What must you do to enable normal desktop effects in Mint and Ubuntu?

Bad news guys. I don't know what happened, but I cannot get the flash drive to boot into Mint anymore. I was online, and was opening a link which was for a pdf. The screen went white, nothing there. I'm not even sure what I did, but I got back to the Mint destop, except everything was gone, no icons, task bar etc. I couldn't get it back. So I figured I'd restart, but I couldn't shut the computer off. I had to pull the plug., Now I cannot get back to mint. I get the message that /dev/sdf1 doesn't exist along with the BusyBoxv1 message.

So, I wipe the drive and start over. First time, same result, won't boot into MInt. Second time, it boots into Mint, I update video driver and restart, same mess, won't boot into Mint. I'm going to scream. It was working great last night, I even test burned a cd, imported some images I had on a cd from windows. ArrrrrrrrrrrrrgGGGGGGGG! This flash drive stuff just ain't meant to be.

 

Don't blame the flash drive, the initramfs for Ubuntu doesn't know what device to boot when they change locations. If you want to use the flash drive, your going to need to change the device names in your menu.lst to UUIDs. The command 'blkid' will show you the UUIDs of partitions. Here is an example:

Edit: you should add a rootdelay too, just in case the kernel doesn't detect the USB stick right away.

menu.lst

Code:

title     Linux Mint
root      (hd0,0)
kernel    vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro splash quiet
initrd    /initrd
quiet

Code:

title     Linux Mint
[b]UUID      fdsfgs[/b]
kernel    vmlinuz [b]root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/fdsfgs rootdelay=8[/b] ro splash quiet
initrd    /initrd
quiet

 

Thanks for the reply. How exactly do I do what you have suggested?

Here are the results of blkid:
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sde1: UUid='5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82' TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sde5: UUid='73dd1b1b-c17a-4e56-b693-e53db6b6a2c9' TYPE="swap"

When I use menu.lst:
bash: menu.lst: command not found

I'm not sure how I am supposed to use the series of commands that are highlighted in the 2 boxes in your post.
Do I enter each of the above commands as a group or do I do it line be line, hitting enter after each line? I just want to make sure I do this correctly. I am a total noob at Linux, but with step by step directions I can usually get the job done. What you are saying makes total sense as I was just able to boot into Mint and when I tried it after the reinstall, it wouldn't work. Now I wish I hadn't been is such a hurry to reinstall as I lost my settings and bookmarks, but thankfully I don't have anything important on the drive.


I'd really appreciate your help.

 

Did you install onto the flash drive, or did you copy the live CD onto it?

If you post up fdisk -l, blkid, and /boot/grub/menu.lst, I can make sure they are all set correctly for you.

 

I installed it to the flash drive using the live cd, but I did it as a regular install, just as you would to hdd.

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sde: 4009 MB, 4009754624 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 487 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sde1 * 1 459 3686886 83 Linux
/dev/sde2 460 487 224910 5 Extended
/dev/sde5 460 487 224878+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris



blkid
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sde1: UUid='5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82' TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sde5: UUid='73dd1b1b-c17a-4e56-b693-e53db6b6a2c9' TYPE="swap"

sudo: /boot/grub/menu.lst: command not found

 

menu.lst is a file, so you need to do this to see it:

Code:

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

Also post up fstab:

Code:

cat /etc/fstab

 

I edited my previous post, I don't know if you saw it before or after the edit. Thank you for your help.


cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-legacy-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## Graphical boot menu location
gfxmenu=/boot/gfxmenu/default.message

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 5

# Pretty colours
color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=/dev/sde1 ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,0)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(single-user) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Linux Mint 6, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=/dev/sde1 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
quiet

title Linux Mint 6, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=/dev/sde1 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic

title Linux Mint 6, kernel Last successful boot
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/last-good-boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sde1 ro quiet splash last-good-boot
quiet

title Linux Mint 6, memtest86+
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

 

Here is what is needed at the bottom:

Code:

