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Okay, one last hurrah. Apparently my bootup usb was having some issues. Couldn't run cfdisk on it (the result was "FATAL: Bad primary partition 0: Partition begins after end-of-disk"), and it gave a nasty printout for fdisk -l (see below for the "current" usb drive's).
So I abandoned it and began to try your last suggestion. I did dd if=usbboot.img, and when I went to copy the .iso back onto it, I also got the nasty printout like the original boot usb had. The one for the larger usb drive is:
Code:
#[root@sushi HP8GB]$fdisk -l /dev/sdc
Disk /dev/sdc: 8015 MB, 8015282176 bytes
247 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1022 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15314 * 512 = 7840768 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xde8e7bb0
This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 ? 197240 197273 253319 e4 SpeedStor
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(190, 120, 0) logical=(197239, 8, 51)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(544, 125, 44) logical=(197272, 29, 24)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdc2 ? 65729 195542 993984023 98 Unknown
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(1010, 16, 43) logical=(65728, 56, 10)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(205, 205, 22) logical=(195541, 245, 55)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdc3 ? 110790 236159 959953209 7d Unknown
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(252, 139, 46) logical=(110789, 48, 54)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(367, 195, 2) logical=(236158, 138, 25)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdc4 ? 612 617 32768 0 Empty
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(0, 10, 0) logical=(611, 238, 39)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(0, 0, 0) logical=(616, 60, 40)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
Partition table entries are not in disk order
The cfdisk gives the same fatal message as well. I find this odd since running "dd if=usbboot.img of=/dev/sdc bs=512" seems to be turning my usb drives to mush. Is that normal? Could this be the issue? I'm currently running "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc bs=512" and it's taking forever, so I'm heading to bed in hopes that it'll be done by morning.
Hopefully this stuff is helpful. And once again, thanks colorpurple for trying to help me figure this out.
after writing the usbimg to the usb it will look similar to what you show when fdisk is ran, if the iso file copied to the usb okay boot up and log in, do fdisk -l to locate your usb device and mount as mentioned on post #14
Last edited by colorpurple21859; 09-13-2009 at 05:24 PM.
I've been trying to install my laptop using my USB stick. Stuff wasn't working out (I did a dd if=usbboot.img), so I dd if=/dev/zero'd it because I couldn't get it to do anything else (the cfdisk was giving me fatal errors because the end of the partition went off the disk or something). This is what it was saying:
Code:
$fdisk -l /dev/sdc
Disk /dev/sdc: 8015 MB, 8015282176 bytes
247 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1022 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15314 * 512 = 7840768 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xde8e7bb0
This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 ? 197240 197273 253319 e4 SpeedStor
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(190, 120, 0) logical=(197239, 8, 51)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(544, 125, 44) logical=(197272, 29, 24)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdc2 ? 65729 195542 993984023 98 Unknown
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(1010, 16, 43) logical=(65728, 56, 10)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(205, 205, 22) logical=(195541, 245, 55)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdc3 ? 110790 236159 959953209 7d Unknown
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(252, 139, 46) logical=(110789, 48, 54)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(367, 195, 2) logical=(236158, 138, 25)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdc4 ? 612 617 32768 0 Empty
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(0, 10, 0) logical=(611, 238, 39)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(0, 0, 0) logical=(616, 60, 40)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
Partition table entries are not in disk order
It showed up "normally" in fdisk -l again after I dd if=/dev/zero count=1 bs=512. But since then, the mbr doesn't seem to be working right. I cannot mount it, and now it constantly has the disk identifier 0x00000000. I ran fsck on it, and this is the output:
Code:
fsck /dev/sdc
fsck 1.41.8 (11-July-2009)
e2fsck 1.41.8 (11-July-2009)
/sbin/e2fsck: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
/sbin/e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sdc
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
I tried the e2fsck -b 8193 /dev/sdc. Didn't work.
Now I'm lost. Is the USB stick bad? Or maybe a better question would be, how can I "format" the disk to ext2? I know cfdisk changes stuff, but it doesn't actually format the disk. Maybe like, the command that is presented in the initial slack setup when you choose a partition to install to, then have the option to format (quick), check (slow format) or neither?
Alrighty... so I finally got it to work. Apparently the usb was the issue; I'd dd'd and all that stuff, but it just wouldn't read properly. I finally had to instruct the laptop to choose the stick as the destination, then formatted it that way. (Currently got an open-ticket in newbie in regards to what the crap was happening there.)
Thanks again, finally got it working.
To sum up for my (and others') future reference:
I used a boot usb (256mb) after setting it up with usbboot.img. I copied the install .iso to a second usb (8gb). I then mounted the .iso usb on the laptop after it'd booted up to /mnt/usb. I ran "mount -o loop /mnt/usb /mnt/iso" (gotta create the mount point directories first). Then in setup, I installed from a hard drive partition, selecting /mnt/iso. Then I chose the directory /slackware. Now I see the package series selection and have not been happier in the past week (in regards to linux, that is).
When you used dd to destroy the first 512, you erased the MBR, I think. So if you run cfdisk or fdisk on the drive, it should give you an option to recreate it. This may fix the problem you're having with mounting the disk.
Lot of people fail to read the documentation available on the Slackware media that will aid them. Sure you just may not be aware of where to look but it's there.
When you used dd to destroy the first 512, you erased the MBR, I think. So if you run cfdisk or fdisk on the drive, it should give you an option to recreate it. This may fix the problem you're having with mounting the disk.
Nah, I did that to no avail.
Quote:
Originally Posted by onebuck
You can look at the 'README_USB.TXT' to see a method of restoring your stick.
I'd been shown something very similar to that; the place I learned about usb-and-pxe-installers had the exact documentation, all up til the "(2) Then, create a new FAT32 partition on the stick..." part. I wonder if that's what the final issue was, although I did go back and format it under Windows and still had the issues til I just formatted it under the Slackware setup program. Edit: It also conveniently left out the whole bit about fdisk throwing fits about what was going on.
This link and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just SlackwareŽ links!
Hi,
I'm just not 'getting it' for the USB install...
I have a Samsung N110 with Win 7, a 2GB USB penstick, and a 500Gb external drive.
I want to install Slack 13 on the external drive (as the Sammie can boot from this). The USB installer (using the penstick) seems to assume you already have a Linux box..?
I have a Samsung N110 with Win 7, a 2GB USB penstick, and a 500Gb external drive.
I want to install Slack 13 on the external drive (as the Sammie can boot from this). The USB installer (using the penstick) seems to assume you already have a Linux box..?
Any pointers greatly received.
Thanks - Steven.
I suggest that you create a new thread instead of hi-jacking this one.
The 'usb-and-pxe-installers' is for installing from a USB device. Once the USB is booted then run setup to make the selections. This does not require a pre-install but does require your system to enable a USB boot.
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