Micro Solutions Backpack USB External CDRW module/driver build?

[northd_tech]

I'm still hacking away at this Backpack USB thing. While cleaning off my external hard disk, I ran across the older Backpack parallel port DOS driver directory. While it is for parallel port and NOT USB, there might be something informative in the documentation regarding the Backpack firmware loading, so I will quote some of that documentation here for the historical record (and since Micro Solutions is out of business and information will be VERY hard to find for their products now).

------------LOADCD.BAT
:
: This batch file can be used to load the BACKPACK drivers after a
: system has booted up. The DEVICE.COM program on this disk is
: used to load the BACKPACK device driver.
:
device=bpcddrv.sys
if exist bpcddrv$ mscdex /d:bpcddrv$

------------IOSFIX.TXT

USING the IOS.VXD replacement driver in Win95B (OSR2) and Win98

After loading Backpack Diskette Drive (or 16-bit Backpack Hard Drive)
software under Windows 95 or 98 all files after BACKPACK.SYS are
"Missing or Corrupt" during reboot.

Error While Initializing IOS: Windows Protection Fault


The above "Missing or Corrupt" errors may occur with early versions of
Backpack Diskette Drive's 16-bit device driver (BACKPACK.SYS) or
Backpack Hard Drive's 16-bit driver (BPHDDRV.SYS) in the CONFIG.SYS
of certain computers running the second release of Windows 95
(Win95B - OSR2 - Ver 4.00.1111 or Ver 4.00.1212) or either version
of Windows 98. Only certain computers' BIOS revisions seem to exhibit
this failure.

This problem can be temporarily worked-around by turning off the
Backpack power and rebooting the computer. After the computer has
successfully rebooted, the Backpack Drive will not be available.

Next, update the Backpack Diskette Drive software to the 16-bit driver
version contained within the file BPFDv213.EXE on the Micro
Solutions Web site. The updated BACKPACK.SYS file should be extracted
into the root directory, or whichever directory the BACKPACK.SYS device
driver is being loaded from.

Or, for Backpack Hard Drive, upgrade to the 32-bit driver which replaces
the original 16-bit Backpack Hard Drive driver. Important Note: 32-bit
support is available for all Backpack Hard Drives with capacities of 850MB
or greater. Most Backpack Hard Drives with capacities lower than 850MB
are not supported by the 32-bit driver. 16-bit driver software must be
used instead.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

You will also need to update the IOS.VXD file located in

\Windows\System\VMM32 if the message:

"Error While Initializing IOS: Windows Protection Fault"

or a similar message is displayed during reboot.


FOLLOW THESE INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY TO UPDATE IOS.VXD

1) Copy this patch file: IOSFIX.EXE into the folder:
C:\Windows\System\VMM32
2) From an MS-DOS prompt, change to the \Windows\System\VMM32 folder
(by typing: CD\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32 <enter>)
3) Run the program: IOSFIX <enter> to update IOS.VXD

Then, turn the Backpack back on and restart the computer. The Backpack
should then be available and the computer should work properly.

-------------README.TXT

BACKPACK CD-ROM Registration:

Please be sure to send in your registration card, or register your
prdocut online at our Web site: www.micro-solutions.com to ensure
your eligibility for software updates, enhancements, and important
product information.

BACKPACK CD-ROM COMPATIBILITY

This 16-bit DOS driver software package provides support for reading
CD-ROM discs under MS-DOS or Windows 3.1x. It does not provide any
"writing" support or PD Cartridge support.

This software is compatible with the following Backpack CD-ROM
drive models:

163550 Backpack 2x CD-ROM
163700 Backpack 2x CD-ROM w/Sound
164550 Backpack 4x CD-ROM
164700 Backpack 4x CD-ROM w/Sound
165550 Backpack 6x CD-ROM
165700 Backpack 6x CD-ROM w/Sound
166550 Backpack 8x CD-ROM
166700 Backpack 8x CD-ROM w/Sound
167550 Backpack 32x CD-ROM
167700 Backpack 32x CD-ROM w/Sound

180100 Backpack bantam
180200 Backpack bantam w/Sound
181100 Backpack bantam 24x
181200 Backpack bantam 24x w/Sound
181150 Backpack bantam 24x (No PC Card support in DOS)

