Knoppix Live USB wont boot

[HJWitchella]

when i attempt to boot off live usb i get:

Linux Kernel 2.6.32.6, 2014 MB RAM.
CPU 0: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz @ 800MHz, 512 KB Cache
CPU 1: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz @ 800MHz, 512 KB Cache
Knoppix 6 Found at: /dev/sdb1
>>> Starting in Live-Mode.
>>> Please do not remove medium until shutdown!
Using /mnt-system/KNOPPIX/knoppix-data.img
mount: mounting unionfs on /UNIONFS failed: No space left on device
/init: line 693: /bin/mount: not found
/init: exec: line 742: /sbin/init: not found



System is a Dell Inspiron Mini 9. I am trying to install Knoppix onto the mini but run into this error.

[krishna.murphy]

when i attempt to boot off live usb i get:

Linux Kernel 2.6.32.6, 2014 MB RAM.
CPU 0: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz @ 800MHz, 512 KB Cache
CPU 1: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz @ 800MHz, 512 KB Cache
Knoppix 6 Found at: /dev/sdb1
>>> Starting in Live-Mode.
>>> Please do not remove medium until shutdown!
Using /mnt-system/KNOPPIX/knoppix-data.img
mount: mounting unionfs on /UNIONFS failed: No space left on device
/init: line 693: /bin/mount: not found
/init: exec: line 742: /sbin/init: not found



System is a Dell Inspiron Mini 9. I am trying to install Knoppix onto the mini but run into this error.

You didn't say where/how you got this - did you buy a pre-installed USB stick, or download and burn a CD and then make the USB from within Knoppix, or what? If you used a download, did you get the md5 sum to make sure it's not corrupted, or run a CD-self-test, or otherwise verify that it's not the source of the trouble? A lot of bad CD burns turn out to be causing troubles reported here. Windows-based ISO-burn utilities seem to be problematic, FYI.

Don't be discouraged - give us more to go on, and we'll try to help.

Cheers!
Krishna :mrgreen:

[HJWitchella]

It is a pre-installed USB drive

[krishna.murphy]

It is a pre-installed USB drive
Okay - can you boot it on another PC? There may be something wrong with the USB connection, but if it works elsewhere, then it's probably not a bad thumb drive. May be worth trying in another port on the original system, too.

Cheers!
Krishna :mrgreen:

[Capricorny]

Are you able to run Knoppix off CD/DVD? You don't have to go by the USB route if you ultimately want to run Knoppix off the internal HD. Checking the drive (maybe it is in fact full?) and the ports could also help. Nowadays, I don't run into USB incompatibilities so often, but they occur. If it is mismatch drive/BIOS, another type of drive might of course help.

[utu]

@HJWitchella

I also have an Inspiron, and also have seen this problem with Knoppix 6.2.1 on usb.
I don't think this is an Inspiron problem.

I do not know how to repair the usb when it will not load correctly,
other than to make a new Knoppix image from a Knoppix 6.2.1 on cd.
You lose some precious settings this way, but you regain the use of the usb.

In my case, I am using the 'persistent home' feature.
I suspect that while I'm using Knoppix on usb, sometimes I may fill up the UNIONFS
beyond the 2Gb that the usb can hold, and when I log out the new persistent
image won't fit on my 2Gb usb. I intend to monitor the size of UNIONFS before I
shut down from now on. I've crashed twice this way, now.

If you discover how to salvage the usb, I'd like to know how.

[krishna.murphy]

@HJWitchella

I also have an Inspiron, and also have seen this problem with Knoppix 6.2.1 on usb.
I don't think this is an Inspiron problem.

I do not know how to repair the usb when it will not load correctly,
other than to make a new Knoppix image from a Knoppix 6.2.1 on cd.
You lose some precious settings this way, but you regain the use of the usb.
The best thing I know to do is to salvage the knoppix-data.??? file in the KNOPPIX folder (and any other stuff you created or downloaded) from the flash drive if you can, wipe it clean and reinstall Knoppix, then copy the recovered data back into the newly-created KNOPPIX folder.

