(2006-08-06) rescue-bootcd

extra/syslinux-3.09/README.usbkey

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+$Id: README.usbkey,v 1.2 2004/12/30 23:31:14 hpa Exp $
+
+The proper mode to boot a USB key drive in is "USB-HDD".  That is the
+ONLY mode in which the C/H/S geometry encoded on the disk itself
+doesn't have to match what the BIOS thinks it is.  Since geometry on
+USB drives is completely arbitrary, and can vary from BIOS to BIOS,
+this is the only mode which will work in general.
+
+Some BIOSes have been reported (in particular, certain versions of the
+Award BIOS) that cannot boot USB keys in "USB-HDD" mode.  This is a
+very serious BIOS bug, but it is unfortunately rather typical of the
+kind of quality we're seeing out of major BIOS vendors these days.  On
+these BIOSes, you're generally stuck booting them in USB-ZIP mode.
+
+THIS MEANS THE FILESYSTEM IMAGE ON THE DISK HAS TO HAVE A CORRECT
+ZIPDRIVE-COMPATIBLE GEOMETRY.
+
+A standard zipdrive (both the 100 MB and the 250 MB varieties) have a
+"geometry" of 64 heads, 32 sectors, and are partitioned devices with a
+single partition 4 (unlike most other media of this type which uses
+partition 1.)  The 100 MB variety has 96 cylinders, and the 250 MB
+variety has 239 cylinders; but any number of cylinders will do as
+appropriate for the size device you have.  For example, if your device
+reports when inserted into a Linux system:
+
+usb-storage: device found at 4
+  Vendor: 32MB      Model: HardDrive         Rev: 1.88
+  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
+SCSI device sda: 64000 512-byte hdwr sectors (33 MB)
+
+... you would have 64000/(64*32) = 31.25 cylinders; round down to 31.
+
+The script "mkdiskimage" which is supplied with the syslinux
+distribution can be used to initialize USB keys in a Zip-like fashion.
+To do that, calculate the correct number of cylinders (31 in the
+example above), and, if your USB key is /dev/sda (CHECK THE KERNEL
+MESSAGES CAREFULLY - IF YOU ENTER THE WRONG DISK DRIVE IT CANNOT BE
+RECOVERED), run:
+
+	mkdiskimage -4 /dev/sda 0 64 32
+
+(The 0 means automatically determine the size of the device, and -4
+means mimic a zipdisk by using partition 4.)
+
+Then you should be able to run
+
+	syslinux /dev/sda4
+
+... and mount /dev/sda4 and put your files on it as needed.