[mythtv-users] ZOTAC IONITX-B-E installation/configuration...

Andrew Close aclose at gmail.com
Sun Jan 3 19:34:44 UTC 2010


On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 10:31 PM, R. G. Newbury <newbury at mandamus.org> wrote:
> I ran into a funny problem on an Asus board with an AMI BIOS. It would not
> save the setting to boot from USB first (as HDD) unless there was a USB key
> mounted. It is possible that it is not saving that setting...

the setting does appear to persist as it shows up in the BIOS settings
when i return after a failed boot.

> However it sounds more like the install *to* the usb stick. I presume you
> used unetbootin (sp?) or live-cd-tools on another box, to install from the
> CD, to the USB stick. Which raises three possibilities: the MBR was not
> properly initialized (doesn't sound like that however) OR the grub.conf is
> pointing to the wrong place (sounds kinda like that, but ?no error
> message???) or possibly, somehow the OS partitions were not properly
> formatted...still vfat?? or is /boot on ext4, which some setups choke on?

this problem is more likely, a bad install to the USB key.  i just
stuck the key in anther linux box and ran 'sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc' on
it.  there is one Linux (83 = ext3) partition on the key taking up the
whole key (8GB) and it is listed as bootable.

[mythtv at MythBackend ~]$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc

Disk /dev/sdc: 8015 MB, 8015282176 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 974 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5641431b

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1         637     5116671   83  Linux
[mythtv at MythBackend ~]$

the USB key is the only 'storage' attached to the IONITX aside from
the USB CD-ROM.  so i originally booted from CD and installed to the
USB key all on the IONITX.  ejected the cd when the install was
complete and the system attempted to reboot from the key (which was
the first boot device, CD was second).  the boot just hangs at
'initializing kernel'.  the really weird thing is that my USB keyboard
and mouse go dead at this point.  it's like all USB access is dead.
but for the install boot i was booting off the USB CD drive...

i 'assumed' that installing to the USB key would be the same as
installing to a harddisk.  just pick your target and install.  is
there some other magic that needs to be done at install time to get
the installed kernel to 'know' that it's booting off a USB key?

thx for the reply :)

-- 
Andrew Close


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