Other Help Topics :: USB stick boot: Lexar problems
I'm not sure what's going on here. I've got 4 different USB sticks booting, but they're all USB 1.1. Tonight, I picked up a 128MB LexarJumpDrive Sport. I just love the form factor! It would actually live on my keyring without getting pulverized. But I cannot get it to boot!
In fact, my other USB 2.0 Lexar will not boot, either. I get symptoms ranging from booting the initrd and then failing to mount the Knoppix filesystem to "Boot failure" to hanging at the BIOS memory self-test. I have tried replacing the MBR with the SysLinux version. I tried a Gentoo install-mbr. I have blown away and recreated partitions til I'm ready to audition for the Blue Man Group. I've tried 3 versions of SysLinux from 2.04 to 2.11-pre3. Hell, I even booted the laptop into 98 and reformatted it natively! No joy. But I tossed a fast install onto an otherwise virgin 128 MB USB 1.1 JumpDrive and she booted right up. 
I'll haul the sticks to work tomorrow and see if they will boot my workbox (brand-new Intel mobo, boots great from my generic 1.1 stick, but then, so does my XPC). That will at least narrow it down to whether it's my Shuttle/Athlon/nVidia mini-ITX or a generic Lexar problem. But I thought I'd bounce it off you folks to see if this is a known Lexar and/or USB 2.0 issue. I'd really like a portable bootable environment hanging off my keyring.
It was my understanding that DSL only supported usb 1.1 
73
ke4nt
i have no problems booting from my generic usb2 stick, but lately, the Lexar stick (1.1) has been giving me fits.
sounds like a Lexar problem...
-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed
I don't think it's a 2.0 support thang. If I boot from a CD, I can mount the USB stick just fine and manipulate files. I'd expect worst-case 1.1 speeds. Anyway, most of the time, I don't get even as far as the kernel.
I'll see what the workbox has to say tomorrow (oops... this) morning.
Well, it's definitely not a USB 2.0 or a Lexar problem. The workbox booted right up off my Sport drive, so the problem lies with the Shuttle XPC at home. It's one of those where you need to select which of 4 types of USB devices you wanna boot from. USB-ZIP has been working for me, but apparently not on the new stick.
Someone in another thread mentioned using grub on a USB stick. I might give that a try this weekend.
Slightly related: is there a good version of dd for Windows? Putting a bootfloppy image on the stick, along with the tool to create the disk, seems like a good idea.
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