Persistence Question - How is my ethernet still working ?

[MTCAT]

Hi Rich,

I followed your instructions, thank you very much, everything went well, but, when installing the "new" TinyCore3 to the "new" USB drive, I used the default "waitusb=5", after install was complete and I tried booting up off this pen drive, my BIOS didn't catch it and instead booted up off the CF-card ?, which brought up Lubuntu.

I also re-did the install a couple more times, once with "waitusb=10", and another with no option entered at all, and still the same thing, booted off the CF-card, sorry for all the problems, what do you think ? Does the USB drive need to be made "bootable" somehow ?

The light flashes briefly on the USB drive on power-up, so its definitely getting power, yet it still wants to boot off the CF-card.

Thanks,

David

[Rich]

Hi MTCAT
Did you leave the  Install boot loader  checked:
http://tinycorelinux.net/install.html#1_
I don't know if it's necessary, but you may also need to check the  Mark Partition Active (bootable)  option.

Does your machine offer a boot menu (maybe F8 or F10 when booting) ?
Possibly There is a BIOS option you need to set for it to boot off of a thumb drive. It might be a USB option and or
a  Boot order  option.

... I also re-did the install a couple more times, once with "waitusb=10", and another with no option entered at all, ...

You definitely want the  waitusb=10  boot code.

[MTCAT]

Hi Rich,

The "Mark Partition Active (bootable)" is "greyed-out", I can't select it for some reason. Could that be the issue ? Attached a screenshot here.

[Rich]

Hi MTCAT
Never mind. That doesn't apply when installing to the whole disk.

[MTCAT]

Hi Rich,

Sorry, I forgot to add, I don't even have the option to "Install Boot loader", all I get to work with is what you see in the attached screenshot ? No Boot loader selection is possible.

Thanks,

David

[Rich]

Hi MTCAT

... all I get to work with is what you see in the attached screenshot ? No Boot loader selection is possible.

That version has extra buttons not used on any of the later versions, so when I wrote  "Click the bottom right button ... "
I meant the one with the single arrow (3rd from the left).

Let's see what was installed to your thumb drive. Boot your current TC3. Then plug in your thumb drive. Use  dmesg
like I described in the installation instructions to identify the device. Use the mount tool in the control panel to mount
that device. If the device was identified as  sdd  then click the  sdd  button. When it turns green it's mounted. Then
run this command:

Code: [Select]

sudo ls -laR /mnt/sdd 2>&1 > TC3DirTree.txt

[MTCAT]

Hi Rich,

Here it is !

(By the way, not sure it helps, but I was able to boot up TinyCore 3.8.4 through my "YUMI" technique....)

Thanks,

David

[Rich]

Hi MTCAT
Please post the contents of the  /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf  on your thumb drive.

I also want to point out that there is no guarantee your thumb drive will always be assigned  sdc.  Just something to keep
in mind when you are about to do something potentially destructive to a disk.

What kind of computer is this?

[MTCAT]

Hi Rich,

Here's "extlinux.conf".

This is a VortexDX3 SBC (PC104 Plus form factor).

Thanks,

David

[Rich]

Hi MTCAT
Is this basically what you have:
https://www.recabuk.com/manuals/pc104/dsc/Helix-User-Manual.pdf

It states on page 35:

The Boot device selection and priority are configured in the BIOS Bootmenu. Only devices which are connected to the SBC will appear in thelist of options. Therefore if user  wants to select a hard drive or USB device as the boot device, the  SBC should be connected first, then  boot up,enter  the BIOS, andselect the desired deviceas theboot device.

That means in order to boot your thumb drive, you would:
First plug the thumb drive into the computer.
Then power up the computer and enter the BIOS by hitting the delete key.
Go to the boot menu and select the thumb drive as the boot device.

[MTCAT]

Hi Rich,

I'm using this board here.

https://www.winsystems.com/product/ppm-c412/

I already did quite some time ago set the Boot order as USB first (I think anyway), followed by the CF-card, so the PPM-C412 is set to boot from USB first, and if it doesn't find any USB boot devices, then boot from CF-card, I think anyway, I will check the BIOS again though to make sure.

I was also trying to boot up the PPM-C412 off an external USB hard drive with a Slackware image on it (obtained with Clonezilla), didn't work though, but I'm pretty sure the USB boot is already selected as priority one, but I'll check to make sure.

Thanks,

David

[MTCAT]

Hi Rich,

Checked my BIOS, first boot device is USB, second is CD/DVD, third is removable device, fourth is hard drive (my CF-card).

There are a bunch of other settings, there is something called "Quick Boot" which is currently enabled, allows the computer to skip some tests when booting, to make boot up faster. There's also something called "Fast Boot" which wass set to "Enhanced 1", the default is "Disabled", so I changed it back to "Disabled", but the new pen drive we're trying to work with still won't boot TC3.8.4.

Is there a way to check if the USB drive I'm trying to boot TC3.8.4 to is indeed bootable ? I wonder if that's the problem ? TC uses syslinux as the boot loader ? I also found  detailed wiki page here that seems promising maybe ?

http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/doku.php?id=wiki:install_usb_stepbystep

Would need to know which version of syslinux to use for TC3 though ?

Thanks,

David



Thanks,

David

[Rich]

Hi MTCAT
Boy, they sure list a lot of BIOS settings in that manual. Too bad they don't bother to document any of them.

Page 49
USB Devices Enabled   [None]
I think this is supposed to display which USB devices were detected. Does your thumb drive show up?

Legacy USB Support   [Enabled]
I'm pretty sure you want this enabled

Page 51
Boot Menu Hot-Key   [Enabled]
Would be nice if they mentioned which hot key they used. If you hit  F11  when you power up, do you
get a boot menu? If you do, does your thumb drive show up?

Page 52
USB Device Interface   [Disabled]
I don't know what this setting does, but you might want to try changing it.

... Is there a way to check if the USB drive I'm trying to boot TC3.8.4 to is indeed bootable ? ...

Do you have another machine you know will boot from a thumb drive, preferably non UEFI ?

[curaga]

If you don't have another machine that can boot from usb, you can use Qemu on any Linux machine. "qemu -m 256 -hda /dev/sdX" where sdX is your usb stick.

[MTCAT]

Hi Rich,

I tried booting up an old AMD desktop (dual boot with LILO, Win7/Slackware) and also an old Asus EEE netbook (running some form of Linux) and in both cases, they wouldn't boot off the pen-drive.

I can install the TC3.8.4 iso with YUMI, and boot that way, but I think somehow, the "DIY" pen-drive we're trying to build is not being made "bootable" ?

I could boot the YUMI version of 3.8.4 and then try to install to the pen-drive, assuming the tc-install program running in 3.8.4 has that "Make bootable" entry available ?

Or I could try the "manual" method as per the wiki page, but then I would need to know the right version of syslinux to use ?

Thanks,

David