On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 03:21:18PM +0200, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 07:36:05AM -0400, Luke Faraone wrote:On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 07:25, Jonas Smedegaard <d...@jones.dk> wrote:makebootfat not only formats with disk geometry that *is* right, but also use a handcrafted MBR which has a higher chance of *looking* right by various BIOSes - both when looking for USB-FDD, USB-ZIP and USB-HDD.Now, by *right*, do we mean not only that but also something that meets the criteria of http://wiki.laptop.org/go/How_to_Damage_a_FLASH_Storage_Device#How_to_win(without the problems caused by http://wiki.laptop.org/go/How_to_Damage_a_FLASH_Storage_Device#Screwed-up_formatting )?I'm not too familiar with how USB flash works, so I don't know if USB-{FDD, ZIP, HDD} layouts are compatible with the layout you'd want to minimize wear.Please read the following: http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/doc-makebootfat.html#7If you, after reading above, still feel that your questions are relevant (hint: I don't), then please elaborate on them.
Sorry - I now realize that my response above might be seen as rude.Thing is, I really didn't talk about how to do things right at all, but that in *addition* to do formatting, the makebootfat tool can setup an MBR that tricks BIOS into treating the USB stick as a bootable device - no matter if the BIOS looks for USB-FDD, USB-ZIP or USB-HDD.
In other words, with makebootfat (if it really holds up to its promise), you can create USB sticks that are bootable on more hardware:
Instead of "bootable on hardware that supports USB-FDD boot method" or "bootable on hardware that supports USB-ZIP boot method" or "bootable on hardware that supports USB-HDD boot method" - makebootfat creates sticks that are "bootable on hardware that supports either USB-FDD, USB-ZIP or USB-HDD boot methods".
...or, as Peter Anvin points out (if I understand correctly), makebootfat creates sticks that are "bootable on hardware that supports either USB-FDD, USB-ZIP or USB-HDD boot methods and does note choke on the combo tricks in the MBR cheat design".
In other words, makebootfat does not magically deal with the challenges of NAND wear - the issue is another: Reliable NAND storage is worthless for booting Sugar if your hardware does not recognize the media as bootable in the first place!
Hope that helps :-) - Jonas -- * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/ [x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature
_______________________________________________ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
