Knoppix 5.3.1 Live CD -- Error message during booting

[bigspanner]

Can anyone tell me why I had the following error message on my screen when I tried to boot my PC using the Knoppix Version 5.3.1 live CD,
which I downloaded and burned, from the site http://www.knoppix.net/get.php.

/init: line 1013: cannot create /user/run/utmp: nonexistent directory
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!


I am not so techie so would appreciate a step by step explanation from anyone here!


http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/b38df84dbb40b6dea51d0ca539a50bfe2g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=ogigm5yzmt8&thumb=5)

http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/b38df84dbb40b6dea51d0ca539a50bfe5g.jpg

[Harry Kuhman]

Could be any of several reasons.

For starters, are you aware that there is no version 5.3.1 Knoppix CD? 5.3 1 is only available at this time in a DVD version, or by unofficial hacks.

Next, the link that you gave as the place where you got it is just this website's list of ways to get the ISO. So I have no idea where you really got it or how you downloaded it, but I'm guessing that you didn't take the advice to use BitTorrent and instead used one of the mirrors. Mirror downloads of Knoppix tend to be extremely problem prone (about 50% of my mirror downloads were bad before torrent downloads of Knoppix became available) so if you did use a mirror it is extremely important that you do the simple md5 test on the downloaded ISO. Did you do that?

It is also extremely important, if the md5 test confirms that you have a good ISO, that you burn at low speed. Did you do that?

Once we get past all of that there are things that can be typed in during the booting process to get past hardware compatibility issues, but I'm guessing that the problem is somewhere in the listed issues above.

See answer #1 (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/User:Harry_Kuhman) for more details.

[bigspanner]

Thanks Harry,

To clarify, I did download the torrent, as suggested, from http://torrent.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/

I clicked the first item to download, which is:
KNOPPIX_V5.3.1DVD-2008-03-26-EN

Again, to clarify, after I had downloaded the torrent, I used utorrent to download the following files:

KNOPPIX_V5.3.1DVD-2008-03-26-EN.iso
KNOPPIX_V5.3.1DVD-2008-03-26-EN.iso.md5
KNOPPIX_V5.3.1DVD-2008-03-26-EN.iso.md5.asc
KNOPPIX_V5.3.1DVD-2008-03-26-EN.iso.sha1
KNOPPIX_V5.3.1DVD-2008-03-26-EN.iso.sha1.asc
knoppix-cheatcodes.txt
packages-dvd.txt

Hope what I did is correct. Can you tell me what you meant by md5 test?
By the way, to let you know, I did not burn at low speed but at fast speed. Maybe this is the problem.

[Harry Kuhman]

The md5 test is a quick test that confirms that your ISO is good. It's less important when using a torrent download, since torrent downloads don't suffer from a known corruption problem that I've repeatedly seen on the mirrors, and because BitTorrent includes file block checksums that check each part of the file as it downloads. Still, there are ways to screw up a BitTorrent download so it's worth doing the md5 test, particularly if you are having any problem. Details are in the FAQ that I pointed you to in my last message.

I'll assume that you are using a DVD and not a CD since you skipped by that par of the reply.

Yea, a lot of problems are seen due to high speed burns. I recommend burning any DVD (not just Knoppix but it's particularly important with Knoppix and with important data) at 4X speed. Might not be the issue, but I can give you links to many times that this is what the problem turned out to be. Different media sometimes helps too, as does using erasable media during this testing phase if you have it.

Once you get past those, look at the file knoppix-cheatcodes.txt that came down with the torrent download.

[bigspanner]

I went to download the recommended winMD5sum software from Nullriver and did a compare of the checksum by copying the md5 file "KNOPPIX_V5.3.1DVD-2008-03-26-EN.iso.md5" into the software and did a compare. Unless I am not using the software correctly, I received the feedback "MD5 Checksum is different" when I did a compare.

So, now I am downloading the torrent and using BitTorrent to download the Knoppix files all over again.

By the way, as the ISO is more than 4GB in size, it cannot be a CD but a DVD, isn't it? I am using a DVD and to burn it, I am using the burn feature of PowerISO software.

This time I will burn using low speed of 4x, which I hope my DVD-writer can handle. And yes, this time I will be using DVD-RW format DVD, so even if it does not work, at least I do not waste my DVD.

[Harry Kuhman]

It's unfortunate that you started the download all over again. When a BitTorrent client is restarted, it will check the integrity of what it has and download any bad parts again, repairing the download. The only way that I know of to screw up a BT download is to stop the download when the display reaches 100% rather than let it really complete a few seconds later. There of course may be other ways, or something might go wrong in the download that would be corrected just by restarting the client and let it check the files.