## ## End Default Options ##

title Linux Mint 6, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
UUID 5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
quiet

title Linux Mint 6, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic (recovery mode)
UUID 5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic

title Linux Mint 6, kernel Last successful boot
UUID 5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82
kernel /boot/last-good-boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 ro quiet splash last-good-boot
quiet

title Linux Mint 6, memtest86+
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

There is the updated menu.lst. If Mint updates the kernel, its going to regenerate the old one again, and overwrite the changes. Keep a copy in your home directory ~/ so that you can add UUIDs back after the update. However, this isn't done yet - the last file that needs updating is /etc/fstab.

 

Should I copy and paste the whole list above in terminal?

 

Also, fstab is needed. You can see that with cat /etc/fstab.

Sorry, I should have said how to overwrite the changes. Normally, you don't have write permissions to anything except your home directory, so you'll need to obtain permissions to make changes. You can do that with the command sudo. So to enter changes, do:

Code:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

It will ask for a password - enter your normal user password.
*If that doesn't work, replace gedit with kate or mousepad*

Gedit behaves like notepad - so copy what I posted above and overwrite the same old section.

 

Ok, I copied what you posted into the menulst, I still have it open. How do I save it and what do I do next?

 

You can save with ctrl+s. Next and last is fstab, it tells linux where your filesystems are. cat /etc/fstab

 

fstab. cat /etc/fstab

bash: fstab.: command not found



Ok, I did it wrong the first time.

cat /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sde1
UUID=5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sde5
UUID=73dd1b1b-c17a-4e56-b693-e53db6b6a2c9 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

 

Do I need to do anything else? And again, thank you for your help and patience.

 

fstab looks good. Just make one small change:

Code:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sde1
UUID=5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 / [b]ext2[/b] [b]noatime[/b],errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sde5
[color=red][i][b]#[/color][/i][/b]UUID=73dd1b1b-c17a-4e56-b693-e53db6b6a2c9 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

Using sudo and gedit, change the reference to ext3 to ext2. Ext3 writes to the drive too much for a flash to drive handle, and will wipe it out quickly. Ext2 doesn't do this. Also Ext2 and Ext3 are forward and backward compatible with each other.

And where it says relatime, change to noatime. And I would recommend disabling your swap space. Again, it is written to too much, and will kill the drive in as little as 3 months. However, if the system have less than 320MB RAM, you may need to keep it enabled.

And don't worry about it

 

I'm not sure how to do this.
Could you please post the exact commands and steps for changing the fstab as you have suggested? I really don't know what I am doing! I have 1 gb of RAM, do you think I should disable the swap space? And if so, specific directions on how to do so.

I ran the fstab command and there is a bit more information than before. I don't know how to make the changes you have shown. I really am a total noob.

cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sde1
UUID=5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sde5
UUID=73dd1b1b-c17a-4e56-b693-e53db6b6a2c9 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

Thanks for your help, I am learning.

 

Misery loves company...I'm stuggling with a CrunchBang usb install on an 8 gig stick...everything goes as directed on PDL.com, but I get an error at boot saying that it failed to load the operating system and hangs? I have gotten Puppy to boot, but it can't handle my intel 5300 wireless card. any clues welcomed, but by all means, help Kingbob first !!

+1 to bob for being a trooper

 

Linux runs under a system where users have limited permissions, so that make changes, you need to log in as the super-user. To do that, you need the command sudo (super-user do). To login as root, you need to:

Code:

sudo su

It will ask for your password, enter your normal password. If it works, your name will change to root. If not, it will ask again. Once that is done, you'll have write permissions to the entire system.

