Cannot boot FreeBSD (8.0) from USB stick (Dell Inspiron 9400)

[Fbsd1]

Christoph Kukulies wrote:
> I don't know why you shout. (?)

Not shouting, just making my inserted comments visible within the old 
post as in different from bottom or top posting.

> 
> Fbsd1 schrieb:
>> Christoph Kukulies wrote:
>>> Fbsd1 schrieb:
>>>> Christoph Kukulies wrote:
>>>>> I installed FreeBSD 8.0 on an USB-stick and was able to boot it on 
>>>>> my Desktop PC and install 8.0
>>>>> from it.
>>
>> DO YOU MEAN YOU INSTALLED THE 8.0 ISO ON A USB STICK. BOOTED FROM IT 
>> AS INSTALL SOURCE AND INSTALLED 8.0 ON A DESKTOP PC TO THE MOTHERBOARD 
>> CABLED HARD DRIVE??? OR DO YOU MEAN YOU INSTALLED 8.0 ON A DESKTOP PC 
>> TO ANOTHER USB STICK???
> 
> The former, I copied the 8.0 iso image to an USB stick, booted it and 
> installed it to the desktop PCs hard drive.
> That was one story. The other point is, that I now wanted to plug this 
> USB stick into my Dell inspiron and install FreeBSD in the same manner 
> to a free partition on my notebooks hard drive.
> 
>>
>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Now I plugged the same stick into my Dell Inspiron 9400 and the USB 
>>>>> stick (2GB) is not even listed in the F12 Bios boot menu.
>>
>> YOU MEAN YOU PLUGGED THE STICK WITH THE ISO INSTALLED ON IT THAT THE 
>> DESKTOP BOOTED FROM???
> 
> Yes, that same stick booted the desktop but is not recognized in the F12 
> menu of my notebook.
> 
>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Any clues?
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> Christoph
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Older pc's have bios which do not have option to boot from USB stick.
>>>> I think that is so in your case. Check mfg website for bios update.
>>>> If not you are SOL. (shit outof luck)
>>>
>>> I can boot USB sticks in general from that notebook/BIOS. That Dell 
>>> 9400 isn't that old. Today I tried an another USB stick (16GB) an 
>>> Ubuntu 9.04 boot image and it worked fine. I saw the boot device 
>>> under F12 in the bootable device menu.
>>> It's definitely not the BIOS. Could be some partition problem (active 
>>> partition?). 
>> > Why is it part #4 btw, that FreeBSD resides in and not part #1 ?
>>
>> LETS NOT GET CONFUSED WITH MSDOS /FREEBSD TERMS. IN FREEBSD A SLICE IS 
>> WHAT MSDOS CALLS A PARTITION. IN FREEBSD A PARTITION IS A FILE SYSTEM 
>> SUCH AS /, /USR, /VAR WITH IN THE SLICE. A SLICE IS MARKED AS ACTIVE 
>> MEANING ITS BOOTABLE. THE MBR
> 
> The FreeBSD fdisk program names it "partition".
> 
>> (MASTER BOOT RECORD)PARTITION TABLE IS REALLY FREEBSD SLICE TABLE. 
>> FROM YOUR STATEMENT ABOVE YOU HAVE A MOTHERBOARD CABLED HARD DRIVE 
>> WITH 4 PARTITIONS/SLICES DEFINED IN THE MBR PARTITION TABLE. THE FIRST 
>> 3 PARTITIONS COULD BE HOLDING OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS THAT YOU MAY 
>> WANT TO BOOT FROM. IS THIS CORRECT?
> 
> Actually, I thought the USB stick had been blanked out before, but I'm 
> nit sure and will look at it again.
>