USB boot problem on Lenovo

[umarc]

I made a Plop USB boot drive, which works fine with my 2 desktops, but on my Lenovo laptop it gets hung up in that black screen with blinking cursor.
The BIOS allows USB boot and it does recognize the Kingston drive (same in the boot menu). I also tried the boot manager with same results.
Is there a way to see where the boot gets stuck. Or how can I resolve this?
Thanks.

[umarc]

Elmar,
Can you help me with this one if you have time? I saw the other post where only the USB keyboard was the issue. But if it sees the Kingston stick it shouldn't try other USB devices like the bluetooth e.g. like you suggested? Also the busy blinking light on the pendrive suggests that it's doing something.
Or do you or anyone know a different forum that could help with the problem?
Thanks!

[Elmar]

hello,

what is the last thing you do and see before the blank screen comes?

elmar

[umarc]

I change the boot order in the BIOS. Then I bring up the boot menu, just to be sure. USB HDD is highlighted and I hit enter. Then the black screen comes and stays. 

[Elmar]

did you ever boot anything else from usb on this computer?

[umarc]

no

[Elmar]

the boot process hangs at a very early stage. you have to figure out if its a problem with the usb drive on this computer or if its a software problem.

to make the hardware test use another usb drive, regardless if its boot able or not. try to boot the device (even if it will never boot) and tell me if you see any messages or again a blank screen.

[umarc]

I used a non-bootable stick and it is doing exactly the same thing - blank screen, no massages.

[Elmar]

then either the bios has a bug and is unable to boot usb drives, or the usb host is defect.

[umarc]

What is the usb host?

How dangerous is a bios update?

[Elmar]

the usb host is the hardware in your computer that comunicates with the usb devices


a bios update has always the risk that something goes wrong during the flash process. when the bios chip is not soldered, then you can easily remove the chip for external flashing. laptops have usually a soldered chip, so its more difficult to repair it when something goes wrong.

[umarc]

On the lenovo website the suggested bios ubdate is marked vista 32bit. Does that mean it wouldn't work with xp?

[umarc]

Danke fuer Deine Hilfe Elmar!

Thanks

[pokesman]

I made a Plop USB boot drive, which works fine with my 2 desktops, but on my Lenovo laptop it gets hung up in that black screen with blinking cursor.
The BIOS allows USB boot and it does recognize the Kingston drive (same in the boot menu). I also tried the boot manager with same results.
Is there a way to see where the boot gets stuck. Or how can I resolve this?
Thanks.

I have got similar boot hang with a 12 years old Gateway laptop, too old a machine for a USB boot from BIOS level. So I tried to chainload PLOPLinux through the PLOP bootmanager, starting this up from the built-in floppy drive. The floppy boot worked fine, but the chainboot for Linux from USB memory stick got hung. Now, the solution was: creating the Syslinux bootloader with the -s option (s = "slow and stupid"). The so slowed-down boot takes a couple of minutes, but it works anyway.

[umarc]

Hi pokesman,
Thanks for the suggestion! But how do I create a bootloader with the -s option?

[vesalocal]

Please read  http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/SYSLINUX#Options

[pokesman]

Hi umarc,
Hope that helped! By the way, I forgot a detail. You will need the -i (for "install") option together with the -s option. Otherwise the "slow" bootloader will not, as desired, replace the one you previously created on your USB memory stick. If Elmar reads this, may he consider using the Syslinux -i option as a default in his "howto" help texts.

[umarc]

Hi pokesman,

My problem is I have been a lazy Windows user and I created the usb boot device with Universal-USB-Installer. I have just started looking into LINUX (Ubuntu).
So, I need to follow Elmar's LINUX instructions and there somewhere I can set the -s and -i option? Sorry, I am learning. But I am glad for your help.

[Elmar]

umarc, be here in 10 minutes

[umarc]

Ok, I did it though the Windows terminal with the command:
"syslinux.exe -i -s e:"
It did not give me an error.
I checked with gparted if the boot flag is set.
Then I tried boot through bios (waited 5-10 minutes) - still the blinking cursor.
Then with boot manager CD - now it's hung up with:
LOADING EHCI DRIVER
HOST 1
HOST 2

[Elmar]

come to http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=plop1

[umarc]

Well, I figured out that I am a dufus. I always tried to change the BIOS boot order to boot to the USB stick, and it get's hung up. When I use the boot menu and choose the USB device it works fine.
Sorry for wasting your time. And thanks for your help.