Installing Mandrake on USB 2.0 Disk

[ianw1974]

I see your problem:

 

initrd (hda0,4)/boot/initrd.img

this should say (hd0,4), the addition of the "a" is why it's going wrong. You'll need to be able to boot up and edit this file removing the "a", and hopefully you'll be OK.

[Compugen]

I am sorry ian. It was a typing error. It is hd0,4 only. I tried with all options but none is working :(

[Compugen]

The last screen of halt...

md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Red Hat nash version 4.1.9mdk starting
Loading reiserfs.ko module
Mounting /proc filesystem
Mounting sysfs
Creating device files
mounting tmpfs on /dev
starting udev
Creating root device
Mounting root filesystem with flags notail
mount: error 6 mounting reiserfs flags notail
well, retrying without the option flags
mount: error 6 mounting reiserfs
well, retrying read-only without any flag
mount: error 6 mounting reiserfs
pivotroot: pivot_root(/sysroot, /sysroot/initrd) failed:2
umount /initrd/sys failed: 2
umount /initrd/proc failed:2
Initrd finished.
Freeing uinused kernel memory: 200k Freed
Kernel Panic. No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.

 

My guess was that there is a lag between USB2.0 External and the init. Thought putting

 /bin/sleep 5

command but for that i need files in LIB folder of the image. When i try to copy i get error "No more space left on the device".

 

Any guesses where am I going wrong? If anyone suggests any patches to do the thing... or if I can get this kindda image from anyone or anywhere which i can copy to the root folder??

 

:unsure:

[ianw1974]

Is this a typo as well?

 

/dev/sda5 reiserfs notail 1 1

 

I'm expecting a "/" in between /dev/sda5 and reiserfs, eg:

 

/dev/sda5 / reiserfs notail 1 1

 

just checking, because I can't understand why your boot process is failing.

[Compugen]

It is having "/" but after a space

 

The system is not able mount the root filesystem, if i am nt wrong. what could be the possibility? Any idea? Can you send me the image of the one you are using? I'll change the fstab accordingly...if its possible. Might be there is just a minute prob which we are unable to look at ???

 

I think the only issue is with the sleep thing. Might be the USB devices are a bit slower and thats why it is happening....

[ianw1974]

This is from my fstab:

 

/dev/hda2 / reiserfs notail,noatime 1 1

 

the only difference being the "noatime". You can try this, but I don't expect it would make much difference.

 

Check the initrd file in /boot along with vmlinuz as well. Here's mine as an example:

 

[root@elise ian]# ls -l /boot
total 3090
-rw-r--r--  1 root root	 512 Apr 29 15:08 boot.0300
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root	  19 May 29 18:46 config -> config-2.6.12-18mdk
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   71358 Mar 15 21:18 config-2.6.12-18mdk
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root	 120 Apr 29 14:51 grub/
-rw-------  1 root root  234244 Apr 29 17:43 initrd-2.6.12-18mdk.img
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root	  23 Apr 29 17:43 initrd.img -> initrd-2.6.12-18mdk.img
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root	  27 May 29 18:46 kernel.h -> /boot/kernel.h-2.6.12-18mdk
-rw-r--r--  1 root root	 695 Apr 29 21:15 kernel.h-2.6.12-18mdk
-rw-------  1 root root  325120 Apr 29 21:59 map
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root	  15 Apr 29 15:07 message -> message-graphic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  246542 Apr 29 17:43 message-graphic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root	 116 Apr 29 15:07 message-text
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root	  23 Apr 29 21:14 System.map -> System.map-2.6.12-18mdk
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  639564 Mar 15 21:18 System.map-2.6.12-18mdk
-rw-r--r--  1 root root	 256 Apr 29 15:07 uk.klt
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root	  20 Apr 29 17:43 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.12-18mdk
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1611555 Mar 15 21:18 vmlinuz-2.6.12-18mdk

 

vmlinuz is a symlink to the kernel. and initrd is a symlink to the initrd for the kernel.

 

EDIT:

 

Here is /boot/grub/menu.lst:

 

[ian@elise ~]$ cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
timeout 5
shade 1
viewport 3 2 77 22
splashimage (hd0,1)/boot/grub/mdv-grub_splash.xpm.gz
default 3

title linux
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 failsafe
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

 

the main one being "linux" as this is the boot option for booting my Mandriva install. Mine is slightly different to yours.

[Compugen]

what should i do now?

