USB Puppy Won't Boot

Message

x15j · #1 Post by **x15j** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 08:52

Hello,

My BIOS has an option for "USB Storage Device" (I'm using a flash drive), but it will not boot Puppy. I've tried Unetbootin and Puppy's Universal Installer (where I tried multiple installs including ext3, fat32, different MBR's, etc.).

Please help,
Thanks

#2 Post by **BÃ©Ã¨m** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 10:17

Please describe more in detail what happens as you try to boot from USB

x15j · #3 Post by **x15j** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 11:08

I get a "No Bootable Devices" message after the initial manufacturer's boot screen. Thanks.

#4 Post by **BÃ©Ã¨m** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 13:15

When you installed on the usb device did you make the partition bootable?

This is done normally with gparted.

rjbrewer · #5 Post by **rjbrewer** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 13:39

I have the exact same problem when trying a 4.3.1 version.
(not a bootable disk)
Earlier Puppies work fine.

edit:
It will boot using wakepup2 or live cd and pmedia=usbflash code.

jafadmin · #6 Post by **jafadmin** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 17:36

x15j wrote:Hello,

My BIOS has an option for "USB Storage Device" (I'm using a flash drive), but it will not boot Puppy. I've tried Unetbootin and Puppy's Universal Installer (where I tried multiple installs including ext3, fat32, different MBR's, etc.).

Please help,
Thanks

I'm an IT consultant and I use puppy as a non-windows toolbox to troubleshoot and repair networks and Windows machines.

Here is my personal recipe for bootable thumbdrives that works in 99% of the situations I encounter.

1. Use Gparted to kill existing partitions on the thumbdrive.
2. Use Gparted to create a ext2 partition on the thumbdrive
3. In Gparted I set the boot flag for the ext2 partition
4. Use the universal installer to set up the thumb drive and select mbr.bin as the mbr type.

I have a dozen or so of these thumbdrives around and have a thumbnail sized one on my keyring. I can boot pretty much every PC I encounter that can boot from a USB port. Now, that said ...

It seems that every PC model of every manufacturer has a different vision of how one should boot from USB devices. Usually there is a function key you can press when the bios is booting that will bring up a boot menu that will display all the available boot devices that the bios has found. On some you have to go into the bios setup and select the thumbdrive from the "boot order" menu and move it to the top. (This one is often found by expanding the "Hard Drives" option)

At any rate, the recipe I listed above usually works, but figuring out the way each machine wants to boot USB is usually the time consumer.

It might help if you listed the PC model and BIOS.

I hope this helps ...

lotech · #7 Post by **lotech** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 17:48

How about booting with vfat, I want to share the files with windows so I must use vfat, I find 4.3.1 is different than previous versions, I can't make my flash drive boot, no matter partitioned or superfloppy, the pc keep saying 'not a bootable drive'. I even format the flash, which is HP, with the HP usb formatter but still no luck, any idea ?

jafadmin · #8 Post by **jafadmin** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 18:03

lotech wrote:How about booting with vfat, I want to share the files with windows so I must use vfat, I find 4.3.1 is different than previous versions, I can't make my flash drive boot, no matter partitioned or superfloppy, the pc keep saying 'not a bootable drive'. I even format the flash, which is HP, with the HP usb formatter but still no luck, any idea ?

For clarity, are you talking about a USB thumbdrive, or a flashdrive?

rjbrewer · #9 Post by **rjbrewer** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 18:10

Jafa:

Tried on 2 usb flash drives with ext2 partition, as you suggested.
It worked.
Doesn't explain why fat partitions work perfectly with these drives
using earlier puppy versions, but not 4.3.1.

nooby · #10 Post by **nooby** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 18:17

Very good advices all you.

If none of those help there is also another way of forcing it to boot.

But one need a working system to install it. Either a puppy on a DVD or if the hdd can be made to boot a puppy to do things or windows to change things.

My about 8 years old compaq pressario booted one times out of ten trials.

But if I add a new entry to the boot menu.lst that boot up the linux files vmlinuz and initrd.gz which are placed on the hdd in boot or maybe it was root, not sure. They start boot on the hdd and then look for the rest of the files and find them on the usb and boot them from the usb each time.

A kind of cheating and not very practical if one have to use others computers. one only prepare ones own computers that way.

I boot Debian Elive 1.9.61 unstable that way to be able to install it fully to same computers. Worked like a charm whatever.

Edit

Aah cool you got it working with ext2 instead of fat32.

Well somebody else reading this post may be helped though.

here is the link to that text

http://www.elivecd.org/Help/Howto/insta ... r-computer

Maybe you are thinking that your laptop is unable to boot from the USB, ok, your BIOS is unable, but Elive is . It is very possible that you even not need to have this USB stick bootable, maybe by having just the contents of the ISO copied to a fat32 partition is perfectly sufficient, the only thing really required is that the versiono of Elive needs to be the same (same kernel revision build)

And so on. Very handy if the computer always fail to boot an usb but does boot from the hdd.

jafadmin · #11 Post by **jafadmin** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 19:54

rjbrewer wrote:Jafa:

Tried on 2 usb flash drives with ext2 partition, as you suggested.
It worked.
Doesn't explain why fat partitions work perfectly with these drives
using earlier puppy versions, but not 4.3.1.

