[syslinux] USB boot problems on Gigabyte GA-M55Plus-S3G

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

First, allow me to apologize for taking such a long time to get back
to this small project.  I just had other things on my plate.  My apology
extends to everyone who has offered suggestions or advice, but most
particularly to Ady <ady-sf at hotmail.com>, who has clearly gone the extra
mile to try to help me get this boot problem worked out.

Before describing the results of his last set of detailed suggestions/
instructions, allow me also to say that I have learned a number of
(arguably relevant) things since last Friday.

First, as I've now learned, when I said before that I could not even get
Windows 7 to boot off USB with this motherboard, it turns out that that
was not entirely accurate (and I should have been more clear about what
really happens when I try this).  In fact, what was happening when I
tried this was that Windows 7 was getting to the point of showing
"Starting Windows" on the screen, and then it would hang.  What I've
learned since last Friday is that this is actually, most probably,
the expected outcome on essentially _any_ motherboard.  Apparently,
as I have now learned first-hand, Microsoft has, for better or worse,
hobbled the stock Win7 install disks in such a way that if you use
one to try to _install_ Win7 on any kind of USB-attached device, that
attempt will fail.  The good news is that the messages you get
when it does fail are crystal clear.  Win7 cannot be installed on any
device attached via either USB or Firewire.  End of story.  The installer
just doesn't let you even try.  However what you _can_ do is to take a
drive (e.g. a 2.5" laptop drive) attach it via some sATA port, install
win7 onto it, and THEN you can remove it, jam it into an external USB
2/0 (or 3.0) external enclosure, and then plug it into a USB 2.0 port
and then try to coerce your motherboard into booting off that.  This is
exactly what I did before, and this... apparently predictably... results
in Win7 booting _partially_.  But the boot process dies early because
apparently, MS, in its infinite wisdom, decided that loading USB drivers
early enough during the boot process to support this exact kind of thing
was not something that they wished to do... at least not by default.
(Rumor has it that booting an already-installed bootable copy of Win7
from a USB-attached drive _can_ actually be made to work, if one has
the time and patience and additional equipment... i.e. another bootable
Windows system drive... which would enable one to diddle some rather
specific registry entries on the external drive that one wishes to boot
from while it is connected via USB.  That is what has been alleged
in some places anyway.)

Anyway, I just felt that I should correct my earlier mis-speech.  In
point of fact, Win7 kinda sorta boots A LITTLE BIT when it is on a drive
attached via USB to a Gigabyte GA-M55Plus-S3G.  But only up to the
point where MS, in typical fashion, made the OS boot no further (via
USB), probably deliberately, and definitely everywhere, i.e. on every
type of motheboard under the sun.

More new info:  I got another response from Gigabyte tech support to my
probing questions about boot issues/problems relating to the GA-M55Plus-S3G.
In it, they insisted that yes, this motherboard _can_ in fact be booted
from some bootable USB device, HOWEVER, as they clarified for me, the
only instances in which this can happen are ones where the desired boot
device shows up in the BIOS list when one requests to adjust "Hard drive
boot priority" in the BIOS setup menus.  If the device doesn't show up
there, then (apparently) that means the BIOS simply will not boot from
that thing.  End of story.  If on the other hand, it *does* appear in
that list, then at least you have a fighting chance, and then, if all
else is OK, then you should be able to boot from it.  (An interesting
footnote is that apparently, as my own experiments have indicated, if
the thing does show up in the Boot Priority list, then... somewhat oddly...
it doesn't even matter if you either "Hard Drive" or "USB-HDD" selected
as one of your 3 possible prioritized boot devices in the "Advanced
BIOS Features" menu.   Having either of those in the list _will_ cause
the bios to go out and try to boot off a USB attached thing, but again,
this is if and only if the USB-attached thing, is showing up in the
"Hard Disk Boot Priority" list.)

One other interesting fact revealed by my testing...  Although _my_
GA-M55Plus-S3G happens to have a 2-port PCIe USB 3.0 add-on controller
card installed, those additional USB 3.0 ports _cannot_ be used for
booting purposes.  The BIOS appears to not even be aware they are there
(and this is perhaps to be be expected, but worth noting).

(My apologies if the above is all either too long winded or just plain
not of any intersst to anybody here.)

Now on to Ady's last set of instructions to me...

In message <BLU0-SMTP474B456618E69FC1FB6D6948BB20 at phx.gbl>, 
Ady <ady-sf at hotmail.com> wrote:

>> 
>> 	SYSLINUX 6.03 CHS 6.03-pre1 ...
>> 
>> 	Failed to load ldlinux.c32
>> 	Boot failed: please change disks and press a key to continue.
>> 
> 
>First, let me clarify that all the scripts and procedures in the 
>Clonezilla site are not related to this official Syslinux mailing 
>list or to The Syslinux Project. They are done by the Clonezilla team.

