Re: [gentoo-user] Installing BTRFS on MBR with OpenRC

[Rich Freeman]

On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 7:39 AM, Peter Humphrey <peter@××××××××××××.uk> wrote:
>
> Yes, I remember about your rescue ISO. I may do the same once I work out how
> to incorporate my own customisations into it. Maybe that should be the first
> thing to do. I have a USB stick like that, but it refuses to boot any more.
>

I've been running systemrescuecd on a USB stick, but for one of my
systems I had to format the device with Windows and then just copy the
files and run syslinux on it from a linux box.  Running the full
systemrescuecd installer results in a USB stick that boots on some of
my systems, but not all of them.  I'm sure that is a matter of a
brain-dead BIOS that isn't following the spec.  (All a BIOS is
supposed to do is check for a magic number on the first block, and if
present load it into RAM and jump into it at a set offset.  I suspect
this motherboard is trying to do more than that, perhaps as part of a
firmware loader function/etc which would require more knowledge of
FAT.)

So, if you have a USB stick that won't boot, consider that the problem
may actually lie in your BIOS...

-- 
Rich