I know that most computers aren't compatible with usb boot. However the u3
installer creates a fake cd partition for u3 enabled drives.
I found out how to take advantage of this from this artitcle that
smithtech wrote here.
First of all I would like to know....
1) How in the world do you create an iso image? Even 7-zip seems to be useless
when it comes to iso files (it only supports extract).
2) Will it be possible to make the cd partition the default partition to boot
with GParted, set the computer BIOS to run from CD-ROM, and boot from the u3 drive
while the computer thinks it's booting from a cd?
P.S. If a mod could think of a better title for this thread, please, change it.
[edit: topic edited thanks to Bensawsome, used to be "Booting Linux With u3 Installer"]
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WOW.... I never thought of that kind of use for it
If this would work it would be AWESOME 
Oh and a better title might be "Booting Linux off U3 CD Partition"
Thanks,
Bensawsome
iLike Macs, iPwn, However you put it... Apple is better ^_^
"Claiming that your operating system is the best in the world because more people use it is like saying McDonalds makes the best food in the world..."
1) How in the world do you create an iso image?
mkisofs.exe works.
2) Will it be possible to make the cd partition the default partition to boot with GParted, set the computer BIOS to run from CD-ROM, and boot from the u3 drive while the computer thinks it's booting from a cd?
You can boot a U3 drive without touching it's CDFS partition. I boot mine. I don't know enough about GParted and what it's requirements are to give you anymore info.
P.S. If a mod could think of a better title for this thread, please, change it.
No need to ask. They will do it regardless if they want.
Ed
>1) How in the world do you create an iso image?
mkisofs.exe works.You can boot a U3 drive without touching it's CDFS partition. I boot mine. I don't know enough about GParted and what it's requirements are to give you anymore info.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
If that is true, then I'm going to cry in my bed
If BIOS recognizes the u3 CD-ROM as such it is possible :
http://wiki.hak5.org/wiki/Talk:Memorex_U3_ISO_Hack
So it would be possible to have a linux live-cd on the "u3 cd-rom" and use
the writable flash as a persisten home-dir.. quite nice IMO ..
Folder2iso seems pretty good.
http://www.brothersoft.com/folder2iso-download-44840.html
here's a problem.....
I was going to resize the fake cd partition with GParted, but then a problem popped up in my head, I needed to resize it before the u3 installer burns the custom iso image in my drive.
Got any methods? That won't bust my drive? (been there, done that).
I was thinking about just deleting the curzer-autorun.iso file and then just have the installer get an error and exit, after it creates the fake cd... but then, I figured I didn't want to turn my drive into a french fry.
If anybody knows for sure what'll happen (or can tell me with 100% garantee that my guess is correct) then PLEASE post.
The article that MBR Fixed linked to mentioned that they were able to burn a huge iso image at the bottom, shame it didn't mention how they did it.
Sounds interesting but... Is it worth the work? [Wish granted - https://portableapps.com/node/15426#comment-103087 :p]
PortableApps.com Advocate
heh, I just too desperate with this idea.
But beleive me or not, I took the risk and deleted the cruzer-autorun.iso file. And exactly what I thought what would happen happened!!!
Now, I just need to parciate the cd partition. Wish me luck.
why should someone try to boot something from the faked CD partition when this can be done directly from the stick itself?
Or better, when it is not possible to boot from the sticks normal partition, which is still very common since many computers do not support the usb booting in bios, why to try to boot from the CD fake which anyway will not be read by the bios then?
None of my computers (older Dell and Toshiba laptops) will boot from any usb device, but I recently produced linux and dos sticks for a fried with eeepc and this is booting fine from usb stick.
If the computer is able to boot from the stik, then why not make partition, set it active and copy an mbr to it and here it goes.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
It does mention how to do it :
"I ran the L3installer and it took for ever, about 15 minutes after the progress bar said it was done. I though it had crashed but I let it run and BOOM SHAKALAKA!
It Succeeded."
But nobody other than the manufacturer can really guarantee you anything about what happens, if at all, and they don't want to ..
Some (older) versions of the sandisk LP-install will use a ISO placed in the same DIR as the .exe, other versions use a LP-ISO downloaded to your temp-DIR and some (older) versions will "reformat" the entire device to use a CD-ROM "partition" the size of the ISO you feed, others (newer) will not ..and just to make it really interesting the older versions of LP-installer don't support more than 4GB flash-ran, if you run them on larger drives you "loose" the rest etc etc ..
Non-sandisk drives usually use what is known as a "universal LP-updater" .
If you unpack one of the non-sandisk LP-updaters with 7zip you should be able to figure out what it does and how to change the ISO ..
In other words : It's not recommended by sandisk or most other drive-manufacturers to mess around with these things on your own ..
As you probably know, every UFD controller maker have it's own Mass production tools.
If you have them you can make CD partition on your flash drive.
