[ltp] Re: Thinkpads can not boot from flash drive?

[Alex Deucher]

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 00:45:10 +0100, Martin Gramatke <xmit@gmx.de> wrote:
> Joel Ebel wrote:
> 
> > so make sure the drive
> > is set up properly.
> 
> My pen drive is a Data Traveler by Kingston. I used a tool from Dell to
> prepare/format the stick. Two different desktop computers can boot from it
> but not the Thinkpad X24. Could it still be a pen drive setup problem? I
> thought it has to be a thinkpad problem then.

I dunno.  I have a noname usb stick (16 MB jenco or some such, got it
free at a trade show).  It took me a while to get my x24 to boot off
of it.  as I recall the x24 would always reset the boot order when you
rebooted it so had to reset it to boot off usb in the bios before
trying it.  As I recall teh f12 menu was problematic.  try setting the
first boot device in the bios to usb. Also the bios refused to see the
stick at times depending on how I had written the image to it.  I wish
I could remember the the exact combo that I needed to get it to work.

Alex

> 
> > You need a goot master boot record at the beginning
> > of the drive. You can get one from the syslinux package.
> 
> I think DSL uses syslinux for installation.
> 
> > With a 128 MB drive, you
> > most likely don't have any of these restrictions with the possible
> > exception of it being formatted FAT32, which is still unlikely.
> 
> Here is my geometry: 8 heads, 32 sectors/track, 982 cylinders. One primary,
> bootable partition with FAT16. I think it is ok.
> 
> The notebook boots from a USB floppy drive without problem.
> 
> > Best of luck.  I have a lot of experience with this from desiging my own
> > distribution to do it, so if you have any questions, let me know.
> 
> Thank you Joel, I appreciate your help.
> The best test would be a Runt installation.
> 
> 
> 
> Martin
>