It's the little things... (Solved)

[mark304]

Kudos to the PCLinuxOS folks for something I haven't seen on other Linux distros.  This morning, on a whim, I created a live CD of the LXDE version just to play around.  When I was done I clicked on the shutdown option and much to my surprise, the system halted and asked me to remove the live CD before completing the shutdown sequence.  Thanks for this little extra touch.  BTW – I really liked the LXDE flavor and I'm now down loading the KDE flavor to give it a try.

[The Chief]

Now that you have the iso's, a creating a Live USB memory stick is just as easy, and you can have multiple versions on it. 

I keep one in my pocket with KDE, MiniMe, LXDE and Xfce versions all on it, to demonstrate (and possibly install) on friends computers.  When you boot it, it comes up with a grub screen to let you select which flavor you want.

[mark304]

Thanks for the idea Chief, but my laptop does not boot from a USB port.  Kinda odd that, I got my laptop new this May.
Again, thanks sir. - Mark

[Yankee]

Thanks for the idea Chief, but my laptop does not boot from a USB port.  Kinda odd that, I got my laptop new this May.
Again, thanks sir. - Mark

That's odd, what kind of laptop is it ?

[sammy2fish]

Thanks for the idea Chief, but my laptop does not boot from a USB port.  Kinda odd that, I got my laptop new this May.
Again, thanks sir. - Mark

Have you gone into the bios and see if you can move up the usb-boot option, to before the hard-drive?

[mark304]

My laptop is an Asus A53E-AS31 with Intel Core 3i 2350M processor, 4 GB of ram, and a 750 hard disc.  There are only two choices in the bios set-up, hard disc or DVD/CD; I was surprised as well, I thought that booting from a USB memory stick was pretty much standard.

[hlidskialf]

Check under you hard drive priority. Your USB drive has a good chance of being listed there, I've seen it on a lot of systems. You just bump the usb drive to top priority and you're good to go.

[The Chief]

My laptop is an Asus A53E-AS31 with Intel Core 3i 2350M processor, 4 GB of ram, and a 750 hard disc.  There are only two choices in the bios set-up, hard disc or DVD/CD; I was surprised as well, I thought that booting from a USB memory stick was pretty much standard.

It seems some of the newer BIOSes don't list USB unless there is something connected at start up.   Try powering up with a flash drive attached and then check the BIOS.

Some also have an  independent (different key than the ordinary setup) "Boot Order" good for only that boot.

Just some of the things I have observed over the last couple of years.

[Just17]

There is often a 'magic key' to press during BIOS/POST that will bring you to Boot Options ........  F12 on a couple of laptops I used lately, but could be any key they designate ......  Esc, F1, F2, F8, Del .....  have come across all of those and more.

Your manual should tell you.

[mark304]

Chief,
Yup, there is a place in my bios to create a boot device such as a USB.  Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
My new trip point is the creation of the bootable USB stick, the live USB Creator goes into a loop when it tries to create the partition on the stick.  That is, the program ask me to highlight the partition option (there is only one), I highlight my one option and click 'OK', boom-back at the same place to pick a partition.   I'm using a 16GB memory stick (SanDisk Cruiser). I'll have another cup of coffee and scan the forum for any clues.

And to everyone, thanks so much for the help; I'm truly impressed with the quality of the folks here in the forum.

Again thanks everyone,
Mark

[Just17]

If you read the first info page of LiveUSB Creator .......  it tells you to format the partition first ......  to ext (Linux) format.

When you do that it will accept it. 

You need only create a partition of suitable size for the Live ISOs you will use .....  so if you have a 16GB USB stick, and use Windows you might want to have a Windows format (FAT, NTFS) at the beginning of the device, and follow it with a Linux partition for the Live OS.

Of course you can use one partition of the full size of the disk ......  just ensure you format it to ext.

[Yankee]

My laptop is an Asus A53E-AS31 with Intel Core 3i 2350M processor, 4 GB of ram, and a 750 hard disc.  There are only two choices in the bios set-up, hard disc or DVD/CD; I was surprised as well, I thought that booting from a USB memory stick was pretty much standard.

Without changing BIOS, when I touch "esc" when the initial screen
appears, with the USB plugged in,  I can select the HD or the USB,
on my ASUS machine.

[mark304]

Thanks Just18 for pointing out that there is valuable information on the screen, if one takes time to read it.

Thanks to Ferdes Fides, great tip; it works on my ASUS as well.  Too bad that the manual I got with my laptop was so generic that the only real tech info is how to turn the computer on.

Thanks to all, again. Success - I'm able to boot from a USB stick.   

 

[The Chief]

Thanks to all, again. Success - I'm able to boot from a USB stick.   

And those are sooo much easier to carry around than a CD/DVD...   

[sammy2fish]

This is what the forum is here for....