Tiny Core Base > TCB Q&A Forum
How do I boot USB via boot floppy?
roberts:
Really only need two files, bzImage and tinycore.gz copies onto pendrive.
linld image=e:\bzimage initrd=e:\tinycore.gz "cl=quiet vga=788"
That's it, works fine for me. Note if you use the cl directly then enclose in quotes and space separate boot options.
This is with a simple dos boot floppy, the panasonic usb device manager.
This system is using a very old Intel USB controller 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 (rev 01)
roberts:
--- Quote ---also, i don't know what roberts has planned, but if anyone has a floppy for usb booting that is free to distribute (panasonic driver, i don't know) this may prompt an official solution in the near future. if it does, then you'll just be able to download an image and make the floppy. were you unable to use the dsl usb floppy for tinycore?
--- End quote ---
Just because software is old does not mean you can ignore its copyright. This was made for users of Panasonic products. The website that is referenced is still Copyright 2008.
I was not comfortable to distribute this when I first made a usb boot floppy for DSL-N several years ago and am still not comfortable to distribute copyrighted software.
tobiaus:
--- Quote from: roberts on January 10, 2009, 12:59:56 AM ---Just because software is old does not mean you can ignore its copyright. This was made for users of Panasonic products. The website that is referenced is still Copyright 2008.
I was not comfortable to distribute this when I first made a usb boot floppy for DSL-N several years ago and am still not comfortable to distribute copyrighted software.
--- End quote ---
oh, i wasn't implying anything of the sort! the exception to what you said is when you're given permission by the author to redistribute (usually by a readme or license file.) although this is rare in the world of freeware, and moreso in the world of proprietary drivers, it happens.
beyond that, i was hoping someone would find a free and open source solution. but only if one ever exists. heck, i won't even use opera, even though i like it. (but i won't give anyone trouble if they really want to, either.) one of the things that's always been important to me about dsl (and tc) is that they are serious enough distros in this regard. they weren't assembled by zealots, but they weren't slapped together without regard for what they were built from, either.
roberts:
The wakepup2 being distributed by the puppy forums does contain the copyrighted Panasonic driver.
It is quite easy to modify the autoexec.bat file therein to work with TC. It use seems strange to me in that you have to add a "marker", an empty, specifically named file, "usbflash" into the level-1 directory of your flash drive before the dos batch file will be useful. Many menus of boot options don't apply and would need to be changed, as well as the default, first 2 lines of the @file, which contains the "cl" boot options, should be replaced with just "quiet" and then the obvious vmlinuz with bzimage and initrd.gz with tinycore.gz.
bigpcman:
The wakepup2 boot floppy is as Robert said way more complicated than is needed for tc. As it turns out, here's all I needed for my dell 640 laptop:
1.) A dos boot floppy disk
2.) usbaspi.sys driver
3.) Di1000dd.sys driver (maps the usb device to a drive letter)
4.) The tc files bzimage and tinycore.gz on the usb flash drive
Here's a link to the panasonic dos usb support files: http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/cdrrw/kxlrw40an/download.html
Look in the F2H subdirectory for the drivers including ramfd.sys.
Create config.sys file with:
DEVICE=HIMEM.exe
FILES=30
BUFFERS=20
device=USBASPI.SYS /R /v
device=Di1000dd.SYS
LASTDRIVE=Z
Create autoexec.bat file with:
cls
echo Booting Tinycore Linux
linld image=c:\bzimage initrd=c:\tinycore.gz "cl=quiet vga=788 waitusb=5"
Things to keep in mind:
1.) My experience is that the usbaspi driver does not assign a drive letter so that's what Di1000dd.SYS does.
2.) The boot process can be slow because all usb components are scanned. There may be switch options to improve this, I'll look into this later.
3.) The usb flash drive must be formated fat16
4.) The flash drive letter assigned can be determined by the looking at the D1000dd.sys output message. It was c: for me.
5.) TC boot codes like waitusb=5 can be added as shown above.
Thanks Robert for your input on this matter. You had the key linld syntax that makes everything work.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
edit: Here are some useful switch codes for usbaspi:
/e EHCI, for enabling only USB 2.0 controller
/o OHCI, for enabling only add-on/onboard USB 1.1 controller
/u UHCI, for enabling integrated USB 1.1 controller
The /e option substantially reduced my boot time.
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