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shadow_man

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Hey when I run the livecd i get the error of : ERROR: unable to mount the livecd. Dropping you to a limited shell - now the reason it does this is because it says Searching for the loop image: [DONE] - but in red so obviously that messed up.

What is the loop image I only wrote one iso to a dvd - am I missing some sort of boot file. Thanks

J
 
Many Live distros and installers with Live installations use a compressed file (squashfs). This is loop mounted after booting and contains the OS and runtime stuff. It allows the developers to fit in many more apps and goodies than would otherwise be possible without compression. If the ISO image is corrupt, you may be able to mount the ISO itself but the chances are very good that it is this binary file that is corrupt, and hence the Live OS cannot run.

You should probably check the md5sum.
 
How do i check the md5 checksum - I didnt dl that, but I will, what is needed :P

Thanks
J
 
That would be the pclinuxos-blahblah.md5sum file.

Copy it into the directory that contains the ISO and do this:
Code: 
md5sum -c pclinuxos-blahblah.md5sum

If you're not already running Linux you probably won't have this program, so go get it: http://www.pc-tools.net/win32/md5sums/
 
Last edited:
Ta but windows version is slightly diff - no -c switch and what am i trying to get it to read the md5sum or the iso or.???

Thanks
J
 
Nm got it working forgot dos couldnt read C:\documents and settings blah blah and needed the ~

Checking file.

J
 
I get this output:

C:\md5sums-1.2>md5sums C:\md5sums-1.2

MD5sums 1.2 freeware for Win9x/ME/NT/2000/XP+
Copyright (C) 2001-2005 Jem Berkes - http://www.pc-tools.net/
Type md5sums -h for help

[Path] / filename MD5 sum
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[C:\md5sums-1.2\]
md5sums.exe da1e100dc9e7bebb810985e37875de38
md5sums.txt b47cf4859149e639ae17e480e9f789c0
pclinuxos-2007.iso 100% cf31f44513c9b30caaa1f1d2c382c033
pclinuxos-2007.md5sum 320b88d940ebdf1f3c93e8e318daa398

- according to that iso is 100% why is it giving me the limited console etc?

Thanks
J
 
Wrote another disc - same error - searching for loop image DONE (red letters) unable to mount livecd dropping to limited shell :(

Is the dl corrupt or what? It keeps having issue with searching for loop image.

Thanks
J
 
Ta

But i tested it on my old athlon 1.6ghz and works fine even with 512 mb ram :P

Disk isnt bad at all - checks out ok - but I think i've found the problem and ive seen it mentioned on the pclinux os forums - right before it gives you the error of going into limited console it states no ide drives found and then states it cannot mount and will drop into limited console.

Now I dont have any ide drives - im SATA only - seems to be the problem as stated here via another user : http://www.pclinuxos.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=39353.0

Any ideas how I could fix that - very linux gnoobyish only tried ubuntu/kubuntu/pc linux.

Thanks
J
 
Oh yes, I had that issue with an Intel DG965 mobo. The PATA controller turned out to be made by a third party (JMicron or something) and not Intel. I had to give the loader these parameters: "all-generic-ide pci=nommconf" (without the quotes)
I can't remember if I also used one or both of "noapic nolapic". I can't ssh into my gateway at work to check that box right now thanks to eishkom :rolleyes:.

You should definitely try what the guy in that last post tried, especially now that we know the cd is fine cos it worked on your other PC.
 
So you might just be my hero if this work but.... all i do is insert live cd - reboot - choose livecd or safe boot option and type in: all-generic-ide pci=nommconf

Do I have that correct or is there anything else I should do.

Thanks
J
 
Ok I think we almost have it nailed down here - My board is GA-P35-DS3L - Gigabyte - now that uses iP965 and ICH9R Chipset now as you said 965 chipsets are a problem and from this post on pslinuxos.com they seem to agree: http://www.pclinuxos.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=24752.15

Quote
Is it possible that the problem is that it does not boot with NEW 64 Bit machines?

That's the issue exactly. The problem with the 965 (and other chipsets) is the SATA controllers which aren't properly detected.
If you go into the BIOS and disable (Intel) AHCI and make sure secondary SATA/IDE controller (Marvel/J-Micron) is set to IDE, then CD should start. You have to do that every time for CD or poor man's install, even if kernel is upgraded to 2.6.20 on CD etc. If installed onto hard drive by setting up that way, THEN upgrading to 2.6.20 kernel and setting that as default, then install will operate great with SATA fully enabled.
BE AWARE that changing to IDE emulation will change order of boot of hard drives if you have more than one, and the same for enabling SATA again. Be careful to know exactly what you are formatting and installing on!
I've gone over the problems I had - on another thread regarding SATA.

----------------------------------------------------

Guess I will try what this poster says - dont know how to upgrade the kernel though might need some help there - is it doable via synaptic?

Thanks
J
 
Hmmm my bios has option to SATA AHCI mode - disabled ut it has no secondary that I can see to set to IDE - hmmmm more reading I guess damn new mboards. :(

J
 
According to the previous pclinuxos link the user says this:

With a lot of looking through posts I found a line to type at the end of the boot options. linux all-generic-ide . This helped me to boot the OS.

- Now If I try boot it takens me out to console due to not being able to mount drives due to lack of proper SATA support or some such - now if I type in linux all-generic-ide - it just tells me /initrd/bin/ash: linux: not found - I know I am probably being really retarded trying to do this but im a linux noobie and dont know where to try this option.

Any help would be good.

Thanks
J
 
I do recall having to change ATA access from AHCI to legacy. After I recompiled the kernel with JMicron support I was able to change that back.
Try these parameters with the boot-loader: all-generic-ide pci=nommconf irqpoll
 
I fixed it the original poster that had same issue replied to my email - all you do on boot menu is select liveboot - but below liveboot is boot paramaters you can change before you boot - all you do is add linux all-generic-ide and BOOM IT WORKS.

YAY YAY YAY - installing now - thanks for all your help man youve been great :)


J
 
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