Samsung NC 10 goes to command line while booting live CD (Solved)

[opie]

I have a Samsung NC 10 netbook.  The kids were complaining about it being so slow.  I thought no problem, I would just partition the hard drive and install PCLOS.  I hooked up a CD player via the USB port and inserted the PCLOS live CD.  The bios was already set to boot first from the USB port.  Initial PCLOS screen came up as the live CD booted.  However, after a long delay the screen went to a command line local host request for a password.  I am a novice and much prefer GUI.

I have booted the same live CD to a Dell Vostro and got it up and running with no problem.  Any suggestions on what the problem is with the NC 10?

[critter]

I'm running on a samsung nc510 right now.
I believe that your problem is that the video has not been correctly recognized.
log in from the text prompt. user guest password guest.

once in type su
you will be asked for the password - type root
type video

you will get a quasi-graphic box that allows you to choose a video card
try whatever you think is appropriate - vesa almost always works and you can change it later.
run test - if you see a stripey multi-colored background then that's good
accept
log out - control-d does this, and type startx
you should get a graphical login prompt.

post your results

[opie]

I tried to login using both root and guest and nether one worked.

[critter]

must be lower case

What exactly does your screen say?

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

I have had no problems at all booting the NC10 from the KDE2010 or 2010.1 versions, nor the preceding betas. Which version are you using?

[opie]

I am using PCLOS 2010.1.  I get to the screen that offers the choice of live CD, Safe mode, etc.  I chose Live CD.  I get the boot splash screen and it then goes to command line.

This time it accepted my login.  I don't know what I did wrong last time.  I followed critter's instructions and typed in guest then put guest for password then typed in su then typed in root for the password.  The next line turned red and said: [root@localhost guest]#.  I then typed in "video" but the next line stated: "bash: video: command not found". 

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

Try "drakx11" instead of video.

By the way I have a Samsung NC10 and have not had this problem. If it took a long time to boot, (it shouldn't) it may be that the connection between the external drive and the computer is not good. Try installing "unetbootin" from synaptic and installing the iso to a memory stick. That's how I installed it!

[opie]

I think you might be right because the live CD booted just fine on my Dell notebook.  Can you please explain how to make a bootable thumb drive.  Can a thumb drive be bootable and have other files on it in addition to the OS being booted?

[tolstoi]

Go to Pendrive Linux and download the tools to create a bootable usb livecd from Windows. For me the Minime fixxmm tool didn't work so I used the tool for creating Gentoo usb sticks. Worked fine. Search for Gentoo on the Pendrive Linux site. Just takes a few minutes to create a usb live cd.

Livecds are squashed filesystems so you can't store or save anything there. What I did once was install a minimal distro on a large enough usb stick. There should be enough space left then to save some configuration files.

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

If you have PCLinuxOS and the iso on another computer, use unetbootin from the repos. The only differences with a Unetbootin system are that the opening menu looks different and you have to select from the second entry when booting the live USB, also that it does not close down properly, it does everything to unmount disks and close down, then leaves you hanging and you have to switch off manually. It's safe enough.

[opie]

I will try that.  I want PCLOS on the thumb drive rather than any other distro.  One of many reasons is that PCLOS is the only disro that I can get to work with my wireless router.  I don't know why, but PCLOS just does it better.

[opie]

 I am running PCLinuxOS 2009 on my desktop.  I looked in the Synaptic repository and could not find "Unetbootin."  I refreshed the repository and received the following pop up: "The repository might be no longer available or could not be contacted because of network problems. If available an older version of the failed index will be used. Otherwise the repository will be ignored. Check your network connection and the correct writing of the repository address in the preferences."

[menotu]

I am running PCLinuxOS 2009 on my desktop.  I looked in the Synaptic repository and could not find "Unetbootin."  I refreshed the repository and received the following pop up: "The repository might be no longer available or could not be contacted because of network problems. If available an older version of the failed index will be used. Otherwise the repository will be ignored. Check your network connection and the correct writing of the repository address in the preferences."

See this link:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,72364.msg594446.html#msg594446

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

With 2009, you shouldn't need unetbootin, because there is a script to write an iso to a memory stick, included as standard. Can't remember precisely what it's called in the menu, but when you see it, it's obvious.

[opie]

Thank you for that advice.  PCLOS in fact has the program for creating a thumb boot drive.  However, I tried it twice and it did not work.  I think that it is because the USB ports are only USB1 on my desktop that is running PCLOS.

I am going to install PCLOS on another computer with USB2 ports and see if that works better. 

I have a question.  Prior to starting the process creating the boot drive a window pops up and asks me to put a value between 50 mb and approximately 1,900 mb (the thumb drive is 2 gig).  I am not sure what the significance of that figure is.  The first time it failed I entered 500 mb, the second time it failed I entered 1500 mb.  What value should I put in?