190100 Backpack cd-rewriter 2x2x6
190120 Backpack cd-rewriter 4x2x6 (both controllers supported)
190126 Backpack cd-rewriter 4x2x6
190127 Backpack cd-rewriter 4x2x8
190130 Backpack cd-rewriter 4x4x20
191100 Backpack cd-rewriter 4x4x20 (No PC Card support in DOS)

170550 Backpack pd/cd (PD Cartridge in DOS requires BPPDDRV.SYS)
170700 Backpack pd/cd w/Sound (PD Cartridge/DOS requires BPPDDRV.SYS)


USING THE LOADCD.BAT UTILITY FOR BACKPACK CD-ROM

The Backpack CD-ROM's 16-bit device driver (BPCDDRV.SYS) can be
temporarily loaded from a diskette (A: or B: prompt) by running
LOADCD.BAT. This provides a way to temporarily use the Backpack
CD-ROM on a computer without running the complete SETUP program.
Therefore, no modifications are made to CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT,
and no additional files/directories are added to the computer's
C: drive. LOADCD.BAT can be run from a diskette, a C: prompt, or
from a network drive, provided that the required files are in
the SAME DIRECTORY as the LOADCD.BAT utility.

Running LOADCD.BAT is simple. From the Backpack Master Diskette (Disk1)
type: A:> LOADCD <enter>

Files Required to run LOADCD.BAT:
BPCDDRV.SYS: Backpack CD-ROM's 16-bit device driver
MSCDEX.EXE Microsoft CD-Extension, which provides the drive
letter for CD-ROM drives
DEVICE.COM A Micro Solutions utility program which can load
Backpack 16-bit drivers
LOADCD.BAT The utility that incorporates the three files above

Important Notes:
If another 16-bit CD-ROM is already installed, which used MSCDEX.EXE
already, then the LOADCD program cannot properly load, since MSCDEX.EXE
can be run only once.

If you already have a hard disk compression program, such as Microsoft's
DoubleSpace, DriveSpace, or Stac Electronic's Stacker program loaded,
Micro Solutions' DEVICE.COM program will not be able to load other
Backpacks, such as Backpack Hard Drive, Backpack Diskette Drive, or
Backpack PD (pd/cd) Drive.

LOADCD.BAT must be run under DOS, and not from an "MS-DOS Prompt" under
Windows 3.x or Windows 95/98/NT. If you do run LOADCD.BAT from
Windows 3.1's "MS-DOS Prompt" the Backpack CD-ROM support will be lost
as soon as you use the EXIT command to re-enter Windows 3.1. This
happens because Windows 3.1 only adds CD-ROM drive support when the
Windows 3.1 shell first loads. Windows 3.1 does not have the capability
of adding a 16-bit CD-ROM drive after Windows has already been started.

Using Backpack CD-ROM Parameters within LOADCD.BAT
The normal contents of the LOADCD.BAT file is as follows:
device=bpcddrv.sys
if exist bpcddrv$ mscdex /d:bpcddrv$

Use a text editor, such as DOS EDIT or Windows NOTEPAD you can modify
LOADCD.BAT and add Backpack options such as NOEPP, UNIDIR, T1=
or T8= (timings) or MODE=0 as follows:
device=bpcddrv.sys NOEPP UNIDIR T1=15
if exist bpcddrv$ mscdex /d:bpcddrv$

(or) device=bpcddrv.sys MODE=0
if exist bpcddrv$ mscdex /d:bpcddrv$


BACKPACK CD-ROM User's Guide (CDGUIDE):

If you are unfamiliar with the operation of a CD-ROM drive or
experience difficulties using the Backpack CD-ROM drive,
please read the Backpack CD-ROM User's Guide (CDGUIDE).

Included with the Backpack CD-ROM drive is a diskette labeled
"CDGUIDE". This diskette contains two files, CDGUIDE.DOC and
CDGUIDE.TXT. Both files contain complete Backpack usage
instructions, troubleshooting suggestions, and technical
support information.

CDGUIDE.DOC is written as a Microsoft Word document. To
view/print CDGUIDE.DOC in Microsoft Word insert the CDGUIDE
diskette, open Word, and choose File - Open - A: (or B: ) -
choose the language that you prefer, and double-click on the
CDGUIDE.DOC file.

