Is it a brick?

[Liam Proven]

On Mon, 11 Oct 2021 at 18:09, Grizzly via ubuntu-users
<ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> It is only on my systems as a option, I used to use "123 UniversialUSB
> installer" but moved to LinuxLive (also rather old) when USb's from 123 stopped
> booting, (that has changed back again)

Never heard of either of them.

I suggest, where possible, sticking to the most mainstream tools available.

Ubuntu has a disk-writer built in. That's a good choice.
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu#3-launch-startup-disk-creator

> If you mean the Live Win7 I used a dedicated tool & a Win7 ISO

Again, *you are not reading what I wrote.*

If you want help getting this machine going again, you MUST read
exactly what people are telling you.

I said, do not trust a 3rd party "live Windows USB" to do things like
write firmware. I was advising against using such things.

If I advise against them then that would not be what I was talking
about, would it?

I said "to write a Windows USB".

I mean, to make a normal standard Windows USB from a normal standard
Windows ISO file as supplied from Microsoft.com.

> I use for most of my Ubuntu USB's but have not tried for non-Ubuntu USB's

Use what?

> UNetbootin seems to have been dropped from the "default" install, I guess that
> a apt install would cure that, (even though
>
> apt-cache policy unetbootin
>
> showed nothing)

Yes, it's been dropped.
It's still out there though:
https://unetbootin.github.io/

I would suggest looking for and using the standard Ubuntu tool,
though. Or, on Windows, yes, Rufus is fine but as I said slow.

Balena Etcher is big but it does the job, it's current and it's totally free.

https://www.balena.io/etcher/

Don't cling on to obsolete tools if there are decent modern
replacements available.

> If I need another Usb Boot USB I will use the one made by "ActiveKillDisk
> BootUSBCreater" it has a memory manager that gives 32Mb Ram (only found that
> when doing a unrelated job)

It won't help. The maximum size for a DOS program is the same as it
was in 1981: 640 kB. DOS can't run anything bigger (well, without
delving into DOS extenders and things but that gets very complicated.)

Tools like BIOS flash tools are usually kept as simple as possible so
there's less to go wrong.

So getting as much of that 640 kB free as you readily can is the question here.

Anything over 640 kB means they're talking about memory-extension
schemes (EMS, XMS, etc.) and those don't apply here.

-- 
Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lproven at gmail.com
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>
> >In my experience it takes on the order of an hour to write a Windows
> >USB, but at least with Rufus you can rely on the resulting key
> >working.
>
> If you mean the Live Win7 I used a dedicated tool & a Win7 ISO
>
> >To write a Linux key I use `dd` or UNetbootin or the Ubuntu
> >Startup Disk Creator or something -- they only take 5-10min.
>
> I use for most of my Ubuntu USB's but have not tried for non-Ubuntu USB's
>
> UNetbootin seems to have been dropped from the "default" install, I guess that
> a apt install would cure that, (even though
>
> apt-cache policy unetbootin
>
> showed nothing)
>
> >The only one of those that has a built-in function to make a FreeDOS
> >USB is Unetbootin, but it includes a really old version of FreeDOS --
> >version 1.0. That's a decade old or something like that, and you'd be
> >_much_ better off grabbing an ISO of 1.2 from the freedos.org website,
> >or just using MS-DOS.
>
> If I need another Usb Boot USB I will use the one made by "ActiveKillDisk
> BootUSBCreater" it has a memory manager that gives 32Mb Ram (only found that
> when doing a unrelated job)
>
>
> --
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> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
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-- 
Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lproven at gmail.com
Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven
UK: (+44) 7939-087884 ~ Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053