[Solved] Creating bootable USB without CD

[vinceASPECT]

hello forum,

seems to be what Juanto states and curaga forum member.

TCL operating system file, when "operating"...... offers a way to install itself via an "installer" to a usb pen.....so then the usb stick becomes (upon demand) a bootable tcl computer....when connected to a visual display dumb Laptop/terminal

how i remember it was........the tool is in the TCL desktop as an icon "installer". (when TCL operating system is running)

No idea how it achieves the above, (it is free though)


thx

v

[patrikg]

Maybe you have the program grub-mkconfig to do what you want, like this

Code: (bash) [Select]

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

[vltcl]

Okay, unfortunately I have a problem installing grub-0.97 now. The error, when running ./configure is that "C compiler cannot create executables". In the log file it says that "crti.o cannot be found".
I still have to resolve this. Help is gladly appreciated.

But I am not sure if this is the right place to ask about this, so I tried the route with core2usb on my windows machine.
When I want to select my USB drive, the tool says: "target drive not empty". There is only one primary partition with exFAT on it, which I formatted through windows in order to make it visible to Windows with a drive letter.

Can someone help?

[Rich]

Hi vltcl

... the tool says: "target drive not empty". There is only one primary partition with exFAT on it, ...

Reformat your primary partition as either  FAT  or  FAT32.  Do not make it bootable. Do not make it an MSDOS startup disk.

[vltcl]

Reformat your primary partition as either  FAT  or  FAT32.  Do not make it bootable. Do not make it an MSDOS startup disk.

Tried both. 100MB partition. Tool still says "Selected drive is not empty" and in fact, there are 6kB (FAT), and 2kB(FAT32) written. I don't think, I can set a boot flag with the windows tool, neither make it an MSDOS startup disk. I just rightclicked the drive and selected "Format...". I don't get it. Why is this a problem?

[Rich]

Hi vltcl
Use the Windows partition utility to wipe all the partitions on the device. Then follow these instructions:
https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/Linux/TinycorePDc2usb.shtml

[vltcl]

Thanks for the link Rich, this is exactly what I did. The tool still insists, that the drive is not empty.
I attached two screenshots; maybe I am missing something?

[Rich]

Hi vltcl
Since you have access to a Linux setup, we'll use it to blank your USB drive:
To find your device, run this:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~$ fdisk -l | grep -v loop | grep -i "Disk /dev/s"
Disk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk /dev/sdb: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
tc@E310:~$Then plug in your device and run it again:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~$ fdisk -l | grep -v loop | grep -i "Disk /dev/s"
Disk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk /dev/sdb: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk /dev/sdg: 959.5 MiB, 1006108672 bytes, 1965056 sectors
tc@E310:~$Your device will show up as an additional entry in the list,  /dev/sdg  in this example.

Code: [Select]

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/YourDevice bs=512 count=1Be extremely careful with this command. You will need to replace  /dev/YourDevice  with the  /dev/  assigned to your device.

Now go back to windows and format a  FAT  partition.

[vltcl]

After dd'ing I was asked to format the device.
I attached a screenshot of the formatting tool windows presents me.

I can't do FAT nor FAT32 (I could do it, when I created a partition with cfdisk with Type: W95 FAT32).

[Rich]

Hi vltcl
How about if you use the  Disk Management  tool:
https://www.howtogeek.com/101862/how-to-manage-partitions-on-windows-without-downloading-any-other-software/

[vltcl]

Unfortunately this doesn't work with drives that have more storage than 32GB in Windows (yes, very nice...).

In the Disk Management tool you don't have the option of FAT, FAT32 etc..

So I tried it by force with:

get-disk -Number 3 | New-Partition -UseMaximumSize -AssignDriveLetter | Format-Volume -FileSystem FAT32 -NewFileSystemLabel "tinycore" -Confirm:$false

in the powershell and finally got the error: "Format-Volume : Size Not Supported".

There is no way with this USB drive. So it is either third party software (which I abhore as a "solution") or its a smaller Drive.

Can I use a 16GB SD card attached to an USB to SD adapter? And still use core2usb or install tinycore that way?

[Rich]

Hi vltcl
So create the partition using  cfdisk  like you did before. Then have Windows format it.

I believe the  "Selected drive is not empty"  message really means that the drive has bootloader code in the  MBR.
If that message pops up again after formatting, you can wipe the booloader and still leave the partition(s) intact like this:

Code: [Select]

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/YourDevice bs=440 count=1Once again, be careful using this command. Make certain  of=  is pointing to your USB drive.

[vinceASPECT]

Rich, and forum,

THere is the "Rufus" tool that can be useful. It seems to really do the work proper.  (on drive types)

thx

v

[Rich]

Hi vltcl
I don't suppose windows leaves any little files behind when formatting? Possibly hidden? command.com, msdos.sys?
If you still get  "Selected drive is not empty"  after following the instructions from my last post, see if this command
(after mounting your device) produces any output besides . and ..

Code: [Select]

ls -la /mnt/YourDevice

[NewUser]

vltcl, I don't use xfat, I use fat32, but the situation may be the same. In Windows, try this: Open a cmd prompt, run as administrator. CD to the root of your USB drive, then issue this command. rd /s /q system then hit Tab. The shell should expand "System Volume Information". Hit enter to delete that file and all subdirectories (/s) /q outputs no information.

Then run core2usb. I don't know if core2usb supports exfat, but it's worth a try.

Good luck!