I cannot get the computer to boot from the flash drive.  I have tried all the various choices for the first boot drive (USB-HDD, USB-ZIP, USB-FDD, USB_CDROM) and no luck.  I have tried to format the flash drive using the various HP tools that I have been able to find as well.

 

I have not been able to determine the motherboard manufacturer and the flash drive is generic.  I am going to try a suggested brand of flash and also try to configure it to boot linux, if all else fails.

 

I really want to use unRaid, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

 

industrialarts

See if when your system boots, when the screen messages say something like "Press DEL for Setup" or similar message, see if there is also a messages saying to press a particular key for a "Boot Menu" or "Boot Options" such as F11 or F8.

Nope, but I can access boot options from the bios setup.

Try disabling all other boot devices... I have seen some bioses go to the disk, even when the USB or "other devices" were listed before the disk in the BIOS boot order.

 

Can you note whose BIOS it is (AMI, Award, etc) and what MoBo?

Also, make sure you are using an onboard USB slot, not one on the top or front that connects to a header. I could not get it to boot from one of these on my system. I was going to put the flash on top so I could easily access it if I needed too for some reason.

i have tried all of your suggestions.  The only difference that occurs is when I disable all the other boot options and make the first boot drive the USB-HDD, it stops at "Verifying DMI Pool Data"  and gives me a bllinking cursor.  If I set the second boot option to USB-ZIP, I still get BOOT ERROR.  There is no other boot options page on this computer.

 

I have tried all the various USB configurations for boot options and keyboard/mouse options.

 

I have managed to get the software to load on two other computers I have here (with other network problems ensuing, but one thing at a time).  However, this is the only computer I have available to be the server.

 

The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-81DML (http://www.gigabyte.eu/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=1346)  and the bios is Award 6.00PG (1984-2001?) Pentium 4 processor.

 

Thanks for your help.

According to the following link, your BIOS is three versions old. (you are on version 6, and version 9 is available)

 

http://www.gigabyte.eu/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=1346&ProductName=GA-8IDML

 

They do not specifically mention booting from a USB drive, but who knows, they might have added that feature in one of the bios upgrades.  You might want to try flashing your BIOS to the current version.

I might try to flash the BIOS - but since the options for booting from the USB are in the BIOS menu already, shouldn't that mean it has support for it?

 

I've never flashed BIOS successfully before, so instead of taking the chance, I might forgo UNRaid for  a while and go with FreeNAS (which I've  already tested on this computer).

 

UNLESS - Is there some way to boot from a CDROM?

 

Thanks again.

boot from CD isn't an option at this time.  Cmon, flash that bios! 

Check out this thread... you could boot from a floppy in combination with your CD, or, probably even just your CD if your BIOS supports booting from it.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=244.0

 

Also... If you have an alternate Linux system available, you could use fdisk on it to make your USB flash drive look like a USB-ZIP drive.

You might be then able to boot off of it.  The secret is to use the advanced mode to set the heads/cylinders/sectors of your flash drive to values that mimic a ZIP drive.

 

I had a lot of  problems getting my Sandisk 1 Gig  flash drive to boot.  One thing I tried was to use the advanced mode of Linux fdisk to set the number of heads to 255 and the number of sectors to 32 after  plugging the flash drive into a different linux box. When set the geometry that way it was detected as a USB REMOVABLE DISK, not as a flash drive.  It did not boot completely for me back then, but I'll bet I did not have the volume label set to "UNRAID" so it never mounted it at /boot. Linux did boot, and I was able to log in, but it did not find the config file at /boot so the network connectivity was not  established. (I've since gotten my drive to boot once I set the volume label of the flash drive to "UNRAID")

 

I would find a linux boot CD, boot it up and then plug in the flash drive.

Once it is accessible in Linux use the fdisk command as follows

 

fdisk /dev/sdb

 

(Assuming you know how to use fdisk, delete any existing partition(s), create one big one, type 6 (FAT16) or type "e" (FAT16 LBA)

type "x" to get into the advanced fdisk menu, then set the number of heads to 255, and sectors to 32.

