chris:b

OK using Toronto now seams fine 3D works found and is using swap so far so good. Wish I had more ram (512) so I could try copy2ram like with delft and free up the cd drive but O well the wireless works. dose something like BOOT: root=/dev/hda2/toronto.iso work with this distro?? ( can you boot the iso on the HD ) other than that it seams fine will post back as I play with more stuff :D

 

O ya by the way none of the images (emoticons or avatars) would show up until I logged in ....curious

Thx, vinny.

You can start the iso saved on HD, but not with the CD.

You'd need a virtualization software installed on your system. Feel like trying VirtualBox?

http://www.virtualbox.org/

Install VirtualBox (either on a Windows system or in a Linux system), and you can create a virtual disk and start the iso.

Hoi vinny, I hear you

Welcome!

A (pre-) release for the upcoming MCNLive "Toronto" is available for download:

ftp://ftp.belnet.be/pub/mirror/urpmidev.m...cnlive/Toronto/

From the release notes:

20-05-2007 MCNLive Toronto, 466,4 MB

md5sum:

a0ad35c4d311828c9a9a564f6fb69697 MCNLive-Toronto.iso

 

Toronto has the same code base as Delft -- with additional applications included and some (minor) fixes.

 

Additional packages:

VirtualBox OSE, KOffice Suite, Gimp, Gthumb, Gxine, Gftp, Bluefish, Quanta, kaudiocreator, Kopete, kdebluetooth-pin, bunch of networking tools and printer packages ...

 

ENGLISH only edition !

To use the copy2ram option you need at least 768 MB RAM.

 

Improved isolinux bootsplash, with keyboard navigation to select a boot option

 

Different wallpapers

 

Fixed:

* (non-critical) error messages when shutting down the system in livecd persist mode

How it looks:

www.mcnlive.org/toronto/index.html

There should not be any serious issues or bugs B)

But it would be nice to have some feedback before I declare it final and announce it officially.

--chris

Thanks, momo :-)

And welcome on MUB!

If you have any questions, you know where to post them ...

--chris

I have exactly the same behaviour when trying to boot using the KDE Live CD, after downloading from an American Mirror site.

Like Beretta my video card is a Radeon 9600. And I would like to believe that the large iso file I downloaded wasn't a waste of my monthly 5 Gig capping allowance.

I am new to Linux and would love to be able to get acquainted with this very popular operating system. So, I can't wait to find out what could be done to get the CD to boot Mandriva Spring 2007 successfully. Many thanks for all future efforts to help us!

* Verify the md5sum of the downloaded iso file (use the search here on MUB with 'md5sum' if you don't know how)

* Make sure you burned the iso on **low** speed

If you still have problems.

When you see the first screen, you can hit a function key or ESC or something like that, it is explained on the screen.

Add this bootcode at the end to the so-called append line:

init 3

At the login prompt type: root

(and enter, no password is required)

Type: XFdrake

and hit enter, it is case sensitive!

You'll get a menu where you can configure your video card, your monitor and the resolution.

1. video card, driver, choose: vesa

2. monitor

3. resolution

Confirm.

Type: exit

(and hit enter)

Type: guest

(hit enter)

Type: startx

(hit enter)

Ok, actually pressing F12 changes the boot sequence. And it does boot ok initially from usb.

Also, no other sdX devices. So no confusing :D

You could try to extract the created initrd and try to found out if all modules are included.

My experience is that the last two editions of MDV install fine on a USB drive and do include all driv ers in the initrd, but I did not use the One live cd. But then, you should not have a problem with debian, I guess.

Note also in the ibm article they further discuss the timing issues and the need to rescan the scsi bus.

On some PC's that is an issue, at least I've seen it the last years with MCNLive usb booting.

Can you try to boot from the external drive on a different computer?

now tell us more about draklive

draklive is just the script that builds a live system on Mandriva :-)

It is used to build MDV One and the MDV Flash.

It builds a far better live cd than our old mklivecd scripts. But it is not easy to use, and it is not (yet) very flexible.

Mandriva should take care of all needed modules in the initrd, usually it does when you install to an external usb hard drive.

For me it looks like a problem of the sdX devices on your system.

