Difficulties using Multiboot USB via Floppy boot disk

[Thrack]

Hello, I am currently trying to make a multiboot USB flash drive using the program MultiBootISOs. I want to be able to use the drive on as many computers as possible (in particular an old Toshiba laptop I've got but optimally I would like to use it with any computer I find) so I'm also making a floppy and CD that I can use to boot to the USB drive on computers with BIOS that don't support booting from USB. The latter part (the floppy and CD) are what I'm using PLoP for.
This has been mostly successful, I installed the PLoP boot manager onto a floppy disk and was able to boot to the USB drive with it but when I tried to run an OS it couldn't find the files. I tried it on my newer laptop (without using the floppy) that does support booting from USB and it was able to boot the OS Damn Small Linux fine so I suspect it was PLoP's fault somehow. Judging from the noise that the floppy drive was making every time I tried to load an OS I'm thinking that the software thinks the OS is on the floppy instead of the USB drive for some reason. Perhaps it has to do with the drive letters?

Do you know what is causing this problem and how it can be solved?

By the way, I'm having some trouble with MultiBootISO too. Only a few of the installed operating systems work such as Damn Small Linux (which is why I used that one to test booting through a floppy), so if there is a way to make a multiboot USB drive using PLoP instead I'll happy to try that instead. Is there a way?

[Thrack]

Solving this problem turned out to be easier than I expected, though I still don't know why the problem only shows up when I use the PLoP boot manager. Since the two work fine without the other I don't know if this is really PLoP's fault or if it was the multiboot software.
Within the multiboot USB (which turns out to be run by GRUB, by the way) I experimented with the available commands and figured out that I could get the OS to boot by removing the find command that is normally run when I select an OS. Apparently this command searches in every drive (except USB, apparently?) for the file which would explain why it was searching the floppy.

For those who have encountered the same problem as me you should edit the OS selection and delete this line (possibly with a different iso file):
find --set-root /dsl-4.4.10-initrd.iso
I don't know if the OS will still boot if I delete this line and run the USB without PLoP so I haven't deleted it permanently. I will test that soon. (Edit: It still works.)

Oh, and I got the multiboot USB working better too. It seems to depend on the flash drive I use, interestingly. The first one was a 4GB Sandisk, this one is a 2GB Kingston microSD card in a USB adapter.

Edit: The OS will still boot if I delete the line even when I don't use the PLoP disk. I guess the command is there just in case the file isn't where it should be?

[ma_landro99]

Hi! I´have a big problem! I have a notebook that doesn´t have cd/dvd drive working well, and a hard drive that doesn´t have a operating system. But i would like to install it. Another problem is that my bios doesn´t support usb boot. What can i do? In short, i have a clean hard drive, i don´t have  usb suport in my bios to even try to install a operating system and i already tried plpbt! Is anybody out there that can help me?

[Thrack]

I am fascinated that no one from the forum has responded to this topic. Of course, once I solved my problem there was no need to. But anyway.

Looks like you could do the same thing I did, once you get the PLoP boot disk working. Let's see... from the boot manager downloads page (http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagerdl.html) I think you need to download the first file, plpbt-5.0.11.zip. Unzip it, of course, and the readme file tells you which disk image is for floppies. Burn that to a floppy. I used RawWriteWin 0.7 to burn the floppy. Then make sure your BIOS boots from Floppies first. Did you do this? Will it boot? If not then you should talk to someone else on this forum because I know minimal about PLoP.

Once you get PLoP boot manager working:
Looks like you only need one operating system so use uNetBootin. (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/) I haven't used this program, but it should work for your purposes. It should also be much easier to make than a multiboot USB.

Good luck! (By the way, if you are wanting to install windows uNetBootin might not work. Or maybe it will... but even if it does I'm sure it would be difficult since Windows is owned by Microsoft.)

[Elmar]

Hi! I´have a big problem! I have a notebook that doesn´t have cd/dvd drive working well, and a hard drive that doesn´t have a operating system. But i would like to install it. Another problem is that my bios doesn´t support usb boot. What can i do? In short, i have a clean hard drive, i don´t have  usb suport in my bios to even try to install a operating system and i already tried plpbt! Is anybody out there that can help me?

are you able to boot from floppy or network? if not, then you have to put the hard disk in another computer and install a new operating system

regards
elmar

[Elmar]

I am fascinated that no one from the forum has responded to this topic. Of course, once I solved my problem there was no need to.

you are right

best regards
elmar