Once again USB boot problem

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Once again USB boot problem
started by: pdurys

Posted by pdurys on July 12 2004,00:05

Hi There,

I have just found a small glitch in the latest DSL build.
There was a number of discussions about booting from USB.

You can find them, by searching this forum, but this is not a point. After you prepare and boot your computer from USB stick, you can be stuck with number of errors.

In the linuxrc file, which is included in the miniroot.gz file there is a mistake in the name of ohci module file.

If you could look inside modules folder, you can find that correct name of this file is usb-ohci.o, but the linuxrc script tries to load /modules/usb/ohci.o

This is the reason of reported problem: "Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem..." sometimes. If you are lucky and your computer has uhci version of USB interface, you are happy, but if ohci...

Please find below short receipe how to correct this. (this is temporary, until John and Robert, would fix this permanetly)

I am using full KNOPPIX to load and access my USB Cruzer Mini, where I have copy of DSL.

We need to be a root for number of operations, thus first:

Code Sample

1. sudo su
2. Open Terminal as root

... and enter following commands:

Code Sample

3. cd /root
4. mkdir /mnt/usb0 /mnt/usb1 /mnt/usb2
5. mkdir temp temp/stick

In previous two steps we have created some folders for mounting files as well for temporary usage

Code Sample

6. cd temp
7. mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb0

Here /dev/sda1 is name as KNOPPIX has recognized my USB stick (yours might be different). BTW, in my case, cdrom, floppy and keydrive all are connected to PC via USB. If I am trying to automount floppy, I am receiving error because symlink is pointing to nowhere...

Code Sample

8. mount -o loop /mnt/usb0/knoppix/boot.img /mnt/usb1
9. gunzip /mnt/usb1/miniroot.gz
10. mount /mnt/usb1/miniroot /mnt/usb2

Now we can edit with favourite editor (vi rulez ;-) the linuxrc file located in the /mnt/usb2 folder.
You have to find the line, which looks like:
insmod -f /modules/usb/ohci.o ... and change it to
insmod -f /modules/usb/usb-ohci.o
After that save file and...

Code Sample

11. umount /mnt/usb2
12. gzip miniroot
13. cp -rp /mnt/usb1/miniroot.gz /mnt/usb0
14. umount /mnt/usb1
15. umount /mnt/usb0

Hope this helps.
Pawel Durys

PS. I am still fighting with my network card, which is working pretty well under KNOPPIX, but is not recognized under DSL :-(

Posted by roberts on July 12 2004,05:19

If you are talking about the special boot floppy, bootusb.img, you are right.
Thanks for pointing this out. I just checked this and made the correction. You can grab the corrected on at:
< ftp://ibiblio.org/pub....usb.img >
Look for the July 12 date on this file.

You must have a Compaq computer or SiS motherboard. I was only able to test the UHCI which works on all Intel and Via based systems. If you have a chance to test, I would appreciate it. Thanks for the feedback.

Posted by pdurys on July 12 2004,12:42

Yes I have Compaq nc4000 notebook.
I will see what will be availalbe in the neigborhood.

In the meantime, I haven't yet solved problem with net card, but this is separate problem.

Please check the linuxrc script, for situation, where floppy is attached via USB as well. In such case the floppy symlink point to nowhere and automount is not working at all.

I have to manually mount floppy as it is visible as sdb.

Thanks for reply.
Did you correct script or change the name of file? I can't see this now.

Pawel