Problem with Feather on USB ThumbDrive

[aksum]

I have a Transcend USB 2.0 256MB thumb drive loaded with Feather Linux .72 which I am trying to boot from a Dell OptiPlex GX270.

The BIOS is A02 07/16/2003.

I am able to successfully boot the feather linux from a custom pc which I built. The mobo is an Asus P4S800D-E deluxe with a SiS 655TX(non-intel).

I believe the problem to be related to the BIOS or hardware of the dell. The dell does sense the thumbdrive which I am able to discern through the BIOS setup screen.

I have modified the dell BIOS to:
-turn off all other hard drives
-reorder boot sequence
Although, neither of these steps are necessary on my custom pc.

There is no other drive to boot from other than the thumb drive loaded with feather linux.

When booted into feather linux on my custom pc, I am able to use every aspect of feather linux, including the saving of the configuration on the thumb drive itself using the 'restore' function at the boot prompt. I am confident that the feather linux is installed correctly on the thumb drive.

Can anyone think of a reason why the feather linux will not boot from the dell?

Thanks,
Hylon

[sarumont]

The most logical solution is that the Dell doesn't support booting from USB devices. You can check Dell's BIOS flashes to see if it's been added since you bought the box. Other than that, you'd have to have something to launch the USB drive (like a custom boot floppy (with the kernel)).

[aksum]

Actually, a friend of mine was able to boot a small distro called 'Slax' using another brand of usb pen drive on the same dell I was attempting to boot with. He didn't need a boot floppy. The dell is obviously bootable from a thumbdrive but not with feather.

For giggles, I'm thinking about trying to boot with Slax on my usb thumb drive. If it would work, the problem probably lies with some unknown compatitbility issue with Feather.72 and the dell.

If booting with slax didn't work, may suggest there is a problem with thumb drive.

Thanks for the thoughts,
h.