You are not logged in.
-mod edit- For current BL helium instructions for the tutorial linked to in this post, see Post #24 in this thread. hhh
After reading this post https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … d=326#p326, went back to #! forums and read this http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic. … 11#p438311. Took sometime to get 8GB usb stick ready and do exactly as the how-to to create the persistence usb stick with the BL RC1 64 bit iso. I get boot error, when I try to boot that usb stick. Any help?
If needed I'd write down the exact words I get on the screen.
Last edited by hhh (2018-05-15 23:24:06)
Offline
If needed I'd write down the exact words I get on the screen.
Yes please.
You could even use a photo, as long as you post a thumbnail link rather than the fullsize image.
Where exactly in the booting process does it fail?
Offline
MBR
Syslinux 6.03 EDD 20150813 (c) 1994-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al
Boot error
That's all I get.
Offline
What was the *exact* command that you used to install syslinux?
With your USB stick plugged in, please post the output of:
sudo parted -l
(This can be done from any distribution or live environment)
Offline
Model: USB DISK 2.0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8015MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 1075MB 1074MB primary fat32 boot
2 1075MB 8015MB 6941MB primary ext4
The command to install syslinux,
sudo syslinux -i /dev/sdb1
Last edited by nobody0 (2015-09-30 20:32:01)
Offline
What is the content of syslinux/live.cfg and the output of:
sudo blkid
(Just the bit showing the USB stick will do)
I've only ever set up persistence with Kali and the method was slightly different so you may have to wait for hhh
Offline
From the Arch wiki (don't know if it applies to your setup though):
Your boot partition, on which you plan to install Syslinux, must contain a FAT, ext2, ext3, ext4, or Btrfs file system. You should install it on a mounted directory—not a /dev/sdXY device. You do not have to install it on the root directory of a file system, e.g., with device /dev/sda1 mounted on /boot. You can install Syslinux in the syslinux directory:
Last edited by damo (2015-09-30 20:42:10)
Be Excellent to Each Other...
The Bunsenlabs Lithium Desktop » Here
FORUM RULES and posting guidelines «» Help page for forum post formatting
Artwork on DeviantArt «» BunsenLabs on DeviantArt
Offline
What is the content of syslinux/live.cfg and the output of:
sudo blkid
(Just the bit showing the USB stick will do)
I've only ever set up persistence with Kali and the method was slightly different so you may have to wait for hhh
/dev/sdb1: UUID="F648-535D" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sdb2: LABEL="persistence" UUID="93765744-f8ad-46b3-a975-ffdd0433a304" TYPE="ext4"
syslinux/live.cfg
label live-amd64
menu label ^Live (amd64)
menu default
linux /live/vmlinuz
initrd /live/initrd.img
append boot=live components quiet splash persistence
label live-amd64-failsafe
menu label ^Live (amd64 failsafe)
linux /live/vmlinuz
initrd /live/initrd.img
append boot=live components memtest noapic noapm nodma nomce nolapic nomodeset nosmp nosplash vga=normal persistence
No hurry. I have to go now.
Last edited by nobody0 (2015-09-30 20:51:49)
Offline
The instructions I posted on the #! forums were only tested from a jessie system. If your trying to run the commands from wheezy or another OS, it probably won't work.
No, he can't sleep on the floor. What do you think I'm yelling for?!!!
Offline
The instructions I posted on the #! forums were only tested from a jessie system. If your trying to run the commands from wheezy or another OS, it probably won't work.
I was trying it on the BL RC1 64 bit iso
Offline
I was trying it on the BL RC1 64 bit iso
Sorry, I didn't make that post into a full-fledged tutorial because it didn't work for several people. Here are the Debian instructions...
http://live.debian.net/manual/git/html/ … n.html#558
No, he can't sleep on the floor. What do you think I'm yelling for?!!!
Offline
I was able to install BL directly to a USB stick so I could have a persistent OS on the go. Would that help at all? I think all you will lose is the live boot option but it's not needed if you can boot into a personalised setup.
Offline
I followed the procedure starting with the bl-Hydrogen-rc1-amd64.iso on a 8GB stick.
When trying to boot from the stick it said something about it being unbootable, though the boot flag was set correctly.
I found the solution for this in this link, the one hhh referred to, more specifically in the remark from Piotr Martycz:
I then just ran the command
syslinux -i /dev/sdX3 -d /syslinux
Then, lo and behold, I could boot successfully into the live system with persistence.
Apparently it is caused by changes to the syslinux package.
Not elementary at all, if you ask me.
Without that remark I would have been as flabbergasted as anyone.
hth
Last edited by xaos52 (2015-10-06 12:56:03)
Offline
Not elementary at all. Would you care to write a how-to in https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewforum.php?id=9 , xaos52?
Offline
^ Perhaps we better wait until hhh has read this.
He has a post already with the procedure to follow. There would only be one line to change in his post.
While we are waiting on him, you could try it out. Perhaps you still have the stick. Jusr run the one command I mentioned and see if it boots.
Could be you are having other problem(s).
