Sorry for posting in English but I cannot speak Dutch.
I'm trying to get Mandriva One to boot from my external (usb) HDD without success (computer BIOS does not recognise external drive as bootable).
I can very easily get a number of other Linux OSes to boot from the same usb drive by using a bootable CD (includes Ubuntu, Ubuntustudio, Mepis 6.5, PCLinuxOS 2007). But I've had little success with Mandriva up to now.
However, in post #3 of this thread (http://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtopic=40593&pid=315121&mode=threaded&start=#entry315121) the following is mentioned:

While the quote refers to just INSTALLING to a usb drive , I believe it really means to be able to BOOT from an external drive which is the context of the thread.

Can anyone help me locate this version of Mandriva that I can be booted from a usb drive?
Thanks
Paul

Hi, you can find that version of Mandriva (called mcnlive) on http://www.mcnlive.org. You can also find tutorials over there.
I moved your topic to the correct subforum (called mcnlive international), on that forum it's allowed to speak english

OK, that's great
Thank you
Paul

Paul, sorry for not sending you to the home site for MCNL but 2 things

1) I can NEVER remember that address (matter of fact thats why I'm here now)

2) since this club was the original host and inspiration behind MCNL and the author "lives here" you will find GREAT support here for MCNL

hope you enjoy the journey as much as I am

OK, I looked through the stuff for booting MCNLive from a usb device but all seem to assume that usb booting is permitted by the computer.
My computer BIOS does NOT allow usb booting.
Nevertheless, it is quite easy to set up a boot CD that will enable various Linux OSes to boot off an external drive..
I have already achieved this with Ubuntu, Ubuntustudio, Mepis and PCLinuxOS.
However, Mandriva One is giving me a major problem as I just can't get it to boot from the usb drive.
This recent thread (http://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtopic=40593&pid=315121&mode=threaded&start=#entry315121) suggests that this may be an insuperable problem.
Nevertheless, this guide (http://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtopic=23958) gives a detailed explanation of how to boot Mandriva/Mandrake from a "non-bootable" external drive. Problem is that even this guide doesn't work with Mandriva One.
So, I'm going to try again with MCNL but before embarking on yet another wild goose chase, I would like to ask has anybody been able to get this version (MCNL-Toronto) to boot from an external HDD when the BIOS does NOT allow usb booting?
Thanks
Paul

Paul,

MCNLive is is also made for people who can't boot from USB.
The MCNLive CD is not only a install CD (to setup the USB stick/drive), but at the same time the initial boot cd for old computers. You don't need to make an extra boot cd.

Please read this:

http://www.mcnlive.org/usblive.htm

Thanks.
I went through that and installed the MCNLive on a FAT32 partition on my usb HDD and turned on the boot flag.
Then, I restarted the computer with the live CD in the drive and the usb drive switched on.
The first screen that appeared was the one presenting a list of boot options. Pressed F1, but nothing happened.
So, I pressed TAB and at least then I got some place where I could write "livecd fromusb".
However, the resulting boot didn't go very far and this is the last bit of what appeared on the screen (all of this was transcribed):


Hmmm..looks like not everything got installed. Wonder why?

Whether I can get this to work or not I don't know.
Nevertheless, provided that the initrd.img (initrd.gz) contains all of the modules/drivers needed to access the usb drive, it would be more convenient for me to set up a simple menu.lst entry on the boot CD along the following lines:

Even if it doesn't, surely it shouldn't be a problem for me to hack them in.
Nevertheless, this is no less than I already tried with Mandriva One with spectacular lack of success. I am therefore assuming that MCNL is more usb-friendly than One.

Would welcome comments.
Thanks
Paul

1. The errors: you either have
* a bad download of the iso (check this first!)
* a bad burn of the CD (check this also!)
* something went wrong when setting up the usb drive

or:

You try to start it on a computer with a USB port problem.
(What kind of hardware is it?)

Try to start it with the cheatcode:



2. MCNLive does not use GRUB as a bootloader, not on the CD and not on the USB drive.
You don't have a first-stage boot problem, nor a bootloader problem!
--> see 1)
You can boot just fine, it is just dropping you to a limited shell -- technically: it looses the contact to your USB disk (or it can't find the content on it)

Chris, that's true!

But I have been using MCNL Delft since you released it a couple of months ago many hours a day using GRUB as bootloader.
Following is my GRUB entry :
'
title MCNL Delft LiveCD
root (hd1,2)
kernel /mcnl_delft/vmlinuz root=/dev/rd/3 livecd=livecd initrd=initrd.gz nopcmcia acpi=on splash=silent quiet fromusb vga=791 keyb=us fstab=rw,noauto read-only copy2ram
initrd /mcnl_delft/initrd.gz
'

As you see. I copied 'vmlinuz' and 'initrd.gz' to a directory on a bootable partition (/mnt/hdb3/mcnl_delf) and copied 'livecd.sqfs' to an usb-stick. On other computers I boot Delft your way, using the original LiveCD and the usb stick typing "livecd fromusb" after F1.

