PLOP on "Diskless" System with USB only

[thica]

Hello all,

I need support to solve the following problem.
I am using UNRAID, which is a linux based raid server based on Slackware. UNRAID can only boot from USB stick using SYSLINUX, and then mounts all the data disks. There is no OS HD drive.
Overall, thats works fine for me. The USB stick boots and I get the server up and running. But...
Booting from USB stick is horrible slow. It seems , that only USB 1.1 speed is used during boot time. I tried a different PC, and there boot is fast, but I need to use the Asius AN7 Delux for several reasons.

There seems no option to tell syslinux to eneable USB 2.0 at boot time, so I found PLOP which might provide a solution.

The easy one would be to add an additional HD, install PLOP on that HD and to tell PLOP to boot the USB stick. Not the best solution, as I need an additional drive just to confige USB 2.0 speed.

Is there any way to boot from the USB stick using PLOP and then confige PLOP to boot syslinux from the same drive? (preferred solution)

Or as an alternative solution:
It is possible to install PLOP on a second USB stick and then tell PLOP to boot from the other USB stick?

Thanks for support

Carsten

[thica]

Hello,

no ideas?

[Elmar]

hi,
see http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Ifplop.c32

regards
elmar

[thica]

Hello,

found this, but this does not seem to work, if you boot from USB stick directly.

All on USB:
boot to syslinux: works
syslinux detects plop: works
syslinux boot plop: works
plop boots usb stick: not working: plop stucks / dies / no reaction anymore

For me it looks like, that plop loses connection to the usb stick, when it tries to load its own usb driver.

[Elmar]

please describe your boot sequence

pc on -> bios usb or plop or what? -> ....?

[thica]

0) PC on
1) PCs Boots USB (usb Flash Drive)
2) USB Boot ISOLINUX
3) ISOLINUX detects plop not active
4) ISOLINUX boots plop (same USB Flash Drive)
5) Plop Boots, plop screen shows up
6) In Plop: USB boot selected (either by time out or manually)
7) Plop / System hangs (plop screen with empty "frame" on screen)

[Bazong]

Hi,

Is there any way to boot from the USB stick using PLOP and then confige PLOP to boot syslinux from the same drive? (preferred solution)

just for your information, i have create a usb stick with 2 partitions and plop bootmanager !
i can select from which partition i want to boot and it works fine.
maybe a solution for you ?

regards.