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Not booting to isosel


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#1 Coniferous

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Posted 22 August 2012 - 03:26 PM

Hey Guys,

So far I love my stick! I just have one question that's been bugging me....

According to my understanding, when you load the isosel bin file in the config folder you should be able to boot to isosel when you boot from the CD drive.

Right now my isostick just boots to what ever CD i have listed in the iso_filename file.

It's not a HUGE deal, but not having to edit that file every time I want to change CDs would be nice. Can I make the flash drive portion boot to ISOsel? is there something I'm missing?

#2 elegantinvention

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Posted 22 August 2012 - 05:00 PM

Hm, yeah that's correct. You need isosel.bin in the config folder, and a bootable iso named in iso_filename.txt. If that's all setup and it's still not booting, it must be a bug.
Could you list the machine(s) you've tried it on?

Oh, it's also worth mentioning that, at the moment, isosel will only show up every other time you boot from the CD drive. So, if it doesn't show up the first try, it should show up after a reboot.
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#3 Coniferous

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Posted 22 August 2012 - 06:33 PM

Hey Elegant,

I'm using a bootable cd in the iso_filename text. I've tried a couple (windows 7 set up and partition magic). They boot just fine when manually specified in the text file. Reboots don't help.

I upgraded to R1581 when I first got the stick simply because it was crashing (empty sd card) but since loading my isos on it I've downgraded back to 1574. Still no help.

The machine I'm using is a dell vostro. service tag 3RJBWR1

#4 Pest

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Posted 31 October 2012 - 03:34 AM

I'm experiencing the same problem on an Asus G74SX laptop. Boots fine to the selected ISO but I never see isosel. It sometimes seems like it wants to boot isosel, fails and boots to local Windows instead.

#5 xrobau

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Posted 31 October 2012 - 06:50 AM

I think it's an issue with UEFI firmware. We're just going to have to suck it up for the moment, until EI figures out a way to fix it.

#6 elegantinvention

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Posted 31 October 2012 - 09:43 AM

Yes, sorry for the problems. I have some ideas for a fix, but production is keeping me busy. :juggler:

#7 falken

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Posted 28 December 2012 - 10:39 PM

I assume still no fix for isosel when using UEFI?  This limitation was not clear when purchasing, any chance there will be a fix in the next 25 days?  Need to get this sent back in my return window if it is not going to get fixed.



#8 elegantinvention

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Posted 29 December 2012 - 12:07 AM

@falken, unfortunately there is still no fix, and I cannot promise one within 25 days. It is definitely one of the top priorities here, however.

I apologize for the inconvenience, and hope that you will consider buying an isostick again when the fix is available, if you do decide to return it.

 

If you have tested and found issues with any systems not already on the Tested Hardware page, please feel free to create an account on the wiki and add them. Or if you list the details here, I would be happy to add them for you.

 

Thanks, and once again I apologize for this problem! :cheers:



#9 falken

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Posted 29 December 2012 - 12:19 AM

Custom Build - ASRock Z77 Pro4-M Motherboard - Never boots isosel, always boots currently selected ISO.

Tested with 1617 and 1624.  I'll keep it as long as I can, however, isosel was a major reason for my purchase.  Let me know if you need me to test out any beta firmwares! :)



#10 bblaauw

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Posted 29 December 2012 - 03:18 PM

Isosel doesn't boot on my system either, making it necessary to boot into Windows to swap the file(name) that's presented as CD contents.

The ISOSTICK flash part is also bootable (RUFUS v1.3.0 does the trick, erases all content first though!) allowing me to boot (Free)DOS.

Using DOSLFN program I can get access to the file (iso_filename.txt was it?) that contains 1 line of which I can then modify the contents:

 

ECHO /DOS/NEWFILE.ISO > /CONFIG/ISO_FILENAME.TXT

 

However I'm not seeing a refresh of disc content in that case. Not sure how to force it either. Under Windows 7, the disc refresh seems almost immediately when changing selected file in the ISO Manager GUI or renewing the ISO.

 

I guess we'll have to wait for a fix and/or UEFI binary. Not that big a deal for me personally though for others maybe a deal-breaker.



#11 elegantinvention

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Posted 29 December 2012 - 09:21 PM

@falken, thanks, I have added that to the Tested Hardware page. I'll post here when I have something to test :)

 

Using DOSLFN program I can get access to the file (iso_filename.txt was it?) that contains 1 line of which I can then modify the contents:   ECHO /DOS/NEWFILE.ISO > /CONFIG/ISO_FILENAME.TXT

Aha, clever!  :good:

 

However I'm not seeing a refresh of disc content in that case. Not sure how to force it either.

As you may know, in the FAT32 file system there's a "dirty" bit indicating if the volume has been cleanly unmounted/ejected or not. At the moment, isostick waits for that to be marked "clean" before it will read from it. Most likely FreeDOS is not updating this bit after writing to a file, whereas Windows will usually update it immediately (or wait for a few seconds of inactivity, then update it).