My experience is that Delft is not able to boot from an external usb harddisk with a few partitions.

Hope above solves Paul's problem.

Wish to repeat that Delt is a wonderfull piece of software. It never let me down.

Hi mzee,

the thing is that Paul does not have a bootloader problem. He won't solve the problem by using grub :-)

He has a kernel/bios/usb port problem, with this special MDV kernel (beacuse he can boot other linux distros from usb, though I don't understand how exactly he is doing it, he does not tell).

He can boot just fine. The error occurs after he booted successfully, the kernel loaded etc. He needs a kernel argument: noapic irqpoll additional to the fromusb or some more (nolapic acpi=off). Maybe he has to change a setting in the BIOS, like enabling usb legacy support, disabling PnP.

Btw I can boot Delft ok from an external hard disk with seven partitions :-)

Thank you, Chris, for reaction.

Kindly tell me how you boot from your external hard disk with seven partitions? I have an external usb hard disk with five partitions but am not able to boot Delft from it. Think the reason is that my BIOS doesn't allow me to boot from external hard disk. But then booting from usb stick is what I do every day. Do not see the reason why I am able to boot from usb stick but not from usb hard disk.

Regards

Can a mod split this topic? The last post from mzee ---> new topic.
It is a different issue.
I'll respond there, mzee

Following your (kris) advice, I re-downloaded the MCNL iso and burnt it again on a new computer.
With this, I was just about to install to my FAT32 partition (old computer), when at the last minute I decided I'd do what has worked before for me with other OSes i.e. install to EXT3 partitions (/ and /home) on my external usb HDD and then try to boot it from a CD (remember that my computer BIOS doesn't recognise the usb devices as bootable)

This is what I put on the boot CD:

To get it to boot every time, I had to change the "sleep" command in the mkinitrd script from 8 seconds (default) to 20 seconds which gives the usb HDD enough time to swing into action after the usb_storage and usbcore drivers have been called.
After that, I just had to use the mkinitrd command to re-configure the initrd.img and re-burn the boot CD.
Now it boots fine every time.
Incidentally, I have 13 partitions on my external drive.
Nevertheless, there are some problems I would like to mention (they're probably just the usual teething problems but possibly somebody can point me to how they can be overcome):

1. No opportunity to select login name/password and root password were provided during the install. So, now I'm using Guest/Guest and root/root.
I used the MCC to add my username/password and delete the Guest user. However, this gave rise to quite a number of errors with the result that I had to re-install the OS.
How do I add my user and root information?

2. The network doesn't work if I use a static IP which I have used for a long time on this computer as it is somewhat faster than DHCP. However, here I must use DHCP to get any connection to the Internet.
What's up with this?

3. While most things seem to be working fine, there is no sound. It seems to have correctly identified the sound card and the driver but it's not functioning at all. Any clues?

Thanks
Paul

Hi Paul,

ad 1: MCNLive is configured to automatically login the guest user. Before you create a new user, you better change this. MCC --> system --> enable autologin and select the user ...
Then logout and login again. Create the new user. And login with the new user.

ad 2: First delete this connection. MCC --> network and internet -> delete a network interface.
restart the xserver, and now setup a new network interface with static IP. And restart the PC, sometimes it is needed to not confuse your router and the hostnames.
If this does not work, have a look at /etc/udev/rules.d/61-net_conf.rules
(you may want to delete it, before seting up a new interface.)
I don't know why this happens. It is not a known bug.

ad 3: sound: try kmix? Or run alsaconf as root in a terminal.
Which sound chip?
In a terminal: lspcidrake - |grep AUDIO

Good catch, that you needed more delay initializing the USB.
There is another approach to this problem, but I don't know if it will work in the initrd (not sure about the syntax):



To those who follow this thread:
What Paul did now, is installing MCNLive as a 'normal' system on the external disk. He does not use the Live USB install.
He could have done something similiar by increasing the delay in the mklivecd scripts and make a quick remaster ;-) if he wantted a live usb solution.

@Paul: you could basically do the same, but with better results (MCLive is not made for normal installations), with the Mandriva 2007.1 Free DVD, or also the MDV One CD, and (re)building the initrd. Or am I mistaken?