When you try to boot from /dev/sda(x), and you installed the bootloader to /dev/sda, then:

* you must change your BIOS to boot from this device, that is from usb

* on your system no other sdX devices should confuse the set up. For example: if you have an internal sata disk, this would be the sda device, or if you have a card reader etc. When you are booting, sometimes it is a timing issue which sdX devices gets the first one.

Also, it depends on which bootloader config is read, the one on your internal hard disk or the external.

When you start the installation it is crucial that you are aware of all sdX devices, in particular when you are installing from the One Live version. (it is diffrent if you are installing from the DVD version). Also, on the live version it is important if you plug in the external disk after you have booted successfully or before you start the live cd.

1. To create the special isolinux boot splash, it is a pain, really, at least for this version of MCNLive.

I described it here:

http://www.mandrivaclub.nl/site/index.php?...ost&p=75807

The script to generate it (/usr/bin/lilo-bmp2mdk) is not even available in Mandriva now, I had to take an old MDV version.

You are faster just using a text file.

Next version will use an easy way with a jpg file, and a different isolinux verson, but the mklivecd scripts needs some adjustments to use it:

https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtop...mp;#entry313211

2. The kernel bootsplash. Just replace this file :

/usr/share/bootsplash/themes/Mandriva/images/bootsplash-800x600.jpg

with your own one, it has to be the same name, and the same size.

It seems I was not very good in announcing the move to MUB. We still get questions from English speaking folks on mandrivaclub.nl.

And still people emailing me which is very nice but a bit time consuming. I usually ask them to come here :D

Questions regarding USB booting which are solved very fast.

Need to think about it how to get the info out.

I have a couple of questions. The first is how to install a big program. In particular, I would like to create

a live cd (actually DVD) that includes TeXLive plus kile, xpdf, and gv. TeXLive is a huge installation. If you remove its documentation

it comes to about 800Mb.

 

I am running on a machine with about 1.2 Gb RAM. When I boot with mcnlive it gives me something more than 400Mb available on /

So TeXLive can not be installed in one step.

 

Is there a simple solution?

 

Will it work if I do it incrementally? If for example I install 400Mb, remaster, burn, reboot and add the remaining 400Mb?

 

Antonis.

Hi Antonis, welcome on MUB :-)

Short answer is: yes. You can make a remaster of a remaster of a remaster and so on. We have tested it with about 20-30 levels of remastering, and it still works.

Some go for something else that works as good. They install mcnlive first as a normal system on the hard disk (in non live mode). In this case you can make a remaster in one step because you won't run out of RAM. From a normal installed system please use the command line mklivecd command, it is explained in the howto pages on thge running mcnlive. The graphical wiziard (simple) is only made for remaster-on-the-fly.

Also, a remaster from a remaster from a hd installed system from a ... and so on also works. It just doesn't break as long as you don't change the scripts and don't uninstall dependencies, and don't change the normal MDV init scripts.

Another question is how to create a custom splash screen? Is there a llink to some documentation?

Which splash? The isolinux splash? The kernel boot splash? The kde login manager splash or the KDE splash?

would it be a good idea to make a rpm of these mklivecd fixes.

Yes, it is.

Unfortunately the mklivecd project with the cvs system is inactive since a long time, the developers stopped working with Mandriva.

I don't have the time and not the motivation to maintain a cvs or svn - which would be the only clean way.

Also, the rpm would not help much, because a MDV system meanwhile needs more fixes to basically work with mklivecd.

That's the reason I plan to give up on the mklivecd script and move to draklive, in the near future.

--chris

I am a bit confused by this thread.

A 'live system', on a cd or usb keys, is something complete different than an 'to HD installed' system.

Keeping settings or updating or upgrading differs very much - it depends on what kind of setup you use.

mindwave: talks about a 'live' system

smiler: has an 'hd installed' system

dexter: has it about a seperate /home - which only makes sense on an hd installed system.

Mandriva Flash is something different than MCNLive and works different. It is a hardware and software bundled product with one specific set up.

Keeping personal settings is different from keeping persistent system wide settings.

Upgrading from one edition to the next is again a different thing than keeping settings on a 'live cd'

MCNLive Cherbourg and VirtualCity and Delft have different approaches of keeping settings.

Should I go on? :D

--chris

4thwall,

your error has nothing to do with the persistent loop image. You didn't create any, you don't start with the specific boot code.

