[ale] making a usb thumb drive bootable from a dvd install disk

[Geoffrey]

Michael H. Warfield wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-03-28 at 14:49 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
>> Michael H. Warfield wrote:
>>> On Fri, 2008-03-28 at 13:15 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
>>>> Anyone got any pointers how I can create a bootable usb thumbdrive from 
>>>> my Red Hat DVD install disk?
>>> 	Start here:
>>>
>>> 	http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/LiveCDHowTo
>>>
>>> 	From there follow to here:
>>>
>>> 	http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/USBHowTo
>>>
>>> 	I've done this with F8 but they claim it should be largely distro
>>> agnostic (presuming yum based since you use yum to install the Live
>>> Tools).
> 
>> Thanks for the link.  It says it was successful, but I've try to boot 
>> from it on two different boxes, neither works.  I might try to recreate 
>> it and try again.
> 
>> Both boxes saw the usb drive, but neither would boot from it.
> 
> 	Did you check your BIOS settings?
> 
> 	Lots of times the USB drives are either not enabled for boot or are
> lower down on the boot order.  If you BIOS supports it, jump into the
> boot selection menu and try to manually select the USB for boot.

On one, I did enable it in boot and it did try to boot.  It appeared it 
was possibly trying to load a kernel via network:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0f: Exiting PXE ROM

Keeps repeating that over and over.

The Macbook doesn't have a bios, but when I boot it, I do see an extra 
device to boot from, when I select it, it apparently tries, but then 
boots the existing Fedora installation.

> 
> 	When you are in your BIOS, check if it's set for USB-ZIP or USB-HDD or
> USB-120 (?) mode.  The Live Scripts set drives up for USB-HDD.  There
> are some magical tricks which can be played to create a drive that works
> for all three but that takes some research.  IIRC, USB-ZIP requires
> certain partitions and certain geometry settings.  USB-120 has no
> partitioning at all and looks like a big fat floppy (someone correct me
> if I'm wrong on this one, I'm working from memory) and USB-HDD just
> looks like a partitioned LBA hard drive.

I suspect that my problem is that I tried to shortcut the whole process. 
  I simply used the script to create a bootable usb device from the Red 
Hat 5 dvd iso. :(

> 	The one that always has worked most reliably for me is USB-HDD.  If
> your BIOS supports is, select that one and make sure it's first in the
> boot pecking order.  If it doesn't support USB-HDD, you may have to
> tweak those builds somehow.

I'll have to revisit this and RTFI again.


-- 
Until later, Geoffrey

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
  - Benjamin Franklin