No CD and no USB :)

slenkar · 2012-05-09 13:41:41

Hi I installed Xubuntu a long time ago, and it doesnt boot up so I want to install arch linux because when I used it before it never had issues booting up.

My PC doesnt seem to give the option of booting from a USB stick on the BIOS screen, and I tried several times to get it to work to no avail. The CD Drive is broken, it doesnt recognize discs at all.

I have tried UnetBootin but that hangs after it selects a partition (HD(0,3) EXT 2).

I tried Wubi but that doesnt get rid of the old Xubunti installation so it has very little space to operate in.

I also tried a debian windows installer but that complained about a missing HAL.DLL and then wouldnt appear on my boot menu ever again.Even after re-installing.

I have a Laptop with a working CD Drive if there is some possibility of using that to install linux on my desktop?

If I boot up Xubuntu I do get a terminal. Sudo apt-get update doesnt work as the FTP addresses dont seem to be working.

Last edited by slenkar (2012-05-09 13:50:43)

Inxsible · 2012-05-09 13:57:47

do you have a floppy drive? If yes, try plop

slenkar · 2012-05-09 14:06:53

Do you mean plopKexec? very interesting thanks
If I can find a disc this might work

Lennie · 2012-05-10 14:09:28

Hi I installed Xubuntu a long time ago, and it doesnt boot up

If I boot up Xubuntu I do get a terminal.

So, can you boot up Xubuntu?
Do you have an extra partition, which is not used by Xubuntu?
Then you can install Arch on your laptop, and use rsync to do a fullsystem backup, and then restore it to your desktop from Xubuntu.

slenkar · 2012-05-11 12:46:01

I couldnt get plop to work and I registered an account on their forums several days ago but it still isnt authorized by the admin.

Just to clarify, If I boot it with kernel 22 I get nothing, If I select 17 on GRUB I get a terminal.

The Idea of doing the rsync sounds good, but I need something to delete Xubuntu off the PC altogether as it takes up too much space to just leave there.

Lennie · 2012-05-11 16:59:27

The idea was that you use Xubuntu to restore Arch, and then from Arch you can delete Xubuntu and, if needed make a bigger partition and again rsync Arch over to that partition. But this requires that you have one extra partition, because you can't shrink Xubuntus partition when booted up to Xubuntu.

slenkar · 2012-05-11 21:00:04

ah-ha I think I get what you mean now, I can make a small arch partition and then reclaim all the space.

So whats my first step after I install arch on the laptop.

Inxsible · 2012-05-11 21:44:48

slenkar wrote:

So whats my first step after I install arch on the laptop.

Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

nomorewindows · 2012-05-11 22:20:03

Lennie wrote:

The idea was that you use Xubuntu to restore Arch, and then from Arch you can delete Xubuntu and, if needed make a bigger partition and again rsync Arch over to that partition. But this requires that you have one extra partition, because you can't shrink Xubuntus partition when booted up to Xubuntu.

I think this is what he meant: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fa … nux_System installing from a small arch partition may work to gain control back over to your favorite distro. All you need once you get some form of pacman going is to install the base and that will get you going. If you had a PXE ROM and something set up there it would get you going, but yet that still requires an existing installation on another machine. You used to be able to boot from GPXE pointing to http://boot.kernel.org/bko but I think they've disabled that when it was compromised.

slenkar · 2012-05-11 23:38:34

I would like to resize my 12GB linux partition to 7GB so I have some room for arch,
My partition program that I am using on windows only lets me resize windows partitions...is this normal?

