Problem: A USB stick cannot boot with any of Porteus, the boot-repair LiveUSB, or SystemRescueCD. It used to be bootable with Porteus, and before that it could boot with other Linux LiveUSB distributions.
Solution: unsolved
See also:
- /tag/usb-software
- "Resetting" a USB stick
- Booting multiple distributions from a USB stick
Linux distribution booting from a USB drive which has a Windows-viewable partition
Workaround ∞
A heretofore unknown grub bootloader USB, Super Grub2 Disk, was dd
ed onto a stick, and works to chain-load a secondary drive which has its own bootloader.
Perhaps if I could use it for USB stick preparation I could then install another distribution overtop of it.
After using Super Grub2 Disk, putting Slackware 14.2 on it worked just fine.
Putting Porteus on it worked once but I hard powered-off in the start of my first bootup and thereafter could not get the thing to work.
Fucking fuckity fuck fuck.
Things which failed ∞
- LiLi USB Creator
- UNetbootin
In Linux
- Deleting the partition
- Creating the partition slightly smaller than maximum.
- Using various methods.
- This worked with one other stick..
\dd bs=4M if=/dev/zero of=/dev/STICK
Perhaps alternately I could have used one of the programs in Testing USB storage which wipes a drive to test it..- Format it in Windows
- Then LiLi USB Creator (Windows) with SystemRescueCD 4.8.3 x86
- It takes forever to write the MBR, is it copying the files at that time?
Strangely, my original single working stick didn't boot until I completely powered off my machine and started back up again, so there's something else going on. Future testing has to include this complete power down.
flagging the partition as bootable ∞
I'm not sure at what point I tried this, probably after farting around with partitioning in Linux but before zeroing it and formatting.
How to Create a Bootable USB Drive Without Using Any Software
Notes ∞
- See also What makes bootable media bootable?
How can I identify which of my USB drives can be made bootable?
To do ∞
- Rufus worked with Devuan 2.0.0 i386 -minimal and -desktop
- List of tools to create Live USB systems
- Try one of the Plop Boot Managers
- https://superuser.com/questions/391176/flipping-the-removable-media-bit-alternatives-to-bootit
http://www.getusb.info/flip-your-bit-usb-utility-to-make-local-drive/
- BootIt
- Sketchy, not found on http://www.lexar.com/support/downloads.html