Well I downloaded the new image... wrote it to a different Zmate memory key... still getting the same invalid error message.
Unless you notice that something important has been missed (has anyone got this to work with a memory key?!) then that's it for me I'm sorry to say.
Cheers

Okay I tested in a virtual environment and I am buying a 2Gb usb key today. Will get back to you. More than 30 keys are downloaded every day.

I've just tried this USB boot test - and it worked!
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/testing-your-system-for-usb-boot-compatibility/
So, my system *can* boot up with this memory key after all.

Later on I will try putting the image onto it again, in the hope that the RawWrite program isn't doing the MBR properly, but now that there's a working one on it, maybe it will work this time. Nothing like a stab in the dark is there? :)

You are right.

I bought a 4Gb USB key and booted the image. It displays "Error" on boot and nothing happens.
On the contrary I can boot virtualy using "qemu -hda debian-live-usb-20090704.x32.img"

I think there is a problem on the boot sector.
It could be a problem with grub.

At least, does the DVD work as expected?

1) Sorry, I don't fancy fiddling about with DVDs and haven't got any blank discs here anyway :)

2) I'm having to learn a lot more than I thought I would and I'm still trying to figure out if the MBR is separate from the remainder of the USB key which is formatted by Windows or written to by RawWrite... if it _is_ separate then there's a hope that now my stick has been made bootable, then the Live USB Key install may actually work. I'm about 20 minutes from trying it out.

3) QEMU is new to me, I did notice a mention of it earlier today when googling for "linux on a stick". These guys use it for a reboot-less solution :
http://www.penlinux.com/articles/put-linux-on-a-flash-drive.html

... which makes me wonder - Would there be a way for Windows users to run Linux+Kdenlive via this Qemu program? No reboots required? Or would it be too slow for video editing?

Thanks

OK, I just tried it again... now I'm a little bit further along.. this time there's a new error message!
Missing Operating System (then, after a pause, it loaded XP as usual)

So that's some kind of progress - it suggests that EITHER:
a) the MBR is now working but the image isn't right
OR
b) the MBR is doing something new but it's not quite right for working with the image
OR *perhaps*...
c) maybe RawWrite isn't working correctly with my SUBST redirection and isn't doing the MBR part of the writing that it should?

There's obviously way more to figure out yet... I'm getting more and more determined though :)

UPDATE: This looks interesting if it's any use to you?
http://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/Default.aspx?pageid=45
and the bit about "(hd0,0) instead of (hd1,0)" here?
http://forums.opensuse.org/install-boot-login/394637-install-grub-mbr-bootable-usb-hdd.html
I'll keep researching...

I contacted Debian live developers and it took me some time to figure out what was going on.

My stick is a Sandisk cruzer micro: http://sandisk.fr/Products/Item(2459)-SDCZ4-4096-E11-Lecteur_flash_USB_SanDisk_Cruzer_Micro_Skin_4Go.aspx

It comes with the U3 smart technology, which does not work with Debian. The boot partition is hidden and not accessible.

Furthermore, the USB key is seen by the BIOS as a USB HDD (hard disc). When it should be USB SDD.

The guys at Debian tell me that after using "HP USB disk storage format tool" to reformat the USB key, it should boot.
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/serveroptions/us/download/23839.html

There is also a U3 tool to erase the boot partition.

Windows : http://communities.sandisk.com/sandisk/board/message?board.id=u3&thread.id=730
Mac : http://communities.sandisk.com/sandisk/board/message?board.id=u3&thread.id=1066

@MJPEG : try downloading this image from Debian: http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5.0.1-live/i386/usb-hdd/debian-live-501-i386-standard.img Tranfert it on your key. If booting does not work, it is a hardware / stick problem.

Can you boot the standard Debian live image?

If you cannot boot, try to guess if you are using a U3 key.

OK thanks, I'll try that later (my home PC is here at the office but I can't play with it until lunchtime or after hours).

I thought this page was interesting http://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/Default.aspx?pageid=45
as he says "All USB sticks are (or at least, can be made) bootable. It seems to be a well established myth that it is important to buy a "bootable" USB stick, and it is cited often on various web pages. But there is no reason why any USB stick should not be able to boot any operating system. After all, it's just a mass storage medium accessed via a well-defined USB protocol. Just because a standard hard disk is not declared as bootable does not mean that anybody would not expect it to fail being bootable. The only catch with USB sticks is that some manufacturers pre-format them in a way that makes it easy to boot from them, while others don't. But I have not yet found a single USB stick that I could not get to boot."

