UNSOLVED - Remaster on usb stick gives "boot error"

[wedgetail]

Maurice

Can you confirm you copy/pasted Not a bootable disk

Do you have any Windows OS running in the house?

I am going to try something here will take a couple of hours, the plan is try a couple simple things before we destroy your install in process again.

[wedgetail]

Old-Polack

We know there is a working system on the USB key, we know it can be seen say via Dolphin.  Following does not solve the boot problem but I am curious, as I did not manage here but I was very tired when I tried.

Is there a simple way of using liveCD go to Grub and then start the USB?

[Maurice]

Maurice

Can you confirm you copy/pasted Not a bootable disk

Do you have any Windows OS running in the house?

I am going to try something here will take a couple of hours, the plan is try a couple simple things before we destroy your install in process again.

What do you mean about copy pasting?  How can I copy paste that? That was the message I receive every time I boot up with the usb. And the message I got after flashing bios.

No - haven't had Windows running for months on either computer although my wife runs Vista on her laptop now and then.

[wedgetail]

Maurice

Thanks you have answered my questions. Just hit a little snag here, Grub decided to take a brake, must have overworked it. My system has lost its Grub. I will take a refresher course on "grub manual start".

I was a bit lucky as real early today I think it was I made liveUSB of the latest KDE-mini in preparation for use in your trouble shooting if it came to that.  Now I will be using it on my own. 

[Maurice]

Maurice

Thanks you have answered my questions. Just hit a little snag here, Grub decided to take a brake, must have overworked it. My system has lost its Grub. I will take a refresher course on "grub manual start".

I was a bit lucky as real early today I think it was I made liveUSB of the latest KDE-mini in preparation for use in your trouble shooting if it came to that.  Now I will be using it on my own. 

Bad luck wedgetail. Maybe you should have taken up my earlier offer to pack it in?
Well - that should give me time to watch a program on TV for an hour.

[wedgetail]

Maurice

Educated in the mysteries (well some of them) by Old-Polack and if I really stuck to his tenets I would not be in trouble. I do race into those "what if I do this ..."  Sometime it is good form to just take it a bit easy.

I am running again.  I tried something I might have suggested to you but not this time  

Since it failed you go an watch TV, not likely I will be back for another couple of hours with next step.

[Just17]

I don't recall if this was done or not, but think it might be worth a try ......

use the  dd  command to completely zero the first sector of the USB stick .....  thus ensuring that there is no 'bit' anywhere in that sector which may be upsetting the BIOS

then create a new partition table using KDE Partition Manager, and create the two partitions again -- a 100MB FAT followed by an ext for the rest of the disk.

IMO everything is pointing to something being 'set' on the USB stick that indicates to this BIOS that the disk is not bootable.

Of course it may also be that some bit is NOT set that it expects to be set to indicate the drive is a bootable device.

[wedgetail]

Just18

The dd zero command we have not used yet but I would like to try your suggestion. Your thinking about the bit is as good as any at this stage and I would like to follow through a little bit later.

The planned next step will overwrite the first 446 characters, leaving the partition table unchanged. Replace the Grub boot code and install ms bootcode instead. Enable the second primary partition boot flag only, the second partition is where the Linux install is.  Install Grub to the second partition boot sector. Then start the system that way.

As I see it using the ms boot code will also prove that the port will respond properly to boot instructions, if that fails I have only one more item up my sleeve at this stage.  However I do not expect it will fail as the concept works here. What is being implemented is Old-Polack's experience with hard drives (see his comment earlier)  but I have proved here that it work fine on USB as well.  I should clarify it works on my system and my USB and one of your liveUSB install on my problem USB key  (that key is not a problem if preformatted ext3).

After having played with the running system we can try your suggestion.   Of course there is also the possibility I will be wrong once more  !!

There will be a bit more in this thread. 

[AS]

I'm very sorry to step into this beautiful thread, hope to not add more confusion.  
The following thread mention the same motherboard, a very similar issue, at the end solved by upgrading the BIOS:

http://communities.intel.com/thread/6874

Just for your info.  

AS

[wedgetail]

AS

Sorry already done, not sure if it is the same link, I just saw your message pop up on the last pc I am shutting down for the night.  Maurice did that a few posts back. I had some hopes but it did not help.  ZZZzzz....

