Tiny Core Base > TCB Q&A Forum
How do I boot USB via boot floppy?
secdroid:
--- Quote from: roberts on January 02, 2009, 06:57:22 PM ---The solution that I have/use uses a Panasonic DOS/USB driver. I make a minimal DOS boot floppy with this driver.
Then using linld (or is it ldlin? ) bootloader, I can boot from floppy, see the USB pendrive as drive D:
Then using a DOS bat file load and run Tiny Core.
--- End quote ---
That was a big help!
Panasonic USB DOS drivers seem to be highly regarded --
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/069/1046069/yes-there-are-usb-drivers-for-dos
http://www.computing.net/answers/dos/usb-20-connections-on-dos-/13138.html
http://www.computing.net/answers/dos/usbaspisys-a-usb-driver-for-dos-/15928.html
... and I think you probably meant linld, loadlin's brother (which handles 2.6) --
http://troglobit.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?LinLd
http://lwn.net/Articles/102210/
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=573508&highlight=linld&page=2
Now I have a project for tomorrow. 8)
secdroid:
My project isn't going that well...
After trying other ways to boot, I finally formatted an "MSDOS Boot Floppy" on Windows XP, updated the config.sys, installed the two SYS files on the diskette, and DOS still can't find the test file on a 32MB FAT 16 partition on a known-good USB stick.
# cat /media/floppy/config.sys
device=USBASPI.SYS /w /v
device=DI1000DD.SYS
Here's what I get from the config.sys invocation on DOS boot ---
Starting...
ASPI for UHCI/OHCI USB mass-storage Version 1.07
Copyright(C) 2001 NOVAC Co.,Ltd.
Controller : UHCI VID8086_PID7112
Base I/O :FCE0h
Base Memory : 00000h
====================================
=== Connect the target device to USB port. ===
=== Press [ENTER] to continue ===
====================================
USBASPI : Target USB device not found.
DI1000 ASPI DISK Driver Ver 2.00
Copyright(C)2001 NOVAC Co.,Ltf.
ASPI Manager not installed.
A:\>
***
Tried plugging in USB stick both before booting and after prompt, above. No difference.
All this on hardware that boots the DSL boot floppy, which then boots DSL from USB.
***
Also tried using balder10 single-disk version of FreeDOS. Doesn't see USB stick and FreeDOS clears screen before typing a long prompt, thus removing all config.sys info. (Real helpful...)
Also tried pendrive linux methods --
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/11/21/use-a-floppy-to-boot-usb-pendrive-linux/
wget http://pendrivelinux.com/downloads/pdlfloppy.img.gz
gzip -dc pdlfloppy.img.gz | dd of=/dev/fd0
GRUB could not locate boot files on known good USB stick, so their USB driver support not adequate
Using the GRUB command line "find" command manually, I couldn't the files either
Finally found out that Ubuntu Intrepid no longer loads floppy support. Must "modprobe floppy" to use drive now. (Ubuntu keeps surprising me, frequently in less than pleasant ways.)
***
I'm going to google around, but I'm pretty much out of ideas. The built-in USB support in the syslinux(?) on the DSL boot diskette appears to work with my hardware, while the DOS add-on drivers don't. I'm not sure that there's any way around that other than to boot DSL and use it to install TC on an internal CF disk or HDD.
Suggestions?
^thehatsrule^:
To clarify: that boot image doesn't use usb support from the bootloader. It loads the kernel and the minirt which has usb drivers.. and then reads the rest of the data from the USB device. I guess you could make something like the above for TC if you really want to.
I haven't looked at linld before. There may be other similar projects out there though(?)
roberts:
Don't give up just yet.
Much depends on how the pendrive is setup, if I recall it requires a zip style install, not a hdd one.
I know I have three pendrives that work with DOS USB.
Let me take a look to see what is the difference.
It is not linld at this point because the NOVAC stuff has not assigned a drive letter.
secdroid:
--- Quote from: roberts on January 03, 2009, 02:53:56 PM ---Much depends on how the pendrive is setup, if I recall it requires a zip style install, not a hdd one.
I know I have three pendrives that work with DOS USB.
Let me take a look to see what is the difference.
It is not linld at this point because the NOVAC stuff has not assigned a drive letter.
--- End quote ---
My understanding of both LinLd and LoadLin is that they are both DOS .com programs. If DOS (plus loaded drivers) can't "see" your USB stick as a disk, neither can LinLd or LoadLin.
IIRC, Zip vs. HDD style did affect syslinux, but I don't think I'm at a point where we know whether it would matter here. It would appear that the drivers loaded by the config.sys may not work against my laptop's chipset. I still can't find the drive with standard DOS commands, even with the drivers loaded.
FWIW, my pendrives are PNY Attache 512 MB and they both work well with DSL. I have not tested my Kingston DataTraveler 4 GB or Patriot 8 GB with either DSL or TC.
I could use DSL to try to determine the chipset in the laptop, but I haven't seen enough info in the driver documentation to tell me whether or not it is worth the effort.
Thank you, ^thehatsrule^, for the clarification.
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