[SOLVED] Something wrong 3 versions of linux on USB multiboot

warriorjames · 02-13-2012, 12:48 AM

I looked around in search and did not see anything related to my situation, so I'm putting it up here. I figure General is more appropriate than Noob since this probably requires more experts.

First, I suppose I should mention I'm doing this from Windows XP.

I have a 16GB PNY flash (15.1GB available in Fat32). I created a thread asking for versions that would work in a miltiboot environment. Lucmove mentioned Puppy Linux (Ubuntu version), SliTaz Linux, Tiny Core Linux & System Rescue CD. I took his advice and downloaded all 4 (Lupu-528.004, Siltaz 3.0, SystemrescueCD-x86-2.4.1 & TinyCore-current.)

Taking advice from Pendrivelinux, I downloaded & used XBoot to take all 4 and throw them onto the USB. At first glance it worked...until I ran it QEMU. The Initial boot works: I select Linux & all 4 versions are there. The problem is when I go into them:

Lupu Puppy- Puppy ran into a problem loading "X", but I fixed that through "xorgwizard". It ran fine after fixing that, until I restarted. Upon restarting, it hangs with a _ at the top of the screen. I stopped after waiting 10 minutes. I'm wondering if I should use Slack Puppy...

Siltaz 3.0-

Quote:

loading /boot/bzImage
loading /boot/rootfs.gz (with LOTS of ...)

Decompressing Linux

(And then it speeds forward and we hit...as far as what I can see)

Quote:

fixmap : 0xfff4d000 - 0xfffff000 (712 kB)
pkmap : 0xff800000 - 0xffc00000 (4096 kb)
vmalloc: 0xccffd000 - 0xff7fe000 (808 MB)
lowman : 0xc0000000 - 0Xcc7fd000 (199 MB)
.init : 0xc0597000 - 0xcc7fd000 (328 MB)
.data : 0xc041b8a4 - 0xc058c17c (1474 kB)
.text : oxc0100000 - 0Xc041b8a4 (3182 kB)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode...Ok.
Calibrating delay loop (skipped), value calculated using tiner frequency...5221.
03BogoMIPS (lpj=2610519)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
CPU: L1 I cache: (not telling this), L1 D cache: (nope)
CUP: L2 cache: (nope)
Checking 'hlt' instruction...OK
Checking for popad bug...OK
SMP alternatives: switching to UP code
Freeing SMP alternatives: 24k freed
ACIP: Core revision 20090320
..TIMER: vector 0x30 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=-1 pin2=-1
..MP-BIOS Bug: 8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC
...trying to set up timer (IRQ0) through the 8259A
....(found apic 0 pin 2)...
.......failed.
...trying to set up timer as Virtual Wire IRQ...

And it hangs there.

------=--------
SystemrescueCD-x86-2.4.1 - It runs into a problem at:

Quote:

APIC: Core revision 20110413
Enabling APIC Mode: Flat. Usinh 1 I/O APICs
..TIMER: vector 0x30 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=-1 pin2=-1
..MP-BIOS Bug: 8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC
...trying to set up timer (IRQ0) through the 8259A
....failed
...trying to set up timer as Virtual Wire IRQ...
INFO: rcu_sched_state detected on CPU 0 (t=60000 jiffies)
sending NMI to all CPUs:
Uhhuh. NMI recieved for unknown reason 31 on CPU 0
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled? Dazed and confused, but trying to continue

It also hits an "unknown reason 21", and the # keeps changing for the (t=# jiffies). Plus it loops. It has me confused. I'm wondering if the x86 was the wrong choice. -_-

--------=------
Tinycore-

Quote:

Press <Enter> to begin, or F2, F3, or F4 to view boot option help screens.
boot:

Hit enter...and...

Quote:

..MP-BIOS bug: 8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC

And it hangs there.
--------------------

So...what do you think is wrong with Puppy, Tinycore, Siltax & SystemrescueCD?

TobiSGD · 02-13-2012, 06:03 PM

I wouldn't think that something is wrong with those distros, it seems to me that something is wrong with your Qemu setup. If you have them already on your USB device, why not give it a try and boot them on your physical machine?

jefro · 02-13-2012, 08:07 PM

.until I ran it QEMU. ??

Does it boot on a real newish computer and just fails in emulation under qemu?

warriorjames · 02-13-2012, 11:29 PM

Well TobiSGD...jefro...I just tried to run it (changed the BIOS and all) and had no success. It just hung on the first screen (where it says to hit a key to enter BIOS and all), which I found strange. I thought it would at least get past that & say something was wrong.

Now I'm just confused....

TobiSGD · 02-13-2012, 11:41 PM

What did you change in the BIOS? Normally you have not to change anything, just press the key to invoke the BIOSes boot menu (F8 on ASUS, F9 on Biostar and some Dell laptops, F11 on MSI and ASRock, F12 on Gigabyte) and choose your USB.
Anyways, when it hangs at that stage it may be possible that it is not properly able to detect your USB drive at boot time, I had that behavior with a cheap 8GB USB stick, it worked normally but stopped any computer from booting when plugged in at that time.

warriorjames · 02-14-2012, 03:38 AM

No...I press DEL an enter the BIOS (it did detect it). I then changed what was the hard drive to the flash drive. Did I approach that, incorrectly?

TobiSGD · 02-14-2012, 11:15 AM

That should also work, but is unnecessary.
But anyways, I don't know XBoot, I never had the need to run more than one Linux from USB, so I don't know about the quality or bugs of that program. May be some other member can help here.

warriorjames · 02-14-2012, 01:36 PM

OK...I reset the BIOS to load normally and took the F8 approach. I was able to get to the 'boot screen' I saw on QEMU. I jumped into each one. SystemRestoreCD appears fine, as well as SliTaz...except I can't figure out the su password for SliTaz (SystemRestore, from what I see, starts in root). Puppy appeared ok...until I got into the GUI and saw it was more towards the green side of the hue. I was able to su up & it recognized "man" and "init0", but I'm wondering if there's a way to fix the color problem.

Is TinyCore suppose to be purely Terminal based? I look on Wiki and it says there should be a GUI. It appears to start in root, but any of the init commands (0,5,6) and "Man" don't seem to work. I got "TinyCore (12MB)" from the TinyCore Website.

TobiSGD · 02-14-2012, 01:48 PM

The root password for Slitaz is root, the same as the user name.

Tinycore should have a minimal GUI, only a panel with the package manager. Tinycore is intended to be very basic system that needs to be extended by you. Have a look at Tinycore's documentation to get the philosophy around it.

warriorjames · 02-15-2012, 05:00 PM

Alright, TobiSGD, I think that's all I needed to know for now.