Now that we have permissions, the first step is update GRUB's menu.lst. You can do that with the command:

Code:

gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

After that, a window with menu.lst will pop up. Scroll down to the bottom, and overwrite the same section with the updates:

Code:

title Linux Mint 6, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
UUID 5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
quiet

title Linux Mint 6, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic (recovery mode)
UUID 5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic

title Linux Mint 6, kernel Last successful boot
UUID 5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82
kernel /boot/last-good-boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 ro quiet splash last-good-boot
quiet

title Linux Mint 6, memtest86+
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

Save changes with ctrl+s, and close the window. Now, the next step is to update fstab. You can overwrite the entire file with the update contents:

Code:

gedit /etc/fstab

Code:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

# /dev/sde1
UUID=5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 / ext2 noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1

# /dev/sde5
[color=red]#[/color] UUID=73dd1b1b-c17a-4e56-b693-e53db6b6a2c9 none swap sw 0 0

/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

The # in front of lines are comments, which disables the line. Swap will be disabled because of that. If you causes problems, you can re-enable it by removing the red # infront of it.

That should be enough to get Mint to boot on any computer, regardless of device order. If it gives you any problems, post them here.

 

Thank you very much. I made the changes as you have posted. I am going to try it out for a while and see how it all works with shutdowns and restarts. I am going to try it on my wife's laptop too. She has an Nvidia card too so hopefully all will work there too. If I decide to install Mint to my hard drive, I shouldn't have any of these issues? I think I am going to by a second hdd and set it up for dual or multibooting. I have the Windows 7 beta and a code for it and I am considering using that along with Mint on the second drive. Or would it be easier to do 2 or 3 Linux distros on the second drive?

I wish I could rep you again, you have been a huge help. I hope that this will make it easier for anyone else who has been following along. I have Ubuntu on a flash drive too, and I cannot get proper dvd playback even though I have followed the guides that have been linked to earlier in this thread.

 

I am having some glitches with Firefox on this install. It was there before all of the edits, so I don't think it has anything to do with that. It always takes extra time when I click on something or a few seconds when the pages change before the cursor changes so I can click again.
Also, scrolling takes a few seconds to respond. I haven't seen evidence of this in other parts of Mint, so far only when I am online. I will be scrolling down a web page and stop for a moment and them it won't scroll again. Or I will be scrolling down and then it won't go up. Weird. Anyone have any ideas?

I have the same issues with my Ubuntu flash install, but not with a Mint install on another drive using the pendrivelinux method. But on that install I can't enable special effects or get the video drivers to run persistently, same problem I had with Ubuntu, but they were overcome earlier in this thread. It is a real chore to have a everything work from a flash drive, I wonder if it's even possible. I have had extensive help from very knowledgeable users here and there are still a few quirks.

 

You can check out your system resources

Part of the problem is that FireFox is a resource hog when it comes to disk I/Os. So, we are going to take a second to move FireFox's workspace to RAM. I'll be quoting this article: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-717117.html

First on the list of things to do is login as root:

Code:

sudo su

Next, you want go to the root directory '/'. The command cd stands for "change directory":

Code:

cd /

The tmp directory is for temporary files. It can cause a lot of writes on flash, so we will be moving it onto RAM. It doesn't contain anything important, so losing the data on it is safe. First, lets move the existing directory out of the way:

Code:

mv tmp tmp2

Now, make a folder, and mount the RAM disk to it:

Code:

mkdir tmp
mount tmpfs /tmp -t tmpfs -o mode=0777

Copy back the files in tmp to RAM and remove the temporary folder:

Code:

mv /tmp2/* /tmp/
rmdir /tmp2

To make the changes permanent, a line needs to be added to fstab. Use the same directions as above to edit fstab and make these changes:

Code:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

# USB Flash drive
UUID=5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 / ext2 noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1

# USB swap
# UUID=73dd1b1b-c17a-4e56-b693-e53db6b6a2c9 none swap sw 0 0

# RAM disk
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs mode=0777 0 0

/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

By default, tmpfs allocates half of the total system RAM for use, but this space isn't actually claimed until the space in RAM is written to. With the command df, you can see how much space is being used. Currently, my /tmp tmpfs is using 8MB of RAM:

Code:

x58 ~ # df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs                10317860   2397372   7396368  25% /
udev                     10240       120     10120   2% /dev
shm                    3060040         0   3060040   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda1                62193     17106     41876  30% /boot
/dev/sda6             20641788   8068384  11524764  42% /usr
/dev/sda7             10482044   3342912   7139132  32% /var
/dev/sda8             30961664   5965708  23423196  21% /home
[b]tmpfs                  3060040      7960   3052080   1% /tmp[/b]

Next we will move FireFox to RAM, but can't do that without knowing your profile name. To see it, use this command (and replace NAME with your normal user name):

Code:

cat /home/NAME/.mozilla/firefox/profiles.ini

Also, to check out if your also having network problems, post up the output of these commands as well. The output is going to be quite a bit, so it would be a good idea to use http://pastebin.com/

Code:

ifconfig
ifconfig -a
iwconfig
lspci
lsusb

 

I got to this command:

mkdir tmp
mount tmpfs /tmp -t tmpfs -o mode=0777

and I got a message that the file or directory was in use and couldn't be removed. I then entered the getedit command to change the the fstab and the terminal dissappeared and I cannot open a terminal now. I have no idea what happened. I am going to reboot and see what happens.

Edit: I cannot quit or restart now, nothing happens. I am going to play with it a bit, but it looks like I have to pull the plug. I cannot access anything from the menu now. I click and nothing happens. I messed up something, but I only got thru the first few commands above. I never got to edit the fstab.

Edit #2
I'm back in Windows again.
It won't boot into Mint now. And I have no idea what to do to. It looks like I have to start over from scratch again. Oh well. I may cry a little first. LOL.

 

That was my mistake, I'm sorry. Mint was depending on the /tmp directory more than it should have been.

I recommend doing a clean install, and doing the work needed to Mint before rebooting back into it. This way, all the changes that are needed will be present before it starts for the first time.

Before you do that, what is the USB drive your using, and the computer your using it on?

 

I am using it on a Sony desktop and a Lexar 4gb flash drive. How do you think I should start over?

 

Backup any data you need from the flash drive. Then, go into the LiveCD, and start the installation over. Except this time, open a terminal before you being and do:

Code:

sudo su
gparted

This will open up a disk partitioner a lot better than what is in Ubiquity. I know Ubuntu packs this by default, and Mint should too. Delete your old paritions, and create a 3.5GB ext2 partition for Mint, and a 512MB parition of swap.

Follow the installation process as normal, except when done do not restart. Using gparted, find the device name of the flash drive (it will be /dev/sdX). Use the command to mount it (replace X with your drive letter):

Code:

mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt

This will make the flash drive availible to be read and written to. This command will make Mint in the drive active:

Code:

chroot /mnt

If sucessful, the /mnt in your terminal window should change to a /. From here, you can follow my previous instructions to get everything working, but you can ignore my latest post except for fstab. Also note that when you format the drive, the UUIDs of the partitions will change. So to find these, first add this line to fstab:

Code:

# RAM disk
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs mode=0777 0 0

While your in there, look for the first drive's UUID. You can copy it with control-C. When updating GRUB's menu.lst, in there two places where the old UUID is, replace them. Before rebooting into Mint, make sure the UUIDs from menu.lst and fstab match. This will get you back into a working Mint. If Firefox is still slow, we can move parts of it to RAM so that it will be faster.

 

I did the install the way you instructed, did the mount and got the / in the terminal window. I then tried to start with the sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst, and I got the following message:
(gedit:10012): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0.0

I still have the live cd in and I haven't restarted yet, but I am going to have to shut it down for the night, I have been at this for hours. I had a lot of trouble with the gparted and the first install wouldn't give me the / when I entered the chroot /mnt command, so I started over again. And since I am getting the above warning, I am assuming that I must have done something wrong on the install since I can't get to the menulst. And I am assuming by shutting down and waiting for help that will be messing up what you wanted me to do.