Using Microsoft Word to view and print CDGUIDE.DOC is the
preferred method of accessing the Backpack user's guide.
If you do not have Microsoft Word you can download a free copy
of Microsoft Word Viewer from Microsoft's site on the World
Wide Web. Word Viewer allows documents created with Microsoft
Word to be viewed and printed. You can find Microsoft Word
Viewer at: http://www.microsoft.com

CDGUIDE.TXT is written in regular text format and can be viewed
and printed from most word processing programs, Windows Write,
Windows Notepad, or DOS Edit.

Contacting Micro Solutions:

Most questions about Backpack and its operation are answered
in the user's guide. To solve most problems:

* Check the solutions and procedures in the User's Guide.

* Review the Online Help file located in the Backpack program
group.

* Visit Micro Solutions on-line at our WebSite at:

http://www.micro-solutions.com.

* Contact Micro Solutions' Automated Fax Response at
815.754.4600. Automated Fax Response is available 24-hours
daily. A complete catalog of faxes and information is
available. If you are calling from outside the United
States prefix the digits 011 when you are asked to enter
your country code and FAX number.

If your problem remains unsolved, contact Micro Solutions'
Technical Support Department at 815.754.4500. Technical
Support is available during normal business hours, Monday
through Friday, Central Time. Before calling, be sure to have
the following information ready:

* The version numbers of your backpack software and your
operating system (DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95/98 or NT).

* The name and model of the computer, and the eight-digit
serial number found on the bottom of your backpack drive.

* The exact wording of any error message(s) from the Backpack
driver, DOS, Windows or any other application producing
the error message.

* The exact model of printer installed and the revision of
printer driver software, if available.

If possible, be at your computer when calling.

Micro Solutions Technical Support
132 W. Lincoln Hwy.
DeKalb, IL 60115 USA
815.754.4600 Automated Fax Response
815.756.4986 FAX
815.754.4500
www.micro-solutions.com

[northd_tech]

I also located some of the old scripts from the old Win95C OEM and Win98SE Backpack driver software.

-----------txtsetup.oem
# Version 4
# For distribution with SETUP
# Micro Solutions,Inc.
# For use with series 5 & 6 driver bp32drv4.sys. Must be edited to use with
# other drivers.

[Disks]

# This section lists all disks in the disk set.
#
# <description> is a descriptive name for a disk, used when
# prompting for the disk
# <tagfile> is a file whose presence allows setup to recognize
# that the disk is inserted.
# <directory> is where the files are located on the disk.


d1 = "BACKPACK Driver", \DISK1.ID, \


[Defaults]

# This section lists the default selection for each 'required'
# hardware component. If a line is not present for a component,
# the default defaults to the first item in the [<component_name>]
# section (see below).
#
# <component_name> is one of computer, display, keyboard, mouse, scsi
# <id> is a unique <within the component> string to be associated
# with an option.

scsi = BP32DRV1


[scsi]

# This section lists the options available for a particular component.
#
# <id> is the unique string for the option
# <description> is a text string, presented to the user in a menu
# <key_name> gives the name of the key to be created for the component in
# HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlSet001\Services

BP32DRV1 = "BACKPACK Series 5 & 6 Driver"

[Files.scsi.BP32DRV1]

# This section lists the files that should be copied if the user
# selects a particular component option.
#
# <file_type> is one of driver, port, class, dll, hal, inf, or detect.
# See below.
# <source_disk> identifies where the file is to be copied from, and must
# match en entry in the [Disks] section.
# <filename> is the name of the file. This will be appended to the
# directory specified for the disk in the [Disks] section to form the
# full path of the file on the disk.

driver = d1, BP32DRV4.SYS,BP32DRV
inf = d1, oemsetup.inf

# ***** PLEASE NOTE THIS ******
# The control panel program BPMPDCP.CPL needs to be copied into
# Win../system32 directory


[Config.BP32DRV]

# This section specifies values to be set in the registry for
# particular component options. Required values in the services\xxx
# key are created automatically -- use this section to specify additional
# keys to be created in services\xxx and values in services\xxx and
# services\xxx\yyy.
#
# <key_name> is relative to the services node for this device.
# If it is empty, then it refers to the services node.
# If specified, the key is created first.
# <value_name> specifies the value to be set within the key
# <value_type> is a string like REG_DWORD. See below.
# <value> specifies the actual value; its format depends on <value_type>

value = Parameters,default,REG_DWORD,0

# ***** PLEASE NOTE THIS ******
# An additional sub key has to be added by using regedit32
# Txtsetup can't create this sub key.
# For NT installation this is NOT needed, but is used if the
# parameters are to be changed in control panel later.

