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    #1

    Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

    Ok, so I am new to Kubuntu, but have been using Ubuntu for about 2 years so I know my way around. I decided to give KDE4 a shot with Kubuntu, and I wanted to use my USB Flash Drive to install Kubuntu 8.10 with usb-creator. Everything went perfectly fine, but when I try to boot with the USB Flash Drive, I get the following error from the BIOS: "Invalid or damaged bootable partition"

    I used the How-To explained here: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-kub...a-usb-creator/

    What do I have to do to get it to boot? Thanks.
    Tags: None
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    #2
    Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

    See (only) Reply #1 (usb-creator) here:
    Build a LIVE Kubuntu Flash Drive
    http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...089474.new#new

    In your case, be sure to zero-out the Master Boot Record of your flash drive, then partition it using GParted as either ext2 or ext3.



    You have corruption or some other past bootloader code in your MBR right now.
    Zero-out the MBR and it will be like new again.
    Then run GParted.
    GParted may ask you if you'd like to set a new DOS volume Label; if so, say Yes.
    Then partition/format.
    Then run usb-creator.

    An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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      #3
      Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

      Wow, thanks. I'll definately try that. The flash drive I am using is actually a Centon 1 GB MP3 Player, so it probably already has an MBR that I have yet to remove. But I assume that once I remove the MBR, I wont be able to use it as an MP3 player anymore?
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        #4
        Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

        Now THAT is a good question. Not familiar with how the MP3 is set up. Please be careful and not mess it up for yourself!

        The thing with usb-creator is that it uses Syslinux as the bootloader, and basically most of the booting action takes place in the boot sector of the first partition of the drive. If there is a bootloader in the MBR (first 512 bytes) of that bootable drive (=> the boot flag is set, say, by GParted), the BIOS FIRST hits on that code in the MBR and it messes up BIOS's attempt to get at the Syslinux. That's in general terms.

        An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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          #5
          Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

          I think I will go ahead and remove the MBR. I just have one question. In this thread: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3089474.0 in reply #1 at the end, you explain how to remove the MBR using the terminal commands. Can you guide me through those terminal commands to remove the MBR?

          Thanks.
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            #6
            Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

            Unplug the flash drive.
            Boot into Kubuntu.
            Open Konsole (K > System > Konsole).
            Type
            sudo fdisk -lu
            and you'll see your drives, like sda, sdb, etc. If you have only one drive, it will be sda.
            Now plug your flash drive in and wait until Kubuntu recognizes it.
            There's a New Device icon in the System Tray, at lower right (or some such), and that's where the flash drive will appear if you click (or right-click) on that icon.
            Now, after it shows up, again run
            sudo fdsik -lu
            and see how your flash drive comes up -- like sdb or sdc etc. It is 1 GB, so that's a clue.
            (fdisk -lu
            is:
            -lu = "l" as in "list and "u" as in "units")


            Now, you are are still in Konsole and you can run this dd command to write zeros to your entire flash drive:

            sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX

            CAUTION!!! => The sdX is your flash drive as seen above (after running sudo fdsik -lu). Be very careful to get it right! The dd command will write zeros to whatever drive you put there as the sdX -- if you put the wrong drive there, you will damage that drive and lose your data.

            dd will take a while to run.


            Quote from the reply #1:

            Like so:
            sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc

            The output is something like this:
            dd: writing to `/dev/sdc': No space left on device
            4030465+0 records in
            4030464+0 records out
            2063597568 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 621.441 s, 3.3 MB/s
            (=> it took 621.441 seconds)

            Now, your flash drive is FULL! -- It is full of zeros.
            Thus, you need to format it with GParted, Fat32, starting at Sector 1.
            In other words, zero-out the entire flash drive and then using GParted create a new partition and format it (using the entire flash drive space).

            Now, run usb-creator and it will work.
            An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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              #7
              Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

              Thanks a bunch. I'll give it a shot and pst my results ASAP.
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                #8
                Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

                Ok, I did what you said and wrote zeros to the device, but how do I format it using GParted? It shows up as sdb with the whole thing as unallocated- where do I go from there?

                I think this is right, but just let me know:

                free space preceding: 0
                New Size: 973 MB
                free space following: 0
                Create As: primary Partition
                Filesystem: fat32
                Label: Removable Device

                Thanks.
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                  #9
                  Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

                  In GParted (Kubuntu: K > System > Partition Editor)
                  highlight the unallocated space,
                  Partition (tab at top) > New
                  Select FAT32 (from drop-down list).
                  Choose the default size (which should be the whole thing).
                  OK.
                  And let it go.

                  You know, it's dawning on me that you are not going to have much room for this. Kubuntu will take up all that space or more. It's hard to tell until you try it; people DO report that they do this on a 1 GB stick, but 8.10 MAY require more space than 8.04 did. Not sure.


                  Some folks use Puppy for such.
                  or, recently, I did sidux.
                  Reply #6 here:
                  http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3091847.0


                  Dedo has done a recent version of Puppy:
                  Puppy Linux - revisited - Absolutely stunning!
                  http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/puppy-revisited.html
                  An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                    #10
                    Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

                    You might be OK on space -- not much, but just enough, with a little room for saving a few settings and more. Not sure ... ?
                    An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                      #11
                      Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

                      I got an error while trying to format. Here is the Warning message:

                      Unable to detect filesystem! possible reasons are:
                      The filesystem is damaged
                      The filesystem is unknown to Gparted
                      there is no filesystem available (unformatted)

                      here was the error: mkdosfs -f32 -v -n " " /dev/sdb1
                      mkdosfs: /dev/sdb1 contains a mounted filesystem

                      Help!

                      P.S: When I tried it with usb-creator I had 255MB of space left to use. Enough for a base system.
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                        #12
                        Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

                        Nevermind. I got it. had to unmount the disk. On to USB-Creator...
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                          #13
                          Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

                          Yep ... exactly ...
                          An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                            #14
                            Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

                            Woot! I got it! I'm on the USB boot right now! Thanks a bunch Mike, couldn't have done it without you!
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                              #15
                              Re: Kubuntu 8.10 Live USB Persistence

                              Very good work there, izizzle!!! Nice job.

                              Just one thing -- as you probably know -- be careful NOT to totally fill it up, because if you do, it may "lock up " your stick -- you won't be able to boot into it! That's normal since KDE needs some room to work. Usually, the recommendation is to keep 15% free space (although maybe you can go a little lower than that, some say 5% but I wouldn't try that).

                              See my sidux flash drive link above for an experiment where I intentionally filled up the flash drive, it locked up, and what it took to unlock it and get it to boot (one heck of a ride).

                              Just keep deleting/not accumulating any junk you don't need on the stick (in your home especially).

                              Again, good work!
                              An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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