Thanks for your advice.
Making good progress here and have now got fast connection speed (static IP) and sound (turned off analog input/output switch).
Installed legacy nVidia driver and got Beryl working ...up to a point.
It was (relatively) OK until I changed the window manager from Native to xgl. Then, after restarting X, got only pure white sides on the Beryl cube although the caps still showed up fully coloured.
I tried changing to all of the session (login screen) options to try to undo this change but no luck. Either I got the white screens back or I kept looping around to the login screen again
The only alternative to a re-install is to use the command line to change the window manager back from xgl to native window manager. Do you know if this is possible?

BTW, I upgraded Opera to v 9.22 but no Speed Dial is available (for me this is one of the best features of the new Opera). Am I overlooking something?

As to using the Mandriva One CD to get a more complete Mandriva install on my external HDD, I have actually been trying for almost a week to do exactly that without any luck. This is despite hacking the initrd.img to make sure it included all of the required usb drivers. I posted in various forums about the problems I was having but no help was forthcoming. Indeed, this recent thread suggests that I'm not the only one with this difficulty.
Actually, someone in the same thread mentioned that MCNLive can definitely be booted from a usb drive (when the BIOS recognises tthe usb drive as bootable) which is why I moved over here.

Just another point, even though Emerald Themes are installed with Beryl, I can't seem to access them. The Beryl ruby icon when right-clicked does not give the various settings menus that is usual in other OSes. Any reason for this?

Thanks
Paul

XGL and nvidia: I am sorry, I don't know. Don't have an nvidia card here.
I would try the change in two steps. First disable 3D desktop, logout and login again, then enable 3D desktop with xgl (or the other way round). Also, I would not use the login manager to set the session. Always the MDV config tool.
I think that 3D desktop is not yet 100%, it is the version from april.

Beryl: somewhere in the menu, there is an entry: beryl manager or beryl settings, with all the themes available.

Opera: when you open a new tab (with a blank page), on the right bottom - I can hover over the text: Show Speed Dial and click on it. Or did they change it in 9.22?

Of course you can always go the direct way with opera, in your home dir:


Change the line: Speed Dial State=0, to: Speed Dial State=1

If you are there, look at this thread, how to make more Google services work with opera:
http://mandrivausers.org/index.php?s=&show...ndpost&p=321981

Thanks, kris, for your reply.
I got my white screen issue resolved by selecting Default session on login. Actually, I thought I had done this last night and it didn't work. Then again, I maybe missed it in my anxiety.
Anyway, selecting Default took out XGL and started Native (presumably AIGLX) and everything is fine now.
I have now found the Beryl Setting icon (at Menu>System>Configuration>Other).
Thanks for your solution to my missing Speed Dial problem. I'm embarassed that I missed that.
Also, that's a nice solution to my principal regret about Opera (that it doesn't exactly see eye-2-eye with Google Apps).

BTW, if you have any thoughts on why I was completely unable to get Mandriva One to boot from (unbootable) usb drive, please let me know as I'm stumped on this one. Very baffling.

Best wishes
Paul

That's why I asked :-) I don't understand it. Using the normal installation method (draklive-install), there is no difference between mcnlive and MDV One. Both should create the same initrd, the kernel - though different, One uses the legacy, we use the normal - has the same modules.
Also, MCNLive is -after installed to the HD- 100% Mandriva, there are no diff in the base system.

How did you create your boot CD? With the MDV inbuilt mkrescue --iso tool, or manually?
Did you also increase the delay to 20 sec ?
Can you remember any error messages while attempting to boot?

Would be nice to find out the cause ... but I must admit I am not an expert for MDV One, I usually avoid installing Live CD"s

This is the command I used:

where the final "bootcd" refers to the folder (in my ~/) where I built the boot directory tree for the CD.

Yes, I did.

Obviously, I can't copy&paste the error messages but it was along the lines of the following:

I believe that the major, and possibly the ONLY, problem is that the usb device switches itself off when the boot CD starts to be read (which is normal). However, in contrast to my experience with other distros (including MCNL), it does NOT turn itself on again after a second or two. It just stays off. So, it's not available when the boot wants to mount the "real" root (as opposed to the initrd).
Sounds like the usbcore and usb_storage drivers are not doing their job.
Because of what you wrote about the similarity between MCNL and One, and the fact that the MCNL initrd.gz works fine for me but the equivalent for One does not (apparently), I used the MCNL initrd.gz to try to boot One.
However, it just gave exactly the same kernel panic after the usb drive had switched itself off during the boot CD reading.
So, that sounds like whatever problem there is lies in the kernel (vmlinuz).

Thanks for the feedback, Paul.
Yes, I too think it is the kernel. Obviously the legacy kernel does behave different.

As you could see, the MDV 2.6.17 kernel serie (used in 2007.0 and 2007.1 Spring) has some USB problems.
I hope we get a better kernel in september with the 2008 MDV edition.

Thanks again!

--chris