# BP32DRV
# Parameters
# Device0 (Sub key under Parameters)
# DriverParameter REG_SZ "OS=1" (value in Device0)
# value = Device0,DriverParameter,REG_SZ,"OS=1;noepp=1;unidi r=1"

-------oemsetup.inf
[version]
signature="$Windows NT$"
Class=SCSIAdapter
ClassGUID={4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Provider=%MSI%

[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir = 12 ; DIRID_DRIVERS

[Manufacturer]
%MSI%=BP32DRV4

[BP32DRV4]
%Backpack.DeviceDesc% = BP_Inst,BPCD

[BP_Inst]
CopyFiles = @bp32drv4.sys


[BP_Inst.Services]
AddService = BP32DRV4, 0x00000002, BP_Service_Inst, Miniport_EventLog_Inst

[BP_Service_Inst]
ServiceType = 1
StartType = 0
ErrorControl = 1
Tag = 0x00111100
ServiceBinary = %12%\bp32drv4.sys
LoadOrderGroup = SCSI Miniport


[Miniport_EventLog_Inst]
AddReg = Miniport_EventLog_AddReg

[Miniport_EventLog_AddReg]
HKR,,EventMessageFile,0x00020000,"%%SystemRoot%%\S ystem32\IoLogMsg.dll"
HKR,,TypesSupported,0x00010001,7

[Strings]
MSI = "Micro Solutions"
Backpack.DeviceDesc = "BACKPACK Series 5 & 6 Driver for NT4"

--------------bpusbdrv.inf
[Version]
Signature=$CHICAGO$
Class=BACKPACK
ClassGuid={B85B7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}
Provider=%String0%
LayoutFile=LAYOUT.INF

[ClassInstall32]
Addreg=BackpackClassReg

[BackpackClassReg]
HKR,,,,"BACKPACK"
HKR,,Icon,,0
HKR,,SilentInstall,,1

[ControlFlags]
ExcludeFromSelect = *

[Manufacturer]
%String1%=MSI_USB

[MSI_USB]
%String2%=usbcable_install, USB\VID_0AC9&PID_0000
%String3%=usbcable_install, USB\VID_0AC9&PID_0001
%String4%=usbcable_install, USB\VID_0AC9&PID_0010
%String4%=usb_install, USB\VID_0AC9&PID_1234

[DefaultInstall]
CopyFiles=usbcable.copy, usb_inf_copy

[DefaultInstall.NT]
CopyFiles = usbcable.copy

[DefaultInstall.NT.Services]
Addservice = bpusbdrv, 0x00000002, bpusbdrv.AddService
AddService = bpusbflt,, bpusbflt_Service_Inst
Addservice = usbstor, 0x00000002, usbstor.addservice

; ------ WIN98
[usbcable_install]
AddReg=usbcable.addreg

[usb_install]

; ------ WIN2000
[usbcable_install.NT]

[usbcable_install.NT.Services]
Addservice = bpusbdrv, 0x00000002, bpusbdrv.AddService

[bpusbdrv.AddService]
DisplayName = %String2%
ServiceType = 1 ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER
StartType = 3 ; SERVICE_DEMAND_START
ErrorControl = 1 ; SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL
ServiceBinary = %12%\bpusbdrv.sys


[usb_install.NT]
AddReg=usbstor.addreg
CopyFiles=usbstor_copy


[usbstor_copy]
usbstor.sys

[usb_install.NT.HW]
AddReg=bpusbflt.addreg

[bpusbflt.addreg]
HKR,,LowerFilters,0x00010000,bpusbflt

[usbstor.addreg]
HKR,,DriverFlags,0x00010001,0x00000001


[usb_install.NT.Services]
AddService = bpusbflt,, bpusbflt_Service_Inst
Addservice = usbstor, 0x00000002, usbstor.addservice

