Comments on: Thumbdrive Linux

By: Riverfishy

Riverfishy — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 22:01:48 +0000

Hey

I’m having problems getting my computer to load of the usb stick. i go into bios and change the priorities so the usb should load up in theory but it always loads windows instead! :((

I hope you have some suggestions because im totally stuck

thanks

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:21:30 +0000

Glad to know my guide is still helping people

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:21:13 +0000

There’s something wrong with the partition. Did you format it as FAT?

By: schevianne

schevianne — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:08:39 +0000

it was great!..i was able to run it..thanks for the tutorial…this was the only site that helped me out…^_

By: bgung

bgung — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:30:26 +0000

about the syslinux, yup. but the kernel panic thing, nope .

By: bgung

bgung — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:23:10 +0000

about the syslinux, yup but the kernel panic thing, nope .

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:54:59 +0000

So it’s working for you now?

By: bgung

bgung — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:21:37 +0000

I think i got the same problem as Collin up there. I try the expert setting. It gives some text:
ehci_hdc 00:1d.7:bios handoff failed (109,1010001)
Unable to handle kernell null pointer dereference at virtual address 000000418
printing eip
d0b289fc

bla bla bla

Fat bogus logical sector size=0
Kernel Panic: VFS : Unable to mount rootfs on 01.03

PS: Sorry for not read the post carefully. I found the syslinux in win32 folder.

By: bgung

bgung — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:23:49 +0000

add

[quote]
I extract it with zipgenius 6. staight to my flash drive.
[/quote]

I mean the feather linux that extracted to the flash drive.

By: bgung

bgung — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:15:26 +0000

I just try the feather linux 0.7.4(d/l from http://ftp.nluug.nl/ftp/pub/os/Linux/distr/feather/feather-0.7.4-usb.zip) on 256 MB Flash drive.
I use syslinux 2.11 for your syslinux(3.11) have no syslinux.exe. (may be my d/l is corrupted. I extract it with zipgenius 6. staight to my flash drive.

It boot OK but stop when “Probing USB .. ehci-hcd.o” with both caps lock n scroll lock led on n num lock led off(on the keyboard). Any idea what’s the problem is?? How to fix it??

Thx
bgung

By: Kooshal

Kooshal — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 06:34:18 +0000

Hi,
Excellent article. Helped me a lot from my changeover from MS Windows to Feather Linux.

Thanks

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:00:55 +0000

hay, I was just wondering if this technique would work for any other small distributions of Linux. I want to try it a bit, and I know that I want to use NimbleX because they let you build what you want right into it (i feel thats better than a canned program like Feather, I just dont see using some of the programs, and therefore dont want them.) So does anybody know if the same steps: Download, Reformat to FAT, Extract, (or is there something different for an ISO?) and do the command prompt thing: (“cd” to the win32 folder) syslinux [DRIVE]:

Or by any chance, can I just cut all this out and DL the distro, syslinux, and syslinux the ISO onto the flashdrive? I figure I might as well ask. I have little to no EXP with any of this, please help?

By: Ron

Ron — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 04:11:45 +0000

Ok, 30 minutes later I can answer part of my own question for those after me who follow the instructions and end up with the “FAT: bogus logical sector size 0” message.

Don’t use Winzip to extract the image to your USB stick!! At least, not v6.2 which I used. A Drag and drop operation created a file named KNOPPIX rather than a directory of that name. Using the “extract” rather than drag and drop was better, but the problem remained the same. Finally, I put the USB into a Linux (FC5) box, cd’d to the root dir and issued:

gunzip

The stick will need syslinux re-run, but it now boots to a shell, but get a stack of

cloop: error -3 uncompressing block xxxx…

eventually leading to a stack of “no such file or directory” errors that prevent the X service starting. I get a shell though. Will keep digging.

By: Ron

Ron — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:31:41 +0000

Using the 0.7.4 Feather USB zip, I get exactly the same result reposted by Jasper on 2007-06-25 09:40:32 (above).

Did anyone ever come up with a solution to this?

By: Colin

Colin — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:10:41 +0000

when i bood i get this
welcome to ….

bound USB device(s)handled by …
Probing usb … elhi-hcd.o

its stuck at this place ! help !

By: Ahmed Osman

Ahmed Osman — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:24:05 +0000

Check that you have your bios setup to boot from flash. And did you run syslinux on the appropriate drive?