Good luck
Last edited by xaos52 (2015-10-06 14:21:35)
Offline
Sorry, I somehow managed to miss these follow-up posts.
syslinux -i /dev/sdX3 -d /syslinux
So, which command exactly does this replace, the one that renames isolinux.bin to syslinux.bin? I'm guessing it would be sdX2 if following my #! instructions, since I didn't set up 3 partitions.
Curious that the tutorial on #! worked for me and @johnraff, but no matter. I my case, maybe because I was running this from a netinstall version of jessie and not a (live-build built) Bunsen version, but I'm just guessing.
It's late here, but hopefully tomorrow I'll remember to test this from a BL system. I'll also test from my jessie system and if it works on both I can write up the tutorial for these forums.
Thanks for looking into this, good Doctor!
No, he can't sleep on the floor. What do you think I'm yelling for?!!!
Offline
OK, I think I see. The new command replaces the one early in my tutorial, "Setup the MBR", and in my instructions that was /dev/sdx1.
-edit- that's not right. @xaos, if you see this, please clarify. Calling it a night here.
No, he can't sleep on the floor. What do you think I'm yelling for?!!!
Offline
As a matter of fact, I was following the link you were referring to, using 3 partitions.
Replace the syslinux command early in the blog post,
Make the USB key bootable
Use install-mbr to install an MBR on the key and syslinux to install the bootloader to boot into your live image partition.
$ /sbin/install-mbr /dev/sdX
$ syslinux -i /dev/sdX3
Replace the syslinux command with the one I posted.
Following your tutorial, that would indeed be /dev/sdX2.
I am sure I had to do this building in Debian sid. I don't remember if I tried it from within bunsenlabs.
Edit:
Or, you can follow the complete tutorial as is, and if the stick does not boot, just run the one syslinux command I posted and it should then boot OK.
Last edited by xaos52 (2015-11-07 08:59:35)
Offline
OK, I've had some sleep, drank some coffee and messed with this some more.
Thanks for posting back, xaos!
So we don't have to keep scrolling up, here are the links to my tutorial and the Armstrong tutorial...
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic. … 11#p438311
http://syn.theti.ca/2013/06/22/tutorial … ce-on-usb/
First, a note here about my using sudo, IIRC the Armstrong instructions started failing for me early, maybe even during partitioning. At the time I had no idea why, now I'm thinking that it was because gparted runs as root and so permissions on the USB weren't set to run these commands as user, but I haven't looked into this.
The Armstrong instructions use 3 partitions, partition 3 is the one he puts the ISO onto. That would correspond to /dev/sdx1 in my instructions. I used only 2 partitions because I thought having 3 unnecessarily confused things (and it has ). Indeed, when I tried using sdx2, I got this...
syslinux: invalid media signature (not an FAT/NTFS volume?)
When I ran 'syslinux -i /dev/sdX1 -d /syslinux' I got a segfault and invalid directory messages.
At this point I just ran my instructions as-is from within a week-old RC1 32 bit partition, and except for my umount command and Thunar preferences instructions (added later at the suggestion of johnraff and now fixed), it went without a hitch. I get errors at boot about 'live-persistence failed, resources is busy' and one at shutdown that 'systemd-shutdown failed to finalize system, ignoring', but these seem benign as everything works.
I'm assuming that re-running the syslinux command with the appended '-d /syslinux' is necessary in stretch and sid because of changes to isolinux, so I added an "if/then" line at the end of my instructions and a link to this thread.
That's all the testing I want to do on this for now, my poor USB has been overwritten enough.
No, he can't sleep on the floor. What do you think I'm yelling for?!!!
Offline
Ben uses 'parted' for partitioning - the command line tool - not gparted.
Now make changes to the partition table. Use parted because it may be run as an ordinary user and has some advanced capabilities beyond more basic tools like fdisk.
This did not work for me. parted had to be run as root.
Ben creates 3 partitions:
part1(sdX1): EXTRA - fat32 - reserve space on the stick. Nothing to do with Debian live or persistence
part2(sdX2): persistence - ext4
part3(sdx3): boot partition - fat32 - to hold the unpacked live system.
You use two partitions:
part1(sdX1) - boot - fat32 - to hold the unpacked live system.
part2 (sdX2)- persistence - ext4
When following your partitioning schema, syslinux should be run as
sudo syslinux -i /dev/sdX1
So syslinux should be run on the fat32 boot partition, not the persistence partition.
syslinux can only install to a fat32 partition. That is what the error message tried to explain to you. You ran it on the ext4 persistence partition.
This did not work for me. As I was following Ben's instructions, with the boot partition on /dev/sdX3, I had to run
sudo syslinux -i /dev/sdX3 -d /syslinux.
Sorry for introducing the confusion by referring to Ben's partitioning scheme.
If you - kind reader - are following hhh's instructions and you can not boot from the stick, try
sudo syslinux -i /dev/sdX1 -d /syslinux
@hhh: did you use an 8GB stick to test? Could be the syslinux modification was intended for the larger stick sizes?
Hope this has not added more entropy to the already present chaos.
Last edited by xaos52 (2015-11-07 16:40:29)
Offline