Formatting USB sticks (Deneb / OS4 classic)

[platon42]

I maybe will post on the international section of a1k.org.  Failing that I can bug Chris  But I try to avoid that.

The latter would help much. I'm afraid I don't know much about OS4 and other that you shouldn't use the DMA-Device under OS4.0, I can't think about anything. Did you try SFSformat instead of the normal "format"? Also, I only have OS3.1, not 3.5 or 3.9. The format program of OS 3.1 is buggy -- never try to do a full format (always use QUICK), especially not on media larger than 4 GB.

Have you tried comparing the volume definition with Scout under OS 3.x and OS 4?

[platon42]

BIG EDIT:

Disregard below.. The USB partitions are now showing up in early startup I think it's very tricky when you press both mouse buttons to get into the early startup...you have to do it at the exact right time...but anyway I am booting from USB now

[...]
I notice when I am powering on my usb hub (which is working reliably, btw), it does not power on until right after the "green" status screen of the Deneb goes away.  Then if I quickly press both mouse buttons (on usb mouse) I can get into the early startup menu.  I can use the USB mouse, works great!

It's only tricky with wireless mice and keyboards. This is due to them only sending changes in events -- and if the receiver is not yet powered up, it will lose the event data -- only on next change this data is updated. Today, I spent about 50 attempts to get to the Mac OS OpenFirmware/CD Booting/Bootmenu with my wireless keyboard before I gave up and bought a wired keyboard for 8 EUR.

Thanks for the tip. I read the thread.  Ok so I have confirmed my USB mouse is working in the boot menu.  Still can't see my connected USB flash disk in early startup, though, so I can't boot from it.  I have this setup in the Deneb flashrom:

Please confirm this for your usb flash disk, too:
2. To be able to boot a USB drive, you need to make sure that
a) The partition you want to boot off is set to "bootable" in HDToolBox
b) The BootPrio is set to a value higher than your internal drive
c) The Filesystem used is installed in the RDB (Fat95 normally doesn't work)
d) If it is a slow drive that needs some time to get ready, increase the boot delay in Trident
e) massstorage.class prefs for that drive are set to automounting (default)

-TLSFMem
-scsi.device

I hope you patched your scsi.device as described in the readme of TLSFMem.

I have my USB stick formatted with FFS, which is also in the RDB.   I have one partition marked bootable with priority -3 and my workbench copoied to it.  (on purpose it is set at -3).

But I don't see my USB Flash disk that is connected and powered on via the USB hub.  I only see the volumes of my IDE hard disk.

Anything else I need to do?

Try increasing the boot delay some more (and reflash the PsdStackloader of course!). Try changing the order in which IDE and hub/flash stick are connected to the Deneb. If this doesn't help, send in the PsdErrorlog to give an insight on what's going on.

(Yes Colour is spelt correctly the Canadian way! LOL)

Well, it's British english and as my father is from the Commonwealth, I feel more obligated to the British spelling than to the American :-P