I'm trying to boot MCNLive on my Dell Latitude D620 Notebook. The LiveCD boots fine. I made a USB version following the instructions exactly.

When I boot, it gets through a number of system checks but when it tries to boot the OS, it fails to mount the loop file and drops me to a limited shell.

I've tried "safeboot" and other cheat codes and they don't work. I've checked the md5 sum to make sure the cd version was fine. I checked my system BIOS. I'm open to any and all suggestions.

I've successfully tried other distos on USB. Slax and Puppy Linux boot fine. PCLinuxOS minime gave me the same loop file problem and wouldn't boot. I'm thinking it has something to do with Mandriva now.

Thanks for your help.
-Rob

Hay some times these things keep looking for /dev hdc . did you try editing the boot line with somthing like ----------------root=/dev/sda1----------or the path to your usb device. you may half to add --------noinitrd to the end of that.

VINNY

Hello rwestervelt
Please check Bios entries. Your USB Pendrive could be listed in Harddrive list. In that case you have to change the boot sequence. Hope it helps.

a lot of times you will also find that if you mounted ANY other extraneous drives during the process, they will make the loop file too big and then drop you to a limited shell when you get to that point.

I had that issue a lot when i would remaster my systems and then find out that I forgot to UN mount everything that isnt needed.

try making the USB key again, but before you do, go into the MCC and unmount everything BUT the USB key and the \ partition

j

from what i can tell i have the same problem.
here's the screenshot of what happens. --> http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/dem...13/IMG_0097.jpg
basically unionfs.ko fails ot load.


other info (don't know if it will help, but it can't hurt):
my pc: laptop toshiba a100 series (2ghz dual core, 1.5gb ram...), year and a half old.
usb from which i'm trying to boot: A-DATA PD4 (1gb)

i know that i can boot from usb since i booted linux few times before using the same usb drive (successfully booted backtrack)

and yeah, i have nothing else pluged in my other usb ports :s

update: tried booting from my girlfriends usb (canyon) and everything works

i still have no idea why my usb doesn't boot, but i guess i'll buy a new one just for mcnlive anyway

i havent read this whole post, but i do know that there are several USB keys out there (ssandisk for example) who have a U3 "security" feature embedded in the track 0 of the directory structure.

that has to be complettely destroyed in order for MCNL to work.

it's not hard. i just dont remember off the top of my head

Yes that should be listed at the top, Get the U3 uninstaller and remove that sucker, it wasted a day of my time.

I'm having a similar problem, and I believe I know the reason too. Hopefully, a fix will be implemented in a later version.

The reason (I think) is that I am using the USB Flash Stick (Pendrive) as a non-removable media, and thus was able to partition it. Here is the current layout of my partitions on the USB drive:

- WinGrub on the MBR (hd0), files installed in first partition (hd0,0)
- ERD Commander 2005 (NT based, FAT16) on Primary Partition 1 (hd0,0)
- Windows command prompt (DOS based, FAT32) on Primary Partition 2 (hd0,1)
- Future use (FAT32) on Primary Partition 3 (hd0,2)
- Extended partition as Partition 4 (hd0,3)
- - - Offline NT Password & Registry Editor (Linux based, FAT16) in Logical partition 4.1 (hd0,4)
- - - Damn Small Linux v4.4.3 (Linux based, FAT16) in Logical partition 4.2 (hd0,5)
- - - Puppy Linux v4.00 (Linux based, FAT16) in Logical partition 4.3 (hd0,6)
- - - MCN/Pendrive Linux 2008 (Linux based, FAT16) in Logical partition 4.4 (hd0,7)
- - - Ubuntu 8.04-1 (Linux-based, FAT16) in Logical partition 4.5 (hd0,8)
- - - Windows XPe (NTLDR/BartPE) in Logical partition 4.5 (hd0,8)

If I use the USB key (Kingston Data Traveler 4GB), or actually any other I have (Kingston Data Traveler 1GB), and format the USB drive as a single partition removable media (HP's USB format utility) and then install MCN/Pendrive Linux 2008, then it works fine. But if repartition the space and add another partition there, before the MCN partition, it just goes dead. I believe I even tried creating a partition *after* MCN and it failed too.


Unfortunately, that doesn't work. Thanks for the idea though.


Everything is fine, of course. That USB key boots many other systems, including Damn Small Linux v4.4.3, Puppy Linux v4.00, Ubuntu v8.04, DOS command prompts, Grub, Syslinux, etc.


Definitely not a remaster problem, I used the default/downloaded image.


That is exactly the errors I am getting as well, although the reasons may be different (see my other comments) since yours boots fine in another computer. Although, it may be simply because the other computer boots only as USB-FDD (single partition visible), who knows.




Nope, no U3 on my USB key. Actually, on none of them:
- Kingston Data Traveler 1GB
- Kingston Data Traveler 4GB
- PNY Attache 4GB


I'm very disappointed I couldn't make it work. Even though I've spent way too much time (couple days), as I really like this setup, it is PERFECT for my application (safety USB key) or even my new netbook (very lightweight trimmed down notebook)... But I need to have several partitions in both my safety USB key, and my netbook.

So I guess I'll have to forget about MCN/Pendrive Linux 2008. Unless there is something I can do about it, such as install a newer kernel with multi-partition USB support, which seems to be the case for every other recent linux distro I've tried, whether DSL, Puppy, Ubuntu 8.04 and a few others. By the way, the USB as partitioned (see above at the beginning of my post) works perfectly, except for the MCN/Pendrive Linux 2008 partition of course.