In my case, I am using the 'persistent home' feature.How exactly are you doing that? The "persistent store", if that's what you mean, is for ALL changes, not just the home directory.

I suspect that while I'm using Knoppix on usb, sometimes I may fill up the UNIONFS
beyond the 2Gb that the usb can hold, and when I log out the new persistent
image won't fit on my 2Gb usb. I intend to monitor the size of UNIONFS before I
shut down from now on. I've crashed twice this way, now.

If you discover how to salvage the usb, I'd like to know how.

I'd recommend using a larger flash drive or SDHC card - there are some very nice ones with MUCH more room for not a lot of money. Check ebay and Amazon, plus Google (to name a few good sources) - and Buy.com is having a Kingston sale. (http://www.buy.com/specialty_store_6b/kingston-usb-flash-drive/58058.html) Look around for something that fits for you.

Cheers!
Krishna :mrgreen:

[kl522]

I do not know how to repair the usb when it will not load correctly,
...
In my case, I am using the 'persistent home' feature.
I suspect that while I'm using Knoppix on usb, sometimes I may fill up the UNIONFS
beyond the 2Gb that the usb can hold, and when I log out the new persistent
image won't fit on my 2Gb usb. I intend to monitor the size of UNIONFS before I
shut down from now on. I've crashed twice this way, now.

If you discover how to salvage the usb, I'd like to know how.

What you are saying, in theory, it should not happen. But if it at all happens, it MUST be a software bug, or a physical corruption. Physical corruption will like be irrecoverable. If it can be recovered by wiping it out, then it points more likely that it is a SOFTWARE bug somewhere.

Why do I say that ? Because /mnt-system/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX is a read only file system, and it is aufs2-ed with /mnt-system/KNOPPIX/knoppix-data.img. Both of these are fixed sized. It will not grow, at run time, beyond it's pre-configured size.

It might not be worthwhile for you to investigate it down the software corruption problem, unless you intend to be a knoppix guru and so on. But if I were in that situation, I will do things like :-

a) Boot KNOPPIX CD, first run dosfsck or fsck.vfat and so on on the VFAT partition to check for possible VFAT corruption
b) Boot from KNOPPIX CD, manually cloop-mount the flash KNOPPIX compressed image, to see if that is possible to see the problem this way.
c) Boot from KNOPPIX CD, e2fsck on knoppix-data.img to check for corruption and possible loop mount it manually and check for corruption.

Cheers.

[kl522]

One more note.

If you could consistently able to corrupt knoppix by growing the UNIONFS size at runtime, you should report this problem to the author of KNOPPIX that you have discovered a bug.

[Capricorny]

What you are saying, in theory, it should not happen. But if it at all happens, it MUST be a software bug, or a physical corruption. Physical corruption will like be irrecoverable. If it can be recovered by wiping it out, then it points more likely that it is a SOFTWARE bug somewhere.

Why do I say that ? Because /mnt-system/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX is a read only file system, and it is aufs2-ed with /mnt-system/KNOPPIX/knoppix-data.img. Both of these are fixed sized. It will not grow, at run time, beyond it's pre-configured size.

It might not be worthwhile for you to investigate it down the software corruption problem, unless you intend to be a knoppix guru and so on. But if I were in that situation, I will do things like :-

a) Boot KNOPPIX CD, first run dosfsck or fsck.vfat and so on on the VFAT partition to check for possible VFAT corruption
b) Boot from KNOPPIX CD, manually cloop-mount the flash KNOPPIX compressed image, to see if that is possible to see the problem this way.
c) Boot from KNOPPIX CD, e2fsck on knoppix-data.img to check for corruption and possible loop mount it manually and check for corruption.

Cheers.
This is, I think, very good general trouble-shooting advice.
I would also like to point to the krishna.murphy's advice about backup of knoppix-data.img.

As for the problem, I think is occurs mainly because of too small drive and too little persistent storage. I would say that if you are not sure about the need, set up 4GB for persistent storage. Which, in practice, means at least 8GB sticks.

