I have pc which doesn't start from usb-stick. Normally when I boot that pc and press F11 to get bios-menu of bootable drives I will see:

+Harddrive
CD-ROM
DISKDRIVE
LAN

If I connect USB-cdrom I will see

+Harddrive
+CD-ROM
DISKDRIVE
LAN

and sysresccd starts correctly from CD-ROM. But If I unplug CD-ROM and plug USB stick (which works in another computers) I will see

+Harddrive
CD-ROM
+DISKDRIVE
LAN

Bios detects the usb-stick really slowly. Bios seems to think that my usb-stick is floppydrive. I have tried "syslinux e:", "syslinux -ma e:" and "syslinux -sma e:" but nothing seems to work. I also tried to disable floppydisk controller, but it didn't help too. When I try to start from DISKDRIVE, I will get blank black screen and cursor blinking in top left corner. If I choose any other selection, computer will start from harddrive. I do not want to install any bootloader to harddisk.

I can use external usb-cdrom to boot, but it is quite heavy to carry with me all the time. :?

Any ideas how to get usb-boot working?

It may be a problem with the disk geometry (partitions) of your usb key.

This page may help:
http://www.sysresccd.org/Howto_install-usb-stick

After booting srcd from cdrom cfdisk complained that partition starts from outside of media or similar... I will try to format it later and try again.

I have 4GB usb-stick and it has some files. I already did every step of your instructions except formatting. Maybe syslinux can't start system over some cylinder etc. boundary. (for example over 1GB)

No, problem still there. I did everything right way like in
http://www.sysresccd.org/Howto_install-usb-stick
but it wont boot.

I think reason might be buggy bios, because same flash stick boots with my laptop. I am however happy that same problematic pc boots from cd.

It has phoenix bios and motherboard model is D1688.

Hi,

I found the answer to exact boot problem like yours in Linux Magazine from Brasil:

ms-sys -s /dev/sdX

It rebuilds the MBR in the USB boot device.

Hope this helps.

I added your comment to the manual, thanks

Wow! It works! :D

But after doing "ms-sys -s /dev/sda" I had to select floppydisk from bios menu. :lol: 8)

Thanks a lot from Finland to Brasil!!

It works with one industrial PC, but doesn't work with another PC exactly same type. I am not sure why, but I think it might has to do something with bios-versions.

Boot-problem (without ms-sys -s /dev/sda) appears to be at least with these industrial PC's with Phoenix Bios and Fujitsu-Siemens motherboard, but also with home desktop (HP). I am not sure which brand that motherboard was.

These industrial pc's have some customised bios, which doesnt save all settings which user tries to save, so that might be the root of problem.

ps. I can't install any bootloader for this industrial pc's.

Hi,

But if "ps. I can't install any bootloader for this industrial pc's.", why do you think that it could work with ms-sys?

Regards,

One part of this problem was that my usb-stick is perhaps broken. If I do syslinux and ms-sys -s for that stick, it will boot my laptop, but not industrial pc. If I write exactly same commands using another stick, it boots up both of those.

When I boot industrial pc with this problematical Kingston stick, it will take about 30-60 seconds before bios detects it. But my compact flash & Sandisk drive combo, gets detected by bios less than second.

I can save files to Kingston and boot normal pc from that stick, so is it really broken or not? Does SRCD has any programs for checking compact flash cards? badblocks perhaps?

Hello USB-Stick-Booters,

i followed the instructions on this site to install sysrescue on a bootable
USB-Stick and plugged it into my CF18 Toughbook. Booting didn't work,
instead the CF18 reported "Missing operating system"

Installing lilo as a bootmanager in the MBR of my USB-Stick resolved the problem.

The command i used: lilo -M /dev/sdb

with my USB-Stick being dev/sdb and the partition on which sysrescue is
installed being dev/sdb1. lilo automatically detects the primary partition which is marked active / bootable and installs the MBR accordingly.

You can use fdisk or other partition managers on the USB-Stick like fdisk /dev/sdb to make sure that the partition you wish to boot is marked as active / bootable.

Thanks. You solved my problem. I can boot on my USB-stick after I made it bootable in Gparted.

It works with Lilo, as you suggest but it also works with


Thanks again. You have saved me a lot of time :D

/Dolmio

To boot from nearly any linux iso, use the partnew method in grub4dos - tested and works fine!
The ISO file must be contiguous (use WinContig to defrag it if you get Error 60)

I'm not sure that will work with newer pcs Steve. Many have multiple partitions as a standard hdd config. EFI, boot, Rescue, Recovery in addition to C:.

This is a picture of my wife's new netbook hdd config.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Sorry Steve, I misunderstood. Your code is referring to the 4 partition on a Flash drive NOT the harddrive.