Linux

[C-Chan]

Oh boy, I'm feeling such deja vu from back in the Puppy Linux days.... ^___^;

Alright, keep me posted on what happens.... -v-

Also, do let me know if you can select from various hard drives, and whether the SanDisk still shows up as one (that would sucketh....).  ^___^;

[Bella]

So, I went back onto SAM to see what it sensed the USB drive as. It found it to be four, a 1KB, 1GB, 2GB and a 443MB. None would mount, though, and XP saw the USB drive as blank.

I reinstalled (or at least tried) SAM, this time it went though a whole production it had never done before. Before, after asking which drive, it would simply end with asking me to restart the partition, but now, it asked if I wanted to proceed (with a little pic of an HD)>next>
then a screen showing a PCLOS symbol transferring to a desktop was on there while a progress bar moved across the bottom, taking nearly an hour. Then it asked about a bootloader, it was set on GRUB with graphical interface, and in asked about which device I wanted to boot from, it was set on hda, but I set it to sda (though there were like, three or four other sda drives, sda1, sda2, etc...)>next>
then it asked for a new root password, I made one>next>
then username and password, I set them>next>
It said halt system, remove device, and reboot, I really didn't know what to do so I shut down, removed the USB drive and plugged it in again, went to BIOS settings and set it to "removable storage" and tried loading it up.

Nothing happened, it came back onto Windows, and wrote this XD

I still really hope that K8 can boot from the USB drive...

Added after 2 minutes:

Yeah, and XP still thinks the drive is blank...

[C-Chan]

Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk... ahhh, Bella-sama, Bella-sam, the things you get yourself into.... ^___^

*nods*  -v-

Okay, we'll take this in stride... ^^

So, I went back onto SAM to see what it sensed the USB drive as. It found it to be four, a 1KB, 1GB, 2GB and a 443MB. None would mount, though, and XP saw the USB drive as blank.

Ano..... ^^;
You serious?  A 1KB partition?!  I think that's physically impossible based on the file system, but oh well this was Before anyway.... -v-

I reinstalled (or at least tried) SAM, this time it went though a whole production it had never done before. Before, after asking which drive, it would simply end with asking me to restart the partition, but now, it asked if I wanted to proceed (with a little pic of an HD)>next>
then a screen showing a PCLOS symbol transferring to a desktop was on there while a progress bar moved across the bottom, taking nearly an hour. Then it asked about a bootloader, it was set on GRUB with graphical interface, and in asked about which device I wanted to boot from, it was set on hda, but I set it to sda (though there were like, three or four other sda drives, sda1, sda2, etc...)>next>

Hmmm,... that sounds a bit confusing, although I am glad you installed the bootloader on sda, since installing it on just plain hda (rather than hda1, 2, etc) would've replaced K8's MBR.  ^^;
Close call there,... given that you're still fairly new at this, I'd recommend taking five and trying a different strategy.... -.-'

First thing's first....
Go back in SAM liveCD and use Gparted to look at the partition layout, not only of your USB drive, but also your regular hard drive.  In particular, I want to make sure there's ext3 partitions on your USB stick, not in K8.  ^.^

When it asks you where to boot from, a good word of advice is never to choose hda or sda, as these refer to the MBRs.  I mean it works, but it also becomes very difficult to edit.  Instead, always select the actual physical drive letters of your partitions (again, you can use Gparted to see what they are,... hda1, hda2, sda1, sda2, etc...).  When this happens, its sets up a /boot directory in your partition of choice, which contains grub files that you can easily edit (to add more OSes, to change colors, to add pictures, to reduce waiting times, etc).  This is always the ideal,... in fact, some people go as far as to create an entire partition just for GRUB and label it /boot (so that any Linux system can mount it as if it were its own, thus eliminating the need to recreate the GRUB file every time you add or change a linux distro... ^^).

It said halt system, remove device, and reboot, I really didn't know what to do so I shut down, removed the USB drive and plugged it in again, went to BIOS settings and set it to "removable storage" and tried loading it up.

Obviously your drive is IDE, since it didn't boot off that sda MBR.  However, I looked into the matter further again, and it seems that our problem (yours and mine) is that these Sandisk USB drives are listed as USB hard drives.  Hence, your BIOS must be capable of booting off what's called USB-HDD.  My system has USB-ZIP, USB-FDD and USB-CDROM, but USB-HDD appears nowhere.............. EXCEPT,.......... in the hard drive priority order.... ^^;

So given that it might've installed SOMETHING in your USB stick, go into your BIOS again and see if your Sandisk appears as a hard drive option.  If so, bring its boot priority up before K8's hard drive and try again.  ^^

If not, then there's a strong potential we're out of luck and your mobo may not be able to support, if not USB pen drives, at least that silly Sandisk drive.... ^.^;

Yeah, and XP still thinks the drive is blank...

