Very Computer

by **Alan Lythab** » Tue, 29 Oct 2002 20:54:02

Hi!

Is it possible to boot from a USB CF adaptor?

The BIOS supports booting from USB floppy, USB ZIP, USB CD and USB HDD.

I formatted a CF with FDISK as a FAT partition, marked it as bootable, and
copied the files from a boot floppy to it, intending to load Linux via the
network from a DVD.... But I can't boot from the CF.

I can't use a floppy to boot from, as there isn't a floppy interface! The
motherboard is a VIA EPIA mini ITX.

Thanks!

by **bill** » Tue, 29 Oct 2002 22:22:54

check out this site -
http://old.lwn.net/1998/0430/miniHOWTO.html
good luck

> Hi!

> Is it possible to boot from a USB CF adaptor?

> The BIOS supports booting from USB floppy, USB ZIP, USB CD and USB HDD.

> I formatted a CF with FDISK as a FAT partition, marked it as bootable, and
> copied the files from a boot floppy to it, intending to load Linux via the
> network from a DVD.... But I can't boot from the CF.

> I can't use a floppy to boot from, as there isn't a floppy interface! The
> motherboard is a VIA EPIA mini ITX.

> Thanks!

by **Henrik Carlqvis** » Wed, 30 Oct 2002 04:27:23

> Is it possible to boot from a USB CF adaptor?

According to http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/2688R/page4.asp#cubid0006 it
should be possible.

Quote:> I formatted a CF with FDISK as a FAT partition, marked it as bootable,
> and copied the files from a boot floppy to it, intending to load Linux
> via the network from a DVD.... But I can't boot from the CF.

To boot from a DOS partition you will have to:

1) Partition the disk with at least one primary partition (you probably
did that)

2) Mark the partition as active (you say you did that)

3) Write a master boot record to the disk. (this is done if you used DOS
fdisk. If you used linux fdisk to create partitions, use DOS "fdisk /mbr"
or download ms-sys from http://ms-sys.sourceforge.net )

4) Write a boot record to your partition (this is done with "sys D:" in
DOS or ms-sys in Linux)

5) Copy system files (you say you did that and it has already been done if
you used "sys D:")

Quote:> The motherboard is a VIA EPIA mini ITX.

So is the one at the web page above.

regards Henrik

--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc1(at)uthyres.com Examples of addresses which go to spammers:

by **Christian Ostheim** » Thu, 28 Nov 2002 20:29:44

> > Is it possible to boot from a USB CF adaptor?

> According to http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/2688R/page4.asp#cubid0006 it
> should be possible.

> > I formatted a CF with FDISK as a FAT partition, marked it as bootable,
> > and copied the files from a boot floppy to it, intending to load Linux
> > via the network from a DVD.... But I can't boot from the CF.

> To boot from a DOS partition you will have to:

> 1) Partition the disk with at least one primary partition (you probably
> did that)

> 2) Mark the partition as active (you say you did that)

> 3) Write a master boot record to the disk. (this is done if you used DOS
> fdisk. If you used linux fdisk to create partitions, use DOS "fdisk /mbr"
> or download ms-sys from http://ms-sys.sourceforge.net )

> 4) Write a boot record to your partition (this is done with "sys D:" in
> DOS or ms-sys in Linux)

> 5) Copy system files (you say you did that and it has already been done if
> you used "sys D:")

> > The motherboard is a VIA EPIA mini ITX.

> So is the one at the web page above.

> regards Henrik

It really depends on the bios and the CF-card reader.
In my case the pendrive usb memory stick works and the sandisk
cruzer SD-card reader does not work.

To write the boot sector you can use as well syslinux version 2.
Some more details about using syslinux to boot from USB can be found
at www.8ung.at/spblinux/

Christian Ostheimer

Very Computer

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