By: Philip

Philip — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:21:52 +0000

Hey,
I’m trying to boot from my flash drive, but it won’t work. I downloaded the exact versions you said to, formatted my drive, and then loaded everything just how you said to. Please help, I can’t get it to boot. It’s u3, so could that cause a prob?

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 01:58:13 +0000

Double check that you’re giving it the correct drive letter.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:32:52 +0000

Hey, I’m getting an “unsupported media” message in the command console when I run syslinux. Any ideas? Cheers

By: Arne

Arne — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 14:33:22 +0000

Well, This is my first try at migrating. and it’s not a big success yet. It seems that my cmd is bitchy, IDKW.

when I try to run the syslinux.exe, it says no suchs file, etc. I checked and it’s there. I tried to run if of serveral drives, c, H and G but yet no succes. Is it me or is it this crappy MicroShaft XP

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 03:10:28 +0000

This will only setup your flashdrive to boot linux, so you’ll have it running completely off the flash drive. If you want to install to the drive, I believe there is a tool in feather linux to do that.

By: Philip

Philip — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:24:21 +0000

Ahmed, does this install linux on my computer or will i just be running linux off of my flash drive on top of windows? i can’t do this if it will be permenant or will affect windows.

thanks,
Philip S.

By: Jasper

Jasper — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:40:32 +0000

Hi, I’ve managed to get the feather linux-0.7.4 booting. I used the HP tool and syslinux 2.11 as recommended. I removed all USB device execpt the USB key. I also check the md5 hashes and in verified a correct download. However, at boot I get the following screen

Welcome to the Feather Linux live Linux-on-CD!

Found USB device(s) handled by usbcore.o.
Found USB device(s) handled by ehci-hcd.o.
Found USB device(s) handled by usb-ohci.o.
Found USB device(s) handled by usb-storage.o.
Accessing Feather Linux at /dev/sda1…cat: No file /KNOPPIX/etc/ld.so.cache.

Setting paths…/linuxrc: /KNOPPIX/bin/rm: not found
/linuxrc: /KNOPPIX/bin/ln: not found
egrep: not found
sed: not found
rm: not found
awk: not found
awk: not found
Total memory found: kB
expr: not found
expr: not found
mkdir: not found
Creating directories and symlinks on ramdisk…:mkdir: not found
chown: not found
/linuxrc: cannot create /var/run/utmp: directory nonexistent
FAT: bogus logical sector size 0
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs in 01:03

It looks like the KNOPPIX image couldn’t be extracted. Anyone got an idea as where to look? I tried to post this question at the feather linux forum but the forum wouldn’t let me register…

Thanks in advance, Nebula

By: Ahmed Osman

Ahmed Osman — Mon, 28 May 2007 00:59:37 +0000

Sounds Like it can’t locate the kernel image. Which version are you working with? 0.7.5 or 0.7.4?

By: joshua

joshua — Sun, 27 May 2007 16:42:34 +0000

hey ahmed :).i have a problem and this is what i get. 1. i reboot my system and enter the BIOS. 2. i then change the first boot choice to USB:ZIP. 3. When it goes to boot up it sais “boot can not find kernel image” any ideas?

By: DJ WORK ZONE

DJ WORK ZONE — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:20:15 +0000

Now how about a Damn Small Linux (DSL) tutorial.

By: Peck

Peck — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:46:22 +0000

I have the same problem with the 0.7.5 feather.
I try with syslinux 3.31 3.35… no changes…

I have follow all the Ahmeds steps… and i have test my usb key with other linux system.

By: beastwood

beastwood — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 11:24:02 +0000

I had the same problem as wini.
But when I used feather-0.7.5.iso and latest syslinux syslinux-3.31.zip it booted up just fine.
Dont forget to follow Ahmeds step 5.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:44:34 +0000

Am using 1 gb USB flash drive that I can successfully get other distributions to work with, so I know the formatting/booting process is working. With 0.7.4-usb the initial boot to the prompt is working fine but after that I’m getting errors almost exactly the same as “wini” above. If I try to boot normally I get a blank screen, and if I try to boot using the “failsafe” command I get the “not found” messages and the kernel panic. I tried 0.7.5 (with copying the files in /boot/isolinux to the root and renaming isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg) and I still get the “boot:” prompt ok, and when I type “failsafe” with this version I eventually get a message saying “Can’t find Feather Linux filesystem…” and it drops me to a limited shell that I can’t do anything with. Is there some kind of path problem? I’ve used syslinux-2.11 and syslinux-3.20 with no difference. I also use the HP formatting tool to reformat the drive as FAT. Any ideas?