EDIT:

I restarted, it booted fine, and I was able to run sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
and I edited the list as per your instructions on page 6 of this thread. This is what I pasted in:
## ## End Default Options ##

title Linux Mint 6, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
UUID 5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
quiet

title Linux Mint 6, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic (recovery mode)
UUID 5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic

title Linux Mint 6, kernel Last successful boot
UUID 5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82
kernel /boot/last-good-boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82 ro quiet splash last-good-boot
quiet

title Linux Mint 6, memtest86+
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

Anyway that's where I'm at. Time for some sleep, I hope. I have seen Linux in my sleep for the last week or so. Thank you very much for helping me. It's a matter of stubbornness and determination to get this working now. I haven't done anything with the fstab. I will post the current fstab results, and then off to bed.

cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sde1
UUID=4a6bbea3-b9e0-4252-80f3-e2c0306df862 / ext2 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sde5
UUID=888e68ed-d29b-4d44-9771-fe82ed5e7379 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

 

I messed up something, it won't boot and I get the black screen with the Busybox error like I did the first time it wouldn't boot. I think the problem is the UUID is different in the fstab than the ones I pasted in the menu.lst when I cut and pasted the section at the end? That's my guess as I don't understand this.

I am assuming that it is not possible to repair now since it won't boot. There is a help menu available on the black screen, but I don't understand the built in commands. There is only use of the keyboard, no mouse.

 

I'm sorry, I have really been causing as many problems as I have been fixing. I have been looking around, and found a better alternative. Mint and Ubuntu come with a program to create USB installs. Take a look at a guide here:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/linux-mint-6-flash-drive-install-via-cd/

 

I think you have everything on the right track to make the usb install work just like a hdd install. I have tried the various installs a pendrive and there always seems to be something that won't work. I did the Ubuntu usb install and had problems with the video driver. I have a working Ubuntu installation that I did as a regular install from the Live cd, just like I have been doing with Mint. Special effects work fine, but I cannot get satisfactory dvd playback.

So I switched to trying to get a Mint usb install since there were no issues with dvd playback, flash, special effects etc. But there have been problems with the Mint install with booting, etc that you have been helping me with. I personally prefer Mint over Ubuntu, but if it isn't going to work on a flash drive, I will go back to Ubuntu and try to get dvd playback to work again. Would you be willing to help with that, or do you think we can get Mint up and running? I would really like to get one of them fully functional. What do you think is the best one to work on?

I really think that you are on course to come up with the best install, it's a lot more complicated than some of the fourms would suggest. I have learned a lot from you and I appreciate the time you have devoted to this problem.

 

I was going through these steps myself to get Linux on a flashdrive, and I realized there was no need to bother with UUIDs, a better human readable way was to use labels. Using newer versions of GParted, you can assign a label during the paritioning, or used the command:

Code:

e2label /dev/sdX "name"

This way, a partition can by accessed by /dev/disk/by-label/name. If you still have Mint on the flash drive that won't boot, you can change the GRUB settings at boot time. You need to enter the GRUB menu, so if pressing esc at boot is needed, do it. From here, select your boot option in the menu, and press 'e', this will enter the editor. Got to the kernel line, and where it says root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/XJSADLJA, change it back to root=/dev/sde1. It may not work, so you can try sdd1 sdc1, etc. until it boots. From there, you can assign a label, and change UUIDs labels, which will make it easier to work with.

 

I'll give this a try later. Exactly what do you want me to do if I can get it to boot? I don't understand assigning a label, etc. Please let me know exactly how to do it. I'd like to try and see what happens. Thanks.

