UNSOLVED - Remaster on usb stick gives "boot error"

[djohnston]

I  will take Just18's suggestion and download a Minime.iso, install it, add Firefox and a few personal files, then try to make a remaster.

Maurice,

You may have misread his intent. Run the Live USB program using the downloaded MiniMe.iso before you install the MiniMe OS. We just want to see if the iso you're using is the problem, your working environment, or something to do with the USB drive itself.

[wedgetail]

Maurice

Just be sure I understand.

1..  You download  the minime.iso.

2..  You start up Live USB creator and install the downloaded "untouched" minime.iso directly to your USB stick

Do not try to use the download in any way on your system first.  If the install to USB is successful then you can start thinking about "modifications" or customisations.  My impression was you would try and customise first before loading it onto the USB???

The failure of  djohnston suggested run set me back, I did not expect that would have failed. The figures you provided in my suggested test told me you did not have anything "leftover" in /temp or /root/tmp and in general it looked healthy from a size point of view.

I was not fast enough, djohnston beat me comfortably:
Aaaaahh ummmm as you can see we have your interest at heart and want to nail this problem. My particular interest is the USB stick (but unlikely to be your problem).  What a laugh we may have at the end    

[Just17]

I won't attempt to quote the replies - they're rather overwhelming   - but many thanks for them all.

I have an lxde iso and tried that but no go. I  will take Just18's suggestion and download a Minime.iso, install it, add Firefox and a few personal files, then try to make a remaster. This will take some time as I have to catch up on things which have been neglected for the past days so I may be quiescent for a while. But, rest assured, as your General McArthur famously said, "I shall return"

Maurice

Maurice, that was not my suggestion ........  my suggestion was to get LiveUSB Creator working first.

That means using an original PCLOS ISO which can be checked against the PCLOS MD5sum, before use.

If the ISO is correct and you fail to get it working on the USB device using LiveUSB Creator, then we can help.
Downloading another PCLOS ISO is not going to help much .....  the reason I sugested a Mini was that it takes less time to install it.

So, if you can confirm that the LXDE ISO you have is a PCLOS original, and that its MD5sum checks out, then that can be used to find where things are going wrong.

[Maurice]

Got it fellas.

I'm downloading Minime right now so you're all just in time.

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wedgetail

Aaaaahh ummmm as you can see we have your interest at heart.
What a laugh we may have at the end.   
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[Maurice]

Well, finally, Success. Sort of. 

I remastered the Minime.iso and it worked fine - but only on my wife's machine (a Dell 820 desktop).

But on my machine - no dice. The Minime menu just did not appear. Only the normal Pclos menu.

So, obviously, works on one machine and not on the other - bios must be the culprit. It is a DPP 3510J if that helps

But I've been over it time after time with a fine tooth comb. All of the boot types are enabled. I also changed the 'Boot menu type' from Normal to Advance and set the usb (Lexar) to boot before the WDC Hard drive.

Stopped and restarted a dozen times but the Minime menu will not appear.

At least the problem is now localised. My machine is a 2008 model and later than my wife's so I can't see why it won't cooperate.

[wedgetail]

Maurice

Before you loose this setup, can you do fdisk -l for me, this has to do with the USB stick in general.

I am beginning to wonder if you have hit one of those pcs that refuses to boot anything except FAT16. (solution to that one too)

Now here is a test that perhaps need the approval of others before you try.  

If yo have any USB stick not formatted in Linux yet,  ie still FAT16 then plug it in and re-boot the computer, as it is not or I assume the test stick is just a data stick and not bootable, your system should just crash out at that stage, telling us that your pc can boot on FAT16.  

Ah yes, do an fdisk-l on that stick too if you remember.

[Maurice]

Maurice

Before you loose this setup, can you do fdisk -l for me, this has to do with the USB stick in general.

I am beginning to wonder if you have hit one of those pcs that refuses to boot anything except FAT16. (solution to that one too)

Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0 GB, 16039018496 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1949 cylinders, total 31326208 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0000334f

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1            2048    31326207    15662080   83  Linux

I'll get on to the next fdisk a little later.

Edit  --- No - I only have one other stick and it is formatted as ext3 so can't help there.

[wedgetail]

Mistake here have to clear the entry

[Maurice]

Maurice

How did you format the stick last time?  Did you use fdisk to do the job?  I am asking because if you look back to my early question about fdisk -l on this stick it is different.  I may know why, we will see.   

I formatted it as fat32 at one stage when I tried to use netbootin because that program needed fat32.

[wedgetail]

Maurice

Can you remember what happened then, did it try to start but failed (at that stage your ISO may have been the trouble) 

[wedgetail]

Maurice

The USB stick now works on the DELL 820 ,

On your pc you say you get:

Only the normal Pclos menu.

I am not clear what you mean here.  I am guessing it is the page where have a few lines to select what you want to do.  The page where you can not use the mouse?  Is that correct?

Or you have Bull in a circle and PCLOS written in big letters before the menu? Had to reboot, had seen it so often I no longer remember it.  I may be running some older back ground as well, this time I keep my fingers crossed that you have the same  .

I think we are getting closer

[Maurice]

Maurice

Can you remember what happened then, did it try to start but failed (at that stage your ISO may have been the trouble) 

Yes - whilst I  was setting up unetbootin it said that no flashdrives were found and, if one was inserted, then to reformat it as fat32 and try again. I did this but it still failed yto see it and I kept getting the same message. So I gave up and turned to Live USB Creator.

[Maurice]

Maurice

The USB stick now works on the DELL 820 ,

On your pc you say you get:

Only the normal Pclos menu.

I am not clear what you mean here.  I am guessing it is the page where have a few lines to select what you want to do.  The page where you can not use the mouse?  Is that correct?

Or you have Bull in a circle and PCLOS written in big letters before the menu? Had to reboot, had seen it so often I no longer remember it.  I may be running some older back ground as well, this time I keep my fingers crossed that you have the same  .

I think we are getting closer

What I mean by the normal PcLos menu is the menu I get when I boot up the machine first thing in the morning (when there is no usb stick plugged in) to open up my workaday PcLinuxOS 2011. Yes, I think there's the bull in the circle, followed by the latest splash screen with the line and sine wave.

That's about as clear as I can make it.

[wedgetail]

Maurice

That is good enough description, to me this means that GRUB has started, must have found your stick.

What do you see on that page?  Is there any menu items? Since it is supposed to be a clean KDE-mini, I am expecting a number of items/lines?

Are you saying you just see the blue screen with the logo?   

[Maurice]

Maurice

That is good enough description, to me this means that GRUB has started, must have found your stick.

What do you see on that page?  Is there any menu items? Since it is supposed to be a clean KDE-mini, I am expecting a number of items/lines?

Are you saying you just see the blue screen with the logo?  

It couldn't have found the stick - as I explained, no stick is plugged in.

I see the screen that you or any other PcLos user sees when you boot up in the morning to your PcLinuxos or whatever os you are using. A black screen these days.