Strange goings-on at boot...

Afternoon, everybody; back after a break of about 6 or 7 months.

Using Zorin Core OS 9. I had removed it a while back (I was still 'distro-hopping' at that stage), but I've since settled down with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, which has been there since I first moved to Linux last May.....and Puppy Linux.

I decided to re-install Zorin a few nights ago. Initially, I was trying to install it to a flash drive (a FULL install), but it just didn't want to know. I've done a couple of 'buntu-based flash installs over the last few months, with varying degrees of success.....but they DO seem to run awfully slowly, so.....I don't know. Has anybody else managed a flash drive install.....and if so, how did you do it?

I've re-installed Zorin on my external Seagate Expansion drive. It's booted up every time, until today, when I had a wee bit of trouble getting it to start. Because I run Puppy, I don't run GRUB2; it refuses to 'see' Puppy, so consequently I can't boot it. I run Grub4DOS instead, which is supplied with Puppy; it always works, and reads every OS that's installed. GRUB2 probably doesn't 'see' Puppy because of the way Puppy is set up.....which is a compressed, 'frugal' install from an .sfs file; it expands into RAM at bootup, and resides there, IN RAM, for the duration of the session. Which accounts for Puppy's incredible speed!

With Grub4DOS, you get to see all the start-up stuff that GRUB2 hides from you. Attempting to boot a little while ago, it took 3 attempts to get things going. The first two times, I kept getting the message, 'Attention! /dev/sdb5 does not exist!' (/dev/sdb5 is the Seagate partition Zorin is installed to). Couldn't figure out what was going on, until I realised the only difference was that I was booting up with the printer switched on ( I normally turn it on after boot). Turned it off, booted again, and this time, everything proceeded as normal. Odd, no?

Anybody got the remotest idea what might have caused this to happen? For instance, if Zorin had been configured with the printer switched ON, would it always EXPECT the printer to be on AT boot-up?

I'm just curious, that's all!


Regards,

Mike.

Hei

Look this viewtopic, I hope it helps with the speed problem.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7410

The installation to a USB drive is similar as installing to a internal HDD using "Something Else" method. I prefer to install boot loader also to USB so that I can Start the os. directly from BIOS selecting USB as (first) boot device.

Henriolavi wrote:Hei

Look this viewtopic, I hope it helps with the speed problem.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7410

The installation to a USB drive is similar as installing to a internal HDD using "Something Else" method. I prefer to install boot loader also to USB so that I can Start the os. directly from BIOS selecting USB as (first) boot device.

Hi, Henriolavi.

Mmm. That's exactly how I normally do it, myself. I've used this particular flash drive (a 16 GB SanDisk Cruzer 'Blade') several times before.....for various installs of Puppy, a few 'buntu-based distros, and some others. It's worked fine every time; I usually do a FULL wipe with 'Disks' in between installs, to make absolutely certain there's no extra data left over from the previous one.

This time, however, I just kept getting error after error 'Can't find this'. 'Can't find that.' 'Such and such is not installed', etc, etc. I know it's not a bad .iso file, because I'm writing this from Chrome in Zorin right now.....it's installed to the hard drive nicely.

So, my friend; what would you suggest I should try next? I've more or less exhausted my options, as far as that goes; and there's no logical reason why it shouldn't work...


Regards,

Mike.

Difficult to say the reason why it does not work. However, it sounds that there is something with that San Disk USB drive why it is not working. I had also once problem to boot from a San Disk USB drive giving only error messages when booting. I can only suggest that you try to use some other make of USB drive whether that solves the problem. I have had good results with using Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3 and G4 Drives both USB 3.0 specified devices. If you have possibility to use different USB port, try to use also some other port to boot.

Henriolavi wrote:Difficult to say the reason why it does not work. However, it sounds that there is something with that San Disk USB drive why it is not working. I had also once problem to boot from a San Disk USB drive giving only error messages when booting. I can only suggest that you try to use some other make of USB drive whether that solves the problem. I have had good results with using Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3 and G4 Drives both USB 3.0 specified devices. If you have possibility to use different USB port, try to use also some other port to boot.

My problem is not with booting, per se: it's actually getting the OS to install completely in the first place..! And as for USB ports, ooh, it's a case of 'take your pick'; I've got 15 of the things to play with.....

The tower has a total of 7. I have a 7 port self-powered hub using one of them, which leaves 6; +7=13. I then have a pair of USB 3.0 ports. Aha, you say; use a USB 3.0 stick, and plug it into the USB 3.0 port, and.....away you go!

Wish it was that simple.

