[syslinux] USB-HDD

[Gilles Espinasse]

Selon Andreas Kotes <count-linux at flatline.de>:

> Hello
>
> * Konstantin Svist <fry.kun at gmail.com> [20080620 09:21]:
> > Ferenc Wagner wrote:
> > > Konstantin Svist <fry.kun at gmail.com> writes:
> > >
> > >
> > >> According to doc/usbkey.txt, USB-HDD is the best mode -- but there's
> > >> no mention of how to get that working.
> > >>
It may be the best mode when it work.
I had one Asus board where it fail before bios upgrade (only usb-FDD was
working).

> > >
> > > You have to configure it in your BIOS.  Each one is different, but
> > > usually you have to enable some USB support (often called "legacy"),
> > > then enable the USB boot device.  Either you'll have the choice of USB
> > > floppy, USB CD-ROM, USB ZIP or USB HDD there, or simply find your USB
> > > device amongst your hard drives.
> > >
> >
> > Actually I meant to ask how to write USB-HDD boot info to the USB stick.
> > Right now, I use syslinux -s -- and for that to work, I'm forced to use
> > "Forced FDD" mode of my BIOS.
> > I have another USB stick that I've made into what I think is USB-HDD
> > mode -- that one doesn't require the "Forced FDD" option, but it only
> > runs FreeDOS and was really difficult to set up.. I don't even remember
> > what I did, just that I had to run FreeDOS under qemu and some other
> > voodoo :(
>
You could find the receipt we used on IPCop to write the three flavors at
This is to create file images, not directly write to a device.

Use zcat image.img.gz > /dev/sd(your device) to copy img.gz file to the key
device.

This is a makefile script. It could be a bit different with a bash script.
On a makefile, script stop at first error.

The main difference between usb-fdd and usb-hdd/usb-zip is that :
- usb-fdd is not partitionned,
- usb-hdd use partition1 and need a mbr
- usb-zip (or real zip) use partition4 and need a mbr

So the difference is
- usb-fdd does not need sfdisk usage and a mbr installation
- usb-hdd use partition 1
 echo -e "0,,6,*\n;\n;\n;" | sfdisk -qLD -H 64 -S 32 (device or file)
We use install-mbr but using cat mbr.bin > (your dev) should work (I haven't
tested what cat mbr.bin would to an file image)

Gilles