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Topic: Kernel <-> Usb-stick Problem?

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BluePhoenix Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 3
Joined: Jan. 2005

Posted: Jan. 03 2005,08:16

I have the following problem.
I made my USB-Stick booting with dsl-0.9.1, the syslinux bootmanager starts, i choose my options and then nothing happens. I saw the pingiuin and then the system hold.
When i choose the the boot option expert, the system hold after the hdd dedection

hdc ****
hde ****
stop

I have the same problem with the live cd, when my usb stick is connected to the pc. Is the usb-stick the problem?
it is a SilverCrest 256 MB Stick (unknown name, right)

thx for help

BluePhoenix

Z038

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Posts: 16
Joined: Dec. 2004

Posted: Jan. 04 2005,03:36

I'm a Linux newbie and don't know enough, probably, to really help, but here are some things that occurred to me.

1) Can you boot from the LiveCD and get DSL up and running when the USB stick is not plugged in?

2) If you boot under Linux or any other OS, can you then plug in the USB stick and access its contents?

3) You might check with your motherboard manufacturer to see if they have a new BIOS version you can download and flash to your eeprom. They probably have a web site with downloads.

That's probably not much help, but all that occurs to me right now.

BluePhoenix Offline

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Joined: Jan. 2005

Posted: Jan. 04 2005,07:15

Thx 4 trying to help me ok

1) Yes when the USB-Stick is not plugged in i can boot from the DSL LiveCD.

2) Yes I can plug the Stick and access the its content under linux and windows

3) My last Biosupdate is only 2 weeks ago and their is no new version.

Ok i tried a other pc with my stick. I formated it under windows with FAT. But after a restart i was able to start windows or DSL LiveCD, when the new formated stick was plugged in. The DSL LiveCD stops while creating the fstab.

green

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Posts: 453
Joined: Oct. 2004

Posted: Jan. 05 2005,00:34

Have not had that problem, but you might read the following link if you have not read it yet.

http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....d+howto

JohnS

Group: Members
Posts: 23
Joined: Dec. 2004

Posted: Jan. 05 2005,00:48

Hello Blue,
I had the same problem with the first stick I tried, it would hang at fstab, it turns out it hasn't completely hung, it will continue eventually but you have to let it sit there for a LONG time. Even when it does continue its not right, the stick cannot be mounted.

I tried for several days to get to the bottom of this, pouring over the guts of the kernel and USB drivers but never did find out what was really happening. Things were pointing towards a timing error, either the stick returned data to late after a query, or too soon, I couldn't tell which.

It may not be a timing error because I tried it on a 800 MHz and a 2.4 GHz system and got the same results (hang on fstab). The USB drive architecture under linux is complicated, there are many layers of drivers, terminating with a SCSI disk driver (The USB drivers pretend they are a SCSI disk!) Everything seems to be fine up until it gets to the SCSI driver and then something isn't right.

I finally gave up and bought another stick, a SanDisk micro cruiser 128 and it works perfectly. It wasn't a total waste of time, I DID learn a lot about how the USB drivers work!

So unless someone else has a better suggestion, my advice right now is to try a different stick. Unfortunately I have not come up with a better solution.

John S.

8 replies since Jan. 03 2005,08:16

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