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

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <BLU0-SMTP48EE10402F4B5AE9EC1E078BBB0 at phx.gbl>, 
Ady <ady-sf at hotmail.com> wrote:

>Not all USB ports are the same. For instance, in some mainboards the 
>USB ports at the front of the computer case might be not recommended 
>for booting purposes. At least for these tests, I would suggest to 
>use always the same USB port where you have already seen success.

I have been consistantly doing so from the outset, i.e. using only
the ports on that are on the back of my system, i.e. that protrude
from the I/O shield.

>For these tests, plug in just one USB drive, to the same USB port 
>where you already succeeded. Keep other USB ports empty, and 
>unnecessary drives disconnected (if possible).

I have been doing so, and shall continue.

>Regarding some recent comments about using GParted Live, let me 
>clarify that it is an excellent tool and that my prior suggestion for 
>not using it was intended for "just for the moment".

I understand.

>Regarding the use of Windows, I can understand that you are not so 
>comfortable with it.

That is an understatement.

I was *already* quite reluctant to use Windows, except when necessary,
even before we started all this, and these experiments have made me
moreso.  (I have gotten reasonably adept/comfortable with the Windows
UI over the past couple of years, but I still vastly prefer a good old
UNIX command line interface... something I've had more than 30 years
experience with.)

>>From your own reports, I am confident that you don't need to keep 
>trying different ISO images, dd'ing some additional distro, expanding 
>additional archives.

Good.

>The initial problem has nothing to do with UBCD, nor Clonezilla Live, 
>nor OpenELEC,

Even I understood from the outset that the problem... whatever it
is/was... had nothing specifically to do with those tools.  That is
why I came here, you know, as opposed to directing a bunch of questions
to the producers of those tools.

>This particular mainboard might be using different BIOS values than 
>others, and there are several other alternative explanations for all 
>these issues. Your last few tests suggest that we are on a good track 
>now.

I have just a couple of questions.  First, who exactly is Mr. Syslinux?
Who is the primary developer/maintainer?  Second, may I safely assume
that the goal of what we have all been doing is to produce (at some
point) a new version of Syslinux that will cater better to older
motherboards and older Award BIOSes, such as what I have?  Lastly,
may I also safely assume that at some appropriate point in the future,
Mr. Syslinux, or some close associate, will actively take steps
to actively encourage the developers of UBCD, Clonezilla, and OpenELEC
to incorporate the new "fixed" version of Syslinux into their future
distributions, you know, so that other poor sods like me won't in
future be beset by these issues?  (For my part, *I* have already
ordered a new/replacement motherboard, so all of this work we've done
is not likely to benefit me directly.  But I would like to think that
it hasn't all been wasted effirt, and that _someone_ may benefit.))

>I have my own resources' limitations. Preparing special images with a 
>size of several GB and uploading them in hopes they will work as 
>expected is beyond my current possibilities.

Why?  Are you on a dial-up line?

>I would like to ask from you to _at least try_ my last instructions. 

I am willing to do so, but with the understanding (on everybody's part)
that I really don't want to do any more of this, i.e. after this last
test.  I've tried to be helpful, but there is a limit.  Following
convoluted sets of technical instructions is not actually my idea of
a good time.  (And I don't really have any stake or personal interest
in the outcome anymore either.)

>After dd'ing my test.img to the USB drive, you would have one FAT32 
>partition of about 700MB. So:
>
>1_ Expand the content of the Clonezilla Live zip archive in some 
>temporal directory.

Ummm... Which version, exactly?

>2_ Move *almost* all the resulting expanded content...

I should be able to perform all of the moving & replacing of files
that you requested directly on my FreeBSD system (using ntfs-3g) rather
than on Windoze.  Do you care, either way?


Regards,
rfg