chris:b

How exactly do you remove files? (On the original MCNLive, the filemanager -as user and in root mode- is configured in a way that you can erase everything without the trash. On a standard MDV installation, the setting is : they first go to trash. And you need to empty the trash first. And if you work -graphically- as root they go to root's trash. If you try to empty the trash again graphically (with a filemanager) they will again go to trash :-) You can use the command line (rm) to erase files. Or configure the filemanager. Which do you use?

You don't need to format the USB stick with a windows uitility. And you should not follow any steps that you find on the site pendrivelinux. Just boot MCNLive as CD. Plugin the USB stick, and run the wizard: Create Live USB. Set your BIOS to boot from USB-HDD - or a similiar menu in the BIOS, and boot from the pendrive.

Ahaaa. Basically this is a good sign :P Just to give some explanation. After the first init process (done by the initrc script inside the initrd) a second mklivecd specific script is executed, hwdetect, it tries to find all ide and usb etc devices, the filesystems, creates mountpoints, writes an fstab file. After this hwdetect script the normal Mandriva init process starts, then the KDE init. It is possible that the hwdetect has setup the partitions, but hal/dbus/kde is confused because the (removable) device is already configured. One more test, or do I ask too much? I am aware that it is not too much fun to do this :D * With inserted CF card, start the pilota CD, with the default boot, the first entry in the menu. * When KDE is up and running, don't do anything with the card. * Open a terminal, and: cat /etc/fstab and post the result here. And: ls -l /mnt And: ls -l /dev/hd*

Do you mean, * when you booted the pilotoa.iso, with the default boot entry, and with inserted card, you could not see icons in the "Devices", only after you took the card out, and in again, then these icons appeared? * with Toronto, with inserted card before booting, and the default boot, you could see the Card in "Devices", without re-inserting? Can you answer these questions?

Just don't insert the CF card before booting, but afterwards. I thought that you had to re-insert it anyways, in both versions? When you boot (without these new bootcodes), just with the default, you should have the same behaviour, or? There is free software to make calls, but not with the Skype network. Sorry, I don't know, never used it.

Too bad :-( The error messages indicate that the device is still not initialized. Result is that the partitions can't be found at all, at this early stage. Unfortunately I don't know where to look, because I don't have the hardware. There is a certain (udev ?) process involved, I believe. Thanks for testing, pilota. Looks like you need to buy a cheap USB stick, make an ext3 partitions, to save your settings. I guess it is still the Thinkpad with the broken hard disk, yes? And ... the next days I have some time to build a new iso. A thanks to you for testing :-) Just tell me what I should add. Open Office -- I know, something else?

It is ok that they are not mounted. Just try the step 3, I explained above. Before you run the wizard, mount the ext3 partition by opening it via the devices icon.

The CF card looks perfectly now! OK you were faster -- . Next step: 3. Download the iso and burn it on a CD ... The new CD has 2 new menu entries on the first screen: Boot from PCMCIA and Boot from PCMCIA with persist. If your CF card is ok, please boot from the CD, but don't use these new menu entries. Just boot the default!! But have the CF card inserted before you boot. After you booted sucessfully, run: mount Are the partitions mounted? If yes, run the wizard: Create persistent loop, choose ON EXT3, and make a loop file. A small one will do for a test. ---> Then reboot with the CF card inserted. This time choose in the menu: Boot with persistent changes. The entry 6. (not yet: boot from pcmcia with persist) Try to boot, make some changes. Do a clean shutdown/halt. And restart the computer, with inserted card. Choose again menu entry 6. Does it keep the changes, do you get any errors? Next test is: you would copy the big livecd.sqfs fle from the CD to the first FAT partition on your CF card. How? Control where this first partition is mounted, by typing: mount What is the mount point of the FAT partition, something like /media/blah, or /mnt/blah Look at the directory /initrd/cdrom --> here is the livecd.sqfs Copy it over to the mount point, /media/blah or /mnt/blah Restart the computer with the CD, with plugged in card, choose in the menu: boot from pcmcia

Here a screenshot of the new boot menu: And your SF wallpaper, hope you like it, there are more included - and with the persist working you can make all changes you want:

I couldn't include Skype, the license does not allow it. Ok, here we go, here is your pilota.iso It's only a test version. If we succeed I'll make you an iso with OpenOffice included, because OO is just too much for a persistent image, for my taste :-) I would like to ask you to do the following steps. They are necessary to create a good testcase. 1. Please fix your CF card. The partition table is screwed. In MCC, the menu for mounting and formatting. Please try to erase all partitions! Not only reformat it, erase it. Then click on: toggle to expert mode. Create a new primary partition, filesystem FAT32. Make it ~ 600 MB or more. In the input field 'where to mount' delete the entries, it should be empty. The base system will go onto it. It has to be FAT. You can make it bigger if you want. Format the partition - it is a second step, a button on the left. Click on the remaining grey area, and create a second partition that fills up the remaining space. Filesystem ext3. Note: check the box that makes it also a primary partition, otherwise MDV will make an extended and inside it a logical, diskdrake is a little bit odd. Mount point: empty the field. Format the partition. Confirm everything. Close diskdrake. 2. Control now the partitions: su fdisk -l And please post the result here. I'd like to see how the CF card looks now. If it is still odd, we need to wipe the partition table clean on command line. 3. Download the iso and burn it on a CD ... The new CD has 2 new menu entreis on the first screen: Boot from PCMCIA and Boot from PCMCIA with persist. If your CF card is ok, please boot from the CD, but don't use these new menu entries. Just boot the default!! But have the CF card inserted before you boot. After you booted sucessfully, run: mount Are the partitions mounted? If yes, run the wizard: Create persistent loop, choose ON EXT3, and make a loop file. A small one will do for a test.