[usbstor.addservice]
DisplayName = %USBSTOR_desc%
ServiceType = 1
StartType = 3
ErrorControl = 1
ServiceBinary = %12%\USBSTOR.SYS

[bpusbflt_Service_Inst]
DisplayName = %bpusbflt_2000%
ServiceType = 1 ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER
StartType = 3 ; SERVICE_DEMAND_START
ErrorControl = 0 ; SERVICE_ERROR_IGNORE
ServiceBinary = %12%\bpusbflt.sys
LoadOrderGroup = PNP Filter

; ------
[usbcable.copy]
bpusbdrv.sys
bpusbflt.sys

[usb_inf_copy]
bpusbdrv.inf

[usbcable.addreg]
HKR,,DevLoader,,*ntkern
HKR,,NTMPDriver,,bpusbdrv.sys

[SourceDisksNames]
1="BACKPACK Installation Disk",,

[DestinationDirs]
usbcable.copy = 10, System32\Drivers
usb_inf_copy = 17
usbstor_copy = 10, System32\Drivers

[SourceDisksFiles]
bpusbdrv.sys = 1
bpusbdrv.inf = 1
bpusbflt.sys = 1

[Strings]
String0="Micro Solutions, Inc."
String1="Micro Solutions, Inc."
String2="BACKPACK USB 1 Cable"
String3="BACKPACK USB 2 Cable"
String4="BACKPACK USB"
bpusbflt_2000 = "BACKPACK USB Filter"
USBSTOR_desc = "USB Mass Storage Driver"

The Backpack "finder" is the driver/software that scans the Backpack interface(s) and determines which driver(s) to load, from what I recall years ago. Here is the install script for that Backpack "finder" under Win9X/NT:

----------------bpfinder.inf
;
; Micro Solutions BACKPACK
;
[Version]
Signature=$CHICAGO$
Class=BACKPACK
ClassGuid={B85B7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}
Provider=%MSI%
DriverVer=02/08/2001,3.05.0000

[ControlFlags]
ExcludeFromSelect=BACKPACK\PORT,BPDRIVE

[Manufacturer]
%MSI%=BACKPACK

[BACKPACK]
%BP_Finder%=BPFinder,root\BACKPACK
%BP_Driver_95%=BPDriver,BACKPACK\PORT
%BP_Driver_2000%=BPDriver,BPDRIVE


[DefaultInstall]
CopyFiles=finder_copy, dev_copy, inf_copy
AddReg=BPClass_reg, BP_class_95, BP_enum_95
UpdateInis=VBPD_ini

[DefaultInstall.NT]
CopyFiles = finder_copy_nt, dev_copy_nt, cpl_copy_nt, 8000t_inf_copy
Addreg = BP_class, BP_enum

[DefaultInstall.NT.Services]
AddService = bpfinder,%SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE%, bpfinder_Service_Inst
AddService = bpflt,, bpflt_Service_Inst
AddService = bppnpdrv,%SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE%, bppnpdrv_Service_Inst

[BP_enum]
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\BACKPACK\ 0000","Capabilities",0x00010001,0
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\BACKPACK\ 0000","Class",0x00000000,"BACKPACK"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\BACKPACK\ 0000","ClassGUID",0x00000000,"{B85B7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\BACKPACK\ 0000","ConfigFlags",0x00010001,4
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\BACKPACK\ 0000","DeviceDesc",0x00000000,%BP_Finder%
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\BACKPACK\ 0000","Driver",0x00000000,"{B85B7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}\bpfinder"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\BACKPACK\ 0000","HardwareID",0x00010008,"root\backpack"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\BACKPACK\ 0000","Mfg",0x00000000,"Micro Solutions, Inc."
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\BACKPACK\ 0000","Service",0x00000000,"bpfinder"

