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

[Christoph Hanle]

On 19.01.2014 20:39 Mattias Schlenker wrote:
> To cut a log story short, we probably should write some advices for best
> practices of creating bootable media. I got five:
>
> 1. Never ever rely on partitioning or filesystems that a already on the
>    user's thumb drives. These might use odd CHS geometries or drives
>    may be flashed with a broken FS - partition and format using well
>    proven tools
> 2. If your system has to be bootable from USB and optical media try to
>    deliver isohybrid images. Thomas and Mattias might help you with
>    working around typical bugs in BIOS and UEFI implementations
> 3. When converting a thumb drive to read only ISO9660 does not seem
>    suitable, you might go with LessLinux' solution of converting the
>    isohybrid drive to a partitioned layout with a large FAT32 partition
>    at the start - this way even Windows can write to the drive. If
>    windows doesn't matter just add one partition in the free space
>    after the dd'ed ISO
> 4. Check the media upon first boot. Too many too cheap thumb drives
>    flip too many bits after a few dozen full writes.
> 5. Move away from MBR/DOS, goto GPT, you'll be rewarded with reliable
>    boot both on UEFI and on BIOS. You'll just break compatibility with
>    Windows XP, but this is dead after April 8th anyway.
>
just a finding by me (us):
only use USB sticks from major manufacturers;
If a stick fails use another brand or a stick from another series;
Over the last years we had only with SanDisk USB-drives no troubles,
they boot and have a long term stability.

bye
Christoph


> Regards,
> Mattias
> 
> -- -
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