I think there is kind of bug in Knoppix in space allocation. It will let you fill up persistent storage entirely, and then crash, maybe without any warning at all. And if you are doing package installs and updates, persistent storage can fill up VERY quickly. I have produced that condition myself, but I didn't care to look at knoppix-data.img afterwards. I would guess that I could just loop-mount it post mortem and, mostly, get necessary data off it.

[kl522]

OK from what you have described, it seems the problem is due to knoppix-data.img is grown to totally filled up and it makes KNOPPIX un-fit for the next boot. Not sure how much knoppix can do about this but perhaps a check can be done before shutdown.

Nevertheless, for the more proficient users, this problem can be fixed by booting into 'debug' shell, loop mount knoppix-data.img and free up space. It should not need a re-wipe to clean up everything :-

1. Add the cheatcode 'debug' into syslinux.cfg.
2. Boot the computer.
3. At the shell prompt :-
# mkdir /tmp/tmp
# mount -o loop=/dev/loop7 /mnt-system/KNOPPIX/knoppix-data.img /tmp/tmp
# cd /tmp/tmp
..... ( start to free up space below this directory, be-warned not to remove your important files )
# cd /
# umount -d /tmp/tmp
4. After that type 'exit' 6 times.
You will be booting correctly if you have freed up enough space.
5. Remove cheatcode 'debug' from syslinux.cfg,

Cheers

[kl522]

Not sure how much knoppix can do about this but perhaps a check can be done before shutdown.


A better solution will be for the init script (inside minirt.gz) to check the available space. If there is insufficient for a proper boot, it should ***SKIP*** mounted knoppix-data.img and give the user a chance to recover from it, instead of such a total failure !

[utu]

@krishna.murphy

re #7 My bad; 'persistent store' is probably the correct terminology.

I note that UNIONFS comes up exactly the maximum size of my usb when things are ok.
I suspect that the img corruption problem at shut-down may exist for any size of usb.

@kl522

re #7 I can confirm that in my case UNIONFS _does_ under some circumstances grow
at run time. du -h UNIONFS shows it tried to grow past my 4Gs of ram.
System is obviously crippled, and writing this crippled UNIONFS back to the data image
I think sets up an unrecoverable situation.

I found that when I found UNIONFS was in trouble, I tried yanking the usb and doing
a power-off-switch shutdown. The usb was still
intact for a later satisfactory boot-up. Probably missing any updates from the prior
session, but at least intact, not crippled.

re#12 I agree that not over-writing the prior good image is the correct way to go.
I need to find out how I'm causing the UNIONFS to grow. Probably some operations
are off-limits, but I don't know which. I've used updatedb and apt-get, also tried
to download some flash add-ons for iceweasel.

@HJWitchella

1. Did you make your own usb or buy it already programmed?
2. Either way, did it load the first time or never?

We need a few more clues.

[utu]

re #13

Tried updatedb, apt-get and adding flash to iceweasel again. No problems.
I'm sure there are ways to crash Knoppix, just not when you want to.

I guess the lesson is, if the mounted system doesnt seem quite right,
don't shutdown before checking to see if du -h UNIONFS is equal to or less than
the size of your usb. If it is larger, don't try to shutdown normally, but rather
yank the usb and power-off (to save the previous boot image intact).

[kl522]

@krishna.murphy

re #7 My bad; 'persistent store' is probably the correct terminology.

I note that UNIONFS comes up exactly the maximum size of my usb when things are ok.
I suspect that the img corruption problem at shut-down may exist for any size of usb.

I don't want to jump to conclusion as to the cause of corruption, nevertheless, KNOPPIX indeed can possibly not umount the file systems properly when shutdown. But I am surprised that no one seems to be bothered about this as I pointed out in some other thread.



@kl522

re #7 I can confirm that in my case UNIONFS _does_ under some circumstances grow
at run time. du -h UNIONFS shows it tried to grow past my 4Gs of ram.
System is obviously crippled, and writing this crippled UNIONFS back to the data image
If you do 'du -h -s /UNIONFS' it can be bigger than your ram size, as I notice it's always the case on my computer. I haven't investigated what's the significance of this. But if you do 'df', you should see that /UNIONFS is always showing the maximum size of your persistent store ( knoppix-image ).