Yeah, I don't know either. I've never tried to put puppy on FAT32 though.

When I want thumbdrives that can share data on both systems I usually put a FAT32 partition on the first half of the drive and ext2 on the second half and just make the ext bootable.

Puppy can see both partitions while booted and windows can only see the FAT32 partition. The reason I do this is so windows machines can't contaminate the puppy partition on the thumb.

Roy · #12 Post by **Roy** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 20:50

Just for the record, I have never gotten a bootable FAT32 USB thumb drive with Puppy 4.31, either. Ext2? No problem. Ext3? Piece of cake. Fat32? Nope. Never. Not even with mbr.bin.

If you use 4.31's gparted to completely erase the thumbdrive's partitions (DON't DO THIS!!) then try to create one (or more) FAT32 partitions, setting the boot flag accomplishes nothing; that sucker ain't going to boot in any machine. You'll have to use another distro or Puppy version to correct it.

Earlier Puppies were not a problem, and I've tried a couple of early Quirkys that worked great. But 4.31 and FAT 32? Good luck and let me know when it works.

-Roy

x15j · #13 Post by **x15j** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 22:09

I just tried the following steps with no luck:

Use GParted to erase flash drive contents
Create ext2 partition (enable boot flag)
Use Puppy Universal Installer on drive (select mbr.bin)
I opted not to wipe files and I did choose the pfix=copy option

In my initial BIOS screen there is an option to "Select Boot menu"
(or something like that), and when I chose this option (with my newly made install following the directions above), it only listed two bootable options: CD/DVD and HDD. I tried this option after getting a "No Bootable Devices" message when I had simply changed the BIOS boot order to have "USB Storage Device" at the top.

The system is a Dell Inspiron e1505/6400
BIOS MM061 (rev A17)

Attempting to install 4.3.1

Thank you

jafadmin · #14 Post by **jafadmin** » Sat 27 Mar 2010, 23:50

Huh. You'd think that should work.

I guess I would confirm that the thumbdrive will boot any other types of computers, and if so, why not that Inspiron.

If it won't boot any other PCs, there is some small thing that isn't going right when you create it.

When you boot from the LiveCd and look at the USB thumb drive does everything look right? Files are there and boot flag is set?

Without the hardware here I'm kinda out of ideas. Sorry ...

rjbrewer · #15 Post by **rjbrewer** » Sun 28 Mar 2010, 01:00

Don't know if this will help, but with inspiron 6000 series:

It isn't enough just to change the boot order of drives;
the drive has to be highlighted, then hit space bar to enable.

Might try different usb ports also.

It may need bios upgrade, probably not, a17 is the latest.

Some flash drives are not bootable.

x15j · #16 Post by **x15j** » Sun 28 Mar 2010, 01:27

rjbrewer wrote:Some flash drives are not bootable.

This is something I've heard about, but I can't figure out how the drives would be different after they are reformatted, etc. So far I've tried a Sandisk and PNY with no luck.

Re BIOS settings, I did both enable USB booting and move it to the number one position.

Using the LiveCD to boot, I can see the flash's boot flag is enabled and there are install files on the drive.

I'll try to boot the drive on a different computer tomorrow.

I really don't know what (if anything) I could be doing wrong on the install. The instructions I followed are pretty straightforward.

Thanks again

jafadmin · #17 Post by **jafadmin** » Sun 28 Mar 2010, 01:46

x15j wrote: So far I've tried a Sandisk and PNY with no luck.

I use both of those. Sometimes there's a proprietaty partition on the Sandisk Cruisers that have to be removed via their software, but other than that, those are the 2 brands I use most often.

rjbrewer · #18 Post by **rjbrewer** » Sun 28 Mar 2010, 01:59

x15j wrote:
rjbrewer wrote:Some flash drives are not bootable.
This is something I've heard about, but I can't figure out how the drives would be different after they are reformatted, etc. So far I've tried a Sandisk and PNY with no luck.

Re BIOS settings, I did both enable USB booting and move it to the number one position.

Using the LiveCD to boot, I can see the flash's boot flag is enabled and there are install files on the drive.

I'll try to boot the drive on a different computer tomorrow.

I really don't know what (if anything) I could be doing wrong on the install. The instructions I followed are pretty straightforward.

Thanks again

With the flash drive plugged in; did you try booting with the cd,
and when it gets to the splash screen, type "puppy pmedia=usbflash"
(no quotes)?

looseSCREWorTWO · #19 Post by **looseSCREWorTWO** » Sun 28 Mar 2010, 02:28

If you have a spare Flash Drive, install these and see if they work:

Puppy 4.2.1

Puppy 4.2.1 Retro

I've got one or the other of these to work on many occasions, after 4.3.1 failed.

lotech · #20 Post by **lotech** » Sun 28 Mar 2010, 03:43

I installed pup on a 2G HP flash drive as fat32 and tried both partitioned and super floppy method but none boots up, I installed so many before the 4.3.1 without too much of problem , and I find it is particulary hard to boot on Dell, usually super floppy method will fix that but not this time, may be I will try the ext2.

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