Board index Linux Setup

Generating Bootdisk with USB-Floppy?

Generating Bootdisk with USB-Floppy?

Post by Ewald Jenisc » Sat, 12 Apr 2003 17:24:07



Hi,

I've got a problem generating a bootdisk (floppy) using an USB
floppy-drive connected to a Compaq 610c notebook.

The floppy-drive is detected upon boot as follows:

Apr 11 09:49:32 tester kernel: ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
Apr 11 09:49:32 tester kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
Apr 11 09:49:32 tester kernel: scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass
Storage devices
Apr 11 09:49:32 tester kernel:   Vendor: SMSC      Model: USB FDC
     Rev: 2.10
Apr 11 09:49:32 tester kernel:   Type:   Direct-Access
     ANSI SCSI revision: 02

When I generate a boot-floppy using "mkbootdisk" the resulting disk is
unsable though:

# mkbootdisk --device /dev/sda 2.4.18-27.8.0
Insert a disk in /dev/sda. Any information on the disk will be lost.
Press <Enter> to continue or ^C to abort:
WARNING: using /tmp for temporary files
#

However upon boot, all I see at the console is "Boot failed" :-(

I've tried several floppies to rule out any defective medium - didn't
change anything.

Any clue what's wrong here? How do I generate a boot-floppy on an USB
floppy-drive?

TIA for your help,
-ewald

PS: Please note that I can use any floppy as normal disk though, i.e.
fdisk, mke2fs, mount etc. - all that stuff works.

 
 
 
Top

Generating Bootdisk with USB-Floppy?

Post by Richard D. McRobert » Sun, 13 Apr 2003 05:12:10



> I've got a problem generating a bootdisk (floppy) using an USB
> floppy-drive connected to a Compaq 610c notebook.

> [snip]
> When I generate a boot-floppy using "mkbootdisk" the resulting disk is
> unsable though:

> [snip]
> However upon boot, all I see at the console is "Boot failed" :-(

I've seen the same trouble (on a different notebook) and guessed
that the kernel's requirement for an initial ramdisk is the problem;
i.e. presumably that in the USB environment it isn't smart enough
to see the initrd file.

What DOES work (or did, in my case; it has been some time ago) is
to build a custom kernel that is self-sufficient (not requiring an
initial ramdisk) and "dd" that kernel to the floppy.

Hope this helps.

Richard D. McRoberts
Union, WV  USA


 
 
 
Top

Generating Bootdisk with USB-Floppy?

Post by Brandon Keepe » Sun, 13 Apr 2003 23:07:10


A few months back I was able to make a bood disk with my HP Pavillion
notbook and successfully boot to it.  I used the same procedure as you
are using.  What laptop do you have ( I assume you're using a laptop;
I guess I shouldn't, I actually have a USB floppy on my desktop )?
Does the bios support booking from USB floppies?
 
 
 
Top

Generating Bootdisk with USB-Floppy?

Post by Ewald Jenisc » Tue, 15 Apr 2003 17:10:18



> A few months back I was able to make a bood disk with my HP Pavillion
> notbook and successfully boot to it.  I used the same procedure as you
> are using.  What laptop do you have ( I assume you're using a laptop;
> I guess I shouldn't, I actually have a USB floppy on my desktop )?
> Does the bios support booking from USB floppies?

I've got a Compaq Evo 610c notebook. And yes, it supports booting from
floppy. The only thing that doesn't work is generating a boot-floppy
from linux.

-ewald

 
 
 
Top

1. Using USB floppy drive for root floppy

Hello,

I have a Sony Vaio laptop with an external USB floppy drive with which I
have been trying to install linux (slackware 8 specifically). I do not have
a cdrom drive, so that is not an easy option.

Originally, I just downloaded the standard boot and root floppies. I booted
and got the "Insert root floppy disk to be loaded into RAM disk and press
ENTER" message. Upon inserting the root disk and pressing ENTER I get a
message saying "Unable to mount root fs on 02:00". I believe the kernel is
looking for the root disk on what would be the floppy controler. I had
expected that the VAIO would have made the USB floppy drive emulate a
regular floppy drive on a regular controller. Apparently I was wrong.

To get around this problem I compiled my own kernel (2.4.12) with USB and
SCSI floppy support. Upon booting that kernel, linux recognizes the USB
floppy drive and apparently assigns it to sda. I then tried booting with
root=/dev/fd0 which caused the "Unable to mount root fs on 02:00" again. I
then tried root=/dev/sda which caused the kernel to panic with "Unable to
mount root fs on 08:00". I even tried adding "load_ramdisk=1" and
"prompt_ramdisk=1" to the kernel boot and it never asked for the floppy.
Anytime I specify root=/dev/sda the kernel would try to mount /dev/sda
before the USB floppy driver had been loaded. I took a hint from a previous
message thread regarding this problem[1] and added a sleep(10) before the
kernel tried to mount root. This didn't help at all or change the way the
system acted.

Any suggestions? My next idea is to try mounting root via NFS. My concern
with this idea is that my network adaptor is a PCMCIA card. If that doesn't
work I'm going to have to try to combine the root and boot floppies (ala
RedHat but for slackware in this case) so that the system never has to load
a seperate root floppy.

Thanks in advance,
Geoffeg

[1] http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0108.1/0735.html
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in

More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/

2. Which httpd and which unix?

3. Mounting USB Zip and USB floppy on LinuxPPC 2000

4. Nonblocking I/O

5. Steps to get USB-Floppy work

6. Unicenter TNG with Advanced Help Desk Option Integration

7. Is it possible to boot off of a usb floppy or usb cd-rom disk yet?

8. Linux Incompatibility List 03-06-97

9. Boot/Root rescue floppy problem (Bootdisk HOWTO)

10. How 2 create a floppy bootdisk

11. Newbie help needed with bootdisk and USB mouse/keyboard

12. Caldera OpenLinux V2.3 Floppy BootDisk

13. Why can't I run programs on mounted drive when using floppy bootdisks??


All times are UTC
Board index