[ale] making a usb thumb drive bootable from a dvd install disk

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Fri, 2008-03-28 at 16:07 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
> Jeff Lightner wrote:
> > If the DVD drive is itself USB based that may be why you can't boot from
> > it.   
> > 
> > I saw this on RHEL5 DVD.  Essentially what happens is the system's BIOS
> > does the original mount of DVD but after the boot the RHEL5 Ramdisk is
> > what is trying to mount/read from the DVD and it doesn't have the
> > drivers.

> No bios, it's a Macbook pro.

	Crud...  It has a BIOS, just not a PC BIOS.

	All bets are off.  I didn't notice you mentioning it was a Macbook pro
earlier.

> The box obviously can read the disk, as it boots from it.
> 
> > At AUUG early in the month Mike Warfield (I think) said he could tell
> > what drivers to use for USB mount but I hadn't had a chance to follow up
> > since then.  Maybe he will share since he's already reading this thread?

	What I have to do is add the following to mkinitrd to add the usb and
scsi modules to the initrd so it can find stuff early in the boot...

	--with=ehci-hcd --with=uhci-hcd --with=usb-storage 
	--with=scsi_mod --with=sd_mod 

	If you need cd-rom support early on, you'll probably need --with=sr_mod
as well.

> Mike did post some links to creating a bootable usb device, but it did 
> not work for me.  I'm thinking I might look for an external dvd reader.

	Ok...  Back to first principles.  Not saying this can even be solved
for a Macbook, but...  What errors did you get?  Did it just ignore the
USB drive?  Do you even know it can boot ANYTHING from a thumb drive?
Did it boot the kernel and then bomb on locating the root file system
(prime red letter sign it's an initrd problem)?

> Weird thing is, I installed Fedora 8 fine.  That is why I think it might 
> be something with the particular kernel on the rh.

	More likely to be something in the initrd.  Missing some drivers or
something.  Generally missing one of the usb host controllers or scsi
modules.  But that's a wild ass guess without more to go on with how far
you get and what errors you get.

	And a Macbook, I just don't know.  My next step would be to find a key,
any key, that would boot the thing and then look at its disk structure.

	I'm not even sure syslinux (at the core of most bootable USB keys) will
work on that Macbook.  I'm afraid syslinux may be too tied to the BIOS
services and you may be just SOL because syslinux can not deal with your
BIOS (or lack there of).

> -- 
> Until later, Geoffrey
> 
> Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
> temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
>   - Benjamin Franklin

	Mike
-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
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