 

Drive labels are basically nicknames. To fix your drive: boot into the Mint LiveCD and become root with sudo su. Plug in your flash drive, again use GParted to get an idea what drives you have. This command will assign drive labels, so if you thumbdrive is sde. If not make the changes:

Code:

e2label /dev/[b]sde1[/b] "Mint"

This way, the drive can be accessed from /dev/disk/by-label/Mint versus the messy UUID. When plugged into a Linux system, the partition name will be Mint instead of "123.4 MB Media" However, GRUB is still going to use the UUID. So, use this command to find the current UUID, change sde to your drive if you have to:

Code:

blkid | grep [b]sde[/b]

If the UUIDs are the same as before, you should be good to go. However, if they are different, update the red ones bellow, just make sure you don't grab a quote, or GRUB will throw a fit. Here is an updated menu.lst, use gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst to make the changes:

Code:

title Linux Mint 6, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
UUID [color=red]5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82[/color]
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=/dev/disk/by-label/Mint ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
quiet

title Linux Mint 6, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic (recovery mode)
UUID [color=red]5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82[/color]
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=/dev/disk/by-label/Mint ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic

title Linux Mint 6, kernel Last successful boot
UUID [color=red]5e1050e0-215c-4a1c-ba06-10fc0f82dd82[/color]
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=/dev/disk/by-label/Mint ro quiet splash last-good-boot
quiet

title Linux Mint 6, memtest86+
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

If when booting you get dropped into busybox, that means the GRUB was able to find the kernel and load it, but the kernel was unable to find the Linux install. That means the GRUB has the right UUID, but what was given to the kernel is wrong. Also jot down the error message, as that will help a lot.

If you need quicker help, you can try messaging me on AIM or MSN. My contact info is in my profile.

 

Charr, I haven't tried it yet, I'm tired and I need a fresh brain. I'll let you know how I make out. And thanks for the offer of helping via IM. I may take you up on that if it gets to be too much for me, otherwise I will continue my saga here so that others can learn too.

 

When I run e2label /dev/sde1 "Mint"

e2label: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sde1
Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock.

In gparted, the flash drive is /dev/sdf

Needless to say, when I enter the menu list, it comes up with a blank page so there is nothing to edit. What am I doing wrong?

 

to Butt in here kingbob, I've got CrunchBang running great with 4 gigs of save space on a lexar 8 gig 'dragonfly' I'm going for compiz now and maybe we can compare notes

EDIT: I don't like the Pendrive way...I'm going to go through the regular install routine on my usb drive so I can set up proper partitions, and they say on the CrunchBang forums, persistence is better that way. Anything I'm missing here, consequences I'm not thinking about?

 

I agree, go for the regular install on the flash drive. If all goes well it should work almost as good as a hdd install. I think that Charr has the best way to have an efficient set up. It's just hard because I am a noob and need every minute detail spelled out for me. I still have hopes to get Mint up and running again. I hope he is still reading this thread. He really knows his stuff.

 

Yep...I'm doing that now...it's erasing the xconf every time I boot and undoing any driver install.

 

Dont' worry, you can't scare me away that easily

But there are too ways of doing this: the more functional way, and the more efficient way. The efficient way is better where space is cramped. It involves using SquahFS - a compressed read only filesystem, plus layers above it for read-writes. This is how LiveCDs work. The functional way is a lot easier, it just employs a standard read-write filesystem, and is perfect when a drive is a few GBs in size.

The problem here was that the flashdrive wasn't /dev/sde, it was actually /dev/sdf. This is also the same reason why GRUB can't always boot Mint - its because the drive's location can change. When using e2label, first check the location in GParted, and add 1 at the back of it. So if GParted says the drive is /dev/sdd, then you would do: e2label /dev/sdd1 "Mint".

Here is also a quick lesson on how Linux handles hard drives. In the /dev directory are references to all devices connected to a computer. Linux can access storage devices (thus, /dev/ sd) through their order. So /dev/sda is the first hard drive, /dev/sdb is the second, /dev/sdc is the third, and so on. The numbers after are the partitions. /dev/sdd3 is the third partition on the fourth disk.

 

I did a normal install to my 8 gig usb drive with CrunchBang...mounted my harddrives so they wouldn't show up in partitioner and confuse ubiquity..installed GRUB to sdb1 and all is running normal...I have compositing enabled...haven't installed compiz yet...how does compiz play with OpenBox?

 

Compiz and Openbox don't mix, they both are WMs.