Thanks!

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 04:17:09 +0000

I suppose it would be possible, If the device the memory is attached to registers as a usb mass storage device and the Bios detects it (shows up in boot options), then it would be possible.

By: lucas

lucas — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 02:52:48 +0000

is it possable it boot any kind of linux off a off a memory card like sd or memory stick duo… that would kick ass to boot from a psp or camera! + you would have a free cd drive to use…

By: Akuma

Akuma — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 16:19:18 +0000

I’ve the same problem as wini. I made all the steps of your guide but when it should boot, only a “j” appears under the chart of system properties (that char that appears just before anything boots) and that’s all.
What could happen with this?

Greets.

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 20:59:17 +0000

Are you using 0.7.5 or 0.7.4? it sounds like syslinux isn’t finding the boot files for feather linux.

By: emin

emin — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 10:33:31 +0000

Hi I tried all steps but it does not work. During the boot process “Missing Operating System” message has been appeared on the screen. Do I have to give some extentions to syslinux.exe ?

By: TR

TR — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 14:49:29 +0000

Thanks! Finally got this working! I’m not sure whether it’s the HP Format tool or the newer syslinux (Berlios shows V2.11 as the only version to use) but you cracked my problem!

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Tue, 02 May 2006 02:39:18 +0000

It’s probably not the file system you’re using. I’d recommend dropping by Their site, they can probably help you better then me.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 01 May 2006 21:34:49 +0000

i also get the

awk: not found
awk: not found
Total memory found: kB
expr: not found
expr: not found
mkdir: not found

errors. However i used the .gz file packaged with 4.2 and also the alternate .gz file available on the website. Neither work. Could it be to do with file system? Im using FAT.

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 14:57:54 +0000

I believe the reason you’re having trouble with the 0.6.2 is because minirt24.gz is of a more recent version then the rest of the files so that may be causing your problems.

By: wini

wini — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 18:35:38 +0000

Hi, I tried the instruction but when I boot FL from USB, I’ve a black blank screen, and on the top left on myscreen showing “j” (without “) and the USB just keep blinking and my computer hang.
Do you got an idea? I already tried combination with syslinux-2.11, feather-0.6.2-usb.zip, feather-0.7.4-usb.zip, replacing minirt24.gz, ....
Some combination works, for example :
1. extract feather-0.6.2-usb.zip
2. replace minirt24.gz
3. syslinux /dev/sda1 (under Linux RH, and using syslinux-2.11)

it works, i’ve got the welcome screen from FL, and prompting “boot : “, but after that i’ve got another problem :
”
Accessing Feather USB at /dev/sda1…cat: No file /KNOPPIX/etc/ld.so.cache.

Setting paths…rm: not found
awk: not found
awk: not found
Total memory found: kB
expr: not found
expr: not found
mkdir: not found
Creating directories and symlinks on ramdisk…mkdir: not found
/linuxrc: cannot create /var/run/utmp: directory nonexistent
FAT: bogus cluster size 48
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 01:01 ”

Can you Help me about all this things ?
TIA

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 04:23:09 +0000

Interesting. That error generally means you don’t have your C compiler. try and apt-get update then apt-get upgrade your compilers.
try reading this thread too. it might help you understand your error.

By: exorcist

exorcist — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 19:11:16 +0000

Now i got FL to HDD, but i can compile scripts, the option ./configure doesn’t work right: “configure: error: C preprocessor “/lib/cpp” fails sanity check” with apt-get i install gcc and g++, but no changes.

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 23:55:29 +0000

When you load up feather linux, right click on the desktop and inside system tool or enhancements (can’t remember which)there’s an option for HD install. choose the safer mode, you’ll need to reformat that partition as a ext3 and split off about 1 gig or so for a swap partition.

By: exorcist

exorcist — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 11:49:33 +0000

Great tutorial and installing explanation, Ahmed! This is my first usage and migration from Win OS to Feather Linux. Currently i boot FL from USB thumb drive, but is possible to instal Feather Linux to my HDD? I have 3 patrition (c:, d: & e:). Is there a option to format e: in FAT and then permenently install FL to this drive?

Thanks