[SOLVED] Can't boot from livecd iso on USB

[lazerbeem]

I extracted the iso, and ran the .sh in terminal. See output.

sh '/media/0656-EB58/boot/install-on-USB.sh'
Warning: syslinux+grub2 is about to be installed in /dev/sdb
Do you want to continue? [y/N] y
Backing up mbr of /dev/sdb to '/media/0656-EB58/boot/_dev_sdb.mbr.201205200455'...
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.0028241 s, 181 kB/s
Installing syslinux...

I then unmounted the drive and booted from the usb drive. Lilo was installed before I ran .sh. I get stuck on a screen that says syslinux and then some copyright information with a blinking line. What is going on here?

[mimosa]

Two things to check are the md5sum of your download, and you could try wiping the USB stick and having another go. Which is to say, delete the partition and create a new one.

[lazerbeem]

I checked the file, re-downloaded it, checked it again and also reformatted my the usb drive fat32 twice and tried again. It didn't work...

[Tim CowChip]

I might be stating the obvious, but have to checked your machine's bios settings? I had to change mine to boot from usb installation drives created with syslinux, while isohybrid usb installation drives booted just fine.

Also This post may be of some help , where overwriting the first 4096 sectors of my usb drive and recreating a new partition table did the trick for me.

Code: Select all

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=4096

[lazerbeem]

Hmm I will try that tomorrow, I booted arch with isohybrid and had the same problem with syslinux, I will try this tomorrow. Otherwise I might just walk two blocks to riteaid and buy a fucking pack of cd-r. Just don't want to spend the money lol. Thanks, and maybe this should be added to the wiki as a note, I'm not sure how to do it as I am new here.

[Adys]

Please always pay attention to the "sdXN" (like sda, sdb or sdb1 as examples) codes. Be sure you are pointing to the correct target drive and/or volume.

Have you downloaded a Salix LIVE ISO, or a standard installation ISO?

http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/H ... an_USB_key

http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/I ... _USB_stick

We talking about about installing from LIVE ISO to USB drive, correct?

Which version of syslinux are you trying to install on the USB drive? Any additional error messages?

After "zeroing" the first few blocks of the USB drive with the "dd" command, you could alternatively try using the latest unetbootin available (version 575, or newer).

[lazerbeem]

I actually tried both. I read that unetbootin does not work with the Live ISO, I used it on the installation iso and it gave me the same syslinux screen. At this point I would be fine with either iso working but I have followed the wiki instructions for both and got the same syslinux screen with the copyright information. Syslinux is v4.04. No additional error messages. I will try the new version of unetbootin, I was using the version from the repository on my linux mint 12 live cd. It says version 549-2 so I guess it is not upto date. thanks.

[Shador]

If neither the Live method nor Unetbootin with the Installer CD works a more recent Unetbootin won't work either with Live. What will most probably fix it is this:

Also This post may be of some help , where overwriting the first 4096 sectors of my usb drive and recreating a new partition table did the trick for me.

Code: Select all

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=4096

Be sure that /dev/sdb is your stick and be aware that this irrecoverably overwrites data! So backup any data from the stick and be sure to use the right device. It's not necessarily /dev/sdb. Also unmount the stick before running this.
After that remove the stick and plug it back in. Then fire up gparted and create a msdos partition table with one fat32 partition. Do yet another remove-replug-cycle on the stick and install again by the insctructions in the wiki.

[Tim CowChip]

what Shador said.

I had to set my bios for usb emulation type to hard disk to boot from it with syslinux.

[Adys]

I actually tried both.

As I posted above, the methods, and their goals, are different. You need to select the adequate wiki for your goal.

...
Syslinux is v4.04. No additional error messages.

Well, there you go. Unfortunately, the tutorial in the wiki is not clear enough about this particular detail. You need the exact same version of syslinux that the ISO includes, and I don't think v4.04 is the adequate one at this point.

Note: There is nothing wrong with Syslinux 4.04. The point is that the installer of syslinux needs to be the same exact version as the one in the ISO.

[EDIT_UPDATE] I just checked and indeed the included version of syslinux's installer in the ISOs is version 4.0.4. So it seems something is not working as expected in the installation of syslinux to your USB drive.

Other than:
1_ zeroing the USB drive; then,
2_ formatting as FAT32 as the only partition in the USB drive; and,
3_ configuring the BIOS accordingly,

currently I have no new idea why it wouldn't work. Maybe with new feedback...
[/EDIT_UPDATE]

I will try the new version of unetbootin, I was using the version from the repository on my linux mint 12 live cd. It says version 549-2 so I guess it is not upto date. thanks.

The wiki is clearly saying that you would need unetbootin 575+. Previous versions of unetbootin won't support Salix LIVE. Unetbootin might use a different version of syslinux too, but in most cases it won't matter (generally speaking, it should work correctly for most supported cases).

If zeroing the first few blocks of the USB drive and then using unetbootin 575 still doesn't work, please report any message or error.

Whichever the result, please report back.