On a 10-yr old machine, I've achieved this by fitting a USB 3.0 adapter card into my one & only PCIe slot. Don't need a graphics card, so I've put it to better use. The data transfer rate is nothing short of lightning fast, compared to the large number of USB 2.0s I've got, but.....the snag is, you CANNOT boot from them. I suspect that's because the motherboard itself actually pre-dates USB 3.0 by nearly five years; the PCIe slot is the very early 1.0a standard, and you'll not find a graphics card to work with a slot that old. So I found an alternative use for it.

It works well with my external Seagate, as it IS USB 3.0 standard. For data transfer & storage, it's nothing short of miraculous compared to what the USB 2.0 ports are like; but in order to boot this Zorin that I'm working in right now, I've had to plug it back into a USB 2.0 port. If I do THAT.....it'll work.

It's a bit of of a 'catch 22' situation, I'm afraid.....


Regards,

Mike.

Hi

Unfortunately I can not give better answers than to try what works and what doesn't. I have not USB 3.0 ports in my desktops, so I can use only 2.0 ports there. The the problem I mentioned to boot using SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 drive happened when I tried to boot it from a USB 3.0 port in my new Lenovo laptop giving errors. It worked however from USB 2.0 port with that machine. Don't know either why it doesn't work from USB 3.0 port.

Hi Mike,

did you fully format the USB stick fully before you created your bootable media?:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4771

Wolfman wrote:Hi Mike,

did you fully format the USB stick fully before you created your bootable media?:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4771

Hi, Wolfman.

Indeed I did; when I use 'Disks' to wipe it, I always get it to format at the same time. And then, to make SURE.....I run it through GParted; and double-check.

Regards,

Mike.

Hi Mike,

what's your partition layout like?, I normally use 3 partitions myself:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2601

Wolfman wrote:Hi Mike,

what's your partition layout like?, I normally use 3 partitions myself:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2601

Hi, Wolfman. Sorry to be a while getting back to you; niece's wedding yesterday.....just got in.

Bearing in mind it's only a 16 GB stick, and I have 3 GB RAM, I tend to use just the two; root, and swap. It's an old machine, so no UEFI, and personally, I've never seen the need for a /boot partition...

Anyway, at the moment, there ARE no partitions; it's wiped clean, waiting for me to decide what my next step's going to be... Suggestions? I'm happy to give anything a try at the mo..!


Regards,

Mike.

Hi Mike,

I use MultiSystem - this is currently at 9 and is a full distro in itself. I did upload the package I used (updates to latest after installation). I have a 32 Gb memory stick with 6 or more different distros - 3 of which are Zorin. Prior to this I had a 16 Gb stick which held about 4 OS's plus Hiren's Boot CD. But you must have a working GNU/Linux OS installed on a machine already for it to work.

Install tutorial video here:

https://vimeo.com/104187694

Package here:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8933&hilit=+MultiSystem#p43425

Hi, swarfendor. Long time...

I seem to remember I tried using this once before, and I could never get it to even download, much less install. I'll have another go at it, if you think it'll do any good. Is there any reason why attempting to install it in the normal way to a flash-drive SHOULDN'T work?

But you must have a working GNU/Linux OS installed on a machine already for it to work.

Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS, OR Puppy 'Tahrpup' 6.02.....take your pick. No reason they shouldn't work, is there?


Regards,

Mike.

No reason at all so long as they both use the .deb format - I would go with your Ubuntu install. Just unpack the tarball package in my previous post on this thread and watch the video on how to install - just don't bother going to Softpedia as they only have the full OS of MultiSystem now!

The software will either format your stick to FAT32 or will ask you to do it before you proceed, such a long time since I used it I can't remember!

Hi

I made a test to use SanDisk Ultra Fit 3.0 16 Gb drive and 3.0 port in my Lenovo laptop to make a full install of Zorin 9 Eucational there.



This time everything worked fine using 3.0 port there. Speed is good up to 130 MB/s and a small size drive fits nicely to be used with a labtop. I installed it from a DVD burned with Brasero.

...That usb stick is faster than my HDD
that isn't a usb, it's a bloody SSD XD
(Yes, i'm aware that usb's are actually ssd by nature but...)

Have you thought that the motherboard's implementation of usb might be shot?
I've had some weird problems over time with oem motherboards and their usb.
On this machine that i write to you from, i tried putting slitaz on here, it worked right up until usb discovery, then decided to hang. EVERY single time.

My 2y old dell desktop has usb 3, and seems to be naughty as well. it supports booting from it, but has this odd habit of corrupting duplicate memory sticks. go figure!