[ Testing Completed ] LiveUSB Testers

[YouCanToo]

Works just fine on my 32 bit system! Am posting from it right now. Was simple and easy to understand.

[Just17]

Forum support! 

 

[Just17]

Tested today from a live CD session, using latest Openbox CD. Encountered a couple of problems.

(1) I checked all the live USB boot options to test them. Booting from the live USB and selecting Memtest gave an error that /boot/memtest wasn't on the drive. So, the script will create a memtest GRUB boot entry without checking to see if memtest is installed. I then wiped the USB drive and started the live CD session again. Opened Synaptic and installed memtest to the union filesystem. Created the live USB again. Then, booting from USB and selecting Memtest from GRUB menu successfully started the memory test.

Yes, quite true .....  there is an assumption that memtest is installed, as it has been on all official ISOs from PCLOS ....  or at least I thought so.
It can be added to the dependency list I guess.

I want to add here that on all but the latest versions of the script the Memtest entry would only create properly when doing the first/primary OS install.
That has been corrected.

I did get some errors while installing memtest during the live CD session.

Code: [Select]

While installing package memtest86+-4.20-1pclos2011:

INTERNAL ERROR: unknown device sda8
MDK::Common::Various::internal_error() called from /usr/lib/libDrakX/devices.pm:186
devices::entry() called from /usr/lib/libDrakX/devices.pm:201
devices::make() called from /usr/lib/libDrakX/partition_table/raw.pm:56
partition_table::raw::typeOfMBR() called from /usr/lib/libDrakX/bootloader.pm:188
bootloader::read() called from /usr/sbin/bootloader-config:64
sed: can't read /boot/grub/menu.lst: No such file or directory
warning: %post(memtest86+-4.20-1pclos2011.i586) scriptlet failed, exit status 2

I have no idea what was going on there 

(2) Selecting Copy Openbox to RAM failed to boot. Set the boot option splash=verbose to see what was going on. Got a scrolling screen of file/folder already exists errors. They were scrolling too fast to read well. CTRL-S wouldn't pause the messages. Tried it on two different PCs with the same result. However, I need to recreate the live USB from a live CD session on another PC, just to be sure. The GRUB stanzas look correct.

Code: [Select]

title   OpenBox with Copy to RAM
kernel (hd0,0)/OpenBox_0/OpenBox_0/vmlinuz livecd=/OpenBox_0/OpenBox_0 fromusb copy2ram root=UUID=f4faf860-4258-4df4-9d03-cce77d50d618 acpi=on vga=791 splash=silent
initrd (hd0,0)/OpenBox_0/OpenBox_0/initrd.gz

OK ......  let me know if the problem is repeatable, thanks.

Normal boot live USB option works fine. Bootup is pretty quick. Booting with persistence works. I checked to make sure copied files were retained on the USB. That's all I got done today. I will rerun the installation and tests from a live CD session on another PC tomorrow.

Thank you .....  look forward to anything further you can add.

regards

[Just17]

Well, I am an idiot. I couldn't get it to run from terminal either as root or user. I set it as executable, but nogo. Mybad, Iknow.

But just click & run, runs as expected. My usb has an lxde & xfce previously installed. I couldn't wipe the stick & make a fresh install using either lxde or xfce heading. Using the KDE heading runs & results as expected. I did try editing both lxde & xfce to lxde64 & other combinations but nogo. But I also never managed to get that to work in the repo version either. 

I'll try it & be right back.

Follow the instructions carefully when naming the OS you are installing.
You can edit any of the entries, or use the last blank entry, to produce the name you wish.

After editing you must press Enter to have it selected ......  then OK to use that selection.

Hopefully I understood where you were having difficulties.

regards

[Just17]

Well, perfect result.
But I was confused by the grub menu choices.

If you can detail where the confusion is then maybe the explanations can be reworded to make things clearer.

I chose the first entry, since I had already installed grub. But I got no login screen, just straight to boot.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean ..... did you get a Grub screen to select the OSs on the USB?

I couldn't make sense of any of the grub seections, but like I said in my previous post I am a bit dense.
It was the same with the repo version but I always chose to install a fresh grub.

As above ...... if you can tell me where the confusion lies then maybe it can be made clearer.

Great job, I'll keep playing.
2nd try:
Chose all boot options, chose 3rd grub choice to reinstall grub
hmmm.....again no boot menu. Straight to desktop.  
havin' fun, hth.  
btw...this is on my 32bit partition

The Grub screen and the Desktop login are separate things.
The login is determined by the ISO ......  and in all later ISOs there is no login when running live, it automatically logs into the Guest account.

If you have no boot menu then you cannot choose which OS you wish to boot? ....  you mentioned having two previous OSs on the USB drive ..... do you not get the opportunity to boot either of those also?

If you can post again giving details of what is happening at the different times it will be easier to know where the problem lies.

Thanks for testing and reporting back   

[Just17]

Works just fine on my 32 bit system! Am posting from it right now. Was simple and easy to understand.