 

suggest me some other distro pls...i ll load it on same disk. Will load mandrake on desktop by connecting it to ide and on laptop the new distro:)

[ianw1974]

Distro is personal choice, so I can't really suggest anything from personal experience other than Mandriva, or others in my signature. Did you check all I posted above to see if it's matched exactly, etc?

 

Ubuntu is a nice easy distro from what I gather, and you could always try this. I've never used it, so I can't say whether it's a good replacement or not. SuSe is also another distro that's OK for newbies.

 

If you want to use a rpm distro like Mandriva, SuSe I think uses rpms still, and Fedora is also an alternative, along with CentOS which is practically the same as Red Hat Linux.

[Compugen]

i checked everythin.. :(

[ianw1974]

I can only think it has something to do with the fact it was installed using IDE controllers and then swapped to using USB afterwards that the problem is occurring.

 

When you installed grub, was it installed when connected to IDE, or was it installed when connected as a USB disk?

 

If it was done when connected as a USB disk, then I can't think of anything else as to why it doesn't work.

[Compugen]

It was done using IDE and then later connected USB. Selected UPGRADE option and then it was loaded using USB only...the last screen is after all this process. Just a thought stuck me. Now i wiped the drive. Starting from scratch using another HDD. After install i ll select upgrade by connecting the drive to the USB. Secondly, i ve done the following

 

sda 1 ---- 2GB ---Boot

sda2 ---- 5gb --- root

sda3 ---- 800mb ----swap

sda4 ---10gb ---- home..

 

However, i am planning to wipe off sda4 and have 15gig of root instead. Any suggestion? The reason is earlier sda1 was a vfat partition. And also m selecting Primary partitions this time under expert mode and not Logical drives.

 

After all done am planning to put up UBUNTU in for my laptop... so ide connect would be for the desktop and for rest it would be USB... Ubuntu. Then i ll try figuring out what UBUNTU is having for booting from external disk.... gosh!!!!! Hell pain in here

[ianw1974]

That should be OK as partitioning goes. I usually allocate all to root if I don't have much space available, so this could be OK for you, although you could partition separately for /home if needed for additional security. This just means if the system crashes, you can reinstall without having to format /home and losing any data stored there.

 

Also, I tend to put swap as the very first partition, followed by /boot or / if I don't put /boot separately. The /boot partition or / has to be second or third else you could experience problems later.

[Compugen]

I dont think it can get worse anymore. I wiped off my hdd and then did partitioning. I was thinking that the first partition as FAT32 might be creating problems. But then i swiped it off. Now I am having following situations::

sda 1 ---> Root, Reiserfs

Sda 2 - --> fat32, (last part of the drive)

sda 3 ----> Swap

Sda4 ---> home.

 

I have taken off the boot this time. Now the issues. Linux went flying as I attached hdd to primary ide. Opened linux as root, changed fstab,menu.lst, lilo.conf and device.map to sda from hda. Now I tried compling new initrd image since I read over the net it might be the fact that USB devices communicate over the ide channel at a burst rate; and also if the device is left idle for a second or two then it takes couple of seconds to transfer the thing back and forth since it doesn't get hooked to the RAM. For this they have a simple structure where in they load the USB modules first and then after mounting file systems they reread the partition table by "/sbin/sfdisk" and before this they let the sys sleep so that USB device can be mounted... they use "/bin/sleep 5".

 

Now problem is during this procedure I get error "CP: filename, No space left on the device".

 

Meanwhile I am on track to install UBUNTU since it can easily support laptops. Secondly, mandrake doesnt verify my laptop's screen that is wide screen 15.1 inch.

 

 

Laptop Make : HP 2136

[Compugen]

I was able to install UBUNTU to external disk. Its done.

Figured out why mandrake is not booting from USB disk. I have to make a new initrd image which loads USB modules and sleep before reading everything from the disk. But when I do this it says "No space left on device..."

 

Second, is it possible to install 2 linux on same drive? I want that /root should be common to both OS. I mean cant i create /root/Mandrake during installation? So that the system knows where to take things from? Or is there any other way to it?

[ianw1974]

It is possible to install two different distros on the same disk as far as I'm aware, but never tried it.

 

However, they wouldn't be able to share common partitions. It would mean you would have two of everything. If you attempted to share existing mount points, it would fail because you would overwrite a lot of stuff, and the other distro would fail to operate.

 

The only partition you will be able to share is swap. The rest will have to exist twice, one set of / and /home for mandriva and / and /home for ubuntu.