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

Thomas Schmitt scdbackup at gmx.net
Thu Jan 16 13:32:15 PST 2014


Hi,

> OK, I have the file "archlinux-2014.01.05-dual.iso" and I have just now
> dd'd it to a 8GB Patriot brand stick I have here.  (I used bs=1m.  I'm
> not sure if that is the a proper block size to use or not when doing
> stuff like this, but I believe it is.)

With a data file as source, the dd block size should not matter.
It may influence the speed of the copy run.


> it *does* boot up to the Archlinux start screen!
> Yipee!  *Something* actually works!

Quality filesystem: ISO 9660. :)))


>    start 0, size 1081344 (528 Meg), flag 80 (active)

Did you unset the "active" flag before your experiment ?
It is the same as "bootable".


> OK, so now what?

Did the failures happen with the same USB stick as was
successful with the ISO image ?

Your previous failures were probably all with variants of the
filesystem FAT. The error messages you showed were about
missing files. So maybe the firmware has a problem with FAT.
It should not think that much about partition content.
But as it is susipicious to be mad anyway ...


> I first purchased this board at least several years ago.

That makes it unlikely we have to deal with too much EFI
in the firmware. (EFI knows about FAT.)

Nevertheless, the successful ISO has a GPT partition table
additionally to the MBR partition table. (That's why it is
called "dual".iso)
Did you try debian-7.3.0-i386-netinst.iso which has only MBR ?
Maybe it fails. That would be great.


My only other idea would be to install some system in a
non-FAT read-write filesystem. Like ext2.
That could strenghten or weaken the suspicion about FAT
partitions.

Any proposals from the other bystanders ?
Goal is to bisect the disk characteristics until we have
some single property that triggers failure resp. success.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas



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