I have tested most of the Mass production tools from USB controller chip makers and I could manage to succeed in making CD partition.
However, they are not for the end users but UFD manufacturers. also..it's quite difficult to use. Needless to sy, the Mass production tools are not allowed to redistribute.
However, Silicon Motion which is one of the major controller manufacturer in the world, has released a special tool for CD partition recently and I got the permisson to redistribute from Silicon Motion corp.
If your USB flash drive uses SMI controller then, now you can make CD Partition with easy ( just by one click ).
visit here to download : http://blog.usboffice.kr/?p=146
(If your USB controller chip is different from SMI then, the tool won't work.)
I guess....There are two main benefit in making CD partition on USB flash drive...
first, you can make bootable CD partition. It works just like CD so...you can easily install OS in most main PC. ( I made CD partition with windows xp install CD image so, I can boot with USB and install windows xp with the CD Partition on my usb flashdrive. It's faster then CD and makes no CD spinning noise )
secondly, you can make Autorun function by editing "autorun.inf" . In my case, whenever I insert my usb, automatically, syncrnizing between USB flash drive and my PC and run some launcher. it's a quite usefull function indeed.
"Booting linux off of the cd partition"
NEVAH GONNA HAPPEN
Reasons:
So basically, booting off teh u3 ""Cd"" partition Phails miserably
Zoop
Is it possible for you to at least attempt to use proper English? As a regular of these forums, you should at least attempt to.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
>again it is useless because it is a windows dependant emulated drive
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I think he may mean for password protected drives, as it will not appear on those until the password has been entered.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I know that HP made a USB thumbdrive that emulate the floppy drive when booting (see here), even if the BIOS does not support USB booting. At that point, I'm sure something can be done to emulate a CD drive from a USB thumbdrive.
doe snot read the usb, also this will not work.
This is just to make it kind of convenient. Clearly, one can set up differnt kind of faked partitons and if they have the right parameters, they will be used by the bios for booting.
So if it can boot from usb device, it will do it provided the bios setting is done right. But if the bios has no support for usb booting it will not see the device at all and then it does not matter if it does emulate something or not. The expression that it will boot from it even the bios does not support usb boot is therefore not possible. I also do not see anywhere this to be stated at the HP site.
Clearly one can then boot from CD fake or floppy fake or even normal hard drive with mbr fake.
So the idea of HP is fine and similar solution like the one of u3.
But my dell 4550 which I have at work, will not see any usb devices at all under bios control.
USB support is then added only when operating system access it, not before.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
"The u3 cd partition is an emulation that only takes place in windows therefor you cannot boot off of it. (it needs windows to exist)"
The u3 cd-"partition" is NOT an emulation, it's done in hardware and therefore it
DOES "exist". What doesn't exist is a Linux-version of the Launchpad-software .
Linux DOES see a u3-CD-ROM device :
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2608/snapshot2jn9.png
"The new u3 installer doesnt use an iso like the old one so it wont work"
Yes it does but it doesn't load it from the .exe-DIR, as I said getting all this
to work is highly dependable on the LP-UPDATER version used .
Also, certain LP-updater versions require certain hardware-revisions unless you resource-hack the LP-updater
( The actual LP-version doesn't matter since you wont be using it anyway )
If you applied a bit of logical thinking you would realise that the fact you can update the software on the CD-ROM means the LP-installer can write to the CD-ROM and it can get something to write to it from somewhere .
"The old ISO based installer only allows for an iso of equal size or less size than that of the iso it uses to install u3"
Again, this depends on the LP-updater version . I know for a fact that version 1.0.0.12 will reformat the entire drive (as long as it's not larger than 4GB),
and will resize the CD-ROM device to fit the ISO you feed it .
And no, you can't run the updater from the flash-drive if you want to resize the CD-ROM device but once it's resized you can update from the flash-drive as long as the new ISO isn't larger . Smaller doesn't matter ..
So basically, booting off the u3 CD-ROM device is possible .. If it isn't I don't know what the H*** is wrong with my drive
EDIT : Best would be to find the mass-production tool for the controller,
as mentioned here : https://portableapps.com/node/16594#comment-103129
You won't find the sandisk MPT, it's guarded like a military secret ..
I am using U3 contour 16GB....
I customized U3 partition with windows XP install image (650MB) and Boot with U3 CD partition and installed windows xp to PC,( more than 6 PC )
I used the universial customizer to creat CD partition which is lager than 6.6 MB CD image size. ( I guess the universial customizer is cracked....)
the only option i see here is to use your normal disk partition or cut the normal partition and attempt to boot off of that and also keep a floppy handy with Here (see meathod one) just in case you need to force boot from floppy.
Zoop
Sorry, I was gone for a while.
Even If it is impossible to boot linux off u3's fake cd partition then is there a way to autorun the pam menu with the fake cd partition? The app would have to reach into the second partition in the drive and open the pam menu. That would be hard