Flash to USB installer (experimental) in 7.0.5

**ttopp** · 05-14-2013, 10:37 PM

First. My Apologies for the inexperience. And thanks for staying with me.

... but (as i understand it) this PC is not the PC You are still having boot Problems with - Is that correct?

Yes I cannot yet boot any of the 3 sticks on My PC. *I've since corrected the ide and ata cards to boot correctly so no hardware conflict or tricking in bios anymore.

Can You boot on Your PC from a flash medium written by the "traditional" Knoppix flash installer?

This was interesting in that half way through traditional install my PC recycled and went completely to the initial screen as if rebooting - I swear - It came back up and finished the install to the 8GB SanDisk and it booted on the other PC. I've since redid it- for confidence - but pretty interesting. *This was using the traditional installer. And it does not boot My PC.

If that is the case, then Your PC firmware/BIOS might dislike flash media with multiple partitions.

Shucks, I thought that it might be solved by eliminating the extra usb ide card. I have 2 usb on the back of case from motherboard and two usb on front of new case. And four on an add on ide that was purchased before the new case. In short I thought I may have a usb conflict. So I took the ide card out and still no boot from back or front.

Thanks for the explanation on advantages above 8GB.

It's crazy. I updated Bios and all items in PC and still no usb boot. I have ran Linux off hard drive with win xp pro as multiple boot from floppy * but not yet from usb. Today a friend and old think pad 500MB RAM and 20GB hard disk booted the *8GB USB.

-------------------
Formatted by moderator to make posting readable
wps

**STraute** · 05-15-2013, 11:19 AM

Hello ttopp

Originally Posted by ttopp

Yes I cannot yet boot any of the 3 sticks on My PC.
(I've since corrected the ide and ata cards to boot correctly so no hardware conflict or tricking in bios anymore.)

This was interesting in that half way through traditional install my PC recycled and went completely to the initial screen as if rebooting - I swear - It came back up and finished the install to the 8GB SanDisk and it booted on the other PC. I've since redid it- for confidence - but pretty interesting.

*This was using the traditional installer. And it does not boot My PC.

It looks like we begin to corner this problem. It is specific to Your PC. Your PC can not boot Knoppix from flash storage devices, yet it can boot FreeDOS (the SpinRite medium You mentioned). We can not be sure yet, but it looks like this happens to Your PC for media created with the traditional as well as the experimental Knoppix flash installers.

Originally Posted by ttopp

Shucks, I thought that it might be solved by eliminating the extra usb ide card. I have 2 usb on the back of case from motherboard and two usb on front of new case. And four on an add on ide that was purchased before the new case.

In short I thought I may have a usb conflict. So I took the ide card out and still no boot from back or front.

The next steps You could try to corner this problem further:

Could You make sure that Your PC is not one of these newfangled things which can only boot via UEFI method? (EFI boot could work with a "newer" Knoppix 7.1, but is not yet there).
If You haven't already done that, could You try booting Your Knoppix flash device using diffrent USB ports (or with a "MultiCard" USB adapter on different USB ports, in case You are using a SDHC memory card or other flash device).
Try booting from a Knoppix CD/DVD with cheat codes: Attach Your flash media, boot from optical media and use the command
Code:
```
sudo fdisk -l
```
to determine the device name given to Your not-yet-bootable Knoppix flash medium. Then reboot from DVD again, and at the prompt use the cheat code
Code:
```
knoppix bootfrom=/dev/sdb1/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX
```
. (Assuming fdisk -l told You before that Your Knoppix flash storage device has been assigned name /dev/sdb.).
Create a Knoppix boot floppy (which then can continue "chain-"booting from flash medium) and use that instead of a DVD. That was a common approach when USB boot was not yet supported by many PC BIOS, IIRC.

Good luck with that.

**ttopp** · 05-15-2013, 02:33 PM

Good Morning,

Thanks for the response. I don't understand it yet but I will read it slow, today. I am sorry for the re-formatting someone (Administrator) is doing to make this readable so have taken to just a 'reply' rather than 'with quote'. I will go back to the faqs and see where what and how to post properly. Again thanks for staying with me.

**STraute** · 05-15-2013, 03:14 PM

Hello ttopp

Originally Posted by ttopp

Good Morning, Thanks for the response. I don't understand it yet but I will read it slow, today. I am sorry for the re-formatting someone (Administrator) is doing to make this readable so have taken to just a 'reply' rather than 'with quote'. I will go back to the faqs and see where what and how to post properly.

I am sure it will suit Mr. Werner P. Schulz if he sees posts from You not needing reformatting.
So You may refrain from including quotes - Just mention what You are replying to.

You may ask for clarifications if You want to.

**ttopp** · 05-15-2013, 07:47 PM

That was fun. I actually saw the searching of the iso image for KNOPPIX. I first booted using the dvd. then in a terminal window I typed sudo fdisk -l (list) and found this for both 64gb and 16gb usb drives.

Disk /dev/sdd: 62.8 GB, 62813896704 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 59904 cylinders, total 122683392 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 * 1 81631231 40815615+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdd2 81631232 122683391 20526080 83 Linux
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

Disk /dev/sdd: 16.0 GB, 16008609792 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 15267 cylinders, total 31266816 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 * 1 8433663 4216831+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdd2 8433664 31266815 11416576 83 Linux
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

I then booted with the dvd and at the knoppix penguin I typed knoppix bootfrom=/dev/sdd1/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX and here is where it says, searching ISO for KNOPPIX ?

**STraute** · 05-16-2013, 08:55 AM

Hello ttopp

Originally Posted by ttopp

I then booted with the dvd and at the knoppix penguin I typed knoppix bootfrom=/dev/sdd1/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX and here is where it says, searching ISO for KNOPPIX ?

What did happen after the searching? Did it just hang there? Nothing?

For both USB flash devices, I would expect the boot loader from the DVD to mount the partition image file from the flash storage and to continue booting to the Knoppix desktop, but without mounting the persistent overlayfile system on /dev/sdd2. Did that work?

**ttopp** · 05-16-2013, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by STraute

Hello ttopp

What did happen after the searching? Did it just hang there? Nothing?

For both USB flash devices, I would expect the boot loader from the DVD to mount the partition image file from the flash storage and to continue booting to the Knoppix desktop, but without mounting the persistent overlayfile system on /dev/sdd2. Did that work?

Good Morning. I read your response and clicked reply with quote and I am now typing below your answer. I hope this is the proper way. OK. Yesterday the message was can not find KNOPPIX dir in ISO and it kept cycling through the available areas. This morning I used the 8GB after seeing it has only 1 area, sdd1. Same message and kept cycling. But now I will try again and I will WAIT... to see what it does if it does continue... Thank you. Siddhartha can wait. So can I.