I'm not sure about a Nullriver program, don't think I ever used it. But many programs will work and the choice is a matter of personal preference. With a file as large as the Knopix DVD ISO, some poorly designed programs seem to just "lock up". They are actually computing the md5 sum but show no progress as this happens. I avoid such programs, as I like the comfort of seeing that something is happening when a large file's md5 is computed.

Since your post seems to indicate that you're just not certain about how to use the Nullriver program, I think I would have downloaded and tried another MD5 program before going for the full DVD ISO again. Just that you could do that a lot faster, md5 checksum programs tend to be a meg or less in size, while the ISO is 4 gig +.

I'm not clear on what you did with your md5 test. I'm thinking it really was a bad md5 sum, but I can't be sure from what you wrote. I would suggest playing around a bit with an md5 program, either make a .md5 file from a smaller file and then test the file against it's own .md5 file to get a feel for how your files work, or just use the tool to compute a md5 sum of the iso and then manually compare that md5 checksum against what is in one of the md5 files that you got with the download (both can be opened in any editor, they are simple text files).

Yea, it's a DVD file and it's bigger than 4 gig. That also implies that you better not be saving it on a FAT partition, need a NTFS partition (or a Linux partition or some type file system) that supports files greater than 4 gig. I don't know anything about PowerISO, but it seems that you are burning an ISO file in the proper mode, since you got it to boot into Linux at all.

Your burner should certainly do 4X. In fact with RW media it likely will insist on that or a slower speed. The important thing here is to not burn at high speeds, which increase the error rates on the discs and cause known booting problems.

[bigspanner]

Let's see if I got you correctly or not. i still am keeping the original downloaded Knoppix software even though I am downloading it again now.
I will use the original Knoppix to check if the checksum is correct or not. I think I did the md5 test wrongly after reading your post.

I took your advice and did the following again.

1. Opened the winMD5sum software.
2. Copy the KNOPPIX_V5.3.1DVD-2008-03-26-EN.iso file into this software and let it run.
3. It took awhile to run and like you said, it did not show any visible sign of crunching the checksum but it did the job finally.
4. Checksum shown is 4ccda04355e63d1485072f8906465168
5. Next, I opened up the file "KNOPPIX_V5.3.1DVD-2008-03-26-EN.iso.md5" using DAMN NFO Viewer and read the Checksum in the text file.
6. It shows 4ccda04355e63d1485072f8906465168
7. So, will I be right to conclude that the checksum is correct and that my original download is not corrupted?

If it is not corrupted, then I will proceed to burn into a DVD-RW at low speed this time round.
Once I have done that, I will test it by booting on another PC which I have.

Hope to catch up with you again when I post my result here as your help so far has been most generous and useful. Thanks!!!

[Harry Kuhman]

7. So, will I be right to conclude that the checksum is correct and that my original download is not corrupted?
When the md5 matches you are assured that the file is good.

[bigspanner]

Got it.
I am now burning Knoppix into my DVD-RW disk and at 4 x speed (600kb/s), it is taking a very long time.
With Knoppix at a size of 4.4Gb, it means roughly 4.4 x 1,000Mb x 1,000Kb = 4,400,000Kb.
So, 4,400,000/600Kb = 7,333s = 122min = 2 hours, to burn the DVD.

Then I will test it on my PC. Hope it works this time. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
I do intend to switch to Linux once I get a hang of it. I have been hearing loads about Linux but this is the first time
I am doing something concrete about it.

[bigspanner]

Alright, an update of what I did thus far.

I successfully burned the Knoppix DVD using Nero Express - Ahead.
It was burned at 2x speed, at specified 2700Kb/s thereabout. It was pretty fast.
It takes some learning using the Nero software, as there are different options available. However, it tells you what speed you should burn the DVD, which is a good thing.

With the Knoppix DVD, I tried it on one of my PCs. It did not work even after a couple of tries. Sometimes, it does not detect there is the Knoppix DVD in the drive, and sometimes it can access the DVD to boot up but the following error message is seen:

Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry.
Dropping you to busydrop shell.
Press reset button to quit.
/static/ash: can't access tty:job control turned off.
/#

I tried the same Knoppix DVD on another PC, and it boot up successfully. So, I knew it could not be the fault of the DVD burning. It must be something to do with my own hardware. However, looking at F2 or F3 of the various commands of knoppix do not hlep me very much, as the commands are alien to me and it takes sometime to understand what the commands do as the documentation is brief. Here, I mean the cheat-codes too.

