On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 11:33:26 +0200, Pierre-Jacques Legay wrote: > Hi all, > > I got a new computer (no OS inside) and would like to install a fresh Debian > Lenny 5.0.2 from an usb dongle. > After following a How To ( > http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch04s03.html.en ) given in a > recent post on this list, I managed to create a bootable usb device > including a CD iso. > However when booting, the computer hangs right after listing all present > devices. > A line says "MBR 1234FA:" with a prompt but I can't type anything.
That sounds like it is not booting at all. > If relevant the computer is based on a 64 bit system and I picked the AMD64 > image of Lenny. That should be fine, then. > I've been unsuccessfully googling around. > Any help would be greatly appreciated. Did you check the BIOS setup to make sure that booting from USB devices is activated? (You probably did; I just mention this to be sure.) I have encountered computers that had problems booting from a partioned USB stick (configured like in the instructions to which you referred), but which worked fine if I put the DOS filesystem and the installer files directly on /dev/sdX instead of /dev/sdX1. In these cases, I have had success following the instructions on the Debian wiki, http://wiki.debian.org/BootUsb2, using "mkdosfs -I /dev/sda" and then "/dev/sda" instead of all subsequent occurrences of "/dev/sda1" in these instructions. I use the same notation as in the wiki; make sure that you choose the right /dev/sdX. I recommend adding your user to the floppy group, then you can carryout almost all of the steps without becoming root; this reduces the risk of accidentally hammering the installer over one of your hard disk partitions. (If you make changes to the partition table of the USB stick without being root then you have to unplug and replug the stick to have its partition table reread by your system.) -- Regards, | http://users.icfo.es/Florian.Kulzer Florian | -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
