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

[Andrew Close]

On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 1:54 PM, Nick Rout <nick.rout at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Andrew Close <aclose at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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 :)
>
> May be a linHES issue, try their forum? http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/

i'm not sure it's a distro specific issue, unless i'm doing something
incorrectly with the overall install.  i've also tried installing
MythBuntu on this USB key with the same results - USB access
disappears as kernel initializes.

minor breakthrough.  i figured out how to boot without the splash
screen and can now see the error messages.  unfortunately i don't know
how to stop/pause the msg's scrolling by so i can only see the final
screen as things stop.
so here's what i see:

::Loading root filesystem module...
Attempting to create root device '/dev/disk/by-uuid/6be47...'
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/disk/by-uuid/6be...'
ERROR: root fs cannot be detected. Try using the rootfstype= kernel parameter.
Waiting for devices to settle...done.

Root device '/dev/disk/by-uuid/6be...' doesn't exist, attempting to create it
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/disk/by-uuid/6be...'
ERROR: Unable to create/detect root device ...
Dropping to a recovery shell... type 'exit' to reboot
NOTE: klibc contains to 'ls' binary, use 'echo *' instead

If the device '/dev/disk/by-uuid/6be...' gets created while you are
here, try adding 'rootdelay=8' or higher to the kernel command-line
ramfs
$

on the other machine that i had mounted the USB key i confirmed that
the UUID listed above (not typed out cause i'm lazy) is the same as
the UUID assigned to the USB key.  so at least the UUID appears to be
correct, but for some reason it can't be started/found upon boot, even
though the Linux kernel loaded on it 'is' booting.  :)
i can't do anything in the shell i'm dropping into (as mentioned
above) because all USB devices are disabled at this point.

so does anyone know how to go about getting the USB key block device
recognized/parsable as it is booting?  or have a clue as to what else
i can try?

thanks again


-- 
Andrew Close