Seeking Local Help!, And about that folder...

[ShatteredDaylight]

I've installed tiny core onto a usb using unetbootin because I run vista. It works. I have no ethernet so I need to install the wireless locally. Tutorials state to make a tce folder and drop everything in it? I don't want to even touch my hard drive because I have gigs of critical files with no backups . However I have a laptop so I don't really want to yank my hard drive. I put .tcz and .tce files in a handmade tce folder inside vista so that I can install the wireless locally, and others. And if I can figure out how to do that AND persistency then I should have no problem not touching my hard drive. PROBLEMS: can't figure out how to mount my drive. sda1 sda2 sr0 show up but only sda1 mounts. When I do mount it and explore its files there's nothing so I think its my vista drive. I know it detects CHEER which is the manufacturer's name of my USB and I think it mounts it as sdb. The app manager  can't find sdb though and I don't think it can find any local apps either. Note: I can't burn CDs and I don't have floppy.

Also: is there a way to make a drive read only within tc because I have an awesome app I want to write but it would sort of format any unreadable drives.

[Lee]

You can make your tce directory on the USB device and remove the one from your Vista drive.  If you're using tc 2.7, you don't want .tce files in your tce directory - only .tcz - Are you dure you're downloading from the right repo?

Once you boot into tc, bring up a terminal window and type

Code: [Select]

fdisk -lto list out your devices and partitions.  It should become clear from the drive sizes which is your hard drive (with Vista) and which is your USB stick.  (-not- using "sudo" keeps it safe, if you're leary of running fdisk).

Once you know the device name of your USB stick (or its label or uuid - see the wiki) you can use "tce=sdxn waitusb=5" on the boot command line to have your extensions loaded.

If your Vista volume is formatted as NTFS, you'll need one of two extensions to access it - filesystems...tcz (sorry I'm not typing that whole name) gives read-on;y access to ntfs and ntfs-3g.tcz gives read/write.  Sounds like you'll want the read-only one - but that won't prevent you reformatting the volume.

I have gigs of critical files with no backups.  ...   Also: is there a way to make a drive read only within tc because I have an awesome app I want to write but it would sort of format any unreadable drives.

What are you thinking?!?

[ShatteredDaylight]

what tce directory on vista? are you thinking I put the tce folder on my hard drive? I double checked and I actually don't have any .tce in the tce folder (thought I did). And  I took you advice and used fdisk and it showed me that the USB is indeed sdb and that tiny vore thinks it has 4 partitions when I know it has one (it also says that the physical and logical endings don't match and that it doesn't end on a cylinder)
I'm geussing its referring to the ... I forgot ... something about tmpfs, etc. (there's 4 of them).
My working boot actually is using the UUID and thats why I'm stumped since I can't find the extensions or sdbX:

default vesamenu.c32
prompt 0
menu title Multiboot_Options
timeout 1

label unetbootindefault
menu label OS
kernel /boot/bzImage
append initrd=/boot/tinycore.gz quiet max_loop=255
waitusb=5 host=System laptop
tce=UUID="4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318"
restore=UUID="4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318"
home=UUID="4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318"
opt=UUID="4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318"

P.S. I just added the the quotes as I realize that may have been a problem.

Thanks for the response

edit: I just rebooted with quotes to no avail.
btw: does it matter if everthing is in one FAT32 partition?

[Lee]

I put .tcz and .tce files in a handmade tce folder inside vista

That tce folder on Vista. 

I've never actually used the UUID or volume label syntax for specifying directories, but everybody swears by it.  I just use something like tce=sdb1 ( I actually use named directories like tce=sdb1/tce2.7 and I'm not so sure that is compatible with the UUID or volume label syntax)

It doesn't matter if your tce directory is on a fat filesystem, but home should be on ext2.  I don't know about opt.  I don't' use persistent home or opt.

[ShatteredDaylight]

Thanks for helping me out Lee!

I just used Linux Live USB to make a USB stick in vista with VMware. Used the VM to get wireless access without installing any extensions. I then istalled necessary extensions to USBinstall hoping this would solve my obvious config problems... did a few things and looked around some more because it wasn't working a found that when it went to get USB device info it should have displayed something but I got nothing. SO mabye it can't detect my USB? but it boots from it so that can't be it right? Then again it does say that its an unknown filesystem with the four screwed up partitions...

I've been working on this all night  as I think the only other viable alternative to tiny core that would do what I want is building a distro from scratch and I'm obviously trying to avoid that.

[roberts]

Why start so complicated. Walk before you run. Try:

append initrd=/boot/tinycore.gz quiet max_loop=255 waitusb=5 tce=UUID=4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318

Are you sure that your UUID is correct? Most pendrives that I have used have much a shorter UUID.
Perhaps, try LABEL=CHEER, if CHEER is indeed your pendrive's label

By starting with a small collection of boot options makes it easy to edit at the unetbootin boot menu screen. Select, then press Tab make adjustments, repeat as necessary.

You can always edit syslinux.cfg that unetbootin uses directly.

