.config
echo 'console=comconsole, vidconsole'  
${tmpdir}/img/boot/loader.conf
elif [ ${serial} -eq 1 ]; then
echo -h  ${tmpdir}/img/boot.config
echo 'console=comconsole'  ${tmpdir}/img/boot/loader.conf
fi

echo  
echo ### Started writing image to flash drive now ###
echo ### This will take about 30 minutes ###
date
dd if=${imgoutfile} of=/dev/da0 bs=1m
echo ### Completed writing image to flash drive at ###
date

cleanup() {
umount ${tmpdir}/iso
mdconfig -d -u ${isodev}
umount ${tmpdir}/img
mdconfig -d -u ${imgdev}
rm -rf ${tmpdir} 
}

cleanup

ls -lh ${imgoutfile}

echo ### Script finished ###



-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ross Penner
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 2:34 PM
To: User questions
Subject: Installing from USB Flash Drive

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical 
drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a 
messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
(http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html) 
about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into 
one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used  and coverted it without 
issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so 
executed
#dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0
I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure, as I'm 
quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the drive to 
boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the drive was 
succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot from 
USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image.

Thanks for any insight you can provide me.

Ross

--
sig ho!
___
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Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

2007-08-01 Thread Reid Linnemann

Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 13:34

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical 
drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a 
messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
(http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html) 
about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into 
one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used  and coverted it without 
issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so 
executed

#dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0
I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure, as I'm 
quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the drive to 
boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the drive 
was succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot 
from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image.


Thanks for any insight you can provide me.

Ross



That seems correct to me. You may want to 'bsdlabel -B /dev/da0' after 
writing the ufs image to it. The script you referenced does this to the 
image before you write it to the flash drive, so the boot code should 
already be there... but it appears to have gotten lost.

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Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

2007-08-01 Thread Reid Linnemann

Written by Andrey Shuvikov on 08/01/07 14:17

On 8/1/07, Ross Penner [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical
drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a
messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED]
(http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html)
about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into
one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used  and coverted it without
issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so
executed
#dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0


This will copy CD to USB sector-by-sector recreating CD filesystem
(ISO-9660) on the stick. I don't think it's what system expects. I
tried to do similar thing some time ago. I don't remember details but
what I did was mounting CD-image and copying files from there to
preformatted USB stick.


The script he referenced built a disk image from the iso-9660 fs to 
create his flashbsd.iso image - the .iso extension at this point is 
misleading. The script makes a dedicated freebsd memory disk, puts 
bootcode and a UFS filesystem on it, and copies the contents of the 
install CD to the UFS filesystem. It's this image that he is then dd'ing 
to the flash drive.



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Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

2007-08-01 Thread Andrey Shuvikov
On 8/1/07, Ross Penner [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Hi everybody,

 I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical
 drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a
 messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html)
 about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into
 one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used  and coverted it without
 issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so
 executed
 #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0

This will copy CD to USB sector-by-sector recreating CD filesystem
(ISO-9660) on the stick. I don't think it's what system expects. I
tried to do similar thing some time ago. I don't remember details but
what I did was mounting CD-image and copying files from there to
preformatted USB stick.
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Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

2007-08-01 Thread Ross Penner
On 8/1/07, Reid Linnemann  [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 13:34
  Hi everybody,
 
  I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical
  drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a
  messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  (http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html )
  about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into
  one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used  and coverted it without
  issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so
  executed
  #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0
  I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure, as I'm
  quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the drive to
  boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the drive
  was succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot
  from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image.
 
  Thanks for any insight you can provide me.
 
  Ross
 

 That seems correct to me. You may want to 'bsdlabel -B /dev/da0' after
 writing the ufs image to it. The script you referenced does this to the
 image before you write it to the flash drive, so the boot code should
 already be there... but it appears to have gotten lost.


Perhaps it never worked in the first place?

rosbot# bsdlabel -B /dev/da0
bsdlabel: partition c doesn't cover the whole unit!
bsdlabel: An incorrect partition c may cause problems for standard system
utilities

I didn't do anything to the drive before dd'ing to it. Should have it been
prepared somehow? I assumed dd would
take care of partitions. There is a da0a and a da0c in /dev/ .
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Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

2007-08-01 Thread Reid Linnemann

Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 16:21
On 8/1/07, *Reid Linnemann*  [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]  wrote:


Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 13:34
  Hi everybody,
 
  I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an
optical
  drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a
  messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
  (
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html)
  about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD
image into
  one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used  and coverted it
without
  issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so
  executed
  #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0
  I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure,
as I'm
  quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the
drive to
  boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the
drive
  was succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set
to boot
  from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image.
 
  Thanks for any insight you can provide me.
 
  Ross
 

That seems correct to me. You may want to 'bsdlabel -B /dev/da0' after
writing the ufs image to it. The script you referenced does this to the
image before you write it to the flash drive, so the boot code should
already be there... but it appears to have gotten lost.


Perhaps it never worked in the first place?

rosbot# bsdlabel -B /dev/da0
bsdlabel: partition c doesn't cover the whole unit!
bsdlabel: An incorrect partition c may cause problems for standard
system utilities

I didn't do anything to the drive before dd'ing to it. Should have it 
been prepared somehow? I assumed dd would 
take care of partitions. There is a da0a and a da0c in /dev/ .




No, that's just a warning message and does not prevent the bootcode from 
being installed. Have you ever booted any other system from this flash 
disk on this machine?

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Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

2007-08-01 Thread Ross Penner
On 8/1/07, Reid Linnemann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 16:21
  On 8/1/07, *Reid Linnemann*  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]  wrote:
 
  Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 13:34
Hi everybody,
   
I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an
  optical
drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found
 a
messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(
 
 http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html
  
 http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html)
about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD
  image into
one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used  and coverted it
  without
issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive
 so
executed
#dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0
I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure,
  as I'm
quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the
  drive to
boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the
  drive
was succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set
  to boot
from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image.
   
Thanks for any insight you can provide me.
   
Ross
   
 
  That seems correct to me. You may want to 'bsdlabel -B /dev/da0'
 after
  writing the ufs image to it. The script you referenced does this to
 the
  image before you write it to the flash drive, so the boot code
 should
  already be there... but it appears to have gotten lost.
 
 
  Perhaps it never worked in the first place?
 
  rosbot# bsdlabel -B /dev/da0
  bsdlabel: partition c doesn't cover the whole unit!
  bsdlabel: An incorrect partition c may cause problems for standard
  system utilities
 
  I didn't do anything to the drive before dd'ing to it. Should have it
  been prepared somehow? I assumed dd would
  take care of partitions. There is a da0a and a da0c in /dev/ .
 

 No, that's just a warning message and does not prevent the bootcode from
 being installed. Have you ever booted any other system from this flash
 disk on this machine?


I havn't. That's about to be my next step. Thanks for your words of advice.
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Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive

2007-08-01 Thread Craig Boston
On Wed, Aug 01, 2007 at 12:34:15PM -0600, Ross Penner wrote:
 I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot from  
 USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image.

I don't think that that option, which is for USB floppy drives, is what
you want.  USB flash memory uses a different protocol and looks like a
hard drive.

What you want is a USB-HDD or USB Mass Storage option in the boot
order.  With some BIOSes, USB storage devices don't show up in the
normal boot order screen, but rather in a list of hard drives --
sometimes called hard disk priority or something similar.

If it still doesn't work, you may want to check your motherboard manual
and make sure that it's really capable of booting from USB flash memory.
Not all BIOSes are.

HTH,
Craig
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