BT3 usb boots but hangs at 'looking for data directory'

[ragnaruk]

I have searched all over for an answer to this one and was unable to find one to match this problem, this is what is happening when I boot BT3 installed to usb(save changes and everything working) in any mode i have tried kde, changes,,vesa,,, it hangs for a long time on "looking for data directory" and sounds like it is searching the dvd drive for the files.(no dvd or cd in drive but it still is trying to spin) before finnaly saying "wait awhile" and finaly booting.it also hangs on shutdown,at closing files,, i cant recall the exact point, I booted the same bt3 usb on a friends laptop and it went right through "looking for data directory" and booted with no lag time. the only thing i was able to find about this had to do with the 'fatal error' message following 'looking for data' which i had already encountered and fixed, so I assume the issue is with my PC and not BT3 itself since it worked fine on my friends laptop, I am just stumped as to what is causing this long boot time, any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
if this is more suited for the "HARDWARE" thread please feel free to move it there, here is my pc if this helps,
hp a6230n amd 64x2 2.8ghz..3gb ram ,,geoforce 8600 gt,,
my boot is set to USB-Hd 1st,, cd rom 2nd,,,,HP-hd, 3rd
my bt3 usb is fat32 for bt3, and ext2 with changes folder
I hope i have provided enough information

[balding_parrot]

So does the pc boot from a plain and simple bt3b cd ?

That is the first place to look so as to give us an idea of where the problem is, your pc or the install.

[balding_parrot]

Moved to the appropriate forum.

[ragnaruk]

Ok BT3 live cd boot just fine, on "looking for data" it takes about 5 seconds to move on, just like my USB install did on my friends laptop, When I boot the same USB install on my PC, it hangs at "looking for data" for at least 3-5 minutes and I can hear the cd drive spinning like it is looking for the data there. it does eventually find the data and boot, I have tried disabling boot device 2, which is my cd/rom this did not help either it still hangs at looking for data and searches the cd drive, before booting from USB,


Update: I found a file in the boot folder system:/media/sdb1/BT3 called livecd.sgn and read its contents it says:
Don't delete this file, else your Live Linux won't work.

All available Disks and CDs are mounted sequentially during the boot process
and linuxrc script is looking for this livecd.sgn file. It tells linuxrc where
to mount the live filesystem from.

but I do not see anywhere in this file to change where it is looking for the files,which appears to be my problem bt3 is seraching an empty cd drive first before loading the files from the usb.
I am also having a hangup on unmounting lolocal files systems on shutdown, the thread i read on that mentioned vmware and hd installs bt3 worked fine for me in vmware under windows it is just this usb install that it lagging on startup and shutdown

[ragnaruk]

Well I have tried everything I can think of and here are a few things I discovered on my pc with backtrack 3 and a few possible solutions I need help trying I even tried reformatting and reinstalling BT3 to my usb yet this problem of hanging and searching CD drive for "looking for system files" persists

1.backtrack 3 is reading my cd drive /dev/sr0 as having the same info as sdb2 under properties "847mb out of 941 free"

2.the file Llnuxrc,, in mnt/live seems to be the file that directs bt3 to the file LIVECD.SNG needed to "find system files" "LIVECD.SNG that it is lagging on, this is the section of the file i think is causing the problem, it seems to be exactly what it is doing, searching CD drive forever to find the file,,, ,, is there a way to edit this to go more directly to LIVECD.SGN??

   # Find livecd data directory
echolog "looking for data directory"
i 
# First, try from= boot argument, if given
DATAFROM=$(find_in_computer $LIVECDNAME/$LIVECDSGN)

if [ "$DATAFROM" ]; then
   DATAFROM=$(find_in_computer $DATAFROM)
   if [ "$DATAFROM" ]; then
   # from= is not used or it didn't contain valid data
   DATA=$(find_in_computer $LIVECDNAME/$LIVECDSGN)
   DATA=$(dirname $DATA 2>/dev/sdb1)

      mount_device $DATAFROM $LOOPMOUNT # mount again, it may be loop device
      if [ $? -eq 0 -a "$(find_modules $LOOPMOUNT/$LIVECDNAME)" != "" ]; then
         echolog "found in $DATAFROM"
         DATA=$LOOPMOUNT/$LIVECDNAME
      else
         fumount $LOOPMOUNT
	 fumount $MOUNTDIR/*
      fi
   fi
fi

if [ "$DATA" = "" ]; then
   # from= is not used or it didn't contain valid data
   DATA=$(find_in_computer $LIVECDNAME/$LIVECDSGN)
   DATA=$(dirname $DATA 2>/dev/null)

3 If i disconnect my CD drive before booting it boots just fine and finds the file almost instantly and boots with no lag on "looking for system files".

SO if any of this info helps anyone help me it would be greatly appreciated I tried to edit the "LINUXRC" file with kwrite and kedit and it did not seem to save my changes as it was reverted to the original after reboot.
Is there way to disable just the CD drive for BT3 without having to unplug it?
it seems to me this must be a hardware issue? my DVD drive is a lite-on™ dvd/cd writer 52x cd. 16x dvd dual layer
HP a6230n amd athalon xpx2 2.8ghz
3 gb ram

Ok i have now also tried formatting to FAT32,for BT3 and EXT3 for changes folder, which didn't helP


UPDATE. SOLVED,, well sorta,,,, incase you have been reading my diary here.I managed to fix the lag on boot problem by adding bt3 from=/dev/sdb1 to the pchanges APPEND line, I still have a hang problem on shutdown

[JCasper]

Have you added the shutdown commands to your rc.6 file? Not sure if that will help, but it did for me.

[camelel]

After reading rag's diary here, i figured that if i'll just put some data cd inside my cdrom it will go faster and it did.
It doesn't hang on "looking for data directory" anymore and goes straight to -wait a while and into BT.

[ciopper]

I have the same problem...
I tried the boot with usb pen in 3 pc... Only in one pc i see "looking for data directory" and it doesn't start... i don't understand why.

thx bye

[ragnaruk]

clopper I solved this problem by adding

bt3 from=/dev/sdb1

to the APPEND line in syslinux config file in all modes that i was using, which is now just nvidia

[ciopper]

clopper I solved this problem by adding

bt3 from=/dev/sdb1

to the APPEND line in syslinux config file in all modes that i was using, which is now just nvidia

is it ok?

APPEND vga=0x317 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw chexpand=256 autoexec=xconf bt3 from=/dev/sdb1;kdm

thx bye