Um,........... you did install that Ext2/Ext3 filesystem reader I told you about, ne?  ^___^;
Otherwise, yeah if it's not FAT or NTFS, it doesn't exist in the eyes of a Windows-tan.... ^.^

In any event, I don't want to get all gloom and doom, especially since you're so willing to tinker and experiment, so I'm gonna give you some choices.... ^___^

Maybe SAM might not be the perfect place to start as far as USB installation goes, especially since all such cases describe booting SAM off a LIVE-USB, and the most important thing about live USBs is that they be persistent.

So you can do either of two things as baby steps towards your final goal:

1)  If you brought Puppy-chan with you, try loading her up and use her USB pen drive install tool (yes, this one's a REAL persistent USB flash drive installer) to install Puppy on your flash drive.  There are several other things it will tell you to do in case the flash drive doesn't boot.  Try all of them until you've exhausted all possibilities.  The benefit to this method is that it doesn't take too long (Puppy-chan being so small and portable), so we can quickly narrow down the problem to being on the software side, or the hardware one.  ^___^

2)  Try installing PCLOS-tan's other little sister, MiniMe:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2006/09/19/all-in-one-usb-pclinuxos-minimezip/
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2006/09/03/pclinuxos-setting-up-a-persistent-home/

3)  If you're feeling particularly adventurous, try installing a persistent Live USB Ubuntu into your drive:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/01/25/usb-x-ubuntu-610

A bit bloated of course, but at least your lappy's ACPI settings will work (especially since this is release 6.10 -- 7.04 is a bit more experimental...).  ^___^

The point isn't really to get you away from SAM, but just to get you accustomed to the steps of properly installing a Live-USB Linux distro.  Naturally the sky's the limit, but in order to avoid unpleasant memories, it never hurts to take baby steps.  ^v^

[Bella]

o_o

Oy vey...

Luckily, I had a very bad feeling about anything with "hd" in it and knew that referred to the hard disk so I should steer clear...

Maybe I should try a more USB set-up distro, at least to see if it'll work.

I think I left that Puppy CDR back with the Compaq But I think I have a copy of the file on K8, so I can dig it up...

Ubuntu would be interesting to try, because ACPI settings mean it has some standby/hibernation settings, right?

Plus, I wonder if setting up wireless internet connection would be easier (since Ubuntu is so popular...)

But since I've done some work with SAM, MiniMe might be more familiar...though, isn't KDE even more RAM-intensive than GNOME?
But K8 has 500-some MB of RAM...

If they don't work on K8, I could always try kidnapping my family's computer DY (who's BIOS is a year older than K8's) and trying it on her (to determine if it's a hardware or software problem...)

Added after the paramedics brought me back to life XD:

I just got one f$%&ing helluva shock right now booting into Puppy...

I saw a white screen, with a rather gimpy looking dog in the corner (looked like my grandma's dog O__o) and a message about...oh, I forget, I think it had to do with ACPI, though...

That would have been fine if that was the f-ing helluva shock, but, an odd bootscreen came on asking about partitions and swap and stuff, there was a lot of red writing warning me about the possibilities of instability and stuff, which is my cue for a quick manual shut-down.

WTF I mean WTF?

[C-Chan]

Ano...... you do realize that there is a lot of red writing in the Puppy bootscreen, and also a helluva lot of warnings too as its autodetecting your hardware (heck, if you tried installing PC-BSD, you'd think the whole computer would set itself on fire or something.... ^^; ).

I'm actually shocked that this is seemingly more frightening to you than when you were working on the Compaq, so I imagine that's cause:

A) This is your own personal beloved K8 this time.
B)  This is your own personal beloved K8 this time., and
C)  This is your own personal beloved K8 this time....  ^^;

In that case I hear that, so yeah if you have the opportunity to experiment on another computer, I say go for it.  ^__^;

However, ditch Puppy-chan cause she scared you.  Bad dog!  Very bad!  No treats for you!  `.'

That leaves Ubuntu or MiniMe,.... or nothing if you just want to wait until you come across something more,... expendable... on hand.  ^^

Don't think your self any less for doing so, cause I learned to do all this Linux stuff using my donated junk HP as a testbed (cause no way was I gonna cut up my Acer into little itty bitty partitions until I knew DAMN well what I was doing.... ^___^).

In fact......

*ponders*

Okay, tell you what.  ^v^

Since you DO love XP-san very much, AND we don't have very much time left to get this USB thing working (only till Monday, eh?), how about I propose a completely different and safer alternative?  It may even be better as far as training and educational purposes are concerned!  ^___^

Download this:

http://www.virtualbox.org/

Install the Windows binary edition (non-Open Source) into Windows XP, start a new virtual machine called "Linux", create yourself a virtual hard drive (15 GBs could work), activate Windows DirectSound in your VM, load a Linux ISO (the ones you burn into LiveCDs) as your CDROM drive, and start her up!

Pretty soon you'll be able to use SAM, Puppy, Ubuntu, and anything you like (or that works...) within the safety of a Virtual Machine hosted by XP-san!  ^v^

Now there are various ways to save files between the two machines,... the official route is to create a shared folder that the two can access, but you can also use Samba to file share over the network between Windows and the VM, or you can use your USB drive to shuttle files between the two (just be sure to activate the USB controller in your VM if you do so).  

