Not getting boot prompt

[schultzter]

I installed TC 2.10 onto a 2GB USB flash drive.  When I booted from the CD I burned I got a boot prompt like I expected.  But after I installed onto the flash drive (using c-panel's USB Install button) I no longer get the boot prompt.  

The USB is formatted Ext3.  I get the EXTLINUX 3.82 EBIOS message and then it goes right into Booting Tinycore...and we get flwm!

So far everything works perfectly (persistence, Xvesa, etc. ) so I'm not sure that I absolutely need to enter boot codes, but since I'm just getting start with TC I don't want to give up this option until I'm sure about what I'm doing.

Thanks,

[maro]

I guess that there in no 'prompt 1' entry in the 'syslinux.cfg' file on your pendrive. According to http://linux.die.net/man/1/syslinux you might have to hold down the Shift or Alt key during booting (I have not tried is myself).

OTOH you could add a 'prompt 1' and a 'timeout xxx' entry to the 'syslinux.cfg' file of your pendrive.

[curaga]

Without a prompt the boot options can be entered to the config file (to the append line).

[schultzter]

Thanks for the fast responses!

I started looking at the syslinux home page but didn't get very far.

I'll see what I can find as soon as I get a chance, but even though syslinux is required to perfrom a USB Install from an ISO boot it isn't actually installed.  When I type syslinux at the prompt it's not found.

It's easy enough to install again if I need to, it just seems a bit weird.  Is this the normal behaviour?  It's not what I was expecting anyways.

[roberts]

It would appear that you did an extlinux install.
Try looking in /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf

[schultzter]

It worked!  Awesome, thanks for the help!!!

I now have a USB stick that let's me enter boot codes and let's me boot between tinycore and microcore.

(I re-read the wiki page on USB installation and realized there's some info there that would have helped - but I'm not sure it's correct or entirely up-to-date)

[maro]

@schultzter: You might want to describe what you did in the end so that others reading this thread know what you mean with "It worked!"

[schultzter]

Well, I did basically what you and roberts and curaga told me to: add a prompt 1 to the extlinux.conf file.

I did a few other things too but the crux of it was the prompt 1.

I'd like to write this up in the wiki (I assume that's the place to put this stuff) but I'm not sure what part of the existing USB Install guide is the place to put this.