Every live cd is mounted at a certain stage as loop.

Your error indicates that at this stage the boot process can't continue because of problems with the either the CD drive or the cd medium.

Please try this first:

* Check the md5 sum of the downloaded iso image, first.

* Then burn at a very low speed, 8x. And use a CD-RW (re-writable) if available.

Also, your CD-drive or the controller might not like the burned CD.

Can you tell us about your hardware?

--chris

Did you install MCNLive to hard disk or do you run it in live mode, from CD or usb drive?

You are talking about a hard disk installation? In non-live mode?

When you made a complete upgrade to MDV 2007.1, yes, the scripts and some config files have vanished, I guess.

You could try to copy them over from Delft to your upgraded system on your hard disk.

/usr/sbin/mklivecd

/usr/sbin/hwdetect

The whole dir: /usr/share/mklivecd

And:

/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

/etc/rc.d/init.d/halt

/usr/lib/sylinux/isolinux-graphic.bin

It is also possible that you are missing some rpm's, like squashfs-tools etc.

I am not sure what more got wiped.

--chris

The Live system is static, stored in one big compressed file. While upgrading a normal installation with urpmi --auto-select is possible, it is not on a live system. Urpmi installs rpm's, a live system is an already installed system.

I don't know a way to 'upgrade' the whole system, which is based on Cherbourg =MDV 2007.0

Delft has a complete new codebase, it is MDV 2007.1. And the choice of apps is different.

Delft, though, introduces a new feature, to save all changes and make them persistent in a seperate loop disk.

If you have a highly customized live version on USB running fine, I would say, just keep it. :D

And use Delft as a live cd to discover the new features. Of course it is easy to import your personal bookmarks and stuff.

I've found an easy way to introduce a graphical isolinux menu in MCNLive, navigation with keyboard:

http://home.tiscali.nl/berenstraat/newmenu.jpg

Much easier than the ugly gfxboot suse/novell patch :-)

Found it on the new Fedora live and the syslinux site. Using the plain isolinux.bin with a vesamenu, and a 640x480 jpg file as background.

The normal isolinux.cfg is all that is needed as config.

MDV did it again and preferred a patched syslinux package instead of using the unpatched syslinux/isolinux. And they don't ship the vesamenu.c32 in their rpm.

The fedora ones do work, though, even on a mdv 2007.1 system :-)

Do you mean updating/upgrading the Live system? Running live?

On this occasion, I'm proposing a further step and wish that the next Free Software version of Mandriva Linux be made directly by a member of the community.

I wonder what this means.

The MCNLive homepage:

www.mcnlive.org

Download mirrors:

www.mcnlive.org/download.htm

Direct ftp access:

ftp://ftp.belnet.be/pub/mirror/urpmidev.m...lub.nl/mcnlive/

ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/man...clubnl/mcnlive/

How to make your own Live system:

www.mcnlive.org/howto_en.htm

distrowatch site with version history:

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mcnlive

MCNLive makes it easy to build a customized version, focussing on different languages and different software included.

Some remasters which I know and are published:

FreevoLive:

http://freevolive.tuxfamily.org/

PSKlive:

http://www.crusefalk.se/psklive/index.html

There are Swedish, Spanish and Czech editions out there, some of them published on CD/DVD's in linux magazines, also a French project which replaces KDE with lighter DE's/WM's, and a multi-live version, MadBox live, combining MCNLive, GeexBox, DamnSmall Linux & GParted :

http://madbox.tuxfamily.org/download.html

Welcome on MUB, mzee.

When you forgot the cheatcode 'livecd ntfsrw' you can do the following. Check with the 'mount' command which is the ntfs device and where it is mounted. Example, it is /dev/hda1, mounted on /mnt/win_c

You would do:

su
umount /mnt/win_c
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c

The other way round if you want to remount it read-only. You would do:

su
umount /mnt/win_c
mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c

I'm so proud of Anna - she had a good idea that has grown into a really awesome project. I'm fully behind us supporting MCN.

Wasn't it you SoulSe who once said here on this board, that I would start a distro, and my answer was: Me, sure not.

Ah well, I was right, MCNLive is not a distro :P

just a specific edition with some special features added to Mandriva.

Now, I am going to hunt here on the board for my old 'mklivecd howto's'.

It started here on MUB.