If you're interested, I can say more about it.  Bear in mind that there are also plenty of tutorials on the subject as well.  ^___^

Added after 3 minutes:

Step-by-step here:

http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/05/13/how-to-install-ubuntu-studio-in-windows-using-virtualbox-a-complete-walkthrough/

One word of caution, though:

Virtualbox is blazing fast on my Linux (it runs XP like the wind), but for some reason Windows hosting Linux Guest OSes seems rather laggy on my work computer.  Hopefully it's just due to a problem with my work laptop, and not with general Virtualbox functionality in Windows.  -.-

[Bella]

^

Since I'm going this afternoon, I don't think I'll be able to try this for at least a month or so But that sounds pretty interesting!

[C-Chan]

Okey-doke.  I'm glad I managed to help you not blow up K8-chan.  ^___^

Let's try again next time, ne?  ^__~

[Bella]

Just for the record, though...that bootscreen I saw with Puppy was really, really scary (and I'm not being paranoid, okay, maybe a bit )

But several days back I saw a fairly frightening bootscreen with SAM where it started freaking about about my video card O__o

[C-Chan]

I know you're gone by now, but daijoubu, daijoubu...  ^v^

All those scary screens are designed to protect you and ease troubleshooting -- if they were hidden, this could be hiding dangerous things lurking in the shadows of your system (sometimes I have issues booting up LiveCDs on my HP laptop, because the CD-ROM is soon to kick the bucket).

[Shateiel]

Ehehe, well, I'm actually not dead or gone. Lots of weird things happened which kept me away from my computer and here for a long time. But now I'm back.^^

And I was able to fix the problem with the partition naming before, thankfully. Its all fixed up now and the computer is working more or less fine. I say more or less because I have encountered another problem which is far beyond my limited expertise. During the time I was tied up, I forgot the password for it. That wouldn't be a big deal, either, except I also forgot the username I used. Anyone know how to recover that?

[C-Chan]

Wow~!  Talk about a blast from the past!  What's up, Shateiel-san!
Long time no see!  ^v^

Yeah, I remember I was locked and loaded to help you out but you disappeared.  ;__;
Still good to know everything worked out for the better,... at least to a certain extent anyway.  ^^

If you want to recover a password, that's tricky (and besides I don't know offhand how to do it,... given it's a UNIX system we're talking about, it's likely not gonna be easy.  ^^;

But if all you need is to recover a username, I think that's easy.  ^__^

You still using Ubuntu?  Try this:

A) Get yourself a handy liveCD that can automount your local hard drives.

B) Once you open it and access the / directory, go to the home folder and see if the subsequent folder in it is named after you're missing username.

C)  Copy that username, reboot, try it at the login screen, etc.  ^__^

You can also try logging into *Buntu as the Root user and create a new user account from there -- however, chances are you probably don't remember the password for that either.  ^v^;

Either way, when there's a will there's a way, so I'm comfortable we can get this resolved quickly enough.  ^.^

It might take a while for me to get my Buntu groove back, though, as I've stopped using it in favor of PCLinuxOS/SAM.  ^__^

[Shateiel]

Well, I only have so many usernames and so many passwords that I ever use, so if I get the username I'll probably be able to puzzle out the password. So I'll try that and see where it takes me.

[Bella]

Maybe tomorrow I'll try that Virtualbox program, it really seems interesting

Though I'm still trying to grasp the concept of a virtual machine...while it's running, will it use whatever amount of RAM/HD/ect. I allot to it, and XP will have the other amount...? (I saved and read that tutorial link you posted)

[C-Chan]

(YAY!  Bella-sama's back!!)  ^v^

But of course.  It is still an application, so it's gonna need some food,... er, RAM.  ^.^
The difference being that you preallocate how much RAM you want to give to the Guest OS ("install" inside the virtual machine), bearing in mind of course that Linux LiveCDs still need 128megs for unflaky operation.  ^.^

A virtual machine will also occupy disk space, although if you choose not  to preallocate, the amount you designate for the virtual hard drive (e.g., 5.0GBs) won't automatically take up that space until the entire drive is full.  You can also have it share your CDROM, sound card and USB port.

In any event, once you try it I think you'll like it.  ^__^

(Just hope Homeko isn't as unwilling to share a meal like her more buxom sister.... ^^')

Added after 37 seconds:

Oh, and btw....  ^^

*loops at Linspire-tan avi*

I - need - to - hug - you.  *v*

[kman89zero]

I have a dual boot of Windows XP Home Edition and Ubuntu Linux 7.04 Feisty Fawn. I also have a fash drive installed with Damn Small Linux for use on other peoples machines. I prefer linux over windows but am currently force to keep a windows boot because I own a Zune and there is no way to get USB 2.0 speed transfer from linux to zune as of now.