tce/restore on FAT32 USB with syslinux WITHOUT partitioning USB-can it be done??

[linus72]

Hello TC people!
Just wanted to know if I could have tce extensions and mydata.gz on a single partition FAT32 usb (sda1) and boot with syslinux?
I don't wanna use grub or partition my usb.
Thanks

[libertyernie]

It's perfectly fine to have it on one partition.

[linus72]

OK- I tried that but at bootup it says errors and chown etc and won't restore the mydata.gz and tce's and says it's all read-only!
And, when I loaded my normal Ubuntu desktop and inserted the usb to see what's up, the window popped open and everything had a "padlock" symbol on it and it wouldn't even let me delete anything!
I tried chowning as root "sudo chown -R bz /mnt/sdf1" and also "sudo chown -R bz /mnt/sdf1/mydata.gz" etcetc and it says can't change permissions of read-only fs!
What to do?
Any ideas or does this happen only to me?
Thanks

[Juanito]

Just wanted to know if I could have tce extensions and mydata.gz on a single partition FAT32 usb (sda1) and boot with syslinux?
I don't wanna use grub or partition my usb.
Thanks

..and you can also have a single ext2 partition and boot with extlinux

[roberts]

Some are doing this via virtual drive ( an ext2 loopback file ).
Typically a Qemu setup, but it works standalone.
See: http://tinycorelinux.com/faq.html#qemu

[linus72]

Thnaks guys, I tried extlinux before and could never get it to work-so how do I get extlinux to work?
But, does anyone here just have a FAT32 unpartitioned USB and NOT have problems with read-only etc when booting?
Thanks.

[Juanito]

You can use the extlinux extension and find details here:

http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/EXTLINUX

Basically I did something like:

Code: [Select]

$ sudo mkdir /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux
$ sudo extlinux /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux
Then you rename the syslinux conf file (I cannot remember the exact name) to extlinux.conf and copy it to /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux

[linus72]

thanks for the help; issues with ext2 fs on USB are is it windows friendly, meaning can windows mount and exchange files to/fro on ext2 USB?
I tried extlinux before; using that article and it didn't work, I'll try again though
I have 2 USB's, both Kingston, a 2GB and 4GB.

[Juanito]

There are freeware ext2 drivers available for windows  - I use them every day without problems, see:

http://www.fs-driver.org/

[curaga]

But, does anyone here just have a FAT32 unpartitioned USB and NOT have problems with read-only etc when booting?

A lot of people
You should take a look at dmesg to see why your drive is mounted readonly.

[linus72]

MMmmm-ok so run dmesg while running TC live or in my reg distro Ubuntu?
Under fstab and mount it says rw,  and here's dmesg-

Code: [Select]

[   88.594619] scsi 5:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[   88.601086] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdf] 7902208 512-byte hardware sectors (4046 MB)
[   88.601932] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdf] Write Protect is off
[   88.601936] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdf] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[   88.601939] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through
[   88.604554] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdf] 7902208 512-byte hardware sectors (4046 MB)
[   88.605178] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdf] Write Protect is off
[   88.605182] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdf] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[   88.605185] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through
[   88.605190]  sdf: sdf1
[   88.706734] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdf] Attached SCSI removable disk
[   88.706775] sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg7 type 0

See anything bad or what is the issue with this?
thanks alot!

[curaga]

I see nothing strange in that part. Are there any messages from mount time?
Ubuntu/TC doesn't matter, since both mount it readonly.

Might also be worth it to run dosfsck on the drive.

[linus72]

this might be a Kingston issue- I have 2 Kingstons (2/4GB) and a HP a810n AMD Athlon64 3300+ 2.4Ghz; This happens on either USB booting Tinycore.
Initially, I boot TC and tell it to save stuff to my usb, but it balks or something.
So, I saved it all to my HD (hda1); then moved it all to USB, and booted with this append-
"restore=sda1 tce=sda1 waitusb=10" and when booting it does the "chown" thing and I get a base TC with no apps,etc.
When I booted to my ubuntu desktop I inserted the USB and it would'nt even let me move/trash TC at all-to get it all off there I had to re-format it.
I tried chowning the usb and TC's stuff-no good- says "changing permissions of read-only fs-operation not permitted"
So, I then repeated the process, this time checking out the usb so it's read-write(always says it is); then, before putting TC/backups/tce on usb I changed all the permissions so everything was rw for everybody.
Well, that seemed to work, I could install apps and it restored apps/settings,etc too
Problem-at bootup, at the very end where it's displaying the apps it's restoring, at the end it says
"chown /mnt/sda1/tce operatiion not permitted" or similar.
Anyway-it works ok, but how can I get this working right??
Thanks again

[linus72]

OK gang, I think I got it fixed!
I have a "unofficial", but nice Tinycore-1.4.2-USB at my site, check it out-
( http://multidistro.com/downloads/officialusbs/officialusbs.html )