2006.1 LiveUSB can't find bootable medium [WORKAROUND]

ozbird · Apprentice Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 185

I've just rebuilt my USB stick with the 2006.1 i686 LiveCD (following the Gentoo LiveUSB HOWTO, http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml), but it doesn't boot correctly. (2006.0 worked fine.)

Syslinux boots the USB stick correctly, and after I select the gentoo image, it loads the various drivers and does an initial disk scan (/dev/sda*). It reports "No bootable medium found. Waiting for new devices." It then detects all of the available disks (including /dev/sdb1, the USB stick), but the reports "Could not find CD to boot, something else needed!"

I've tried using the "doscsi" and "noapic" options (separately and together), but the problem persists.

Any ideas?

Update: babyfai's instructions will make the image work for non-CD devices; I've updated the status, but it isn't "SOLVED" yet.

babyfai · n00b Joined: 09 Jun 2002 Posts: 40

2 changes in the version-2006.1 :
First, during booting, it checks the contents of your livecd and tries to mount that as an iso9660 filesystem.
Of course, you never got an iso9660 filesystem in a USB-Disk, so the mounting failed!
Second, the option :"dobladecenter" was changed to "doslowusb", (no related announcement inside the docs :?:

)

My solution :
After you did all procedures which comes from here : http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml
Then: mount USB-disk , copy "gentoo.igz" to a dir and hack it.
Go here to get a script "unigz.pl" written by wmd:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-383198-start-0-postdays-0-postorder-asc-highlight-igz.html
Copy the codes with a text-editor and save as "unigz.pl".
You must do all as a 'su' user, otherwise, inodes in dir '/dev' will be missd.

ozbird · Apprentice Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 185

96140 · Retired Dev Joined: 23 Jan 2005 Posts: 1324

The document is not designed for 2006.1 -- notice that only a 2006.0 tarball is used; as it is expressly designed for that release. The 2006.1 tarball is sufficiently different from 2006.0 that it won't work.

The new boot parameter has been updated for the 2006.1 GLI handbook, and an explicit 2006.0-only note has been added to the LiveUSB guide.

-Tommppa- · n00b Joined: 04 Jul 2006 Posts: 9

Could you post the liveusb image, so I can dd it into my usbstick.

saintpa · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 04 Dec 2004 Posts: 77

Has anyone tried the liveusb guide with an external USB HD? I followed the guide step-by-step with my usb harddrive, and got an error message when booting from the USB: No Operating System. And then the machine hangs.

[EDIT]: I figured out why. I forgot to toggle the boot flag of the partition.

Kthulhu · n00b Joined: 28 Sep 2006 Posts: 17

I didn't get it - in first message there's 2006.1, and then nightmorph told that it's not for 2006.1...at last, is it ok for 2006.1?
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Fhtagn!

saintpa · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 04 Dec 2004 Posts: 77

R!tman · Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:11 pm Post subject:

That fix doesn't work for me (unigz.pl ends with errors). Anyone care to host (or send via email) the modified gentoo.igz file?

babyfai · n00b Joined: 09 Jun 2002 Posts: 40

R!tman · Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:38 pm Post subject:

kallamej · Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:53 pm Post subject:

R!tman · Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:55 pm Post subject:

R!tman · Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 10:13 am Post subject:

@babyfai: Thanks for the file! I can boot now (at all), but it seems like after booting from USB, the kernel does not recognize the usb device. I get things like

babyfai · n00b Joined: 09 Jun 2002 Posts: 40

Did you edit the syslinux.cfg.
If not, during boot ,type the command first:
gentoo doslowusb

R!tman · Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 1:07 pm Post subject:

babyfai · n00b Joined: 09 Jun 2002 Posts: 40

R!tman · Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 7:35 pm Post subject:

babyfai · n00b Joined: 09 Jun 2002 Posts: 40

The file gentoo.igz which was tested and exactly worked on my system.

R!tman · Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:43 am Post subject:

@babyfai: Thank you very much for sending the file :!:

Nevertheless, I still can't get it working. I have no idea what's wrong!

2006.0 is working, Damn Small Linux is working, 2006.1 seems to work for you guys, but just not for me! :evil:

I'll do some hex-editing this evening...

UberPinguin · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 6:48 pm Post subject:

R!tman - did you ever get this working? The perl script referenced above doesn't seem to work for me. It's leaving a lot of files out, so I can't get the gentoo.igz reconfigured.
If anyone has a fully-working gentoo.igz and would like to send a copy to me I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
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R!tman · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 9:18 pm Post subject:

UberPinguin · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 12:45 am Post subject:

Thanks. I'll see what I can do with it.
I think I'm going to check this out first, though. I like the idea of a really customized LiveUSB setup.

[EDIT]I think I may have a piece of the puzzle: the gentoo.igz that you posted is different than the ones on the install and live CDs. I just decompressed it and everything described in the HOWTO is there, plus it decompressed faster with fewer errors.
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R!tman · Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 1:28 pm Post subject:

UberPinguin · Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 1:54 pm Post subject:

To be honest I've been focusing on using Catalyst to build my own :oops:

Which hasn't worked, either.
I'm kind of stuck right now, but no one seems to take any interest in the topic.
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