OSX's FreeBSD has dd but no syslinux :-(
On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 10:16 AM, Tomeu Vizoso <to...@sugarlabs.org> wrote: > [cc'ing fedora-olpc because we are using unmodified fedora tools] > > On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 23:33, Walter Bender <walter.ben...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Thanks. This is all helpful. I wonder what the Fedora USB Creator does >> when it runs under Windows? > > AFAIK, what Mitch says is what we currently do when using both > livecd-iso-to-disk.sh and the Fedora Live USB creator. > > For flashing a big number of sticks with a port replicator, we could > first use livecd-iso-to-disk.sh to copy the partition files to one > stick and set the bootable flag, then use dd to read into an image and > then dd again to write it to the rest of the sticks, provided they are > actually identical inside. > > Regards, > > Tomeu > >> -walter >> >> On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 3:53 PM, Mitch Bradley <w...@laptop.org> wrote: >>> My first order recommendation is "don't use dd to blast an image over the >>> existing partition map". >>> >>> The problem with doing so is that it wrecks the factory partition layout. I >>> strongly suspect that said factory layout is, on many sticks, optimized for >>> the characteristics of the stick's internal firmware and the hardware block >>> sizes of the NAND Flash chips. >>> >>> Unfortunately, the alternative is rather more complicated procedurally than >>> "dd and pray". But given the indifferent results from dd&pray, I think it >>> may be worthwhile to go for a more elaborate procedure. >>> >>> Here is an outline of what I think really should be done: >>> >>> a) Ensure that your filesystem image is somewhat smaller than 1G (or 2G or >>> whatever your base size) so it will fit on "all" 1G devices. >>> >>> b) The image is just the partition contents, excluding the partition block >>> and master boot record. >>> >>> c) The installation procedure involves >>> >>> c1) Editing (not replacing) the existing partition map, setting the first >>> partition's "boot flag" byte and changing its filesystem type to ext2 or >>> whatever. (Ideally it would better not to change the filesystem type, >>> instead sticking with the factory FAT partition, but I understand what a >>> hard nut that is to swallow for Linux enthusiasts.) >>> >>> c2) Copying the image into the partition >>> >>> c3) Installing your bootloader using an installation program instead of dd, >>> thus replacing the first sector's Master Boot Record and doing whatever else >>> is necessary to complete the bootloader's installation. I have had the best >>> results with syslinux. >>> >>> There is, of course, a chicken-and-egg problem of how do you run the >>> bootloader's installer. On the other hand, you have the same problem with >>> "dd" - in principle, on any machine that can run "dd", you can also run >>> syslinux. >>> >>> If you want to talk more about this issue, please feel free to keep the >>> conversation going. It is a topic that has been much on mind recently. >>> >>> Mitch >>> >>> >>> >>> Walter Bender wrote: >>>> >>>> I was wondering if you have any words of wisdom to share with us re >>>> USB stick compatibility, given your experience with the XO. There >>>> seems to be a lot of variability in terms of which sticks boot which >>>> machines in our Sugar-on-a-Stick experiments, e.g., using the same >>>> machine (a Classmate running XP) to burn the same image (the Beta SoaS >>>> iso) onto USB storage media from three different vendors, I cannot >>>> predict which one(s) will be bootable on any particular piece of >>>> hardware. Is there any deterministic way to proceed, or is trail and >>>> error our only recourse? >>>> >>>> thanks. >>>> >>>> -walter >>>> >>>> >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Walter Bender >> Sugar Labs >> http://www.sugarlabs.org >> _______________________________________________ >> Sugar-devel mailing list >> Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel >> > _______________________________________________ > Sugar-devel mailing list > Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel > _______________________________________________ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel