More re USB stick

[Bob Bernstein <poobah%ruptured-duck.com@localhost>]

Last week (9/16/21) I was helped by the list to mount (for 
viewing/inspection) a USB stick on which I had placed an 
install.img for current 9.99.88.

Problem: the old eMachine I wish to boot from 
this stick ignores its presence, and USB's 
first place position in the BIOS boot order.

The boot.cfg on the stick is copied from the 
old eMachine, which is running current 
9.99.81, and contains an added banner line for my convenience:

$ cat /mnt2/boot.cfg
banner=Bob's Excellent USB stick
menu=Boot normally:rndseed /var/db/entropy-file;userconf disable nouveau;boot
menu=Boot single user:rndseed /var/db/entropy-file;boot -s
menu=Drop to boot prompt:prompt
default=1
timeout=10
clear=1

I wonder if file perms are an issue:

~ $ sudo ls -l /mnt2/boot.cfg -rw-r--r-- 1 
root wheel 231 Sep 21 12:05 /mnt2/boot.cfg

~ $ sudo ls -l /mnt2/netbsd -rwxr-xr-x 1 root 
wheel 29095464 Sep 18 19:54 /mnt2/netbsd

~ $ sudo ls -l /mnt2/sysinst -rwxr-xr-x 1 
root wheel 452056 Sep 18 19:54 /mnt2/sysinst

I welcome any and all reflections on these 
matters.

Thank you


--
"...that there is no getting away from the central position of the individual I believe anyone can see for himself merely by observing that the individual does not regard the following to be a senseless question: "Under what conditions would you draw the conclusion that everyone in the world except yourself had gone crazy?"

Percy Bridgman _The Nature of Physical Theory_
                            (1936)