Can't boot the installer from usb, am I dd'ing the right way?

kummiliim · 10-13-2007, 04:40 AM

I need to install slackware using an usb pen drive. I downloaded usbboot.img from a slackware server and checked the md5, it was uncorrupted. Then I tried dd-ing it to the pen as mentioned in the usb help file in the slack server.

Code:

dd if=/home/mt/usbboot.img of=/dev/sdb

and

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb
dd if=/home/mt/usbboot.img of=/dev/sdb

and

Code:

dd if=/home/mt/usbboot.img of=/dev/sdb bs=512 (and 1024)

but the computer can't boot from it in any case.

The thing that worries me is that when I do

Code:

diff /home/mt/usbboot.img /dev/sdb

Then it says that the files differ.

Is that normal?
(I mean after zeroing the drive first, then there shouldn't be anything different, no?)
When I boot on my desktop pc it just skips the drive and goes on the the harddrive when I ask to boot the usb drive. The laptop where I really want to install gives a simple "boot error".

It's probably something really easy that I'm missing here.

edit: Oh, the drive's 256 MB so there's plenty of room for the 23-24 mb image.lsusb calls it a "SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Micro 256/512MB Flash Drive"

edit2: Hmm, the Boot sectors are identical on the pen and in the image. This has to be a problem with the computers. I'll fool around some more and see if I can fix it.

H_TeXMeX_H · 10-14-2007, 01:59 AM

Did you change the boot order in the BIOS ? I suppose you probably did. Just make sure.

kummiliim · 10-14-2007, 02:06 AM

Thanks for replying, I did change the booting order.

The thing is, after a few hours of painful mindwork, I build myself a PXE server and managed to boot from there and am as of now a happy Linux laptop owner.

I've heard that some laptops aren't too good at booting from usb, didn't think that includes ThinkPads.

Ohwell, I kind of solved my problem anyway.

Alien Bob · 10-14-2007, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kummiliim

I've heard that some laptops aren't too good at booting from usb, didn't think that includes ThinkPads.

Weird, considering I created the USB installer using ThinkPads as my test machines (T41 and T43).

Eric

Alien_Hominid · 10-14-2007, 09:14 AM

Probably, it's not the case but boot order is reset when you plug out the usb stick (at least in my pc).

Alien Bob · 10-14-2007, 10:26 AM

Yes, the stick has to be inserted when you switch on the ThinkPad - when you press F12 (boot menu) you should see the USB stick listed as a boot option. The ThinkPad won't boot from the USB device fully automatic.

Eric

kummiliim · 10-14-2007, 11:59 AM

For the sake of discussion: As I said, I selected the usb drive and it just said "boot error". After flashing bios from 2.07 to 2.09 it just skipped when booting as in my desktop system. Maybe it still was the stick.