Make sure you write the changed geometry using the "w" command.  (I'm not sure if you need to do this step first and then create the partitions, or the other way around...you will probably be better off setting the heads/sectors first, writing them, then entering fdisk a second time to create the partition, and then writing it to the flash drive..

 

Then make a file system on it using mkdosfs as follows:

 

mkdosfs -F16 /dev/sdb1

sync

 

Now, you can move the flash drive to your windows PC, set the volume  label to "UNRAID" , run syslinux on it, copy the distribution files to it, and give it a try on the target machine.  It might just boot as a USB-ZIP or USB-HDD.

 

If fdisk complains that /dev/sdb does not exist, your flash drive might be /dev/sda, in which case you should type sda and sda1

in the previous commands.

 

Joe L.

I think I will try the ZIP drive/ linux boot CD idea.  Do I need to have linux loaded on the machine or will I be able to access the linux functions you mention from the boot disk?  ( I have no linux experience - yet  )  I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Thanks to all.

I think I will try the ZIP drive/ linux boot CD idea.  Do I need to have linux loaded on the machine or will I be able to access the linux functions you mention from the boot disk?  ( I have no linux experience - yet  )  I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Thanks to all.

With a "live CD" image of Linux you should be able to boot and perform the fdisk operations without loading it at all on your hard disk.  (I don't have firsthand knowledge of what "live" distribution is best for this task, but I'm sure you will be able to find one that works somewhere. Just search for "linux live cd" and you will find plenty. since you are only interested in a few commands, you might try one of the smaller distributions whose focus is "Rescue" or "System Administration"

 

Joe L.

Joe

 

I did find some live linux CDRoms and now I have to spend a little more time looking, due to the various versions available.  Building a Linux machine was a project down the road, but it seems to have placed itself in my path now.  I might as try to pick a release that I will be able to use as a basis for the actual linux machine.

 

Regarding reformatting the flash drive - if I need to reformat it back to a flash drive, can you tell me what the parameters are?

 

Thanks for your help,

 

industrialarts

Joe

 

I did find some live linux CDRoms and now I have to spend a little more time looking, due to the various versions available.  Building a Linux machine was a project down the road, but it seems to have placed itself in my path now.  I might as try to pick a release that I will be able to use as a basis for the actual linux machine.

 

Regarding reformatting the flash drive - if I need to reformat it back to a flash drive, can you tell me what the parameters are?

 

Thanks for your help,

 

industrialarts

Use fdisk -l /dev/sda to show you your current flash parameters. (assuming it is detected as /dev/sda)

 

the fdisk command will show you the current partitioning and geometry. Using fdisk you need to set the geometry using the advanced menu, then write it, then us fdisk again to make single partition using all your space, mark it as either FAT, FAT16 (LBA), or FAT32, andn also set it as bootable.  The original geometry would not boot on my motherboard no matter  what option I tried, yet the same exact flash would boot my laptop. (Its  BIOS understood how to deal with the larger size flash drive)

 

The beauty of a "live" linux cd is that it is NOT loaded on your PC. It boots from youor CD drive and lives entirely in RAM making no change to your hard disk.  You don't need to build a special machine to check out linux.

 

Here is the output on my unRaid flash drive:

fdisk -l /dev/sda

 

Disk /dev/sda: 1024 MB, 1024966656 bytes

16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1986 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

 

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks      Id  System

/dev/sda1  *          1        1986    1000912+  e  W95 FAT16 (LBA)

 

 

Joe

 

I tried to reformat the flash drive per your instructions as well as trying this method (http://www.cepros.com/linux/usb_flash_boot.html).  I also reviewed this site (http://syslinux.zytor.com/usbkey.php) and tried to make the diskimage but the mkdiskimage command appears not to be on the live linux I have been using ( I downloaded SLAX but have been working from the command line, not the GUI). I even tried using the parameters you last posted.  None of it seems to make the computer think the flash is a zip drive.

 

I think I understand the concept, but do you see anything that might help.  The only info I can give is the flash drive is a generic 512M drive.  I got it to boot UNRAID on another computer, and I can see it on my laptop when I plug it and can format it from WinXP.  The most that has happened so far is that the boot from the USB-ZIP drive says "remove disks

orother media. press any key to restarrt" as opposed to "boot error".

Thanks

 

industrialarts