Yes, I kinda figured that.  My apologies for the off-topic mini-diatribe.
I just felt an overwhelming urge to vent spleen a tiny bit about the
nonsensical nature of that particular tidbit of the Clonezilla code.

>Now that I know you are working under Windows, let me suggest the 
>following procedure:

I will do my utmost, as before, to follow your instructions to the
letter, hoping that it will contribute to the knowledge base of the
(syslinux) project, however let me be clear... I am fundamentally a
UNIX dude.  I have about 30 years experience working on and under
UNIX (note: _not_ Linux).  I only kown Windows marginally well.  But I
do use it for a growing number of things these days.

I felt compelled to clarify this.  I didn't want you to mistake me for
a strictly point-and-drool newbie.

>1_ Boot up Windows, download RUFUS, plug in your USB drive, run RUFUS 
>and format your USB drive with MBR and a *FAT32* filesystem.

Done.

But of course, I have no idea why you think this Rufus thing is any
more adept at creating a clean fresh new FAT32 filesystem on a USB stick
that Win7 itself is.  What was the point of not just doing this
directly with Win7's built in tools?

Oh!  And also, Rufus had an option to make this stick bootable with
MS-DOS, or with FreeDOS or with "ISO Image".  I used the default,
FreeDOS.  I hope that is OK.

>BTW, which type of USB drive we are talking about? And which 
>capacity?

For these experiments, I have been using a 4GB Transcend USB 2.0 stick.

>2_ Close RUFUS, "safely" disconnect you USB drive, wait 10 seconds, 
>connect your USB drive again.

I just did a Win7 "Shut Down" and powered the system all the way down.
Is that close enough?

>3_ Extract somewhere the content of the downloaded Clonezilla (the 
>ISO image or the zip archive, whichever you downloaded).

Done.

>4_ Copy the extracted content into your USB drive (let's call it "d:" 
>for now, but you should use whichever drive letter corresponds to it 
>in your system).

I'm trying to read between the lines here.  I am guessing that you
first would like me to delete all of this FreeDOS gunk off the USB
stick in question, before copying all of Clonezilla to it, yes?

Well, that's what I have done anyway.

>So now you should see, among additional files and directories:
>d:\syslinux\syslinux.cfg

Check.

>d:\utils\win32\syslinux64.exe

Check.

>(there are more directories and files to be copied; I am just showing 
>2 examples)

Ok.

>5_ Close any other programs that could be having access to your 
>drives (including Windows Explorer, and any non-escential program).

I'm sorry.   I botched this step.  I had Windows Explorer open in a
couple of Windows.  COULD THIS ACTUALLY MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE TO ANYTHING?
If so, please elaborate.  How?

(If you want me to re-do this whole experiment again, but with all
Windows Explorer windows closed, I will, but it seems a bit tedious
and irrelevant.)

>6_ In your Windows Start Menu, look for "Command prompt" (I don't 
>remember the exact location; something like "all programs -> 
>accessories -> command prompt" or similar). Instead of launching it 
>by a simple click, right-click on the "command prompt" icon -> "Run 
>as Administrator".

Done.

>7_ In Windows cmd prompt that has been opened by the previos step, 
>and assuming your USB drive is "d:" (change the drive letter 
>accordingly in each of the following steps), type in:
>d:
>cd d:\utils\win32\
>syslinux64.exe --directory /syslinux/ --install d:

Done.

>Once the process finishes, you should see the prompt again. Type:
>exit

Done.

>8_ "Safely" disconnect your USB drive, shut down the system, 
>disconnect your other drives, reconnect your USB drive, and boot up.

Done, done, done, done, and done.

>Please let us know the result.

Now things get even less far.

Now my BIOS gets down to the point of printing its standard message:

	Boot from CD/DVD :

and then immediately, in the very next line, I get this message:

	Invalid partition table

and then the system is just hung.

I hope that helps!


Regards,
rfg


P.S.  As I was rebooting with the USB stick I created via the process
you described/suggested/recommended/requested above, I took a quick
moment to first go into my BIOS Setup menus and looked there to see if
the fresh USB stick was or was not listed in the BIOS's Hard Disk
boot Priority list.  (See above regarding the significance of this.)

It was _not_ so listed.  Thus, the fact that booting failed is not at
all surprising, based on this one fact alone.


P.P.S.  I am now going to e-mail Gigabyte Tech Support on this topic
for a third and probably final time and tell them that... since they
have assured me that *something* can be made to successfully boot when
attached via the USB ports on the GA-M55Plus-S3G... I would really
appreciate it if they could give me even just *one* example of something
(anything) that the GA-M55Plus-S3G can boot to via the USB ports.

So far, *I* have been totally unsuccessful at getting *anything* to
boot all the way this way with this specific motherboard.