Unable to boot from USB stick

[Re@lity]

As already suggested, please try a different brand of USB stick.

Also, many BIOS's support various USB boot emulations, i.e. "USB boot as ---> HDD, Zip drive, CDROM" etc.
I cannot recall them off-hand, but I have such a BIOS somewhere so I'll take a refresher on it later

Anyway, go and look through your BIOS and see if it has any of these USB boot emulations and try them.

Finally, can we clarify..........is this BT3beta or BT3final??

[crweedon]

from what i've read so far it sounds to me that you're trying to full install to a usb stick which slax live doesn't like and it will kernel panic and or corrupt the data, so follow this step by step and all should be fine* (i am now at this point assuming you have a windows and a linux machine, or at least a windows machince otherwise there is now justification for you using the bootinst.bat file whatsoever)
1- using your windows machine, format your usb stick, this should by default put it into an acceptable vfat format
2- reboot into linux (as i've found this just works faster) either with whatever linux machine you have or the BT3F dvd you said works with no errors
3- fdisk /dev/"whatever device your flashdrive is not including the number, ie. /dev/sda1 =fdisk /dev/sda"
4- print the partition list by typing in "p" if the flash drive is bootable then there will be a "*" in the bootable field if not the type "a" and select partition number 1
5- write changes to MBR by typing "w" *note a reboot may be needed after this step
6- copy your /boot and /BT3 directories over to the flash drive from wherever they are located(if you only have the .iso then you will need to un-pack it do this by mounting the iso "mount -o loop -t iso9660 file.iso /mnt/test" as an example)
7-IN A TERMINAL WINDOW!! cd into the /boot folder that you just copied over to your flashdrive and type "sh bootinst.sh
8-follow the on screen directions and the reboot your eeepc
9- at the bios screen press the "esc" key and select to boot from you flash drive
10-if BT3 fails to run you did not follow these instructions properly and i will not help you anymore

[Kruge]

Look, I'm not stupid. I can follow instructions included with the distro, and troubleshoot. As I said, I have tried the very same usb stick on a different computer, and it boots fine.

This proves that the simple process of copying the files to the stick and running bootinst.sh worked, that the data is not corrupted, and that I haven't made some simple mistake.

[Kruge]

Re@lity: I've already tried two different brands of usb stick and one brand of usb hard drive, all fail with the same error.

My desktop's bios does indeed allow booting from several different usb devices, however, to boot from a usb stick I have to use the "USB HDD" option, all else fails. The laptop is somewhat more straightforward, in that there is simply a "USB" option, but this one available option fails with the described error.

This problem is consistently recurring and occurs with bt3b and with bt3.0 final.

[The_Denv]

Look, I'm not stupid. I can follow instructions included with the distro, and troubleshoot. As I said, I have tried the very same usb stick on a different computer, and it boots fine.

This proves that the simple process of copying the files to the stick and running bootinst.sh worked, that the data is not corrupted, and that I haven't made some simple mistake.

Nobody is saying your stupid, crweedon was just trying to help you but overlooked that you stated the USB works on another computer. Now I do not have the luxury of having a EEEpc but from reading your thread and posts in the other thread it seems like you have been right all along. Your problem is your hardware/laptop, for some reason it seems to load the USB fine from boot; but then fails and dumps this error after the module /base/lib.lzm is inserted:

Cannot read module data. corrupted download?
Cannot read module data. corrupted download?
Cannot read module data. corrupted download?
cp: cannot remove 'union/usr/lib': no such file or dir
* creating /etc/fstab
* changing root directory...
Fatal error occured - Can't find executable init command
* Something went wrong and we can't continue. This should never happen

Here is a snip from a source code I found on Google [LinuxLive.org]:

if [ "$INIT" = "" ]; then fatal "Can't find executable init command"; fi

This could be the reason, I do not have a EEEpc so all I can do for you is to try and narrow your problem down. The above command is loaded when the kernel tries to find chroot and init. Its not BT that is causing the problem its the Linux live scripts [but they are apparently not incorrect either and you have some funky init error for some funky reason].

Now maybe, just maybe your problem can be solved if you replace the init script with a USB init script found on the following german site: (Go to the USB transfer in iMPACT section). Warning: This is not for BT, it is to give you an understanding of where the problem may lay; the init script. USB Transfer in iMPACT - Again that url is not related to BT in anyway, Im just trying to help you solve the problem.

Good luck

[zacheusz]

I have the same problem
USB: Kongstone Data Traveler 2
Laptop: IBM Thinkpad T42

[Re@lity]

...........Also please limit your self to one thread per problem you are all over the map and it is hard to track and help you out. You have a thread in the bugs and fixes section but you have not provided a fix that is the key part. This makes it easier for the dev's to make fixes to the distro..........

............Maybe one of the mods can merge all of the threads together..............

Threads merged............

[crweedon]

krudge, PM me your address, i picked up a five pack of 1 gig usb sticks, not big enough for a save changes but big enough for the distro itself, i will send you one that i personally know for a fact works... also i did go ahead and copy the gui installer and the older cubez.lzm over so there shouldn't be any glitches. saves you some time and a migraine... and sorry if i sounded like an A$$ last post, but i did in fact have a migraine at the time