[gPXE] [Etherboot-discuss] cannot boot from usb

[Marty Connor]

Hi Chantal,

You should join the gpxe at etherboot.org mailing list:

    http://etherboot.org/mailman/listinfo/gpxe

where there are more people who are actively using gPXE and will be 
happy to hear from you.

I thought we had an appnote on our wiki that talked about how to create 
a USB stick that is bootable with either a DOS or Linux (ext2/ext3) file 
system on it.

gPXE's .usb format is sometimes confusing to systems, and I sometimes 
use a FreeDOS formatted memory stick to put a copy of syslinux.

There are lots of tutorials on the web about making USB drives DOS 
bootable.  Things like:

    http://wiki.fdos.org/Installation/BootDiskCreateUSB

Once you have a DOS bootable USB drive you can put Syslinux on it, and 
updating the drive becomes as easy as copying a new .lkr[n] file to the 
USB drive.

Who else uses a DOS formatted USB driver for USB booting gPXE?

/ Marty /

P.S.  For fun, build a gPXE  .iso formatted image and look at the files 
on it. :)  Something very similar could be used with a USB stick and DOS.

chantal at antenna.nl wrote on 6/3/10 9:14 AM:
> Thanks Andrew,
>
> The machines are pretty old so it is possible that usb boot is not
> supported (although I can choose USB in the boot order), I "fixed" it
> by using a floppy disk image instead.
>
>
> Quoting rulerof at gmail.com:
>
>> Hello Chantal,
>>
>> If you're getting a black screen now and the BIOS boot order doesn't
>> continue on to the hard disk, it appears as though your USB stick is
>> indeed  being booted by the BIOS insofar as [attempted] execution of
>> the MBR code,  but curiously you're not getting any farther than that.
>>
>> Of course, the newer a motherboard is, the more likely you'll be able
>> to  successfully boot via USB, but ensuring a USB boot is not always
>> the  easiest thing to do. That said, could you verify that the stick
>> works by  booting it directly in a virtual machine or from another
>> computer which  you've known to successfully boot USB sticks? Apologies
>> if you're already  certain that the machine you're attempting to boot
>> currently should work :-P
>>
>> Otherwise speaking, I'd suggest erasing and attempting to rewrite the
>> .usb  image to the stick or some such. I'm not too knowledgeable on
>> troubleshooting this particular issue, but just wanted to offer you
>> some  steps you might like to take.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Andrew Bobulsky
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jun 3, 2010 8:19am, chantal at antenna.nl wrote:
>>> Ofcourse you are right, i feel a bit stupid now! But still no
>>
>>> luck........ it doesn't boot from the harddisk anymore but I get a
>>
>>> black screen and nothing happens.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Quoting Thomas Miletich thomas.miletich at gmail.com>:
>>
>>
>>
>>>> Hi
>>
>>>> As far as I remember, the .usb image is supposed to be written to the
>>
>>>> entire usb drive, instead of a partition on the usb drive. You can
>>
>>>> either use the .hd image type and write it to sdb1, or use the usb
>>
>>>> image and write it to sdb, instead of sdb1:
>>
>>>>
>>
>>>> sudo dd if=gpxe-1.0.0-sis900.usb of=/dev/sdb
>>
>>>>
>>
>>>> Please keep in mind that this will destroy the current partition table
>>
>>>> and any filesystem that may be on the usb drive. If you want to keep
>>
>>>> the filesystem, you may be interested in instaling syslinux or grub on
>>
>>>> the drive and use the .lkrn image type.
>>
>>>>
>>
>>>> Thomas
>>
>>>>
>>
>>>> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 12:33 PM, chantal at antenna.nl>  wrote:
>>
>>>>> Hi list,
>>
>>>>>
>>
>>>>> I use Ubuntu 10.04
>>
>>>>>
>>
>>>>>
>>
>>>>> I downloaded an usb image from http://rom-o-matic.net/ and wrote it
>>> to  usb:
>>
>>>>>
>>
>>>>> sudo dd if=gpxe-1.0.0-sis900.usb of=/dev/sdb1