[Just17]

The planned next step will overwrite the first 446 characters, leaving the partition table unchanged. Replace the Grub boot code and install ms bootcode instead. Enable the second primary partition boot flag only, the second partition is where the Linux install is.  Install Grub to the second partition boot sector. Then start the system that way.

Why bring MS bootcode into the mix at this stage? ......  and then introduce more changes such as changes to the boot flag location ....

I believe one step at a time is needed ..... and if wiping the MBR and/or partition table and replacing it/them no other changes should be introduced into that step.

If that is not successful then one more change each time is needed to whittle down the exact change that solves the problem.

......  and yes I do believe it is solvable ......  if Maurice's patience can hold long enough

Just an alternate view 

[Just17]

Maybe add further to the confusion ......

Can't boot from Live CD ISO on a USB stick (August 2009)

I was trying to run the Live CrunchBang 9.04.01 (I had tried the older Cruncheee last month with the same result) from an SD card created using UNetbootin. For various reasons I was unable to create the USB image on my eeePC, so was using my main PC. I tried different SD cards and stick, reformating the card/stick etc but always got:
This is not a bootable disk.
Please insert a bootable floppy and press any key to try again.
SOLUTION Instead of using my Gentoo/AMD64 box to create the SD card setup I used another PC with another distro/x86 8.10, reformated the (cheapy) SD card to FAT32 (using gparted) and reinstalled the ISO, again using UNetbootin. It now booted fine now on the eeePC 4G/701, and also installed fine to the internal drive.

Why ? I have no idea: either different versions of some software or else UNetbootin creates some kind of AMD, or 64-bit, incompatibility.

http://www.zoxed.eu/comp_misc.html

[Old-Polack]

The planned next step will overwrite the first 446 characters, leaving the partition table unchanged. Replace the Grub boot code and install ms bootcode instead. Enable the second primary partition boot flag only, the second partition is where the Linux install is.  Install Grub to the second partition boot sector. Then start the system that way.

Why bring MS bootcode into the mix at this stage?

We bring MS boot code into the mix precisely because this BIOS doesn't seem to recognize the USB stick with grub in the MBR as being bootable media. Maybe it's specifically looking for MS code only, on the USB stick. As nothing else suggested so far has had any affect, and all previous suggestions have been variations of working with the same boot code, certainly it can't hurt to see if MS boot code does make a difference. At least in isn't just running around in circles, as we seem to be doing, so far.

If that doesn't work, failure to recognize the USB stick as bootable media, with either of two totally different boot codes, could be an indication that the problem is within the hardware, or the BIOS code, and not the software installed on the USB stick..

[Just17]

The planned next step will overwrite the first 446 characters, leaving the partition table unchanged. Replace the Grub boot code and install ms bootcode instead. Enable the second primary partition boot flag only, the second partition is where the Linux install is.  Install Grub to the second partition boot sector. Then start the system that way.

Why bring MS bootcode into the mix at this stage?

We bring MS boot code into the mix precisely because this BIOS doesn't seem to recognize the USB stick with grub in the MBR as being bootable media. Maybe it's specifically looking for MS code only, on the USB stick. As nothing else suggested so far has had any affect, and all previous suggestions have been variations of working with the same boot code, certainly it can't hurt to see if MS boot code does make a difference. At least in isn't just running around in circles, as we seem to be doing, so far.

As I explained in detail the important part of your highlighted quote is "at this stage".

I am extremely surprised that you do not see the difficulties in determining the cause of the problem, when several things are changed at once.

A Grub install on a cleaned first sector has not been attempted.

Wiping the first sector, changing to a MS boot code, and changing the boot flag to a different partition all at once will just muddy the waters even more.

If that doesn't work, failure to recognize the USB stick as bootable media, with either of two totally different boot codes, could be an indication that the problem is within the hardware, or the BIOS code, and not the software installed on the USB stick..

The cause may be, as I posted previously, a bit set which is unsettling the BIOS, or maybe a bit not set which the BIOS expects.

Making changes one step at a time is the way to isolate something.

[Yankee]

Could I suggest running testdisk, if it is available
on the flash drive sometime.  Should give the best
readings available regarding disk geometry seen
and actual, whether the drive is bootable according
to it's analysis, and other mismatches possible.

Deleting and recreating a flash drive and it's partition (1)
usually solves all my problems but I'm sure that's
already been done.