So, I went into the bios of the PC that was not booting or not booting properly and disabled two things in my bios configuration.
One, I disabled "booting from other devices". Two, I disabled "floppy booting". Even though I had set the booting sequence for boot from my two DVD drives which my PC has and then boot from Hard Disk, then Floppy drive, my guess is that the sensitivity of my DVD drive where the Knoppix DVD is must be retarded and so my PC will finally move down the sequence to boot through my Hard Disk or Floppy. By the way, my Hard Disk cannot be booted as my existing O/S is corrupted.

After that configuration change, my dos prompt will ask me to put in a system disk and press return. What I did then is to press return and wala!...my PC will detect my Knoppix DVD and boot up like smooth silk.

One question I had though, after playing and fiddling with the various software and browsers like Epiphany, Iceweasel, Konqueror, etc....I do not seem to be able to copy, move or delete any files from my existing file-system. Any way I can do so? Please help!

[Harry Kuhman]

Glad to hear that you are making progress. That things changed after disabling floppy booting from the sequence is very very strange and something that I had never seen reported before, but good to know.

One thing that I want to correct. That the disc booted on another system does not tell you that there are no disc issues. It certainly doesn't look like there are any disc issues in this case, but high speed burns are well known to work (or at least seem to work) on some systems but not others. So the fact that a disc works in one system is absolutely not proof that there is no disc problem.

As to your last question, I think you would be best off starting a new thread for it. I'm not really clear what the issue is either. If you are trying to move files off your hard drive, you normally should be able to do that.. But you already mentioned that your hard drive is corrupt, so it might not be readable. While Knoppix can often recover files when Windows will not boot or read the disk, windows is quite capable of destroying it's disk structure so badly that Knoppix can't read the data. If you are trying to write to the hard disk, I would strongly advise against that. Some people think that Knoppix can safely write ti NTFS partitions. I'm not one of those. There were many previous versions of Knoppix that some people claimed could write to NTFS too, but they all ended up corrupting the disk in one way or another. The data on my NTFS partitions is too important to me to risk finding out that the trend continues. And there would seem to no point at all in trying to write to a disk that you say is corrupted.

The references to browsers confused me too. Start a new thread, tell us in more detail what you want to do and someone will likely try to help you. I just hope it's not someone who thinks it's safe to write to NTFS partitions now. You may also want to look at the wiki (documentation link near the top of this page). I don't remember the exact title, but there is a section about data recovery with Knoppix.

[bigspanner]

Thanks Harry, for all your help and wisdom.

Allow me to try to explain the circumstance whereby I begun to look at Knoppix.
It started from two angles. One, I had a JPEG file in my portable hd (FAT32 formatted), which has strange characters in its name. I tried to delete, move, rename it in my XP o/s PC, but it would not allow me to. Previously, I could see the image, but only recently, no image software is able to view it. It seem to have morphed into an indestructable file. I tried using Unlocker, MoveOnBoot or Killbox to delete the file. I even tried File Shredder of Spybot & Destroy, but all to no avail. So, this led me to Knoppix, as I read from some forums that Linux could help me to delete the file. I had the portable hd attached to my good PC and booted with Knoppix. But I still cannot delete this JPEG file. However, using one of the image software in the Knoppix DVD bundle, I could see the image. That is all and nothing can be done to the file.

I did the unthinkable here. In my good PC (booted up with Knoppix), I tried to move the JPEG file into another directory in my NTFS formatted hd of my PC. I also tried to use Knoppix to move some other files in my NTFS file-system of my PC. But I could not. I will start another thread to seek advise on this, but this here is just to give you some background of how I got involved with Knoppix.

Two, I had another corrupted PC, with my XP o/s corrupted beyond repair. So, I tried to use Knoppix to boot to see the files. I can see the files alright. That was yesterday! I also did the unthinkable yesterday. I had my portable hd, where the JPEG file is, attached before I booted my corrupted PC. I tried to move some files in my corrupted PC and also I tried again to purge the JPEG file from my portable hd, but all not successful.

Today, when I booted my corrupted PC using Knoppix, it was successful, but my hda1 (where my file-system is) is officially gone!
This is the message I see when I click on my hda1:

Sorry-kDesktop
service'/UNIONFS/usr/share/application/kde/kfmclient_dir.desktop is malformatted.

PS: No worries, I had already copied out all my important files from my corrupted PC using BARTPE, which I downloaded and burned into a bootable CD before I started experimenting with Knoppix.

Now, I offcially cannot read my file-system using Knoppix and I don't know what wrong I did. I could try to find out why as I am excited by the potential of Linux and wish to show my defiance to Microsoft but as I am not a techie, I fear my resistance to Microsoft may be futile.
Just awhile ago, my Knoppix froze on me and I did not do much other than click a few of the icons on the toolbar to explore. I feel that if I am committed to Knoppix, I should try the hd installed version. The DVD live version is just too unstable and slow for me I guess.

