Hello...I posted in another post about installing slackware on usb and im having trouble with my computers bios, it doesnt support usb devices. does any one know of a generic bios that had usb support and a good track reccord? Im running a p3 comaq computer and i dont think that compaq released a bios update.

Thanks much

CheeseMonger

Hi,

Did you install a usb interface in the machine? If so then you will need the usb for the kernel. Slackware 11 supports usb. You won't need the bios for usb. The kernel will handle the device.

You say;
Give a little more information about the hardware. What kernel you are attempting to use with the compaq? Is this a laptop? Are you using usb interface via pcmcia?

I would suggest you to read this link .

I have several others in my sig that maybe of help.

Thank you gwsandvik for giving me that link, it was helpful and I think that i can ask a more intelegent question now.

So,

I installed slackware 10.2 using the iso disks and a Compaq Deskpro EP series motherboard, on to a PNY attache 1gb flash drive, and using a PNY attache 256mb drive as swap space . my intent was to create a computer that did not utlize a harddrive so that the computer could be bounced around with out much recourse in the hardrive failing due to shock damamge. (also because I wanted to see if i could fit slackware on to a 1gb flash drive) The mobo does not have usb 2.0 on-board (i believe that it only has usb 1.0 on-board due to the documentation i read on the compaq website making no refference to usb 2.0) so i bought a usb 2.0 pci card (Its a Stratitec USB 2.0 Upgrade Card 5 port 480mbps) It has it's own "enhanced" drivers disk, but the disk is only compadible with Mac OS X and Windows 98-XP. I assumed that Slackware 10.2 would have drivers to run the card and it appeared to, the usb drives inilitized and the setup installed successfuffly. However, When i tried booting the computer with out the Slack Disk, it comlained at me that there was a nonsystem disk error and asked to remove the media and reboot. I did not see the Usb drives being accessed (they have a light telling you that they are being accessed) and it seemed that the card was'nt even being powered. So I switched the Usb devices to the onboard USB 1.0 ports and still the system complained of nonsystem disks and did not access the flash drives.

My first thought is that the computer's BIOS does not support USB booting. And was wondering if there was a Generic USB boot BIOS software that i could install over the mobo BIOS.

Here are the computer's specifications:

Product Name.........Compaq Deskpro EP Series
Prossessor type......Pentium(R) III prossessor 600E MHz
Prossessor Speed.....600/133 MHz
Prossessor Stepping..683
Cache Size L1/L2.....32/256kb
Memory Size..........256mb
System Rom...........686J1 v3.08

The BIOS chip has this on it:

BIOS
Rev 3.08

I assume that the system Rom refers to the BIOS version.
Also if someone could enlighten me on what prossessor steping means, i would be very appreactiated.

Thanks for past, present, and future help;

CheeseMonger

One possible way that *might* work for non usb boot bios is to make a boot floppy and use lilo to point to the usb device - eg /dev/sda1. This way does not need the bios to boot up but of course you need a boot floppy with usb support.

I forgot to say that, while I dont have a hardrive plugged in, i have everything else pluged in (ide cdrom drive, floppy drive, keyboard, mouse) my bad.

In refference to the lilo boot loader, where can i find a install just for lilo (i want to make boot floppys) i could never find one and i really do not want to chance reinstalling Slack 10.2 again. I believe it was little short of a mericial that i got it all to fit on one gigabyte with out cutting out major support systems for the linux kernal.

Thanks again,

CheeseMonger

If you run liloconfig (as root) you can make your lilo.conf and install it to floppy.

On my other Computer running Slack 10.2,I opened termnial and used the "su" command to get root's privliges and then typed "liloconfig" the menu to install lilo came up and i grabed a floppy and selected install to floppy. Afterword i took it to the project computer and inserted it to the floppy drive. when the computer booted all i got was a screen that looked like this:

L1010101010101010101010101....(ect)

and nothing else happened.
I rembember reading someware that if Lilo didnt get past the LI... and spat out a bunch of numbers there was something wrong with the Lilo install. So, I took the Lilo disk back to my other computer thats running Slack 10.2 and mounted the floppy to look inside it. all it contained was a "lost+found" folder and i couldnt open it unless i logged in as root (something I've been repremanded by multiple IRC users for doing before)

So, where can i go from here?

Thanks for your contiuning help,

CheeseMonger

Not sure. It worked for me. Maybe a bad disk or lilo didn't install right?

To boot linux you will need to get to the kernel. You will not be able to load usb drivers until the kernel can be found, so it will not help you if the kernel is on the usb stick. I don't know how big your kernel is, but if you can get it on a floppy then you can use /sbin/makebootdisk.
Is your cdrom bootable? This would give you some more options...

(of course I may be wrong)

tobyl

Yes i have cdrom and floppy boot options that i've tested and both worked. Also, the BIOS says it supports usb booting but it doesnt work. I did run across a menu that show IRQ-11 for cdrom, floppy, and Usb boot options. If that is an issue then i can get more information on it. My main goal was to replace my BIOS with a generic one (if such a thing exists) that has better usb boot options. I appreachate all the help all of you have been providing. (it probably doesnt matter if the board has usb support or not if i cant get the kernel to boot with boot disks anyway)

Is there a full install of lilo with Usb drivers built in? so i could run it on the Slack Machine I'm using now and install it to floppy?

Thanks again,

CheeseMonger

Cheesemonger:

How did you test if the USB boots?

Do you have a working XP box somewhere? If so, go to www.geocities.com/cwwilson721

The link walks you through creating a DOS bootable USB device. Then try it to boot your system. If that works, then there is something else going on.

iv got good news and bad news,

The good news is that i took the usb dive to another computer (an hp pavilion a320n) and the hp's bios supports usb booting. So, Lilo boots up and it all it has for boot options is "Linux partition" and nothing else. I was thinking it was weird that no kernel option was avalible and was worried, but, me being the ever optimistic one, started the boot. It got pretty far. The bad news is it stopped at the VFS part though. The message it's giving me is:

what does it all mean?

thanks in advance,

CheeseMonger