Salix Live XFCE 13.1 Beta2 available for testing

[wayne]

i better stay away, bcos i also had USB stick problem when testing lxde version, may be that USB stick played a fool on me

[ikke]

To clarify: the above link is for the LXDE version even though the title of this thread is for Xfce and the problem raised by Ike could be relevant to both versions.
Anyways, we are very close to release final on both editions.

Akuna, you are right. I tried the lxde version you made and also the final lxde and xfce versions.
Everywhere I got the same problem.

To recapitulate : I tried each time to do a frugal install and boot from grub. Kindly see 14. Sep 2010, post for the grub entry.
This is what I get as error :

Code: Select all

RAMDISK: gzip image found at block 0
RAMDISK: incomplete write (541 != 32768)
write error
---
Write protecting the kernel read-only date : 2464 K
attempt to write beyond end of device.

Guess the problem is 'initrd.gz' because everywhere the kernel appears to be the same.
For fun I tried to boot the definitive xfce version with 'vmlinuz' and 'initrd.gz' from the xfce test version and everything went as expected.

So the question is maybe : what's the essential difference between the 'initrd.gz' of the test version and the 'initrd.gz' of all the other rc and the definitive versions?

Thank you for your kind attention.

[damNageHack]

ikke, have you tried the final release of LXDE Live from sept 16th?

[Akuna]

Ikke please try this:

1 - Save your USB key grub menu configuration file + other eventual personalization such as graphic file.

2 - Delete the /boot directory from your USB key

3- Copy the /boot directory from the final iso to your usb key & execute the /boot/install_on_usb.sh script from the usb key.

4- Check that it works

5- If it works, overwrite your grub menu with the personalized files you backed-up in step 1

[ikke]

Did according to your instructions.
But since I didn't want to lose the distributions (eg salix xfce test) I didn't delete the boot directory but used another vfat formatted stick.
I copied everything (also the /bootdirectory) from the livecd to the usbstick.

And then :

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root[boot]# ./install-on-USB.sh
Error: the post MBR gap is missing or not large enough (63 sectors).
  Yours appears to be of           32 sectors.
Suggestion: slightly move the first partition (/dev/sdd1) to reach the gap size.

Do you want to slightly reduce this partition to free some space for
  the required post-MBR-gap?
Command to run: parted /dev/sdd resize 1 63s 4014077s
Continue? [y/N] y
umount2: Device or resource busy
umount: /media/disk: device is busy.
        (In some cases useful info about processes that use
         the device is found by lsof(8) or fuser(1))
umount2: Device or resource busy
WARNING: you are attempting to use parted to operate on (resize) a file system.
parted's file system manipulation code is not as robust as what you'll find in
dedicated, file-system-specific packages like e2fsprogs.  We recommend
you use parted only to manipulate partition tables, whenever possible.
Support for performing most operations on most types of file systems
will be removed in an upcoming release.
Error: Partition /dev/sdd1 is being used. You must unmount it before you modify
it with Parted.
Please unplug the USB key, re-plug in and re-run this script

===

root[~]# cd ..
root[~]# umount /dev/sdd1
root[~]# parted /dev/sdd resize 1 63s 4014077s
WARNING: you are attempting to use parted to operate on (resize) a file system.
parted's file system manipulation code is not as robust as what you'll find in
dedicated, file-system-specific packages like e2fsprogs.  We recommend
you use parted only to manipulate partition tables, whenever possible.
Support for performing most operations on most types of file systems
will be removed in an upcoming release.
Error: Unable to satisfy all constraints on the partition.  

Kindly let me have your comments.

Regards.

[ikke]

ikke, have you tried the final release of LXDE Live from sept 16th?

Yes. I did!

Regards.

[JRD]

Seems like parted cannot resize your filesystem.
What filesystem do you use on the second USB key ?

One solution would be to recreate the partition table on this USB key with Gparted by example. Standard ms-dos partition table will make the first partition starts at sector 64, which is required for grub2 to be installed.

About your first USB key, I don't understand the error. Is is possible your send me the content of your key for me to examine ?

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dd if=/dev/sdd of=usbkey1Ikke bs=1M && xz usbkey1Ikke

And send me usbkey1Ikke.xz.

[ikke]

Thank you very much for your attention.

Let's tackle the problems one by one. Let's start with putting Salix Live XFCE 13.1.1 on a usb-stick.

Seems like parted cannot resize your filesystem.
What filesystem do you use on the second USB key ?

Agree. Filesystem is FAT16, Linux ID 6.

One solution would be to recreate the partition table on this USB key with Gparted by example. Standard ms-dos partition table will make the first partition starts at sector 64, which is required for grub2 to be installed.

Looked at the psrtition with fdisk (Am not used to 'gparted'). Seems OK. Reformatted the stick again in a Windows machine but I got the same error :

Code: Select all

root[boot]# ./install-on-USB.sh
Error: the post MBR gap is missing or not large enough (63 sectors).
  Yours appears to be of           32 sectors.
Suggestion: slightly move the first partition (/dev/sdd1) to reach the gap size.

Do you want to slightly reduce this partition to free some space for
  the required post-MBR-gap?
Command to run: parted /dev/sdd resize 1 63s 4014077s

Tried to format the stick from within an installed version of Salix Live XFCE 13.1.1. But there is no mkfs.msdos or mkfs.vfat available.

Afher we have solved this problem we mght tackle the problem of doing a frugal install of Salix Live XFCE 13.1 .1 on a usb-stick or hard disk.

Anyway thank you for your help

[ikke]

Further ...

So for the first problem I should like to find a way to have a 'post MBR gap' of 63 sectors instead of the one of 32 which I seem to have now on that usb-stick.

About your first USB key, I don't understand the error.

For the second problem, It could be that the error is mine.
What should be the grub entry for grub1 and the one for grub2 you are using now?

Found out that he cheatcodes have changed as well. Eg 'from=' has to be followed by the path of the salix.iso. Formerly I had to give only the place where the 'salixlive'-directory was to be found. Now it seems that If you would like to add modules you have to create an customised iso. Formerly, copying a module to the 'salixlive'-directory' was so easy... Now you have to unpack the iso, add the modules and make a new iso. And - I am afraid - the 'make_iso.sh' script is no longer available. So one can no longer add modules.

Kindly let me have your comments.

Je suis trop casse-pieds?

[ikke]

So for the first problem I should like to find a way to have a 'post MBR gap' of 63 sectors instead of the one of 32 which I seem to have now on that usb-stick.

First problem solved. Used the xfce livecd to repartition that usb-stick with fdisk. And also 'mkfsdos' was there to format the stick one more time. And now it worked. Then copy everything from the livecd to the stick and install grub2 with the tool you provide.
Needless to add I am very glad. I'll have salixlive with me whenever I need it ...

For the second problem, may I repeat my question?

It could be that the error is mine.
What should be the grub entry for grub1 (menu.lst) and the one for grub2 (grub.cfg) you are using now?

Thank you for attention.