NASLite Network Attached Storage

I am a very happy user of NasLite+ 1.4 and would like to upgrade to v2 but... would like to see if my bios will boot off the USB stick, or is a floppy kicker will be required.

Is it possible for someone to write a COMPLETE USB test process to be done before the NASLite purchase so you can confirm which option will need to be used.

What Motherboard do you have and what USB stick do you have.

What you can do is download a kicker disk plug in your usb device. boot using the floppy the aspi manager will run see if it detects the device. if so you should be ok. as far as booting directly from usb you can download download this free tool http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files ... 23839.html and run it. this will make the usb device bootable then you will be able to see if your MB supports booting off the USB.

I have an old compaq amd duron 700 (hooray for naslite that uses old hardware!!) that does not boot from USB. (tried and failed, no bios update from compaq to assist either dooh!)

so I guess I have 2 options.....

1. Wait for the CD version
2. Use USB with a kicker disk.

OK so currently option 1 is out of the question so the question is what are the chances of the kicker disk failing with my setup?

And before somebody asks "so what are your motherboard and usb stick models?" it would be really helpful if there was a USB kicker test disk that I (and dont forget others that may have the same question) can use to test my setup. And after looking through the forums there is a lot of talk about the magical kicker disk, lusid has instructions on how to make one from scratch and there is a kicker disk maker included in v2 but if someone could supply an floppy image the process would be a lot simpler (and fit better with he goals of NASLite for a simple robust stable soultion) that could be used to test and confirm that it boots.

So.... Is there a kicker floppy image that I can test anywhere?

yes two of them. here http://www.edengreyfaulk.pwp.blueyonder ... kicker.rar

I just tried both of these and got the following:

kernel command line:
root=/dev/ram0 rw
Can't open kernel file

Does this mean that the pc that I tried this on cannot be booted from a USB drive even with a kicker?

Actually I think it might have worked. Here's what I got:

Starting Calera DR-DOS

ASPI for UHCI/OHCI USB mass-storage Version 1.07
Copyright (C) 2001 NOVAC Co.,Ltd.
ID:0 LUN:0 = SanDisk U3 Cruzer Micro 2.17

ASPI Disk Driver for DOS
Version 4.01b
Copyright 1989-1997 Adaptec, Inc.

1 SCSI disk drive(s) handled by ASPIDISK
1 Logical drive(s) installed
ASPIDISK.SYS Installation Sucessful

next screen...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NASLite+ for USB Flash Auxiliary Boot Utilityv1.0(C)2005 Server Elements
USBASPI ASPI for UHCI/OHCI USB mass-storage Version 1.07 NOVAC

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LINLD v0.97
Kernel Command line:
root=/dev/ram0 rw
Can't open Kernel file
A:\>



Looking at the first screen, it looks like it worked.
But I'm a little confused as far as Can't open Kernel file. Is that because this is only a test disk and the program isnt on the floppy?

Sorry for the stupid newbie questions. I just want to make sure this will work before I buy.
PS-right now I'm just trying to see how the kicker works, the above was done on another old test machine and not even the one I'm planning on building. Once I know how to tell if the kicker works, I'll build the machine and test it.

Kicker is working fine. The loader simply can’t find the NASLite kernel on the USB Flash drive.

Great thanks! Now to build the actual machine and test on that one.

Link not found. Anywhere else to download a kicker image to test if it will work in my NAS destined PC? once I get a kicker image what should I put on the USB for the kicker to boot?

Actually I would also like to see kicker test image. Something like the kicker image and a dummy NASLite image for the USB that displays "Successful boot from USB" or some such.

It would certainly simplify things for potential customers.

Looks like he moved it to here

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lou.greyfaulk/

The other link is now fixed.