By the way, thanks for your generous help and I really appreciate it. Right now, I had "force" removed Knoppix from my DVD drive and booted up my corrupted PC using BARTPE. I can see my file-system and all the files are still there. Should I now decide to explore Knoppix further, I will have to decide to re-format my hd to FAT32 instead of NTFS, which Windows desires. I am thinking of having a dual boot system, with both XP and Knoppix.
I will do some research on this first and will be spending more time on this forum reading all the posts here before I plunge in further.

[Harry Kuhman]

I'll wait until you get a new thread started before dwelling too much on the file issues.


... I am thinking of having a dual boot system, with both XP and Knoppix.....
As far as I'm concerned, all systems with Windows and an optical drive are Windows/Knoppix dual boot. If you're talking about installing Knoppix to hard disk, that's just crazy talk (IMHO). If you want Linux installed, install something intended to be installed. Debian would be one choice (and is the distro of Linux that Knoppix is based on). See the warning about installing Knoppix in the hard disk install section of the wiki for details.

[ckamin]

On the other hand, Installing Knoppix to the HD will ensure that one will become a "techie" with no hair left to pull out! :)

You can try a few different live disks of distros that were meant for HD installation or do as Harry says, Install Debian. I might suggest that you set aside a PC for experimentation and use your primary PC unaltered until you get a good feel for Linux and configuring a dual boot system. You could also just copy the Linux OS to disk and use the "poor man's install" method. That would work with Knoppix and it is not a real installation, so most of the issues from a HD install would not be experienced. There may also be some advantages to this method, since some changes can be made to the files on the hard drive.

For more info:

http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Basic_Poor_Mans

[bigspanner]

Hi ckamin,

Thanks for your post.

May I ask this then. If my PC's hard disk is NTFS formatted because it is running XP now, isn't it now necessary for me to configure another hard disk in my PC to be FAT32 formatted so as to run Linux on my hard disk?

Besides, it begs the question of Knoppix Live DVD on the DVD-ROM. If I am accessing my NTFS file system from this Live DVD, does this mean I should never copy and paste into my existing NTFS formatted hard disk, to preventing it from being corrupted?

I am not sure if I should be asking this question here under this thread or should I start another thread on this. Sorry if I have been inappropriate here. Thanks.

[ckamin]

bigspanner

You can READ the files from an NTFS partition when using a live disk, since it is usually not required to write to the disk. I would recommend not WRITING to an NTFS partition using Linux. So copying and pasting to NTFS is risky. I sometimes use an external drive formatted to FAT32 when I need to save files to disk. Even a thumb drive can work if your needs are small. You certainly don't need to have a FAT32 partition or separate drive in order to run Linux. There is a section in the poor man's install notes that even details how to run it from an NTFS partition. Setting aside a drive or a "partition" for Linux is an option. It can be formatted to whatever file system you desire that is Linux compatible. For a system that also has Windows, formatting to FAT32 will allow both operating systems the ability to read and write to that section. There are some limitations in Windows with the FAT32 file system. Microsoft has limited the size of a FAT32 partition to about 32 Gig in Windows 2000, XP, etc. Windows seems to be able to read and write to a larger FAT32 partition, but the newer versions cannot create one.

I just like the idea that Knoppix can run from the DVD and not require the hard drive or an actual installation to run. If installing Linux, Debian and a few others have worked well for me. A dual boot configuration can be done if you set aside a partition for each operating system. They can coexist on a FAT32 partition, but Windows would be limited by that option and runs best under NTFS. I have done a lot of experimentation with installations and such, but leave my primary PC alone. I'll beat up on older hardware that is not essential. I have fewer heartaches that way. I also have some NAS set up for data backups. Just simple servers with LARGE hard drives. I backup anything that I don't want to lose in several different ways and don't experiment with any of those machines.

[OErjan]

My advice is to restore the better computer for Windows.
then you try installing Debian, ubuntu, xubuntu or slackware to one of the older systems, avoid Knoppix for that as both above have stated, it is not made for hdd, play around som

Debian and Slackware are slightly harder than Ubuntu and xubuntu to install but all are linux at heart.

http://www.ubuntu.com/ (fairly easy)
http://www.xubuntu.org/ (more or less same as above but lighter load on system)
http://www.debian.org/ (where ubuntu, Knoppix, DSL, Xubuntu and many others started out)
http://www.slackware.com/ (one of the two oldest Linux distributions)