Thanks for the report 

Do let me know if anything weird should happen.

regard

[Just17]

well, in 64bit partition now.
Tried creating a new usb from an iso located in /user/downloads but it caused the script to crash--several times.
Tried the same with an iso located in /downloads & runs ok. So navigating to home/user seems to bring the crash.

johnmart,
                 can you try again to get the script running from a root terminal?
Open terminal, su to root and then run the script.
If it fails to run please post back the output from the terminal.

If it does run, and you can repeat the failure when selecting the ISO from /home/user please post back the complete output of the terminal, so the problem can be located.

Thank you.

[Just17]

BTW ....  all testers please note this is the latest script, which has a couple of small bugs squashed.

Please use this if possible, thanks.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5838889/lusbc_0.9.7.sh


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5838889/lusbc_0.9.7-1.sh

[djohnston]

Please use this if possible, thanks.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5838889/lusbc_0.9.7.sh

Used that one for all tests. Ran some more today on 3 different PCs. Created live USB from a running live CD session again, this time using LXDE Mini. This time it was created on my main workstation. Booting the created live USB with Copy to RAM option isn't working. Still get the same errors.

For all the next tests, I switched to creating the live USB from an iso file, LXDE Mini. I made sure memtest was installed on the host. Again, booting live USB with Copy to RAM option does not work. I tried it on all 3 PCs.

Memtest worked. Boot With Persistence definitely works. On first persistent boot, I had to configure the WPA2 connection with a password. On second persistent boot, wireless network came up automatically from previous configuration. All files and folders copied from the host to the USB were intact on the USB.

I'm curious to see if Copy to RAM works for someone else. Just to be sure, I ran a fsck on the USB. It's a 16GB formatted with ext4 and came up with no errors.

[Just17]

Thanks Darrel .....  will investigate here tomorrow .......  too late now ....  must have a couple of wee 'sips' to bring in the new year 

[YouCanToo]

Works just fine on my 32 bit system! Am posting from it right now. Was simple and easy to understand.

Thanks for the report  

Do let me know if anything weird should happen.

regard

I have noticed if I reboot my machine, it will not boot from the liveusb. If however I power off the machine and than boot it works just fine. I do have the system set to boot first to the usb stick. Also when rebooting the liveusb it does not show up should one press F12 to select the boot options. It does show up if I power off the machine and than try to boot.  I am not sure if this is just a machine quirk or something with the liveusb itself.

[Just17]

Works just fine on my 32 bit system! Am posting from it right now. Was simple and easy to understand.

Thanks for the report  

Do let me know if anything weird should happen.

regard

I have noticed if I reboot my machine, it will not boot from the liveusb. If however I power off the machine and than boot it works just fine. I do have the system set to boot first to the usb stick. Also when rebooting the liveusb it does not show up should one press F12 to select the boot options. It does show up if I power off the machine and than try to boot.  I am not sure if this is just a machine quirk or something with the liveusb itself.

I expect that is machine dependent ......  at least I cannot think what else might cause it.

[Just17]

Please use this if possible, thanks.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5838889/lusbc_0.9.7.sh

Used that one for all tests. Ran some more today on 3 different PCs. Created live USB from a running live CD session again, this time using LXDE Mini. This time it was created on my main workstation. Booting the created live USB with Copy to RAM option isn't working. Still get the same errors.

For all the next tests, I switched to creating the live USB from an iso file, LXDE Mini. I made sure memtest was installed on the host. Again, booting live USB with Copy to RAM option does not work. I tried it on all 3 PCs.

Memtest worked. Boot With Persistence definitely works. On first persistent boot, I had to configure the WPA2 connection with a password. On second persistent boot, wireless network came up automatically from previous configuration. All files and folders copied from the host to the USB were intact on the USB.

I'm curious to see if Copy to RAM works for someone else. Just to be sure, I ran a fsck on the USB. It's a 16GB formatted with ext4 and came up with no errors.

Confirmed here .......  the loop image fails during booting ......  it appears it cannot find some directory ....  but impossible to see properly or be sure of that much, as it all scrolls by waaaaaaaay too fast to read.

I was using the KDE 2011.09 ISO.

Next thing is to determine how much memory you have in your machine and if that might be affecting things.

regards.

[djohnston]

Next thing is to determine how much memory you have in your machine and if that might be affecting things.

regards.

Yeah, I thought of that. That's why I tested on 3 machines. PIII=512MB (usually not enough unless iso is very sparse). Duron=1152MB. Athlon64X2=4GB. Those were the 3 tested.

[Just17]

Next thing is to determine how much memory you have in your machine and if that might be affecting things.

regards.

Yeah, I thought of that. That's why I tested on 3 machines. PIII=512MB (usually not enough unless iso is very sparse). Duron=1152MB. Athlon64X2=4GB. Those were the 3 tested.

Cause found!

Not sure what to do about it in the short term 

One of the changes I made to this version, in the interests of compactness and tidyness, is to keep all files from each installed OS inside one directory with the directories named as per user input.
It makes things much simpler to manage later when a user wishes to delete an older ISO.

Unfortunately it seems the Copy2RAM function fails if the loop image is not in the root directory.

I have not investigated this .....  that is from a cursory test.
The previous version had the loop image in the root of the USB device.

Will have to think about this ......  and how valuable the Copy2RAM function is for the USB device ......  at least in the short term.

Thanks again mate for picking up on this.

regards