Syslinux - Jan 2014 - USB boot problems on Gigabyte GA-M55Plus-S3G

> After that, if anyone wants to produce a test image that I can simply
> download and directly dd to a USB stick, then I will be happy to test
> that too.
To be honest, the last instructions I posted were simpler and shorter 
than the rest of the tests, and even shorter than writing the emails 
:).

Anyway, if you are sincerely willing to dd an image, I am willing to 
prepare and upload a simple "test" image to dd to your USB device, 
with the following features:

_ One FAT32 (lba) "smallish" partition.
_ Alternative MBR, with bootable code but with no "active" partition.
_ The only intention of this image should be to successfully boot 
SYSLINUX 6.03-pre1 from your USB drive and then show a "hello world" 
message.

Are you willing to dd such image (*not* using Windows OS) and provide 
feedback?

Regards,
Ady.

In message <BLU0-SMTP331B66DC3BDD6EB0BAD20398BB90 at phx.gbl>, 
Ady <ady-sf at hotmail.com> wrote:
>Anyway, if you are sincerely willing to dd an image, I am willing to 
>prepare and upload a simple "test" image to dd to your USB device,
>with the following features:
>...
>Are you willing to dd such image (*not* using Windows OS) and provide 
>feedback?
Yes.  More broadly, I am willing to dd and try *any* image you might
ask me to try.

I just don't want to have to waste time, trying to use any  of these
goofy/silly "special" installers or convoluted install procedures,
particularly any that need to run under Windows.


Regards,
rfg

> >Are you willing to dd such image (*not* using Windows OS) and provide 
> >feedback?
> 
> Yes.  More broadly, I am willing to dd and try *any* image you might
> ask me to try.
> 
 
Hi Ronald,

You posted in a recent email in this same email thread, about 
successfully booting an ArchLinux USB. Among several differences in 
comparison to your prior tests, you used a different USB drive.

I have uploaded a gzipped image, to be expanded and dd'ed to the USB 
drive that you were using for your former tests. This way you keep 
your USB drive with ArchLinux available, and we can keep comparing 
against your previous results.

The image I have uploaded is for testing purposes only. Once 
extracted from the gzip archive, you get a 700MB test.img to be dd'ed 
to your USB device.

The image includes a bootable MBR code ("altmbr.bin" from Syslinux), 
no "active" partition is set, one FAT32 (LBA) partition with a 
bootable SYSLINUX VBR, and some Syslinux c32 modules in it. Booting 
it, should show the Syslinux version, a "hello world" message and the 
Syslinux boot prompt.

Please avoid using Gparted or any other partitioning tool at this 
opportunity. Just expand the image, dd it to the USB device (I mean, 
to the "whole" USB device, not just to the current partition of the 
USB device) and try booting the problematic system with F12 during 
POST.

If the boot fails, I would suggest changing the order of the BIOS' 
"boot priority" settings.

According to your feedback, we'll see how to move forward.

The image is already available for download, and will remain 
available for the next 7 days.

NAME: test.img.gz
SIZE: 1'435'616 bytes
MD5 : 07A4FFC69CA51CA24D43F793E9FE8529
SHA1: 4845AB7D15994DA3EAD05DF39BDA8C4E96304328

Download (because of the email formatting, you might see the code 
distributed in more than one line): 
http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=g11bb56c955445d469994445242cd49ee
fb24db36f 

Please let us know how it goes.

Regards,  
Ady.