I need to find out how I'm causing the UNIONFS to grow. Probably some operations
are off-limits, but I don't know which. I've used updatedb and apt-get, also tried
to download some flash add-ons for iceweasel.
We need a few more clues.Yes, please find a consistent way you could repeat this problem and report back.

[Capricorny]

I don't want to jump to conclusion as to the cause of corruption, nevertheless, KNOPPIX indeed can possibly not umount the file systems properly when shutdown. But I am surprised that no one seems to be bothered about this as I pointed out in some other thread.

If you do 'du -h -s /UNIONFS' it can be bigger than your ram size, as I notice it's always the case on my computer. I haven't investigated what's the significance of this. But if you do 'df', you should see that /UNIONFS is always showing the maximum size of your persistent store ( knoppix-image ).

Yes, please find a consistent way you could repeat this problem and report back.

I think one underlying problem is that Knoppix is not more of a community effort, so bugs are allowed to creep in and stay there too long, because testing and debugging resources are lacking.
If the uncontrolled growth is because of things like updating, one fix might be to use a second image for that kind of storage. (Doing du --max-depth=3 regularly could give som clue as to the dynamics of space requirements.) I have three images mounted at the time. Another solution is of course to skip FAT32 limitations, but that would be less portable.

What is the image updating strategy of Knoppix? I would not be astonished if writings to disk are minimized, to keep USB sticks alive longer.

[mhdominguez]

when i attempt to boot off live usb i get:

Linux Kernel 2.6.32.6, 2014 MB RAM.
CPU 0: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz @ 800MHz, 512 KB Cache
CPU 1: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz @ 800MHz, 512 KB Cache
Knoppix 6 Found at: /dev/sdb1
>>> Starting in Live-Mode.
>>> Please do not remove medium until shutdown!
Using /mnt-system/KNOPPIX/knoppix-data.img
mount: mounting unionfs on /UNIONFS failed: No space left on device
/init: line 693: /bin/mount: not found
/init: exec: line 742: /sbin/init: not found



System is a Dell Inspiron Mini 9. I am trying to install Knoppix onto the mini but run into this error.


Im chiming in WAAAY late to the party here, but I was getting the same error myself. The problem on my machine was caused by conflicting use of uppercase and lowercase in the word "knoppix" (vs. "KNOPPIX") on the USB stick. The stick is formatted by Install KNOPPIX to flash disk with FAT; the problem is that FAT doesn't store case information as rigorously as unix filesystems, so "KNOPPIX" translates to "knoppix"

The way to get around this is to feed knoppix the correct location of the cloop file and knoppix directory by typing at boot the cheatcodes:
knoppix knoppix_dir=knoppix knoppix_name=knoppix

Hopefully, they build this into the syslinux.cfg next time around.

-Martin D.

[wojciechett]

re #11

Hi all! I had the same problem and advice of kl522 helped me but I did something a bit simpler. I booted from LiveCD instead of modifying USB-drive session with cheatcodes.

Just do the following:

1. Boot from LiveCD

2. At the shell prompt type the following commands (please verify that knoppix-data.img is on /media/sdb1/KNOPPIX/ path and change it accordingly in the second command if needed):
# mkdir /tmp/tmp
# mount -o loop=/dev/loop7 /media/sdb1/KNOPPIX/knoppix-data.img /tmp/tmp
# cd /tmp/tmp
..... ( start to free up space below this directory, be-warned not to remove your important files )
# cd /
# umount -d /tmp/tmp


Now, I have related question.
During installing Knoppix from LiveCD to USB-drive I declared that Knoppix should use 350MB of space on USB drive (AFAIR the default was 400MB). I have yet over 600MB of free space on USB so I would like to move up the limit of space that Knoppix uses.
How can I change this limit, so that Knoppix use more space on my USB? Please advise.

[kl522]

Look for a different thread in this forum, probably under the heading 'resizing knoppix-data.img'. Or you use 'google' to search for it, I am pretty sure you can find it under google.