[BP_class]
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{B85B 7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}","",0x00000000,"BACKPACK"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{B85B 7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}","Class",0x00000000,"BACKPACK"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{B85B 7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}","Icon",0x00000000,"0"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{B85B 7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}","SilentInstall",0x00000000,"1"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{B85B 7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}","EnumPropPages32",0x00000000,"bpcpl .cpl,PropPages"
;
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{B85B 7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}\bpfinder","DriverDesc",0x00000000,%B P_Finder%
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{B85B 7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}\bpfinder","DriverVersion",0x00000000 ,"1.0"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{B85B 7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}\bpfinder","DriverDate",0x00000000,"0 2/08/2001"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{B85B 7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}\bpfinder","MatchingDeviceID",0x00000 000,"root\BACKPACK"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{B85B 7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}\bpfinder","ProviderName",0x00000000, %MSI%

[BP_class_95]
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\{B85 B7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}","Class",0x00000000,%ClassName%
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\{B85 B7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}","Link",0x00000000,%ClassName%
;
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\BACK PACK\bpfinder","DriverDesc",0x00000000,%BP_Finder%
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\BACK PACK\bpfinder","DriverDate",0x00000000,"02/08/2001"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\BACK PACK\bpfinder","DevLoader",0x00000000,"bpfinder.vx d"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\BACK PACK\bpfinder","EnumPropPages",0x00000000,"bpfinde r.dll,EnumPropPages"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\BACK PACK\bpfinder","MatchingDeviceId",0x00000000,"root \BACKPACK"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\BACK PACK\bpfinder","ProviderName",0x00000000,%MSI%

[BP_enum_95]
HKLM,"Enum\Root\BACKPACK\0000","Capabilities",0x00 000001,0x14,0,0,0
HKLM,"Enum\Root\BACKPACK\0000","Class",0x00000000, "BACKPACK"
HKLM,"Enum\Root\BACKPACK\0000","ClassGUID",0x00000 000,"{B85B7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}"
HKLM,"Enum\Root\BACKPACK\0000","ConfigFlags",0x000 00001,0,0,0,0
HKLM,"Enum\Root\BACKPACK\0000","DeviceDesc",0x0000 0000,%BP_Finder%
HKLM,"Enum\Root\BACKPACK\0000","Driver",0x00000000 ,"BACKPACK\bpfinder"
HKLM,"Enum\Root\BACKPACK\0000","HardwareID",0x0001 0008,"root\backpack"
HKLM,"Enum\Root\BACKPACK\0000","Mfg",0x00000000,"M icro Solutions, Inc."


; ================= Class section =====================

[ClassInstall32]
Addreg=BackpackClassReg
CopyFiles=cpl_copy_nt

[BackpackClassReg]
HKR,,,,%ClassName%
HKR,,Icon,,0
HKR,,SilentInstall,,1
HKR,,EnumPropPages32,,"bpcpl.cpl,PropPages"

[cpl_copy_nt]
bpcpl.cpl

;
; ================= WIN 95/98 =================
;
[BPFinder]
CopyFiles=finder_copy,dev_copy
AddReg=finder_reg,BPClass_reg
UpdateInis=VBPD_ini
Restart

[BPDriver]
AddReg=dev_reg

[finder_copy]
bpfinder.vxd
bpfinder.dll
bpcpl.cpl
vbpd.vxd

[finder_reg]
HKR,,DevLoader,0,bpfinder.vxd
HKR,,EnumPropPages,0,"bpfinder.dll,EnumPropPages"

[BPClass_reg]
HKLM,"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\BACK PACK",,,%ClassName%
HKLM,"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\BACK PACK",SilentInstall,,1
HKLM,"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\BACK PACK",Icon,,"0"
HKLM,"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\BACK PACK",EnumPropPages,,"bpfinder.dll,EnumClassPages"
HKLM,"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\VBPD", "Start",1,0
HKLM,"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\VBPD", "StaticVxD",0,"VBPD.VXD"

[VBPD_ini]
%10%\system.ini,386Enh,"device=vbacpac.vxd","",0

[dev_copy]
bppnpdrv.mpd

[inf_copy]
bpfinder.inf

[dev_reg]
HKR,,DevLoader,0,*IOS
HKR,,DontLoadIfConflict,0,Y
HKR,,Polling,0,1
HKR,,PortDriver,0,bppnpdrv.mpd
HKR,,PollingSupportNeeded,1,01

;
; ================= WIN 2000 =================
;
; Install FINDER Section
;
[BPFinder.NT]
CopyFiles=finder_copy_nt, dev_copy_nt, 8000t_inf_copy

