Surface Laptop 1st gen won't get past "waiting for usb" and drops to sh

[don999]

Hi all,

I was trying to run knoppix 9.1 off of a flash drive on a Microsoft Surface laptop 1st gen (1782).

Pressing the volume down after pressing the power button boots from the usb, I can get into the bios settings with using volume up after pressing the power button.

It gets as far as telling me what the cpus are, then it says "waiting for usb" and then just stops, and drops to a sh where I can't type anything on the surface laptop's keyboard.

[szzsqing1]

The message means that Knoppix cannot find its files so cannot boot. Of course, the first boot file, initrd image (in case of KNX "boot/isolinux/minirt.gz" was found, otherwise you could not see any error message. The error occurs during running init script. You can study it from a running KNX (/init) or from an other system by unpacking minirt.gz.

The reason is that you probably have incorrect menuentry for booting KNX. Or if it is correct the files are missing or corrupted... In order we can help, you must give detailed information: the boot method you use, your exact menuentries, where are your KNX files (internal drive, external USB...), if you use a KNX directory (unpacked ISO) or ISO file.

For examle, I have the unpacked Knoppix 9.1 ISO (its whole content) on an USB stick in "boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN" directory (wich dir is mounted in "/mnt-system/boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN" in the running system, if I would use the ISO file to boot, it would be under "/mnt-iso/boot/..."). I have GRUB2 installed on that USB stick. So, I had to create the appropriate menuentries in grub.cfg file (/mnt-system/grub.cfg) to boot Knoppix:

if [ cpuid -l ]; then
set linux=linux64
set knoppix=knoppix64
else
set linux=linux
set knoppix=knoppix
fi

export linux
export knoppix

menuentry "KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN hu" {
linux /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/$linux $knoppix \
knoppix_dir=boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/NOPIK91-FATDOG \
apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 \
noswap nocompiz noscreensaver nostartsound noeject noprompt noimage lang=hu \
tz=UTC utc --
initrd /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
}

submenu "More/Tobb KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN ->" {
menuentry "Knoppix hu ADRIANE" {
linux /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/$linux $knoppix \
knoppix_dir=boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/NOPIK91-FATDOG \
apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 \
noswap noeject noprompt tz=UTC utc noimage lang=hu video=640x480 adriane --
initrd /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
}

menuentry "Knoppix en" {
linux /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/$linux $knoppix \
knoppix_dir=boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/NOPIK91-FATDOG \
apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 \
noswap noeject noprompt tz=UTC utc noimage lang=en --
initrd /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
}

menuentry "Knoppix en ADRIANE" {
linux /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/$linux $knoppix \
knoppix_dir=boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/NOPIK91-FATDOG \
apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 \
noswap noeject noprompt tz=UTC utc noimage lang=en video=640x480 adriane --
initrd /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
}

menuentry "Knoppix hu cli" {
linux /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/$linux $knoppix \
knoppix_dir=boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/NOPIK91-FATDOG \
apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 \
noswap noeject noprompt lang=hu tz=UTC utc noimage 2 --
initrd /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
}

menuentry "Knoppix hu nonetwork" {
linux /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/$linux $knoppix \
knoppix_dir=boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/NOPIK91-FATDOG \
apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 \
noswap noeject noprompt tz=UTC utc noimage lang=hu nonetworkmanager --
initrd /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
}

menuentry "Knoppix hu nonetwork cli" {
linux /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/$linux $knoppix \
knoppix_dir=boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/NOPIK91-FATDOG \
apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 \
noswap noeject noprompt tz=UTC utc noimage lang=hu nonetworkmanager 2 --
initrd /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
}

menuentry "Knoppix en hu-kbd" {
linux /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/$linux $knoppix \
knoppix_dir=boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/NOPIK91-FATDOG \
apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 \
noswap noeject noprompt tz=UTC utc noimage lang=en keyboard=hu xkeyboard=hu --
initrd /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
}

menuentry "Knoppix hu us-kbd" {
linux /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/$linux $knoppix \
knoppix_dir=boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/NOPIK91-FATDOG \
apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 \
noswap noeject noprompt tz=UTC utc noimage lang=hu keyboard=us xkeyboard=us --
initrd /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
}

menuentry "Knoppix debug mode"
linux /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/$linux $knoppix \
knoppix_dir=boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/NOPIK91-FATDOG \
apm=power-off nomce hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 debug \
noswap noeject noprompt lang=en --
initrd /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
}

menuentry "Knoppix failsafe" {
bootoptions="/boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/$linux $knoppix \
knoppix_dir=boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/NOPIK91-FATDOG noswap noeject noprompt lang=en \
vga=normal atapicd nosound noapic nolapic noacpi pnpbios=off acpi=off nofstab \
noscsi nodma noapm nousb nopcm"
linux $bootoptions
initrd /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
}

menuentry "Knoppix Grub4DOS" {
linux16 /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/grub.exe --config=;
}

menuentry "Knoppix RAM check" {
linux16 /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/memtest foo
}

menuentry "Knoppix FreeDOS" {
linux16 /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/memdisk
initrd16 /boot/nopik/KNOPPIX_V9.1DVD-2021-01-25-EN/boot/isolinux/balder.img
}
}

Of course, this is only the KNX part of my CFG file. I boot more sytems, it is a multiboot USB. The "nocompiz" boot option causes KNX will boot with Metacity instead of Compiz (which is buggy), so you will not have "fancy effects" but a usable desktop. But Alt.F1/Alt-F2 hotkeys will not work for main menu and run dialog and I could find any usable method to set custom hotkeys in Metacity... You can also use KDE with "desktop=kde" boot option, which is quite usable but uses slightly more system resources. This KDE version has some bugs, too. To set a custom wallpaper you have to use CLI. The image must have the appropriate ratio for your monitor since the image will not be scaled.

$ dbus-send --session --dest=org.kde.plasmashell --type=method_call \
/PlasmaShell org.kde.PlasmaShell.evaluateScript 'string:
var Desktops = desktops();
for (i=0;i<Desktops.length;i++) {
d = Desktops[i];
d.wallpaperPlugin = "org.kde.image";
d.currentConfigGroup = Array("Wallpaper", "org.kde.image", "General");
d.writeConfig("Image", "file:///mnt-system/data/pictures/qing.png");
}'

[szzsqing1]

Important addition: When I unpacked the ISO file, KNX had its KNX directory named "KNOPPIX". This is the default name and if you do not rename it, the "knoppix_dir" boot option is unnecessary. I renamed it to "NOPIK91-FATDOG" (I boot Fatdog64 OS from that USB stick, too). Reason: If you have multiple KNX instances available while booting KNX (internal drive, USB stick), KNX will use the first one found (unfortunately for KNX we cannot specify the UUID of boot device). By renaming KNOPPIX directory you can control which KNX to boot. See: http://knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes.

[szzsqing1]

Correction (unfortunatly after 10 minutes we cannot edit our post...):
... if you run KNX from ISO file, the "knoppix_dir" boot option is unnecessary. But if you use the unpacked ISO to boot the system, you probably place the ISO content in a dedicated directory (not in the root of the boot device), so the path and KNX dir name must be specified. I also renamed "KNOPPIX" to "NOPIK91-FATDOG" ...