Inxsible · 2012-05-12 00:35:59

Yes it is normal. Get a copy of gparted live cd and use it to manipulate the partitions. You can also use any distro's existing live cds you might have lying around

nomorewindows · 2012-05-12 03:00:58

Inxsible wrote:

Yes it is normal. Get a copy of gparted live cd and use it to manipulate the partitions. You can also use any distro's existing live cds you might have lying around

He still has the problem of watching TV by candlelight! His CD rom still doesn't work. He can follow the instructions that come with the gparted image, and tell it to mount the image stored in his linux partition, however. Make the necessary changes in the boot loader so that it will load the gparted image. He can probably manage that.

slenkar · 2012-05-12 04:13:13

if I alter the partitions it wont mess up my master boot record will it? I cant do fixmbr with no cd drive

I also had another question, in Linux the /boot folder is located in the current partition or the boot partition?

Last edited by slenkar (2012-05-12 04:14:36)

Lennie · 2012-05-12 08:55:31

I would like to resize my 12GB linux partition to 7GB so I have some room for arch,
My partition program that I am using on windows only lets me resize windows partitions...is this normal?

Can you take a few GB from your Windows partition? Windows 7 and Vista can shrink it's own partition when it's running.

The tricky thing is that you can't take any risks with Xubuntu until you get Arch up and running, because Xubuntu is your only savior right now...
Be careful with the bootloader. I guess you have Xubuntu's bootloader in mbr now. That means Windows will not boot if you delete Xubuntu before Arch is working. When you restore your backup, at first keep Xubuntu on disk and Xubuntus bootloader in mbr and add Arch to it's bootmenu. Then you boot up Arch and if that works you can install it's bootloader to mbr. But be careful when you edit menu.lst so you get it right.

Read rsync and Full System Backup with rsync.

if I alter the partitions it wont mess up my master boot record will it? I cant do fixmbr with no cd drive

If you delete a logical partition, all the following logical partitions get changed number, so if Xubuntu's (and later Arch's) partition number gets changed Grub will not find it until you reinstall Grub in mbr. Also use uuid instead of partition number both in fstab and menu.lst.
When you add a partition, primary or logical, that will not change the other partitions number.

I also had another question, in Linux the /boot folder is located in the current partition or the boot partition?

No need for a separate boot partition. Arch should have it's boot folder in the system partition. Don't mix it with Xubuntu's boot folder / partition.

Last edited by Lennie (2012-05-12 08:58:18)

Lennie · 2012-05-12 09:08:48

nomorewindows wrote:

Lennie wrote:
The idea was that you use Xubuntu to restore Arch, and then from Arch you can delete Xubuntu and, if needed make a bigger partition and again rsync Arch over to that partition. But this requires that you have one extra partition, because you can't shrink Xubuntus partition when booted up to Xubuntu.
I think this is what he meant: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fa … nux_System installing from a small arch partition may work to gain control back over to your favorite distro. All you need once you get some form of pacman going is to install the base and that will get you going. If you had a PXE ROM and something set up there it would get you going, but yet that still requires an existing installation on another machine. You used to be able to boot from GPXE pointing to http://boot.kernel.org/bko but I think they've disabled that when it was compromised.

No, that was not what I meant...

$ pacman -Qi pacman | grep Depends
Depends On     : bash  glibc>=2.15  libarchive>=3.0.2  curl>=7.19.4  gpgme  pacman-mirrorlist

It's an old version of Xubuntu, so I think it will for sure crash if he tries to install pacman and it's dependencies...
But otherwise that had probably been both faster and easier.

hadrons123 · 2012-05-12 09:33:36

@OP My suggestion is to take out your hard disk. plug it in another computer. Install the OS and other apps you will need to have a working network. Bring the disk back to your old computer.

slenkar · 2012-05-12 14:12:33

This method allows me to use my D: drive
http://www.instantfundas.com/2007/08/in … -from.html

but it says I have to find the kernel and ramdisk files. I dont see anything resembling those in the iso

nomorewindows · 2012-05-12 16:17:09

slenkar wrote:

This method allows me to use my D: drive
http://www.instantfundas.com/2007/08/in … -from.html
but it says I have to find the kernel and ramdisk files. I dont see anything resembling those in the iso

Mount the iso file and navigate to its' /boot directory. Probably looking for vmlinuz something along with initramfs.img or initrd.gz something like this.
These instructions leave out the root= options that have to be passed so that it mounts the iso after booting from the kernel in some cases, as is the setup ramdisk image is still looking for the CD ROM.

lenny wrote:

It's an old version of Xubuntu, so I think it will for sure crash if he tries to install pacman and it's dependencies...
But otherwise that had probably been both faster and easier.

