BT3 boot trouble installed on eee pc701

[KingMidas]

i've followed all the steps on the below article however when i boot without the usb pen i just get 0's and 1's on the screen

if i plug the usb flash drive in and boot, it boots fine and only seems to utilise the flash drive initially

any ideas what might be still relying on the usb flash for booting it runs from the drive after the initial dependency on the usb flash drive

I-Hacked.com Taking Advantage Of Technology - Installing Backtrack3 on an Eee PC

[Thorn]

i've followed all the steps on the below article however when i boot without the usb pen i just get 0's and 1's on the screen

if i plug the usb flash drive in and boot, it boots fine and only seems to utilise the flash drive initially

any ideas what might be still relying on the usb flash for booting it runs from the drive after the initial dependency on the usb flash drive

I-Hacked.com Taking Advantage Of Technology - Installing Backtrack3 on an Eee PC

The "0's and 1's" sounds like you hosed your LILO. The most common mistake is that it's pointed it to the wrong drive/partition (e.g. /dev/sdb1 rather than /dev/sda1).

This article may help you fix it: Welcome to JustLinux: Wanna learn Linux?

For more information google these words and phrase: LILO boot error "1's and 0's"

[KingMidas]

thanks for the reply i'll have a look through the link - my lilo appears to point to the hdd rather than the usb copy as below

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
lba32 # Allow booting past 1024th cylinder with a recent BIOS
boot = /dev/hdc
#message = /boot/boot_message.txt
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
reset
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
vga = normal
image =/boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hdc
label = Back\track3
# Normal VGA console
# vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/sda1
label = Linux
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

However when i edit the lilo.conf and then command 'lilo -v' i get this

LILO version 22.8, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2006 John Coffman
Released 19-Feb-2007 and compiled at 01:09:42 on Jun 10 2007.

Reading boot sector from /dev/hdc
Using MENU secondary loader
Calling map_insert_data

Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz
Added Backtrack3 *

Fatal: Illegal 'root=' specification: /dev/sda1

[Thorn]

Fatal: Illegal 'root=' specification: /dev/sda1

There's your answer. Obviously, the USB drive is seen by the system as /dev/sda1. When you have the USB drive inserted, it boots normally because it sees it. When it's not inserted, nothing is there, so it fails.

What you need to do is determine what the internal flash drive and partitions are to the system. It's could be /dev/sda2, /dev/sdb1, /dev/sda2 or even something odd like /dev/sdc4. That will depend on how it is detected, and how the partitions are set up.

Go through a normal boot with the USB drive inserted, and look the boot listings (or afterward at dmesg.) You should see the internal flash drive and partition(s) being detected and listed as some /dev/sd* entries.

[KingMidas]

Thorn - thanks for taking the time out to reply - you were right it was the lilo.conf however try as i might i couldn't edit it without it coming up with errors so i started again from the begining and this time it just worked - its funny no matter how you think you've followed the tutorials religiously you get diffferent results each time. I suppose that is the price you pay when you have 2 kids hanging of your neckn and demanding attn -

So anyways the lilo.conf was pointing to the usb drive somewhere but lilo.conf wouldn't let me edit it succesfullly so i started again. Still it was a good learning curve was getting a bit rusty on the command line.

Has anyone had issues with ath0 requesting an ip address several times but not recieving one ?

[Thorn]

Thorn - thanks for taking the time out to reply - you were right it was the lilo.conf however try as i might i couldn't edit it without it coming up with errors so i started again from the begining and this time it just worked - its funny no matter how you think you've followed the tutorials religiously you get diffferent results each time. I suppose that is the price you pay when you have 2 kids hanging of your neckn and demanding attn -

So anyways the lilo.conf was pointing to the usb drive somewhere but lilo.conf wouldn't let me edit it succesfullly so i started again. Still it was a good learning curve was getting a bit rusty on the command line.

You're welcome. Sometimes with a fresh install, starting over is the easiest, since you don't have all the configurations set up. Starting over with a machine that's all set up can be a lot more frustrating. When stating off, it can be pretty easy to put the wrong /dev/ in for a hard drive, especially with a computer like the EeePC where there are multiple devices like sda, sdb, sdc... And, yeah, kids will do that to you. Luckily, my kid is grown. Now, he has two kids to distracted him.

Has anyone had issues with ath0 requesting an ip address several times but not recieving one ?

If it's DHCP - and that's what it sounds like you're talking about- you may have to delete the contents of /etc/dhcpc before you request a new dhcp address when you go to a new network. If it's tried and failed, delete the contents of that directory and then request an address again from the command line. It's been discussed on these forums in the past, and I find it's true most of the time with BT3.