live usb prob

hey guys am unable to create a live usb
let me just present u the situation

i want to do certain programs in unix
so am tryin to install this granular Linux which is around 700 megs to my pendrive  i installed it the way it was described  .I did make the right bios settings so that my usb is gonna boot first   but am gettin is stupid cursor blinking all the time when i try to boot from the pen drive so pls help

You mean the GUI (X server) starts but you are not able to get to the login screen?

Did you use the liveusb gui to build the new system? What kind of system is it, and are there any hardware issues? We'd need a lot more information, cause there are so many things that can stop a system from booting.

I have also done usb builds to install on my netbook, so let us know and we'll help if we can.

Did you use the liveusb gui to build the new system? What kind of system is it, and are there any hardware issues? We'd need a lot more information, cause there are so many things that can stop a system from booting.

I have also done usb builds to install on my netbook, so let us know and we'll help if we can.

I'd be curious as well to see that there is any activity from the USB drive during the boot process. What is your primary OS?

When you boot, do you get the ISOLINUX banner at the top when you start to boot? It should come up and then disappear....not sure if you will see this with a USB boot, but, if this happens, we know there is life and so we need to proceed.

I think that if we had an issue with hardware...ie: the system won't boot a USB drive, it should hesitate and then go to windows...now if windows is confused, you can still get the blinking cursor at the top of the screen.

When you try to boot off of the USB drive, try hitting esc and see if you get any code or CTRL+ALT+F1 and see if you get a command line.

You may just be experiencing kernel panic and it could be related to any number of issues.

Rich

I think either he got it, or lost interest all together. Have not heard from him.

The information below was taken from http://www.pendrivelinux.com/
This assumes that your using a linux system, there are instructions if your using windows.

# Insert a 512MB or larger USB thumb drive depending on the size of your CD / iso
# Open up a terminal and type fdisk -l (note which drive is your USB stick)
# Type umount /dev/sdx1 (replacing x with your flash drive letter)
# Type fdisk /dev/sdx (again replacing x with your device)

   1. Type p to show the existing partition and d to delete it
   2. Type p again to show any remaining partitions (if partitions exist, repeat the previous step to delete them)
   3. Type n to make a new partition
   4. Type p for primary partition
   5. type 1 to make this partition one
   6. hit enter to use the default first cylinder
   7. hit enter again to use the default last cyl
   8. type a to make this partition active
   9. type 1 to select partition 1
  10. type t to change it's file system
  11. type 6 to select the fat16 file system
  12. type w to write the new partition table

# Type umount /dev/sdx1 (replacing x with your device) to unmount the partition
# Type mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n usb /dev/sdx1 to format the first partition as fat (replace x with your flash drive)
# Remove and reinsert your USB flash drive
# Type mkdir /tmp/usb
# Type mount /dev/sdx1 /tmp/usb (replace x with your USB drive)

# Type mount /mnt/cdrom (or cdrom2 if you have more than one)
# Type cd /mnt/cdrom (or cdrom2)
** If you don't have granular burned to a cd, there is another option.
   1. download the granular iso.
   2. type mkdir /mnt/image
   3. type mount -o loop <location of your granular iso> /mnt/image

now you can access granular via /mnt/image just like you would if you had the cd.


# Type cd <location of your granular cd>
# Type cp -rf livecd.sqfs isolinux/* /tmp/usb
# Type cd /tmp/usb
# Type mv isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg
# Type cd
# Type umount /tmp/usb
# Type syslinux -sf /dev/sdx1 (replacing x with your USB device)
# Finally, reboot your computer and set your system BIOS to boot from USB-HDD. Also set the boot priority to boot the USB device first if this option is available.

I have used these above steps to create bootable usb's of:

PCLinuxOS 2007 and 2009
PCLinuxOS Minime and Tinyme
Granular 1.0
and
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

Thanks for the info, Hairyplotter. I think that will help the original poster.