If you're trying to install pacman and its' dependencies over the Xubuntu installation, but not if you start its' own partititon/chroot.
I don't think Xubuntu uses pacman, but instead apt-get, as long as it can compile pacman it should still take the required dependencies. \
In such a case you may be able to use the latest snapshot image of Arch and boot it because I think it is sensitive to being booted several different ways including the method listed above.

slenkar · 2012-05-12 19:20:53

I had to download the core iso instead of the net install iso to see the kernel and ramdisk files...

Last edited by slenkar (2012-05-12 19:26:24)

slenkar · 2012-05-14 13:53:20

These instructions leave out the root= options that have to be passed so that it mounts the iso after booting from the kernel in some cases, as is the setup ramdisk image is still looking for the CD ROM.

You were right, it did look for the CD-Rom for 30 seconds, what should I put in the menu,lst file?
root=?

Im booting from hd0,0 so I tried root=/dev/hda1 which didnt work

Last edited by slenkar (2012-05-14 14:47:50)

Pres · 2012-05-14 15:00:12

Any reason you could not get plop working (plop boot manager and not plopkexec)? Had this same issue with an old laptop of mine and using plop to boot from usb was by far the easiest solution.

slenkar · 2012-05-14 15:26:17

http://www.plop.at/en/ploplinux/usb.html

I went through ALL the steps listed here

I think I ended up with an error like plpbt.bin not found

Last edited by slenkar (2012-05-14 15:29:45)

Pres · 2012-05-14 15:53:29

Those steps are for creating a bootable USB drive. What you need is a bootable floppy disk. Should just be as easy as downloading the latest plop boot manager files and grabbing the .img file inside.

Then you just write it to a floppy disk with either dd or rawwrite if you are using Windows right now. Set your BIOS to boot from floppy and select USB when the plop menu appears and you are off and away with a normal LiveUSB installation.

I believe the correct instructions/file for it is here (been awhile since I've used it):
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/full.html#runflp

slenkar · 2012-05-14 16:09:41

ok I installed plop boot manager to GRUB, I then chose 'boot from USB' from the menu and the PC froze

slenkar · 2012-05-14 16:38:24

I tried force USB 1.1 mode 2 and it gets further.. but then freezes. I installed damn small linux into the flash drive.

Which ISo did you install on the flash drive?

Arch Linux

#1 2012-05-09 13:41:41

No CD and no USB :)

#2 2012-05-09 13:57:47

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#3 2012-05-09 14:06:53

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#4 2012-05-10 14:09:28

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#5 2012-05-11 12:46:01

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#6 2012-05-11 16:59:27

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#7 2012-05-11 21:00:04

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#8 2012-05-11 21:44:48

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#9 2012-05-11 22:20:03

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#10 2012-05-11 23:38:34

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#11 2012-05-12 00:35:59

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#12 2012-05-12 03:00:58

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#13 2012-05-12 04:13:13

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#14 2012-05-12 08:55:31

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#15 2012-05-12 09:08:48

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#16 2012-05-12 09:33:36

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#17 2012-05-12 14:12:33

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#18 2012-05-12 16:17:09

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#19 2012-05-12 19:20:53

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#20 2012-05-14 13:53:20

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#21 2012-05-14 15:00:12

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#22 2012-05-14 15:26:17

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#23 2012-05-14 15:53:29

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#24 2012-05-14 16:09:41

Re: No CD and no USB :)

#25 2012-05-14 16:38:24

Re: No CD and no USB :)

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