Hello!

I have been trying to create a bootable USB stick, for a use that requires a fat 32 partition, and made the mistake of trying to create it in what I _thought_ was KDE Partition Manager. Turns out I had only installed the first instance of KDEPM from the Magiea repos, and it didn't work right until I installed both of them. Not much description in the repos; something like "This is the crippled version" would have been nice.

ANYWAY, KDEPM from the first package created a dev/sdb11 for the USB stick. In one part of the app, it was listed that way, and in another part of the app, it showed the same device as dev/sdb1, not 11. Couldn't find a way to edit that from within the Partition Manager. I ended up ejecting the device, installing the second Partition Manager instance from the repos, and then using the un-crippled KDEPM to reformat the USB stick (as dev/sdb1, and FAT32, BTW).

MY PROBLEM is that Mageia now hangs at startup, and the hang occurs because it is expecting that zombie device to do something. The error during the hang is "A start job is running for device dev-sdb11" Then after it times out, I get a message in red: "Timed out waiting for dev-sdb11", then the next two lines show as yellow, and read: "_Depend_ Dependency failed for dev-sdb11.device" This is followed by:
"_Depend_ Dependency failed for Local File Systems".

After that, I get severely limited CLI, together with "Welcome To Rescue Mode!", followed by "Welcome to Emergency Mode!", and then screens and instructions that I stumbled through a few times until I got the aforementioned error messages. It doesn't matter whether the USB stick formerly known as dev-sdb11 is plugged in or not; same results either way.

I'm only calling this a zombie device because I don't have a better descriptor. (Maybe: "ghost device"?) The USB stick in question has been reformatted, and the single partition on it now shows as sdb1 or sdd1, (and as FAT32), but never as partition #11, on other Linux systems. It seems to also be fine everywhere else I've tried plugging it. But my Magiea4 box is still waiting for a phantom, evidently. What I want to know is, how do I kill the ghost "dev-sdb11", and convince Mageia that the phantom in question is indeed history? Any information that would help me understand what has actually happened here would be great, also.

I really don't get it. In nine years of using Linux, I have never, ever had any partition that was numbered that high. It just seems really unlikely, and kind of wrong. I feel that I need to show Mageia the bloody pelt of sdb11 before it will get back to business and boot my system. -And yes, I know I'm anthropomorphizing to an unhelpful degree. -Which is why I'm asking for rational input! Any thoughts? -Thanks!

One rational output you could provide is how you are trying to create the Live usb stick.

Have you tried to simply use the command dd to do this?

Main difference in using dd as opposed to most other methods is that it actually works reliably.

Thanks for the reply! No, I haven't ever used dd for the purpose of creating a USB stick, just for erasing one that had been encrypted, and then the passphrase forgotten. I didn't realize that dd was complex enough to format with.
I'll try checking that out, out of curiosity.

When I actually created the USB stick with KDE Partition Manager (the correct version), and set a bootable flag, then I got the USB stick to format, and after loading stuff onto it, it boots OK (on another box).

My problem is not the USB stick at this point. My problem is that my first attempt to format it was using a _faulty_ version of KDE Partition Manager. It showed the same partition, on the same USB stick, as being EITHER sdb-1 OR sdb-11, depending on which sub-window you viewed it in. I did a safe eject of the USB stick, installed the correct KDE Partition Manager, then reformatted the USB stick, which then showed as ONLY sdb-1, and I thought I was done.

However, I had yet to reboot the Mageia4 desktop box I created it on. That box is now hanging at boot, waiting for "dev/sdb11.device", or "dev-sdb11", which no longer exists, whether or not it ever did. The box will not boot, due to failure to find dev-sdb11. If I try to boot with the stick plugged or unplugged, I get the same hang, waiting for dev-sdb11.

This is new in my experience. I don't know what to call it, partly because I'm not sure what the actual problem is. Is the box confusing the phantom device with an actual, installed piece of hardware? -Or has it somehow included this non-existent device as part of the system? I have this vague notion that I might be able to get into the system using a Live CD or USB, and then edit sdb11 out of existence, but will the system even recognize that I've done that? Also, I'm not sure where I'd find the instance of the phantom sdb11 to edit it out. It doesn't show on the USB stick, so I have to assume it's a leftover on the Mageia4 box of the first, failed, USB stick format. Most of my web searches end up showing GRUB problems (this happens well past the GRUB menu), or info related to RAID, or info about partition problems while installing various OSs. My OP also has appeared on many of my web searches...

I thought that when a machine is booting, that it will only look for actual detected hardware / devices to boot from, so why the hang waiting for a non-existent device? If I were to boot from a Live CD to get in, pull up a shell, and go on an sdb11 snipe-hunt, there's plenty of opportunity for a non-expert like me to bork the system even more. I guess I was hoping there was an easy fix, like a refresh of the devices that would be looked at during boot. Also curious if this could be a system-d problem, but most promising hits I find about that possibility either lose me with developer-level technical details, or devolve into debate and / or shouting.

Anyway, I think I'm going to try getting in with a Live CD, and at least have a look around for anything obvious... All I've been able to come up with, so far. Will post again if I find out more.

Probably init scripts - systemd by any chance ?.

From the liveCD check for entries in /etc/fstab, and (if systemd) for .mount files in each of /etc/systemd/system/*, /run/systemd/system/*, /usr/lib/systemd/system/*

OK, I'm an idjit. Was looking at the wrong instance of /etc/fstab. Used another Live CD this time, and found it! Was looking at the fstab.bak, I think it was, devices listed by labels, as opposed to fstab (no suffix), the one listed by UUID. THAT one had the phantom listed first, on the same line with sdb1, and that USB stick in question listed by UUID.

I had _thought_ that I gave the USB stick a label, but that must not have stuck until the second formatting with the non-crippled version of KDE Partition Manager. The bad version must have written that imaginary partition to fstab by UUID, before I got the label on for real. So, yes, sygOO, I keep backups of all my important files, and I backed up fstab first, then, in terminal:

su (enter), type in root password (enter), nano /etc/fstab (enter), edit out sdb11 from the line with sdb1, press CTRL-O, filename to write: /etc/fstab (enter). Close Konsole, Get out of the Live CD, reboot, and... fixed! Mageia booting like normal again!

I went back into "Install and Remove Software", to look for the bad KDE Partition Manager package, so I could warn people off of it, but now I can't find it! I swear, there were two of them less than 48 hours ago...

Anyway, thanks for the input, folks!

They recommend to format the usb stick to a fat file system and I usually remember to do so with cfdisk but have done it with no preperation and no problems. This wipes the entire stick so don't have anything on there you want to keep. You can add another partition for any non free content you may want to add to an install or other files you want.
That is the recommended usage from Debian. Will work without the "bs=4M; sync". The block size recommendation for Mageia may be different but using "sync" can save on extranious temp files from persisting on the stick after the copy is done which could have been your problem.

You should check the man dd page sometime. Powerful and diverse tool for a lot of things.