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Thread: Knoppix Live USB wont boot

  1. #1
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    Knoppix Live USB wont boot

    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.

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by HJWitchella View Post
    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

  3. #3
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    It is a pre-installed USB drive

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by HJWitchella View Post
    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

  5. #5
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    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.

  6. #6
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    @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.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by utu View Post
    @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. Look around for something that fits for you.

    Cheers!
    Krishna

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by utu View Post

    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.

  9. #9
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    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.

  10. #10
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    Too little persistent storage, I guess

    Quote Originally Posted by kl522 View Post
    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.

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