.. so my gut instinct is that it's probably something fairly simple going wrong here, if only we can figure out what! After all, I did get the stick to boot up with the memory check program as I mentioned a few posts back, so the stick is capable of it.

BTW if you want to move all this to another thread, be my guest... it might be offputting to newcomers and I suspect you might prefer to keep this thread nice and clean for the next commenter who comes along...?

can you try to reformat the key using "HP USB disk storage format tool":
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/serveroptions/us/download/23839....

Otherwize, what is your Key? Is it a U3 key as mine?

Read: http://www.kdenlive.org/user-manual/downloading-and-installing-kdenlive/live-demonstration-dvd-or-usb-storage/preparing-medi

As luck would have it, The Boss went out for a while so I managed to try it... no joy. Still says "Missing Operating System" which is the message I've been getting since I successfully managed the pendrivelinux.com boot test mentioned in post #33
- whereas before that I always had "Invalid or damaged Bootable partition".

This leads me to suspect that the boot sector is not being written properly :
a) it wasn't changed at all to start with
b) the boot test set it correctly for that test
c) but RawWrite still isn't writing to it and it's stayed the same as it was for the boot test.

I'd bet on RawWrite being the problem (or my SUBST technique for getting RawWrite to list B:). If I could figure out how to use DD instead, I might get somewhere - but the options for that look a bit hairy!
dd [bs=SIZE[SUFFIX]] [count=BLOCKS[SUFFIX]] if=FILE of=FILE [seek=BLOCKS[SUFFIX]] [skip=BLOCKS[SUFFIX]] [--size] [--list] [--progress]
Some of that looks ok but the rest is a WTF for me!

UPDATE (11.26am) : I've downloaded unetbootin as an alternative to RawWrite,
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
and I've written the debian-live-501 image to the USB Key with that, but I have to wait until lunchtime now to try it.

UPDATE (11.47am while Boss is out again) : This time I'm getting a UnetBootin screen with graduated grey background, an invitation to press Tab although that doesn't seem to do much, but mainly it's saying that it's automatically booting in 10 seconds... it counts down and then starts again with another 10 seconds count... and so on forever!

UPDATE (12am) : I'm not surprised that didn't work, Windows can read the stick and there wasn't much on there apart from a few small files. No wonder it didn't take long to write :)
Maybe it was because I manually reselected "ISO" instead of "Floppy", thinking that was the right thing to do?
This time I'm writing the kdenlive image to it, I've kept the option "Floppy" that it changed to by itself, and it's currently writing a lot of data to the stick... so it's looking hopeful.

Slightly more success after a FAT32 format, then a Unetbootin install of debian-live-501... (option: Floppy) :

After filling the screen with dots ....... up came a Debian boot screen, I selected the first option... it counted up some strange numbers of many decimal places for a while, and then said that the boot had failed, "Unable to find a medium containing a live file system"

Seems like progress of a sort!

UPDATE (3:16pm) : same sort of thing with the kdenlive image... far far FAR more dots this time... selected the first option "live"... lots of messages scrolled up, and after counting NTFS and whingeing about UTF8 and FAT for over a minute, it finally stopped in a Busybox again. We had a quick "cat live.log" but those 48 bytes just said it was mounting, no errors as such.

So... what now?
Is it possible that the USB stick partitions were OK enough to load the code from, but not fully correct to use?! Does that make sense to anybody?! :)

There are so many messages that I can hardly follow what is going on.

Could you answer the following questions:
1) What is the name of your USB key?
2) If the key is U3 compliant it includes a boot sector which cannot be erased. In this case, download and use the U3 uninstaller.
3) Download the HP format tool (see up) and format the key
4) Install the debian-live-501 image on the key. It is reported to work very well.

If it completely boots up without errors, your key and computer work.
Otherwize, you have a hardware problem.

In this later case, borrow a different USB stick and do the same.
Until it boots.

Please note that some computers cannot boot on USB keys.

The ability of the USB key itself to boot seems to be a red herring.
The PC boots with it, it loads and runs the code, but fails to mount the file system.

From what little I know, I suspect that the thumbdrive is OK but there's some problem with the USB controller interface. I will try the memory key in the other USB sockets and another PC later.