How to create a bootable floppy and then transfer boot process to USB???

[liukuohao]

Hi,

I am very new to linux.

I have got an PC that doesn't support boot from USB drive.
This PC is going to be my FreeNAS server.

I have successfully installed FreeNAS into my little USB drive.
So, now I need to a bootable floppy diskette for the system
to start up and then pass the control to the usb drive.
From there on, it will boot up FreeNAS within the USB drive.

Can Plop Manager do this???

Thank you.

[bomz]

yes do. download plop archive from official site where you find floppy image

read in 'read me' about plpbt.rom

[liukuohao]

Hi bomz,

Thanks for your reply.

Your answer doesn't tell exactly where can I find the floppy image.

I hate to ask this question, do you mean I need to find an answer here:

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html#intro

Also, are you suggesting me to change the bios of motherboard by using
a "xxxx.rom" file so that it will automatically detect USB drive as a boot device?

Thanks again.

[bomz]

Your answer doesn't tell exactly where can I find the floppy image.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

I do plpbt.rom in this way
http://forum.plop.at/index.php/topic,1070.0.html

[jan4]

Hi liukuohao,

First Download plpbt-5.0.12.zip from " http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagerdl.html "
Then extract the zip file You will find "plpbt.img" in there , that is the floppy image.
Write that to a flop and than boot from that flopy and try usb chainload.

To Write an image to flop under linux is easy just da a "dd if=plpbt.img of=/dev/fd0"
In Windows/ Dos you need a utility to do it (Rawrite).

[liukuohao]

Hi jan4,

Unfortunately your instruction was not clear cut.
And fortunately, I played around a bit and found out the solution.

Here is a simple tutorial on how to do it. That is create a floppy
disk with plop boot manager in it and boot off from USB drive/stick.

Assuming you have windows based PC with a floppy drive,
I am still using Windows XP, I know it is getting old. .
Plus also a spare floppy disk.


1) Get the plop boot manager "image" for floppy disk installation.
Download this file = plpbt-5.0.12.zip from this link:
http://download.plop.at/files/bootmngr/plpbt-5.0.12.zip

2) Unzip the file, under the folder: "plpbt-5.0.12", you will see a file
called = plpbt.img. This is floppy disk image of the plop boot manager.

3) Next, download the Windows floppy image writer = rawwritewin from this link:
http://download.plop.at/files/rawwritewin.exe. This file can run in Windows.

4) Load in you spare floppy disk into floppy drive.
Run rawwritewin.exe in Windows and a window will pop up asking where to get the
image file and then write to floppy disk. So, locate the file- "plpbt.img" in your PC
and write to floppy disk.

5) Go back to the folder: "plpbt-5.0.12" and go to the "cfg" folder, you will see
the file called: plpcfgbtGUI.exe. Run this file, then a graphic user interface(GUI) version
of the plpcfgbt.exe(command prompt version) will nicely display on the your screen.

6) Locate the "plpbt bin" at your floppy disk(in A drive). And then click "open" button.

7) Next, click the button- "Hidden USB" and click the button- "Configure plpbt.bin". This
will write the settings in the file to boot up USB drive/stick automatically without
showing plop boot manager. Finally, label this floppy disk and stick into a testing
PC with floppy drive and usb stick (in the usb stick, I assume that you have
loaded an OS image)

Viola!!! The floppy will transfer the control to whatever OS that you are running in the
USB stick.

ENJOY!!!!

[buntehaare]

why u dont use the plop bootmanager with the windows boot.ini than u dont need to change any mbr! And u may can install the grub or any other bootmanager on another partition . plop bootmanager, witch can boot from any partiton, can launch than any loader

Just an suggestion
Buntehaare