[SOLVED] USB Installation Media Boot Problems

Question

Hi all,
I'm having trouble creating a live USB stick that my new (to me) HP Elitebook
2730p laptop can boot successfully. Here is what I've tried so far:
1. dd with the latest stable Arch installation media
In other words:
# dd if=/path/to/archlinux*.iso of=/dev/sdb
Result: I can boot with the USB stick on my old Dell laptop (which is running
Arch) without issue, but can't with the new HP. The BIOS will freeze if the USB
stick is inserted, and will only unfreeze after I remove it.
2. dd with a recent Arch installation media snapshot
The snapshot is ``archlinux-2012.06.05_04-00-01-core-x86_64.iso''. I
install the image to the USB stick with the same dd method above,
and I get the same behavior: works fine on the old Dell, but freezes the BIOS of
the new HP.
3. dd with an old lubuntu iso
This time, I used an old lubuntu iso
(lubuntu-11.10-desktop-amd64.iso) with dd. This method
worked without a problem -- both my old Dell and my new HP would boot it without
complaint.
3. unetbootin with the latest stable Arch installation media
Creating the USB stick with unetbootin allows me to boot the stick with the new
HP, but the boot fails to the ramfs prompt after ``Waiting 30 seconds for device
/dev/disk/by-label/ ...'' (notice how there's nothing after ``by-label/'').
Adding ``vmalloc=448M'' to the end of the unetbootin boot entry makes no
difference.
4. Image Writer for Windows
The ``USB Installation Media'' wiki page suggests using ``Image Writer for
Windows'' to create a bootable USB stick. I tried this method using Windows 7
Professional, and the result was the same as attempts 1 and 2: the USB stick
freezes the HP's BIOS.
Other notes
I've checked the md5sums of all the isos I've tried
I've updated the BIOS on the HP laptop
I've used the same USB stick for each of the above situations
The new HP laptop does not have an optical drive, and I don't own an
external one
In attempts 1, 2, and 4, I noticed that cfdisk shows that the partition
that contains the installation files has both the ``Bootable'' and ``NC'' flags
set. The cfdisk man page says that the latter flag stands for ``Not Compatible
with DOS or OS/2''. I can actually remove this flag by using the ``Maximize''
option in cfdisk, which actually makes the USB stick bootable by the HP
computer's BIOS, but the boot eventually fails to the ``ramfs prompt
thingy'' after saying ``ERROR: '/dev/disk/by-label/ARCH_201108' found, but the
filesystem type is unknown''
In attempt 3 (the lubuntu one), I noticed that cfdisk shows a bit of free
space in front of the partition that contains the lubuntu files. The ``NC'' flag
is not present when I run cdisk.
My current theory is this: I believe my new HP's BIOS is unhappy with the
``isohybrid-nature'' of the Arch installation media. Is there any way I can
confirm this, or obtain ``non-isohybrid'' Arch media?
As you might imagine, this has been pretty frustrating. Any help would be
greatly appreciated!
Daniel
Last edited by bebeababa (2012-06-10 15:04:43)

Answer 1

bebeababa wrote:
DSpider wrote:
Adding ``vmalloc=448M'' to the end of the unetbootin boot entry makes no difference.
Duh. That's for booting it from RAM (with MEMDISK) in case it doesn't map the entire file, which for some reason it didn't for the i686 iso on my computer. I probably should've specified it when I wrote the article. I'll add it tomorrow morning.
Speaking of which, have you tried it?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/US … O_from_RAM
Because you only seem to be using dd ("Image Writer" is the same) and Unetbootin (which had various problems since forever). The correct syntax for dd is:
$ sudo dd if=archlinux.iso of=/dev/sd[x]
Warning: Make sure to use /dev/sdx and NOT /dev/sdx1. This is a very common error!
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/US … _USB_drive
Haven't tried the ``Boot the entire ISO from RAM'' method yet. I'll give that a shot next.
The ``Boot the entire ISO from RAM'' method worked like a charm! Thanks,
DSpider!
Marking thread [SOLVED].