Can't boot from flash drive

[sbumgarner]

Booted 2.17.1 from CD, intstalled to a 128mb usb flash drive, all worked fine.

Wanted more memory, decided to install to 256mb flash drive. Can't get puppy to boot from that drive, always hangs at "loading kernel modules."

What am I doing wrong?

If it matters, using a Dell e1505 laptop with WinXP MCE installed.

Thanks for any help,
Stan

[Bruce B]

Welcome!

You want to boot FROM the new flash drive. How did you make it bootable? Please describe in detail, so others can help you :)

Does it work well if you boot FROM the CD Disc?

[sbumgarner]

Yes, I want to boot from the flash drive. Have no problem booting from the cd or from the first flash drive on which I installed puppy. Only on second drive (obviously removed cd and have only one flash drive plugged in). Tried on a third flash drive, same problem. Tried copying files from drive 1 to drive 2, didn't work either. Same message--loading kernel modules . . . stuck there.

Works like a charm on that first flash drive. I'd just like to load puppy onto a bigger drive.

Not sure what I did to make either drive bootable. I seem to recall as part of the process, I got a message saying it was being made bootable. I think I did exactly the same thing I did on flash drive #1.

I must be missing something somewhere.

I can go through install process again if necessary, but don't know what to do differently.

Thanks for your reply.

[Bruce B]

There are a lot of variables here. Different filesystem types. Partition differences like superfloppy. Syslinux or different GRUB installation types and arguments for booting.

If you really want it to boot, and want help, I think you need to prepare yourself to run through the install a few times, documenting what you did.

Not meaning to discourage, but what else to do, in terms of getting help?

[sbumgarner]

Should I not be able to copy all files from one flash drive to another and use the second drive to boot? Seems to me that should work, but it doesn't.

When I have more time, I'll be happy to go through the install process and document each step of the process.

Thanks for your willingness to help.

Stan

[PaulBx1]

Maybe look at these flash drives with Gparted, see if it tells you of any differences (e.g. boot flags and the like).

Does "pfix=debug" on boot give any more information? There should be some way to get the boot messages coming to the screen.

[DICKROUNDS]

I would really like to install Puppy on a Lexar 256 mb stick as a 'carry with me' OS. I run Ubuntu as my primary OS but that is too large for my stick..

So far, I haven't been able to find instructions on how to do this. Can anyone direct me to a place to find instructions?

Dick Rounds