The code is ready and works, the pcmcia modules are loading ok. But I can't test it. No CF card here. In particular I don't know if detecting the device needs some sleep in the code. Pilota: before I am going to build a final iso for you, could you tell me if you have some special wishes? Things you want me to include, GUI settings changed, uninstalling programs you never use - most likely we will need more than one test, and the smaller the iso is, the easier for me. It takes ages to upload it and wait until the public mirrors are syncing it. The base is: Toronto. Please tell, what you don't need. PS: you help a lot to improve MCNLive, because people will also be able to boot from an internal IDE hard disk, in live mode.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hde1 1 1509 760504+ 83 Linux /dev/hde2 * 1 1 0 0 Empty Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/hde3 * 1 1 0 0 Empty Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/hde4 * 1 1 0 0 Empty Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary. There is something not ok with the partitions on your card. B) Well, it is seen as a normal hard disk. No problem for using a mcnlive.loop persist file. But a problem to implement to _boot_ from it. I'd need to rework the mklivecd scripts to make a cheatcode to boot from a normal HD. I would like to make a bootcode: pilota :D Give me some time. I will get back to you.

In theorie, with the added kernel modules, you would be able to use a mcnlive.loop on the pcmcia card and you would even be able to boot from the card. Or use a combination: boot from CD the first stage, then continue with the card, like we do with USB. But unfortunately you don't have enough RAM to make a remaster on the Thinkpad. You could create a swap partition on the card, enable the swap manually (swapon -a), but I am not sure if this is enough for the build process. Give me some time, maybe a week, I'll make you an iso, and give you the download location. But first, can you tell me how the card is seen, I need the device node. Insert the card, and do a: su fdisk -l

Looks like we need to preload the following modules in the initrd: pcmcia_core pcmcia rsrc_nonstatic yenta_socket ide_cs pilotaviola, have you ever tried to make a remaster-on-the-fly? You would need an ext3 or NTFS partition on the computer where you boot MCNLive. It is pretty easy. Do you boot from USB or from CD? Let me know if you would like to make a test, I'll tell you how to change two scripts.

http://sentrix.homeip.net/rpms/NOARCH/

and: lspcidrake -v (both with inserted flash card)

I guess its because a module is missing to detect the pcmcia adapter at the very early bootstage. (the module needs to be in the initial ramdisk) Can you tell me which modules need to be loaded for this adapter? su lsmod

That is the default, in the wizard. But not on command line. mklivecd also needs to work on an installed system! Hint: there is a howto page, when you open a browser. :D The symlinks setup is not made by me, but by the main authors of the mklivecd scripts. And it will change, it is pretty dated meanwhile.

That is not the exact error message you get. B) That is the result of something else what happens, for example not finding the cdrom. You can see it on your screen, but you don't tell ... And if you would like to debug the problem you have, you need to look closer at the linuxrc and how the live system boots, and how the init loads unionfs. It first unzips the module, then insmod it :-) Your problem are not the mklivecd scripts, rather something in your new kernel.

Maybe it is useful to explain a bit. This is about using a newer kernel on an -meanwhile- outdated base system. On a normal _installed_ Mandriva system, you can adjust everything manually.Compile your own kernel. A Live system is something different. The automatic hardware detection in the background depends on very specific scripts and kernel modules etc. Here are the basic things, and if ONE component changes, others won't work properly: * the kernel (yes, the IDE controllers are now modules and not compiled in) * the drakxtools (if you got a dependency with a higher version, the hardware detection on a live system will fail), they determine the whole hardware detection, and they usually change dramatically between two MDV versions * ldconfig, pci.id's, ldetect * initscripts ... and to follow these changes, the mklivecd scripts (building and setting up the live system) usually need a lot of changes.

In your case the argument would be: mklivecd --kernel 2.6.21-4mdv .... A cooker kernel btw won't work. They are now using a modulair IDE kernel. The mklivecd scripts are not yet prepared to boot such a kernel on a live system. If you can find a backported MDV kernel in the official 2007.1 repos, in contrib/backports, then maybe. But it will break most likely more stuff, ndiswrapper, fuse, wireless drivers. I don't know.

As I told you in another thread, a Live system is not a installation DVD. You can't recreate a install DVD with MCNLive. They are different beasts.

bookie, MCNLive has nothing to do with Powerpack. With MCNLive you don't install anything on your computer. Just leave your computer as it is. MCNLive is a live system. You run it LIVE. Just boot it with the CD. And get familiar with it.

Uh ah, the output can't be /dev/dsa1 * and /dev/sda1 . It does not matter on which system you do run fdisk -l with the plugged stick. It does not matter on which system you do the Create Live USB wizard. The result is a Live USB that should run on all systems. I need the exact error message, at least the last 2 lines. If it says: dropping you to a limited shell, and you get a prompt. Then you have a second stage boot problem. Looks like a usb port problem. You can try a cheatcode: livecd fromusb irqpoll noapic But I am still not sure if your usb stick is ok.

There is no options (with the mklivecd scripts) to boot more than one kernel. But you can install a second kernel on the running live system, and then tell the mklivecd build command to use this second kernel for building the new iso. example: mklivecd --kernel 2.6.21-2mdv "2.6.21-2mdv" is an example, you need to find out the exact naming, and because you can't reboot on a live system, the uname -r is giving the old running kernel, you need to look at: /lib/modules/kernel/nameofdirectory nameofdirectory would be the argument, thus: --kernel nameofdirectory The result will be a live iso with this new kernel.