UBCD2USB [REDUNDANT]

tychver · **Joined:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:15 pm **Posts:** 4

When booting as USB-ZIP/USB-HDD I get Error: Missing operating system

The message repeats over and over again.

I produced the USB disk with the ubcd2usb tool and everything worked successfully as far as that went.

Could it be something to do with syslinux? It's a 2gb disk.

EDIT:

Confirmed not to work on different machine. Same motherboard company though (Gigabyte).

More informative error message.

Syslinux 3.36 EBIOS load error: boot error.

EDIT2:
I've spent most of the day experimenting with syslinux 3.61. Using ubcd2usb appeared to create a borked FAT partition as far as linux was concerned. I created a blank FAT with mkfs.vfat and restored the disk. I still get "Error: Missing Operating System" but now it's no longer stuck on repeat.

EDIT3:
No solution to this problem, but have other ideas about how to accomplish the intended task.

Icecube · **Joined:** Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:52 pm **Posts:** 1275

Probably it is due the problematic support from GigaByte motherboards for USB-booting.
The quote comes from http://syslinux.zytor.com/hardware.php#usb.

Quote:

{ Problematic USB BIOSes }
A fair number of BIOSes seem to have problems booting from USB devices. You may have different luck in "USB-HDD", "HDD-ZIP", and "HDD-FDD" mode (in order of preference.)

One SYSLINUX user recently had an exchange with a representative of GigaByte, which claims USB boot support "is not PC standard". Until GigaByte changes their perception about this, it might be wise to avoid GigaByte motherboards if one wishes to rely on USB boot.

Try the CD version. Test your usb stick on a pc with another motherboard to determine that your problem is caused due your motherboard.

tychver · **Joined:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:15 pm **Posts:** 4

CD version works fantastic. But I need somewhere to write to.

Both desktop's I have at home are based around gigabyte motherboards. I used the HP Boot Disk utility for format the flashdrive as a MS-DOS boot disk from the other Windows machine (this one run Gentoo Linux). Neither would boot from it after that, obviously picked it up (activity light on the USB went), but it just sat that and did nothing. Didn't even fail and go to HDD.

raghunath · **Posted:** Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:24 am

why would u want to write to the booting medium? and what is the probable size of write ? with this info ,it has to be seen if u can boot from a cd and still do what u want to

tychver · **Joined:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:15 pm **Posts:** 4

I sorted it simply with a MSDOS boot floppy. Little bit low tech but worked.

mrjeth · **Joined:** Mon May 11, 2009 7:46 am **Posts:** 1

tychver wrote:

I sorted it simply with a MSDOS boot floppy. Little bit low tech but worked.

I believe that there is a problem with the makeusb script
I have tested it on several computers and I always get the same error message EBIOS LOAD ERROR ...
Maybe it will work on some computers but not on any of my Dells or Asus computers.

So what I had to do was to change the makeusb.cmd script so that the command to get the usb bootable is executed after copying the files. Maybe it will work on some computers.
i.e.

Maybe something to consider in a future version of Ultimatebootcd

//Tomas

1) format
2) xcopy
3) syslinux

Code:

echo UBCD2USB: Creating bootable UBCD memory stick ...

if not exist "%a1%\ldlinux.sys"   %0 : _error Missing file '%a1%\ldlinux.sys'

:_mkbtft
echo UBCD2USB: *WARNING* YOUR USB KEY IS ABOUT TO BE REFORMATTED!
echo UBCD2USB: *WARNING* YOUR USB KEY CONTENTS WILL BE LOST!
"%~dp0\wait" Press any key to continue, press ESC to abort
if errorlevel 27 if not errorlevel 28 goto _skip

:_gomkbt
echo UBCD2USB: Formatting USB KEY...
format "%a2%" /V:UBCD /X
if errorlevel 0 goto _gomkbt2
%0 : _error 'format.exe' failed

:_gomkbt2
echo UBCD2USB: Copying files to USB KEY...
xcopy "%a1%\*" %a2% /S /H /R /Q /Y
if errorlevel 0 goto _gomkbt3
%0 : _error 'xcopy.exe' failed


:_gomkbt3
echo UBCD2USB: Making USB KEY bootable...
"%~dp0\syslinux" -ma %a2%
if errorlevel 0 goto _gomkbt4
%0 : _error 'syslinux.exe' failed


:_gomkbt4
echo UBCD2USB: Bootable UBCD memory stick has been created
echo.

Icecube · **Joined:** Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:52 pm **Posts:** 1275

Try the new ubcd2usb.cmd script in UBCD50b12.

UBCD2USB [REDUNDANT]

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