Are all USB Flash Memory sticks bootable?

[Al Plant]

Fbsd1 wrote:
> Randi Harper wrote:
>> On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 6:27 AM, Sergio de Almeida Lenzi <
>> lenzi.sergio at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Em Qui, 2009-07-23 às 12:52 +0800, Fbsd1 escreveu:
>>> Hello....
>>>
>>> I found here that some bios does have problem with booting
>>> from partitions they do not know....
>>>
>>> So first I initialize the USB stick with....
>>> ==========
>>> dd count=100 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da0
>>> fdisk -BI da0
>>> sade
>>> ==========
>>> than edit the partitions...
>>> ls /dev/da* should show da0s1 da0s2
>>> than....
>>> disklabel -wB da0s1
>>> disklabel -wB da0s2
>>> newfs -L Freebsd7 da0s1a
>>> newfs -L Freebsd8 da0s2a
>>> boot0cfg -vB da0
>>> ============
>>> mount the partitions, copy the files
>>> boot from the usb...  it will show you the F1 F2 chooser....
>>>
>>> for me, this worked
>>>
>>>
>>> Sergio
>>
>>
>> Just to clarify, are you trying to boot from a USB stick that you've
>> installed FreeBSD onto, or is this a USB stick that you've dd'ed the
>> memstick.img to?
>>
>> You should NOT use disklabel on a usb stick that you're dd'ing the
>> memstick.img to.
>>
>> -- randi
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
> 
> Here I will try to re-state the problem.
> 
> I have two USB Flash Memory sticks. One is a 2GB stick and the other is 
> a 8GB stick. I can install Freebsd 8.0 from disc1 cd onto the 2GB stick 
> or dd the memstick.img to the 2GB stick and in both cases it will boot 
> just fine.
> 
> When I repeat the same procedure using the 8GB stick it will not boot. 
> AS a test I have fdisk'ed the 8GB stick under MS/XP and loaded files to 
> it ok.
> 
> The only thing I see different between the 2 memsticks is in the 
> messages 7.2 issues when the sticks get plugged in.
> 
> Take note of the revision level differences between them.
> 2.00/1.00 versus  rev 2.00/2.00
> 
> The only other guess I have is that the usb code in 7.2 has
> am error in it.
> 
> Brand new 8GB Kingston DataTraveler 120 purchased 7/16/09
> 
>  umass0: <Kingston DataTraveler 120, class 0/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 2> 
>             on uhub1
>  (probe0:umass-sim0:0:0:0): TEST UNIT READY. CDB: 0 0 0 0 0 0
>  (probe0:umass-sim0:0:0:0): CAM Status: SCSI Status Error
>  (probe0:umass-sim0:0:0:0): SCSI Status: Check Condition
>  (probe0:umass-sim0:0:0:0): UNIT ATTENTION asc:28,0
>  (probe0:umass-sim0:0:0:0): Not ready to ready change, medium may have 
> changed
>  (probe0:umass-sim0:0:0:0): Retrying Command (per Sense Data)
>  da0 at umass-sim0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0
>  da0: <Kingston DataTraveler 120 1.00> Removable Direct Access SCSI-2 
> device
>  da0: 1.000MB/s transfers
>  da0: 7643MB (15654848 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 974C)
>  GEOM_LABEL: Label for provider da0a is ufsid/4a615a2cc673eb3d.
> 
> 
> # 3 year old 2GB Kingston DataTraveler
> umass1: <vendor 0x0930 USB Flash Memory, class 0/0, rev 2.00/2.00,
>          addr 3> on uhub1
> da1 at umass-sim1 bus 1 target 0 lun 0
> da1: < USB Flash Memory 6.50> Removable Direct Access SCSI-0 device
> da1: 1.000MB/s transfers
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 
Aloha,


I put FreeBSD 7.2 iso (from Maniolis CD/DVD ) on stick (a Sandisk Cruzer 
16 GB), and it works fine. This was using the normal install directed to 
the stick. Booting was not an issue.  Maybe your stick is messed up.



~Al Plant - Honolulu, Hawaii -  Phone:  808-284-2740
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