Lower the configured resolution to get 3D desktop effects

On some boxes MCNLive will start automatically with a pretty high resolution, which is fine without 3D desktop. But prevents Beryl or Metisse to work properly.

Example. An IBM Thinkpad T30. Radeon 9250 (or something like that) video card. Starts into 1400x xxx resolution, looks great :-)

Before yor enable 3D effects, please click on 'Configure Video' (menu--> MCNLive), set your monitor to 1024x768 Flat panel *and* the resolution to 1024x768. Now enable in the same menu 3D desktop. Logout, login back, as user guest, password: guest

Beryl and Metisse and Compiz - still experimental

Please keep in mind when using the 3D desktop effects that it is still experimental. In some cases you might run into stability issues (read: it will crash, which is not critical on a live system but annoying). Depends on your video card, the available video RAM, a screensaver popping in, too much open embedded flash contents on websites ...

It seems for some bluetooth services we missed the package kdebluetooth-pin

Open a terminal, type:

su
urpmi kdebluetooth-pin

I am sorry for that. We had no bluetooth tester.

Installing Delft to hard disk

Though not recommended it seems that people wish to use Delft for a permanent system on HD.

* When it comes to the step of installing the bootloader, please don't try to manually add another OS. (MS Windows is added by default if discovered.) It will most likely fail. You can do this after you re-booted the first time.

* Please consider after an installation the following tasks. Change the passwords of the user guest and root, create you own user, un-install the package 'draklive-install', check the default services you want to start at boot time (MCC), don't use the wizards in the menu 'MCNLive', they are made for a live system only, check if the security level (standard) fits your needs, add a firewall if you are not in an already secured network ...

* I would like to repeat it here. Consider installing the real Mandriva. The Mandriva free dvd download edition is just wonderful. And if you want to support the distribution, you may want to buy the commercial edition, Mandriva Powerpack.

Enabling the non-free software sources

Delft does not include any closed source drivers on kernel level. In the Mandriva Control Center you can enable the already configured source which contains all non-free drivers, for example for nvidia and ati video cards, and install the (pre-compiled) drivers. 'Delft' comes with the default Mandriva 2007.1 Spring kernel!

What is the wizard ' Create persistent loop' for?

This wizard creates a (big) file on a chosen partition to prepare the feature: make all changes persistent.

* It will ask you where to create this file and how big it should be.

* If you go for an ext3 partition, this partition will get the label MCNLIVE.

* The wizard does not create or erase any partitions.

The bootcode: vesa

* Very few graphical cards might refuse to boot into graphical mode. 'Delft' introduces a cheatcode for this issue. At the initial boot screen hit F1, at the poot prompt type: vesa (not livecd vesa, just: vesa !)

The boot process will write a standard config file for a vesa card and a screen resolution of 1024x768, configure a standard mouse etc.

* This boot code is also meant when booting from the iso file or a real CD with VirtualBox or VMWare.

Hot plugging removable devices - dubbel-click the Devices icon on the desktop

Plug in the device. Wait two seconds. Dubbel-click the icon 'Devices' on the desktop. You'll find them ;-)

I disabled the annoying pop-up windows ...

Available bootcodes for 'Delft'

www.mcnlive.org/bootcodes-delft.html.

(May 6, 2007)

A new edition of MCNLive, code name "Delft" is out, a fun release based on Mandriva Spring 2007.1, lacking any office or work-related software packages that would seriously distract your mind. A portable Linux live system for CD or USB drives, with some smart wizards to get the best out of a Live system. Add software, set it up on your pendrive, run it entirely from RAM, write to NTFS partitions, create your own version on-the-fly, switch languages, make all changes persistent.

KDE 3.5.6 with a set of internet, music and video applications, games and more: Opera 9.20, Midnight Commander, K3b, gnomad2. English (default), Dutch, French, Italian pre-installed.

3D desktop - Beryl, Compiz and Metisse - for Intel and ATI cards, with nvidia 2D joy only. Included WIFI drivers. 100% Mandriva 2007.1 compatible. If you really *must*, install it on your hard disk. (My advice for serious work: pick simply the best, the real Mandriva Linux.)

Get your copy, a complete list of installed software and the more technical release notes at

ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/man.../mcnlive/Delft/

We hope that you enjoy this new release.

--chris