XBMC Live install for older BIOS

[bzajac]

I am trying to get XBMC Live running off a USB pen drive connected to an Intel D945GCLF2 motherboard. I used the Live CD to create a persistent install to my USB drive and tested the drive in another laptop. It works fine on other computers but when booting on the D945GCLF2 the system hangs right after post with a black screen and nothing more than "boot error" displayed.

I believe the problem is with the D945GCLF2's BIOS and its a problem other people will have with some older BIOS's. The BIOS can't boot USB-HDD. There is an article here (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/02/20/booting-linux-from-usb-zip-on-older-systems/) that shows a workaround by tricking the BIOS into thinking its a USB-ZIP drive. I am not sure how to apply this to the XBMC Live ISO however. Can anyone give me some guidance? Thanks!

[l.capriotti]

follow these instructions and then copy all the files from the XBMC Live USB to the newly created USB disk (do not overwrite ldlinux.sys)

[bzajac]

Thanks! What about the persistent install? Will manually creating these partitions mess anything up? Can anyone shed some light on how the XBMC Live USB works (number/type or partitions, etc)? Thanks.

[bzajac]

For anyone else having this problem, there is a setting in the D945GCLF2 BIOS that lets you select how it treats USB storage devices. This must be set to "Hard Disk" instead of "Removable Disk". Problem solved. No need to do fancy partitioning or anything. Standard USB install works.