Slackware 12 USB thumb - "BOOT ERROR" ( THINKPAD )
 

Hi there,

I'm not new to unix, but new in trying to have unix in my laptop without messing with dual boots.

Slackware 12 USB is what I want and it is not working for me.

In bullet points this is what I have:
Laptop Thinkpad with 80GB that has USB boot option
- C: /fat-c windows
- D: /fat-d windows
- /dev/hda6 swap
- /dev/hda7 /
- /dev/hda8 /usr/local
- /dev/sda lexar thumb drive 1GB

I have successfully installed and played with Slackware and everything works.

It boots perfectly using Slackware DVD as startup and choosing root=/dev/hda7 (where I have it installed) .

I have followed 10 times the easy instructions to create USB bootable drive from SETUP & from Slackware DVD usb folder.

Problem is when I choose boot from USB I always get the message => "BOOT ERROR"

I have tried a second Thumb drive just in case. Same problem.

I see 24MB of files on the thumb drive. Everything looks fine. (syslinux.cfg, image, and all ...)

I searched forums for hours and could not find answer for such a simple error.

Any help?

Tks.

Borba.

Hi,

Give us some more information. What model Thinkpad? Which kernel?

Thanks for the reply.

Thinkpad t42
Kernel=2.6.21.5-smp

Partitions
hda1 boot primary NTFS
hda5 logical NTFS
hda6 logical linux swap
hda7 logical linux ext3
hda8 logical linux resierFS /usr/local

Just rebuild the thumb using the steps:
(1) insert DVD
(2) boot laptop
(3) 'hugesmp.s root/dev/hda7 rdinit= ro'
(4) mount /dev/hdc /tmp/dvd
(5) cd /tmp/dvd
(6) cd usb-and-px3-installer
(7) dd if=usbboot.igm of=/dev/sda bs=512
47656+0 records in
47656+0 records out
24399872 bytes(24MB) copied

What I see on the pen drive:
Volume in drive E is USBSLACK
Volume Serial Number is 4686-FBB7
06/30/2007 07:56 PM 10,932 isolinux.bin
06/30/2007 07:56 PM 2,823 setpkg
06/30/2007 07:56 PM 793 f2.txt
06/30/2007 07:56 PM 758 message.txt
06/30/2007 07:56 PM 11,187,052 initrd.img
06/30/2007 07:56 PM 436 syslinux.cfg
06/30/2007 07:56 PM 4,097,784 huge.s
06/30/2007 07:56 PM 4,417,112 hugesmp.s
06/30/2007 07:56 PM 4,126,360 speakup.s
06/30/2007 07:56 PM 10,092 ldlinux.sys
1 File(s) 10,092 bytes
0 Dir(s) 471,040 bytes free

I shutdown the machine. When booting
-> 'PF12'
-> Boot list chose option "-USB HDD Lexar JD FireFLY-(USB)"
-> Hit enter
-> Boot error (top left corner black screen) ... stays there forever.

Works for me with this command:
but there are some errors on /dev/sda, I'm not sure why:
The files on my USB Stick are:

Hi,

First, did you try re-running the setup scripts in pkgtool to create the boot stick? The '80.make-bootdisk create a USB Linux Boot stick' script will create the boot stick.

Are you sure the usb stick is OK? I've created one using the script with no problems. The 'dd' method should work.

I would zero the usb stick and start over. Just do the raw copy or use the script in pkgtool.

I compared side by side and your thumb drive files matched exactly in timestamp & sizes with what I have.

In my case usb ports are mounting as /dev/sda (first usb) & /dev/sdb (second usb). I did the process again using second usb (/dev/sdb) and the error message is still there.

I tried to mount as /dev/sda1. It does not go through.

It does not seem I'm in a stage where I can troubleshoot the error. Thumb drive light goes one quickly and the error message "BOOT ERROR" pops up immediately.

I do have the latest firmware in the laptop and I could not find any logs within IBM/Lenovo support site regarding usb issues in this particular model.

If nothing works I will try to do the same using a Toshiba laptop during the weekend.

Thanks for the help so far.

Borba.

Hi,

If you are getting the stick to init (the flash of the LED) then I would suspect the written image. Try the script that I suggested in the previous post to create the usb-boot-stick.

As you earlier question about the pen drive "are you sure the pen drive is OK?". I have tried with another thumb drive, so I eliminate the thumb drive as being the culprit.

Where do I find the script "setup.80.make-bootdisk" you mention? I saw references as being used in previous Slackware versions.

Many tks.

Hi,

If you look back at post #5 I explained how. You would use pkgtool.

Hi,

Thanks for the tip to use "pkgtool". I was used to run "setup" where there is not choice of selecting which script I wanted to rerun.

Unfortunately it did not work. Same error "BOOT ERROR"

Where I stand
=============

() What you have in your thumb drive matches files/sizes/datetime exactly with what I have.
() I have ran the creation process "n" times
() I have used two different thumb drives (same error)
() If I use an empty thumb drive when I boot the error is "DISK ERROR"
() When I use thumb drive prepared to boot slackware the error is "BOOT ERROR" meaning laptop tries "something".

The only thing I can think of now is to try the install in another laptop to see if my laptop is the culprit in anyway even though it runs Slackware perfectly when I boot it using dvd and point to /dev/hda7.

Thanks for all the help. If you think of anything else I can try please let me know.

Borba

Did you try to run
in a running Slackware environment (not booting from Slackware DVD in rescue mod)?

Yes, I did use "dd if=usbboot.img of=/dev/sda1 bs=512" many times. From my understanding when you run it, it will destroy whatever pkgtools did, right?

I do see differences on the thumb when using both methods as the comparison below shows:

Left side: pkgtools generated
Right side: dd if=usbboot.img of=/dev/sda1 bs=512
Name Size Name Size
---------------------------------------------------
f1.txt 653 >>
<< f2.txt 793
<< huge.s 4,097,784
<< hugesmp.s 4,417,112
<< initrd.img 11,187,052
<< isolinux.bin 10,932
ldlinux.sys 10,092 >> ldlinux.sys 10,092
message.txt 685 >> message.txt 758
<< setpkg 2,823
<< speakup.s 4,126,360
syslinux.cfg 234 >> syslinux.cfg 436
vmlinuz 4,417,112 >>

Anyway neither process works. Error message is the same.

Thanks again for your persistence in helping.

The USB Boot Disk who was made by pkgtool contains files for a running (or just installed) Slackware system:
The USB Boot Disk who was made by dd command contains the kernel boot images and necessary files to boot a Slackware installation or to boot in rescue mode:

Thanks for the explanation about the differences.

Using any of two methods boot fails with the same old message "BOOT ERROR"

Meanwhile I'm thinking of installing any other small OS on the thumb drive just to confirm laptop is capable of boot something else. I was thinking of "damn small linux" or similar.

This weekend I will do Slackware install in another laptop at home.

Can you post here the configuration file /media/USBSLACK/syslinux.cfg? And ls -l /boot, please.