[ShatteredDaylight]

I've actually tried each boot code individually and then decided to just try them all together.
I double checked the UUID and realized I was using a GUID  . Rebooted with my UUID=1491-e32f and waitusb=5 as my only other option. When I look at the appbrowser it says I have a /tce/ directory (somewhere) but I can't navigate to it if I go back down to /. Ontop of that I can't mount sdbX which I am now positive IS my usb or navigate to it (cd mnt/sdbX) I'm still getting that weird partition thing. Am I just hopeless? I can use DSL and DOS to do just about anything but I'm feeling like a total noob right now so tc for idiots would help alot. And yes I have read the wiki about a bijillion times. I can't use the linux directions to add tce extensions before booting so I tried doing this my own way(s) in windows but it doesn't really help if you can't find the USB .

[gerald_clark]

If you are trying to mount /dev/sdb, you have not followed directions.
That USB drive should be partitioned, and you should probably be trying to mount /dev/sdb1.

[ShatteredDaylight]

that would be where the X part comes in as it says my USB has 4 partitions (the logical and cyclinder weirdness mentioned earlier)

edit: just to double check I'm going to reboot into tc again and retry all 4 partitions. (btw it does recognize partition 4 as a boot partition I believe)

edit2: actually gerald_clark your right I did post sdb instead of sdbX, my bad I'll fix that.
edit3: fixed. And sdb4 IS a OS/2 boot partition (others are still unknown)

[maro]

I believe it might actually help if you could share here the (full) output of the following commands:

Code: [Select]

fdisk -l 2>&1
cat /etc/fstab
cat /etc/mtab
blkid /dev/hd* 2>&1
blkid /dev/sd* 2>&1

I assume you have network (and internet access) whilst running TC, so it should be rather simple to provide us with those details here.

[ShatteredDaylight]

actually I don't

I have no ethernet so I need to install the wireless locally.

My working boot actually is using the UUID and thats why I'm stumped since I can't find the etensions or sdbX

and I keep swapping between booting vista for posts and searching and TC for testing solutions. The one time I had access was when I used VM but I don't really know how to use it or if it could cause more errors so I don't really want to use it until I can atleast access the USB.

However install VM again to do what you suggested...

[curaga]

Your USB stick is one of those without a proper partition table. I recommend wiping it clean from inside TC or any other linux system before continuing. This will not make it inaccessible by Vista.

There is the catch-22 that TC does not include cfdisk nor dosfstools by default. Doing this from DSL should work.

sudo cfdisk -z /dev/sdX
#create a single partition, and make the type win95 fat32 ("0C" if I remember right)
mkdosfs -F32 -v /dev/sdX1

You may now re-install with unetbootin.

[ShatteredDaylight]

Once again thank you guys very much
Sorry maro,
I was running doxygen (40 hrs.) so I couldn't get back on stuff as VM takes too much but here's the output:
(I should note that the other outputs say fstab doesn't exist! and blkid can't be run in VM so I'll have to get back yo you on that as soon as daylight breaks and I can write it down)


(further note: hda is sdb in the non virtual enviroment otherwise the rest is correcT)
disk /dev/hda: 262 MB, 262537216 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 508 cylinders
Units = cylinders pf 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

device boot start end blocks id system
/dev/hda1 ? 3197785 3442507 123339962 78 Unkown
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(518,102,15) logical=(3197784,8,6)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(743,0,62) logical=(3442506,10,27)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary

(similar entries for 2&3; Id's = 10 & 8b (if full text'd be helpful let me know))

/dev/hda4 ? 1833188 1841445 4161536 a OS/2 Boot Manager
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(269,111,50) logical=(1833187,8,57)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(0,0,0) logical=(1841444,9,9)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary

Oh and I don't know whether to commend TC or not as I just tried to load DSL and its taking forever and won't load the KNOPPIX image off the USB
It's Interesting to note that it will also not detect the USB(supposedly) if I don't have the scsi boot code...

[Pats]

Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary

I know you are a experienced user, but stillhere are my 2 cents, as I have gone thru somewhat similar problem sometime back:
1) On first occasion it was a virus on USB stick - since I was also using XP on one partition , which used to continuously rebooting !

2) Partition table of my HDD and USB stick was corrupted. I clean re-formated HDD and USB both from a virus-free CD and got rid of that ugly - bad cylinder boundery - message.

And then every thing was alright, my USB was correctly recognized.
Hope this may help, ( anyhow many experts here have already give nice advice , but still ... ) .

~ Pats

[ShatteredDaylight]

Hey Pats that was actually a pretty astute observation and one of the first I jumped to too.
Just to put it on the books for future record though, I have formated in FAT32 and do so before all operations.
If I have to do something that's not VM-related besides just changing a boot code I do a clean format.
I also had to reinstall vista (the day before I tried to install TC(~week ago)) because the software that dell bundled with my laptop is defective and very resource detrimental. (150+ MB drivers each for touchpads and webcams,etc.). A particular cause of concern was the fingerprint scanning software and webcam software as it would randomly activate (VERY creepy) and also lockdown the computer so that I had to use safe mode for access.

(And if you're wondering why I haven't sent angry letters its because I once spent a month calling Maya five hours per day five days a week calling customer,corporate,france,and the original programmers only to be told that no one can do anything so I should throw away a multi-K piece of software! So understand that I'm very fed up with corporations and customer support and very thankful to all you kind souls on the foums *iinserts missing love smiley*)


Oh And I don't know how I forgot but the HDD is recognized correctly as a single partition and unknown filesystem(NTFS). And I just found an option in bios that makes boot partitions unwritable...could that be an additional problem perhaps?