Comments on: Create a Bootable USB Drive with Ubuntu and FreeDOS

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:49:47 +0000

was it something to do with the syslinux that i use? because i copied the memdisk file fom ubuntu10.04

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:47:56 +0000

i followed the instruction on this page on a ubuntu9.04 live cd (because my machine is running 10.04 with grub2 installed, 9.04 use grub0.97), all of the steps were fine. when i boot with the usb I got the usual grub menu with FreeDOS option.

the part that got wrong was when I boot FreeDOS, it got an error saying something like
MEMDISK: error no ramdisk image specified!

I tried to make this work on grub2 before and got the same error, can anyone shed some light on it please...

By: Linerd

Linerd — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 02:49:52 +0000

You were supposed to "guess" the copy part from:
"Download the FreeDOS image from ~~http://odin.fdos.org/odin2005/odin1440.img~~ and save it to the flash drive."

I DO proofread what I post and it DOES WORK in the version of Ubuntu that I mentioned at the beginning (Ubuntu 9.04).

I don't know why things are so hard for you. Perhaps you struggle with reading comprehension. You should have been able to see the link to an easier method that was provided at the end of my post. All I can say is that I'm able to figure this stuff out and I post it here in hopes it might be useful for someone else. (16 years mechanical engineering experience, 0 years computer tech experience.)

By: Linerd

Linerd — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:54:14 +0000

From my post:
"I figured this out by reading the Gentoo Wiki and adjusted the instructions to work with Ubuntu 9.04".

Since then Ubuntu has changed from Grub to Grub2, so these instructions will most likely not work with a recent version of Ubuntu. Note that I wrote this post almost 2 years ago. A lot of things change over the course of 2 years in the Free & Open Source world.

I suggest you try the UNetbootin method that I mentioned at the end of my post. It's much easier. http://tuxtweaks.com/2009/09/create-a-bootable-freedos-usb-drive-on-linux-with-unetbootin/

By: Jeaves

Jeaves — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 04:41:35 +0000

Did you leave out the step where you COPY the .image to the drive? Or are we supposed to guess that, too?

I still get 'permission denied' when I do: cd /media/disk (which is a blank folder).
I know enough to know that is vague or at least version specific, why won't it work on mine? What else can I try?
Proofread what you post and make sure that it makes sense and is followable.

I am bitter because I seem to do this BS research every six months or so, AND THERE IS NEVER AN EASY WAY TO DO THIS?>????QQ!!!!!!!!!!!! Why? Why is booting a F(*&ing USB FLASH DRIVE SO HARD!~!!!!
(18 years computer tech experience).

By: Jeaves

Jeaves — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 04:31:46 +0000

This didn't work for me either. The /mnt/disk instruction were off for my version (I think) and I couldn't make ANY sense of your 'install grub onto USB stick' instruction.

I go CD /media/3796-A54A
(to mount my drive, doing it your way didn't work, permission error, plus there is nothing in that folder when I browse to it (so I know that location is bogus)
and type "sudo grub"
"grub not found" I thought this was the step where you tell us to how to INSTALL grub on the drive. How would we be able to EXECUTE it BEFORE it is installed?
This tutorial is WACKED.

Waste of time. Thanks anyways.

By: theguy

theguy — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:26:05 +0000

This worked for me to update the bios on my dell e6400.. I had to specify the "lba" flag in "Manage flags..." otherwise the freedos environment would hang when doing any operation on the C: drive. My flash drive is 4GB, the smallest one they had at Target!

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 04:37:36 +0000

Worked for me, except for the grub script. Here's what I did: When I booted from the flash drive, the grub didn't load FreeDOS, only got as far as the grub> prompt. Answer: simply type part of the script right there:

kernel /memdisk
initrd /balder10.img

then

grub> boot

and FreeDOS will load and you're on your way. Also, I burned, in my case video ROMs and flashing program onto a CD and inserted it, switched to D: drive and voila! I couldn't get to the flashing program or ROMs when they were on the same drive as FreeDOS. Good luck!

By: Terry

Terry — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 23:31:05 +0000

Recommend Windows Unetbootin based solution, FWIW. Didnt get results with Linux based method despite multiple attempts. Make FreeDOS USB stick, put DOS exe pkg from http://www.samsungpc.com on stick, boot to stick and execute via command line. Each step went perfectly first time. Coulda been me tho

By: Linerd

Linerd — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 02:54:26 +0000

Thanks for the tip on the new link. I'll have to update the post.

Sorry about your battery. Hope you can find a solution. Years ago I had similar issues with a Dell laptop at work. The battery charge light would only come on for a second or two and then go out. I unplugged and plugged back in several times and eventually got the thing to start charging. The only solution on another one was to swap batteries with another laptop. The battery charged in the other machine with no problem.