mandie Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Hi Everyone, I'm very new to Linux and am loving it so far. The trouble is that I'm running Mandriva from a boot cd, therefore unable to save anything I set up. I want to make a Live USB but when I click on Create MCNLive USB it says there is no USB device available. I've tried all 4 of my usb ports and 2 other pen drives but I just can't get linux to see my usb ports. Please help. Mandie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Hi Mandie, Welcome Are you wanting to run from USB, rather than install directly onto your hard disk? I know that mcnlive isn't maintained as such anymore, although surprised it didn't detect your usb pendrive. When you connected it, did any windows pop up allowing you to browse the existing files on the pendrive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandie Posted March 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Hi Ian, Yes I want to run from USB as my hard drive on my laptop isn't really big enough to partition it - 30Gb - No windows popped up, nothing. The light on the drive does light up for a while but then goes out. Windows recognises it so I'm guessing that it isn't a faulty device. Is there something better I can use then to be able to run from USB for now. I did try booting my laptop with an Ubuntu 8.10 but there were allsorts of errors coming up when it did that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 MCN Live should still work OK, but what you can also do is install directly to the USB stick anyway with a normal version of Mandriva - of course, also on the basis that you have a pendrive big enough. When you say you tried Ubuntu 8.10, did the CD boot OK? Or just a load of errors? Another thing you can do is use a program called unetbootin, which will allow you to get a LiveCD image, such as Ubuntu 8.10, or Mandriva One, and have it written to the USB pendrive. That way you can boot from the pendrive instead of from CD, and save to it as well. http://lubi.sourceforge.net/unetbootin.html it works for Windows and Linux, so you can create the pendrive under Windows from a Ubuntu or Mandriva One iso you downloaded, and then boot from the pendrive and see how you go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandie Posted March 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 Hi Ian, Tried that and everything looked ok until it suddenly said can't load unionfs.ko Failed to load unionfs module Loading /intrd/bin/ash Can't access tty, Job control turned off usb 4-1 device not accepting address 9, error -110 usb 4-1 device not accepting address10, error -110 and so on, it keeps counting up from here A work colleague of mine has a USB he uses and he booted from it perfectly on his laptop, but when I try it on mine i get the error above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted March 9, 2009 Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 Can you let me know if you have usb legacy enabled in the BIOS or not? If so, try disabling it, and if it's disabled, try enabling it and see if it works any better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandie Posted March 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 I'll have a look at that and let you know. One thing I did notice when trying to set the BIOS up, it puts the USB device under the Hard drive entry, so if you press Enter on the Hardrive it has two entries under it , one being the USB device that I have to move up in the pecking order. If I put the Removeable Device otion to the top it won't boot from it. Wierd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandie Posted March 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 The USB Legacy was enabled, so I disabled it and then the drive went out of view from the Boot settings so it won't boot from that then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 OK, do you know whether there is a newer BIOS update for your machine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Indeed, all the above indicate a bios bug. Please check if there's an update available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandie Posted March 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Is that a new insect - bios bug - as I've never had anything to do with my BIOS except changing the boot order, how do I go about finding there is an update available. Thanks for everyones help on this, I really appreciate it. I get to the point of giving up on trying to create this Live USB Key, then the demon inside me appears and says "Don't let a PC beat you". I will get there, much to the frustration of my hubby, who grudges the time I spend playing on my laptop with this. He can't understand the buzz you get from learning something new and getting it to work! Mandie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 What laptop make and model do you have? And what version does it say in the BIOS info? If you let us know, we can then help see if a BIOS update is available that might allow you to boot the USB devices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandie Posted March 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Hi Ian, Laptop is an Acer Aspire 1350 and the System BIOS Version is ZP1 Q3A18. Mandie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Hi Mandie, According to this: http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_1350.html there is a new BIOS - 3A29. You'll need to download the BIOS and the Winflash utility, and providing that you still have Windows on the machine, you'll be able to use the Winflash to then update your BIOS. Then try after this to see if it's any better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandie Posted March 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Thanks Ian, for that. Will updating the BIOS effect anything else on my machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts