Loïc Grenié wrote:
> 2008/11/14 Scott <slewin@bmts.com>:
>> The CD drive in my wife's laptop is broken, so I only have the option to
>> install through USB and I have had nothing but severe problems. I tried
>> with both a 8.04.1 disk and a iso with "create a usb startup disk" and
>> got the same outcome, a busybox shell prompt when trying to boot on the
>> USB drive.
>
> There may be an error hidden by the initramfs. Try to type
>
> cat /casper.log
>
> at the busybox prompt, the last line(s) should contain the error
> (if there is one).
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Loïc Grenié
>
I did it and there was errors.

there are 11 lines of this
/init: /init: 1: cannot open /dev/hda: No medium found

And there is a few lines of
stdin: error 0

and a few lines of the same cannot open but refering to /dev/sdb and
/dev/sdb1 instead

I am not totally sure what this means, but I think it may have trouble
finding the hard drive. How would that cause a problem with a live disk?

the last two lines, which may be the most important, says:
mount: Mounting /dev/loop1 on /cow failed: Invalid argument
Can not mount /dev/loop1 on /cow


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2008/11/14 Scott <slewin@bmts.com>:
> Loïc Grenié wrote:
>> There may be an error hidden by the initramfs. Try to type
>>
>> cat /casper.log
>>
>> at the busybox prompt, the last line(s) should contain the error
>> (if there is one).
> I did it and there were errors.
>
> there are 11 lines of this
> /init: /init: 1: cannot open /dev/hda: No medium found

This is the cdrom.

> And there is a few lines of
> stdin: error 0

error 0 = no error

> and a few lines of the same cannot open but refering to /dev/sdb and
> /dev/sdb1 instead

/dev/sda is probably the hard disk and /dev/sdb is probably the
USB key

> I am not totally sure what this means, but I think it may have trouble
> finding the hard drive. How would that cause a problem with a live disk?

You are right, it has a problem with a "virtual" hard drive that is
the USB disk. If the analysis is correct, the problem is rather
obvious: it cannot find the rest of the distribution...

> the last two lines, which may be the most important, says:
> mount: Mounting /dev/loop1 on /cow failed: Invalid argument
> Can not mount /dev/loop1 on /cow

There is a problem with loop1 which is a virtual disk whose
contents is the contents of a file. If what I said above is
correct, i.e. that it cannot find the USB key, then it's not
surprising that it cannot mount this loop1.

I don't know how to help you much more. You can try to
use dmesg | more at the busybox prompt to try to understand
what goes wrong with /dev/sdb and if ever it is the USB key.
If you manage to somehow give us the result of dmesg, it
might shed some light (the problem is that you might not
have an easy way to copy it...).

Friendly,

Loïc Grenié

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Scott wrote:
> The CD drive in my wife's laptop is broken, so I only have the option
> to install through USB and I have had nothing but severe problems. I
> tried with both a 8.04.1 disk and a iso with "create a usb startup
> disk" and got the same outcome, a busybox shell prompt when trying to
> boot on the USB drive.

If you would install 8.10 instead of 8.04 you could download
the "Ultra-mobile PC USB image" from e.g.
<http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/intrepid/release/> and have a look at
this page for instructions to put it on a USB key:
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MobileTeam/Mobile/HowTo/ImageWriting>


Nils

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Nils Kassube wrote:
> If you would install 8.10 instead of 8.04 you could download
> the "Ultra-mobile PC USB image" from e.g.
The wireless does not work in 8.10 with my wife's laptop and she
considers that a necessity, but thanks for the suggestion. That is a
good idea. Too bad they don't have that for 8.04.

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Loïc Grenié wrote:
>> there are 11 lines of this
>> /init: /init: 1: cannot open /dev/hda: No medium found
>
> This is the cdrom.
That makes sense as the cdrom is busted.


> You are right, it has a problem with a "virtual" hard drive that is
> the USB disk. If the analysis is correct, the problem is rather
> obvious: it cannot find the rest of the distribution...
So, it looks like either the CD image I was using was bad or the
programs are not copying all the files over correctly. I'm going to try
and see if I can get Kubuntu 8.06 back in there. That is what I was
able to get into there before and it worked fine. Stupid me. I wanted
to "update" her computer and have it using the same desktop as mine .

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2008/11/14 Scott <slewin@bmts.com>:
> Loïc Grenié wrote:
>>> there are 11 lines of this
>>> /init: /init: 1: cannot open /dev/hda: No medium found
>>
>> This is the cdrom.
> That makes sense as the cdrom is busted.
>
>
>> You are right, it has a problem with a "virtual" hard drive that is
>> the USB disk. If the analysis is correct, the problem is rather
>> obvious: it cannot find the rest of the distribution...
> So, it looks like either the CD image I was using was bad or the
> programs are not copying all the files over correctly.

Did you manage to install 8.04 or do you have problems at the
first "USB-key" boot, before installation ?

> I'm going to try
> and see if I can get Kubuntu 8.06 back in there. That is what I was
> able to get into there before and it worked fine. Stupid me. I wanted
> to "update" her computer and have it using the same desktop as mine .

How do I understand you !

Friendly,

Loïc

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Loïc Grenié wrote:
> Did you manage to install 8.04 or do you have problems at the
> first "USB-key" boot, before installation ?
No, I can not even get into the desktop to install 8.04. I can get to
the first menu where it ask you if you want to intal it or boot into the
live desktop. I uses the option to check the CD which said it was fine,
even though it is a USB drive. When I press either the boot into
desktop or install at first everything looks fine and I see boot screen
with the graphic of Ubuntu and the bar, but then Busybox pops up.

>> I'm going to try
>> and see if I can get Kubuntu 8.06 back in there. That is what I was
>> able to get into there before and it worked fine. Stupid me. I wanted
>> to "update" her computer and have it using the same desktop as mine .
>
> How do I understand you !
Sorry, I meant 8.04, not 8.06 . This is why this is so imprtant to
me. I gave that laptop to my wife so she would have her own and now I
have screwed it up. I fell so responsible .

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I tried installing Kubuntu 8.04 back into my wife's computer and I got
the same busybox shell . If I go out and buy a external CD drive that
uses USB, would that work just like a regular CD? I mean, can I just
select that CD on the boot devices and then boot from it?

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2008/11/14 Scott <slewin@bmts.com>:
> I tried installing Kubuntu 8.04 back into my wife's computer and I got
> the same busybox shell .

There is probably something wrong going between the USB stack
and the USB key. Whether this is a hardware or software problem
is unclear...

> If I go out and buy a external CD drive that
> uses USB, would that work just like a regular CD? I mean, can I just
> select that CD on the boot devices and then boot from it?

I think it depends only on the BIOS of the laptop.

Friendly,

Loïc Grenié

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Loïc Grenié wrote:
> There is probably something wrong going between the USB stack
> and the USB key. Whether this is a hardware or software problem
> is unclear...
I will try to see if I can find another USB drive to use and try that.

>> If I go out and buy a external CD drive that
>> uses USB, would that work just like a regular CD? I mean, can I just
>> select that CD on the boot devices and then boot from it?
>
> I think it depends only on the BIOS of the laptop.
That is too bad. By off chance nobody would know if a inspiron 1525
could use a external CD drive? I have not done a google search yet, but
will when I get time.

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