[finder_copy_nt]
bpfinder.sys
bpflt.sys

[8000t_inf_copy]
bp8000t.inf

;
; Service installation
;
[BPFinder.NT.Services]
AddService = bpfinder,%SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE%, bpfinder_Service_Inst
AddService = bpflt,, bpflt_Service_Inst

;
; bpfinder driver install sections
;
[bpfinder_Service_Inst]
DisplayName = %BP_Finder%
ServiceType = 1 ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER
StartType = 1 ; SERVICE_SYSTEM_START
ErrorControl = 1 ; SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL
ServiceBinary = %12%\bpfinder.sys
LoadOrderGroup = Extended Base

;
; Install BPPNPDRV Section
;
[BPDriver.NT]

[dev_copy_nt]
bppnpdrv.sys

;-------------- bppnpdrv Service installation
[BPDriver.NT.Services]
AddService = bppnpdrv,%SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE%, bppnpdrv_Service_Inst

; -------------- bppnpdrv driver install sections
[bppnpdrv_Service_Inst]
DisplayName = %BP_Driver_2000%
ServiceType = 1 ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER
StartType = 3 ; SERVICE_DEMAND_START
ErrorControl = 0 ; SERVICE_ERROR_IGNORE
ServiceBinary = %12%\bppnpdrv.sys
LoadOrderGroup = SCSI Miniport

Addreg = bppnpdrv_addreg

[bppnpdrv_addreg]
HKR, "Parameters\PnpInterface", "1", 0x00010001, 0x00000001

;-------------- bpflt Service installation
[bpflt_Service_Inst]
DisplayName = %bpflt_2000%
ServiceType = 1 ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER
StartType = 3 ; SERVICE_DEMAND_START
ErrorControl = 0 ; SERVICE_ERROR_IGNORE
ServiceBinary = %12%\bpflt.sys
LoadOrderGroup = PNP Filter

AddReg = BPFLT_AddReg

[BPFLT_AddReg]
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36 e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}","LowerFilters",0x00010008,"bpflt"

;----------------------------------------------------------------------

[SourceDisksNames]
1=%DiskId1%,,,

[SourceDisksFiles]
bpfinder.vxd = 1
bpfinder.dll = 1
vbpd.vxd = 1
bppnpdrv.mpd = 1
bpfinder.inf = 1
bpfinder.sys = 1
bppnpdrv.sys = 1
bpflt.sys = 1
bpcpl.cpl = 1

[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir = 11
dev_copy = 12
inf_copy = 17
8000t_inf_copy = 17
finder_copy_nt = 12
dev_copy_nt = 12
cpl_copy_nt = 11

;----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Strings]
MSI = "Micro Solutions, Inc."
ClassName = "BACKPACK"
BP_Finder = "BACKPACK Finder"
BP_Driver_95 = "BACKPACK Driver"
BP_Driver_2000 = "BACKPACK Driver"
bpflt_2000 = "BACKPACK Filter"
DiskId1 = "BACKPACK Installation Disk"
SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE= 0x00000002

I also located this "bpdetusb.inf" script which I suspect has to do with USB DETection- but don't quote me on that and I really don't remember this bpdetusb.inf file at all.

---------------bpdetusb.inf
[Version]
Signature = $CHICAGO$
Class = BACKPACK
ClassGuid = {B85B7C50-6A01-11d2-B841-00C04FAD5171}
Provider = %MSI%

[Manufacturer]
%MSI% = MSI_DETECT_USB

[MSI_DETECT_USB]
%usbcable1% = usbcable_inst, USB\VID_0AC9&PID_0000
%usbcable2% = usbcable_inst, USB\VID_0AC9&PID_0001
%bpusb% = usbcable_inst, USB\VID_0AC9&PID_0010

[ClassInstall32]
Addreg = BackpackClassReg

[BackpackClassReg]
HKR,,,,"BACKPACK"
HKR,,Icon,,0
HKR,,SilentInstall,,1

;
; WIN 95/98
;
[usbcable_inst]
include = bpusbdrv.inf
needs = usbcable_install
CopyFiles = usbcable.copy, usb_inf_copy

;-----
; WIN 2000
;
[usbcable_inst.NT]
include = bpusbdrv.inf
needs = usbcable_install.NT
CopyFiles = usbcable.copy