 

In any case, another update in the works will allow isostick to read from a "dirty" volume safely. If the volume is corrupt or still being modified, it will gracefully just fail to read what it wanted. This should fix the FreeDOS workaround you are using. It will also fix the issue where iso_filename.txt is not reloaded on MacOS X and Linux, because they don't mark the volume "clean" until you eject/unmount the flash drive.



#12 bootit

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Posted 17 January 2013 - 06:38 PM

Is there any update to Isosel to allow UEFI boot?



#13 elegantinvention

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Posted 18 January 2013 - 06:37 AM

@bootit, not yet, still working on it. :cheers:



#14 falken

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Posted 19 January 2013 - 06:25 PM

Sad.  I setup a return with amazon for my stick today as my return window was closing.  My return reason was that isosel does not boot as advertised, so you know the stick works otherwise when you get it back. :)

If it is ever USB3.0, or even a better USB2.0 controller so the card can run at full speed (I bought the fastest microSD card you can get) and isosel gets working on all systems I will look forward to purchasing again.  Couldn't justify keeping it for the price with both of those.  Perfect product otherwise.

 

Best of luck!



#15 bblaauw

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Posted 19 January 2013 - 07:08 PM

Now most of the sales/distribution/availability issues seem solved some bughunting might indeed be usefull to satisfy general customers. Everyone appreciates a different subset of features I guess, sometimes the lack of it being enough to return the item.

 

A forum thread for benchmark statistics about micro-SD cards performance (both inside and outside of isostick) could also be usefull. No idea how http://www.lexar.com...d?category=5778 performs in sequential and random style. With isostick being a rather expensive item, it's likely most people will want to put a high-capacity high-performance card inside. Upgrading from 16GB card to 32GB actually halved my writing speed to 5MB per seconds. I remember some forum thread mention allowing you to insert an USB3-stick into a USB3-isostick-deluxe version someday maybe in the future. Just like all the Zalman iso-emulator housings limited to sata-2 (300MB/s), isostick is also still limited. I like the current for-sale first-gen a lot though, looking forward to improved versions someday.



#16 Uoila

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Posted 16 February 2013 - 03:17 AM

I received my IsoStick this week and i seem to be having the same issue as the original poster. My device will boot directly to the iso listed in iso_filename.txt. I have yet to see the isosel interface from my device after days of trying different combinations of firmware/isos/iso_filename mods.

 

I'm not complaining because i can see that this looks to be kind of a one man show as far as the firmware development goes and i know you are likely very busy these days. But, i would like to place my vote to have this particular bug squashed next. Thanks,

 

Thanks for an otherwise quite nice product!



#17 elegantinvention

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Posted 16 February 2013 - 02:43 PM

@Uoila, thanks for letting me know. By the way, there is now a Trello board where you can keep an eye on my progress: https://trello.com/b/FBQfKqk3



#18 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 16 February 2013 - 05:31 PM

By the way, there is now a Trello board where you can keep an eye on my progress: https://trello.com/b/FBQfKqk3

From which - as you might know - an user may get the impression that you have done nothing and are doing nothing :w00t: :ph34r: but you have quite a few things ToDo....

 

:cheers:

Wonko



#19 elegantinvention

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Posted 19 February 2013 - 07:13 PM

@Wonko the Sane, ah but isn't that always how it seems?  ;)



#20 falken

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Posted 23 December 2013 - 07:03 AM

Has this issue been resolved by any chance?  Figured I would check back a year later to see, hard to make out what works and what doesn't since all the advertising is the same as last year.



#21 bblaauw

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Posted 23 December 2013 - 10:34 AM

The firmware development seems to be an all-or-nothing thing (or complete rewrite) rather than feature-by-feature update.

* Main feature that I'd like to have working: ISO-only mode (just like Zalman VE200/300/400 allows, just smaller device)

* Secondary desired feature: ISOSEL

 

Anyway, have a merry Christmas :)



#22 falken

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Posted 23 December 2013 - 05:45 PM

Well I returned mine over a year ago hoping to rebuy it if it ever worked as advertised. Glad I returned it in my return window instead of waiting for it to be fixed. Seems to pretty much be a dead project. The tech is getting outdated and the bugs aren't even worked out. Pretty sad, could have been a nice device if they would have hired someone better at writing working firmware.

#23 falken

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Posted 23 December 2013 - 05:48 PM

maybe they can officially throw in the towel someday and make it open source. I would buy a new one and just fix the thing myself. :)
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#24 elegantinvention

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 02:04 AM

Not dead yet, but admittedly very slow-going, yes.



#25 falken

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 02:35 PM

The tech is already outdated. That combined with your inability to fix bugs says you should probably be done with this project and move on to another.
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