Didja List for Live CD and Install issues

[jeverettk]

Give newbies a good start and save experienced newcomers the usual annoying drill:

Please add your own lists of frequently asked diagnostics (FAD - sort of an FAQ in reverse), then we can simply link to this thread as a jumping-off point for helping.
 

• Didja check your media? ........ how
  Didja check the MD5 sum?
  Didja get a bad burn?
  Didja burn too fast?
  Didja test the drive?
  
  

Then, if one of the mods would make this thread sticky, we could just start off by asking:

"Didja check the didja's?"
...

[TeePOG]

I concur, this would be a useful section to point newbies to... as a daily support volunteer in the IRC channel, it would be helpful to link to such a sticky post in the Channel Topic.

To add to the list:

- Didja check to see whether your motherboard / soundcard / network card / "hardware x" is compatible with Linux? ( insert links to http://www.pclinuxoshwdb.com/ and http://www.linuxcompatible.org/compatibility.html )

- Didja Google for it yet? (If no, link to http://tinyurl.com/2rfwr )

- Didja check the forums already before starting a new topic?

- Didja join your local Linux Usergroup? ( Link to http://www.linux.org/groups/ and http://www.linux-magazine.com/Readers/Usergroups )

[Russell]

One that Duck added - windows downloads are most likely fragmented, move to another partition first.
as for the did ya's, also some Have ya's

Have ya tried the CD in another machine,
Have ya tried a different brand of media,
Have ya moved the iso to another machine and burnt it with it's burner
Have ya burnt the iso to a DVD - works for some?  - Fron Vampirefo (I recall) - I've read it here!
Have ya got a spare optical you can change to get going
Have ya got the boot drive as a master - might stop some starting

This is a good idea as we often re-type these - I have a thing about optical drives.

[baba_linux]

I have a 64 Bit machine. try playing with Linux and installed a few distributions. When I wanted to start the live CD of PC Linux 2007 it did not wanted to boot saying : cannot mount the CD drive...
The same CD worked fine in two other computers. My CD drive is 100% while using other distributions.
I like very much the user interface of the PCLINUXOS and willing to install it on a fresh formated HDD
 

[ikerekes]

actually the livecd never issue this error message.
the closest message would be "ERROR: Unable to mount the livecd"

That happens if every can not find the livecd.sqfs file on any media available at the time of boot.
It would be a lot easier to diagnose your problem if you would give more detail, what you done, what CDROM drive you have, how it is attached (ide, usb, scsi) ?

[baba_linux]

My CD drive is a Nec DVD R/W connected as IDE (First boot device). runs very good the Mandriva One (64), Ubuntu Live CD and other.

I could not run the KAZIT, but most of the other do. My motherboard is Intel 965 based conroe 6600 CPU 2GB RAM, GForce 7900GS

[baba_linux]

to make things more acurate: Error unable to mount livecd dropping you to a limited shell. the file livecd.. is there
I have tried it with another version: Bigdaddy... the same problem???

[Russell]

If other Distros boot (I hate it when it gets to that point) I'd say the Media Brand, Burner, Rom combination ?
I have a SAM Live CD will not start this machine I'm on, starts two of my others and all the vintage junk I have in the garage.
I've booted many other live CD's and DVD's, but not the SAM? Have you burned a DVD, worth a go?
Long shot, drop out the power from some drives, it could be just straining that bit,?
Talk amongst your friends we all have love hate relationships with certain brands of optical media - agree.
When they say I use "brand x" grab a couple from them, see if they are any good,
Booting a live Distro is the most you ever ask of an optical drive.

[baba_linux]

Thank for the good will, But:
Mandriva made by the same burner and the same CD brand boots
Ubuntu 32 and 64 as well as Kubuntu boots
Kazit does not boot.
PClonuxOS 2007 and BigDaddy does not boot. The same CD works fine on two other computers !
Is it possible that the problem is that it does not boot with NEW 64 Bit machines?
I still think that PClonuxOS 2007 is the most friendly Linux I have ever seen

[Russell]

This one from a while ago, just like yours - twilight zone stuff

http://www.pclinuxos.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=99999999&topic=24941.msg192328#msg192328

Sorry to hear it's still giving you a headache.

[ikerekes]

Thank for the good will, But:
Mandriva made by the same burner and the same CD brand boots
Ubuntu 32 and 64 as well as Kubuntu boots
Kazit does not boot.
PClonuxOS 2007 and BigDaddy does not boot. The same CD works fine on two other computers !
Is it possible that the problem is that it does not boot with NEW 64 Bit machines?
I still think that PClonuxOS 2007 is the most friendly Linux I have ever seen

baba_linux
The only thing I can tell you that the error message you are getting is 100% of the time caused by not able to mount (and read without an error) the content of the CD.
This is nothing to do at this time in the boot process with any of the 64 bit machine.
At this point only the kernel and the initrd is loaded and they are loaded by the BIOS and the isolinux program which treats the CD as raw file. To switch over to the compressed filesystem on the CD, the initrd has to be able to mount the livecd.sqfs file from the cd. The error messages actually tell you the instructions used to do this.
The livecd.sqfs file is a highly compressed file, and the smallest imperfection in the media or in the burning process can throw it off (the mount or the read). Different laser devices callibrated differently. i.e. it is quite usual occurance that one cd-rom can read the media and an other can not.
People with the same error message and symptom had success, with changing the media, lowering the burning speed, or replacing the CD-ROM (or DVD).
My DVD drive is so unreliable, that I gave up long time to use of it, and do all my installs with the so called Poor Man Install.

title Poor Man
kernel (hd1,7)/isolinux/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=Poor_Man root=/dev/rd/3 livec=livecd debug bootfrom=/dev/sda8 splash=verbose vga=791
initrd (hd1,7)/isolinux/initrd.gz

In this case I copyed the content of the CD to the /dev/sda8 partition wich is a linux partition, but it can be even a w$ ntfs partition. That is not sensitive to the media, and works always for me. 

[baba_linux]

may be the attached picture can give us a clue

[attachment deleted by admin]

[squishy]

I think someone needs to make a new thread because this one went off course.

[Russell]

Squishy, you are right. I spend most of my time in that area, as it is the one I can give the most help,

Ikerekes put it in correct language of what I see happening, from a download to a "Live CD" is a journey indeed.

I test CD Roms with Live CD's, if they don't make it they go in the "also ran" pile.

I also feel for any member who wants the Distro, and experiences the frustration in not getting to an install stage.

[baba_linux]

Thank to all those who tried to help. it is not an CD burn problem but rather the Intel DG965WH Motherboard as I understood from another thread