Installer doesn't create bootable USB key

[fano]

I've try to use the installer to create a bootable usb key.

These are the things I've done:

1. Using the "Setup partions" I inizialized all the USB drive (that is only a single partion big as the whole drive)
2. Then I started the installer... all files are copied
3. The installer make the drive bootable and ask me to reboot
4. After reboot I choose in the bios boot menu my key as bootable device
5. Only a blinking " _ " appears... forever!

I'm using Hailu rev. 30637

My system is composed by: Cpu Athlon X2 3600+ Motherboard Asus M2NPV-VM with integrated NVIDIA 6150 GPU SoundCard SuondBlase Audigy USB Key Sandisk Cruzer Micro 8 GB

[mmadia]

Since USB booting tends to be hit or miss with some system, can you try using dd to write the image directly to the device, making certain that it is the raw device and not a partition on it? This would help to pinpoint the problem being with Installer and not somewhere else.

[mmlr]

It's a big difference between a device with a single partition on it and a device that has no partition at all. The approach you took can only work when there is no partition on the device, meaning that the raw device directly contains the filesystem with no partition table before it. If you have a master boot record with a partition table and then a single partition then only the partition will be made bootable. What is missing is a bootloader, in the same sense as you would need one when installing to a harddisk. Installing to the raw device directly only happens to work because the partition boot code that makes the partition bootable will then be written to the first sector so that the BIOS can turn over the control to it.

If indeed have an MBR and a single partition on that device, then this is not a bug. You're then just missing a bootloader.