Hi,

I've tested my MCNLive USB on my college's computer, with the "persistent mode" activated, but I've realized that every time that the system boots, it is possibly created a kind of "history file" containing a hardware list of the specific computer.

I concluded this because, when I came back home, I ran MCNLive on my own pc and the system tried to find a network card of my college's computer. Then, it was showed a "[FAILED]" message on the boot screen. Although this error appears, the system could start normally.

The problem is because that message is showed every time I initialize MCNLive. I wanna know how to avoid this and have a true portable Linux. Does anybody have a solution?

Regards.

let me make sure i undersatand (because i think ive run into the same thing)

You take your MCNL USB to school. plug it in reboot, everything works fine and you work normally.

then you go home, insert the USB, reboot and the OS tries to initialize the ETH from the school pc, and because youre probably using a different card, it posts a failure message.

is that correct so far?

MY next question is, even after the failure message, does MCNL then go out and work with the network card in your home pc?

I know that mine works w/ my work PC no probs, take it home, and it still logs the old NIC, but it has always worked fine thereafter.

Exactly! It's the same case! The computer still working fine, but the failure message appears during the boot. Is there a way to clean this log file or something like that?

as far as I remmeber there IS a way to clean this out, but realize that you have 2 things

#1 if you are constantly shuttling between several of the same computers on a consistent basis (like I do) and you delete these items, you will be forcing harddrake to re install the NIC each time, where as if you have (lets say) 4 NICS recognized through 4 different PC's and you keave them, you will get 3 errors and the 4th will install. at that point ist just an annoyance.

There is a "limit" to the number of items, similar to windows USB limit (which is NOT 127 btw), but it's doubtful that you will ever reach it, and even if you did it would merely kill the oldest and add new one.

I dont remember what the error message is related to (what log its kept in), but if you dont want the error, you will have to kill the entries everytime you reboot or logout.

now as I recall, you can create a script to do it for you, but as I stated above you are then betting that harddrake will get it right on the next time.

IF however you are ALWAYS on a different PC every day, or several times a day, you MAY want to do an advanced dogpile search for where its listed, but I've never known anyone to fill up their list completely.

I dont think that MDV will probably EVER address this, as they want you to keep byuing their FLASH product.

If we (as a community) ever pin down 2008 and later copies, the way MCNL did 2007 and earlier, you'll probably be OK except for the nuisence.

after all it IS working

but thats just me

You said that if I often use many computers it would be a bad idea to delete those entries because the boot process would be slower. Is it correct?

But, if I don't use the other PC many times, it would be desirable to delete those entries anyway. I think it's an interesting idea to create a shell script with this purpose. I would be glad if you could help me in this job.

Best wishes.

I think your on the right track, if you use a bunch of different computers and rarely go back to the same ones, then creating something to kill the entries, perhaps as you shut diown, probably wouldnt be abad idea.

however if you use a different pc, in the same internet cafe everyday, you may be shooting yourself in the foot, as many times the same configuration pc is used on many different pc's in the same place (for example, my call center all used compaq EVO d-500's but the guys sit at a different desk every day).

IN THAT case not killing the NIC would be better, because chances are the differences in the NICS in an EVO d 500 are slim.

However if you teach in 10 different schools and ech class uses a hodge podge of different pc's you may be helping yourself (slighty) by killing the old entries.

In THEORY, you could MAX out the # of entries and reach a point where a NIC wouldnt be auto detectted, but then you wioykd have to configure the NIC manty though the MCC.

The question is "how". Which file I have to edit?

Ps: I'm not a teacher.

AH, for that i unfortunately would have to refer you to the WEB or perhasps, better yet. AWwilliams in the mandriva forums at mandriva.com

he is a canadian developer who works for MDV but is an AWESOME resource because he understands that most people dont know as much as he does.

matter of fact he's helping me sync my 2003PDA now.

Once I realized that it was just a nuisence error I stopped looking for the fix, sorry.

I know its out there, I even used to know the file name at one point, just forgotten in the cobwebs now......

After booting on other systems i've had the same problem. It's not critical, but very annoying.

You can delete unnecessary entries in file '/initrd/changes/etc/udev/rules.d/61-net_config.rules', generated by udev - it contains the list of previously found NICs, associated device names like eth0-eth1 etc.

Otherwise, you can leave some entries if you plan to boot again on some machines but change the order of naming NIC - in my case, i've been mostly annoyed that NIC on my home PC became eth6 or eth8 after all )