[usbcable_inst.NT.Services]
include = bpusbdrv.inf
needs = usbcable_install.NT.Services

[Strings]
MSI = "Micro Solutions, Inc."
usbcable1 = "BACKPACK USB 1 Cable"
usbcable2 = "BACKPACK USB 2 Cable"
bpusb = "BACKPACK USB"

[northd_tech]

Although it did not look exceedingly helpful, I did find this archived Ubuntuforums thread from about Nov. 2005 that might possibly have some relevant information:

Re: MicroSolutions BackPack CD-R/W in Breezy
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=77900

I have recently installed Breezy on a previously RH8 PC that was working fine with my MicroSolutions Parallel Port BackPack CD-R/W (Series 6). After repeated attempts at trying to make it work on FC3, I gave up and decided to try Breezy. This is my first experience of Ubuntu and I am impressed. For those of you who want to connect this archaic external CD-R/W drive here is how to do it. My script, which I stumbled upon after many RH8 tweaking days & nights are shown below. It also works on Breezy! All comment lines are included as possible fixes for your particular situation. Make sure your BackPack is connected to the parallel port before booting and your BIOS setting for the parallel port is: PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP

You can check the Parallel port setting by:
cat /proc/sys/dev/parport/parport0/modes

# Start here...

# modprobe parport # Already maybe loaded
# modprobe parport_pc # Already maybe loaded

modprobe paride

#
# The following 2 steps are not necessary on Breezy...
# mkdir /lib/modules/$(LINUX_VERSION)/misc
# cp /lib/modules/$(LINUX_VERSION)/kernel/drivers/block/paride/bpck6.o /lib/modules/2.4.20-20.8/misc/backpack.o

echo "Inserting the necessary modules..."
modprobe bpck6
modprobe pg # For CD-R/W
modprobe cdrom
modprobe pcd # For CD-R

dmesg | grep paride
# Look for: "paride: bpck6 registered as protocol 0"

# modprobe pcd drive0=0x378,1 drive1=0x3bc,1 # Example syntax
# To support such a wide range of devices PARIDE, the parallel port IDE subsystem, is actually structured in three parts.
# There is a base paride module which provides a registry and some common methods for accessing the parallel ports.
# The second component is a set of high-level drivers for each of the different type of supported device:
# pd IDE disk
# pcd ATAPI CD-ROM
# pf ATAPI disk
# pt ATAPI tape
# pg ATAPI generic devices

# The pg driver exists mainly to support parallel port ATAPI CD-R and CD-RW devices.

#
# Run the commands below from a script
# ================================================== ==================
echo "Running the commands of Check4CDDrives..."
test `whoami` = 'root' || echo "You must be root to execute the commands."
cdrecord -scanbus > /dev/null
if ! (pidof kerneld || test -f "/proc/sys/kernel/modprobe"); then
echo "Neither kerneld nor kmod are running to automatically load modules".
fi
report_no_autoload() {
echo "Ensure the module $1 is loaded automatically next time."
}
if test ! -f "/proc/scsi/scsi"; then
report_no_autoload scsi_mod && modprobe scsi_mod
fi
if ! grep "^........ sg_" /proc/ksyms > /dev/null; then
report_no_autoload sg && modprobe sg
fi
if ! grep "^........ sr_" /proc/ksyms > /dev/null; then
report_no_autoload sr_mod && modprobe sr_mod
fi
if ! grep "^........ loop_" /proc/ksyms > /dev/null; then
report_no_autoload loop && insmod loop
fi
if ! grep iso9660 /proc/filesystems > /dev/null; then
report_no_autoload iso9660 && modprobe iso9660
fi
echo "The following is only needed for IDE/ATAPI CD-writers."
if ! grep ide-scsi /proc/ide/drivers > /dev/null; then
report_no_autoload ide-scsi && modprobe ide-scsi
fi
# ================================================== ==============

# Now check if it is recognized:
cdrecord -scanbus

# Mount to an appropriate location after placing a CD in the drive
mkdir /mnt/backpack
mount -t iso9660 /dev/pcd0 /mnt/backpack
ls -al /mnt/backpack # Works !

Edit: also see this archived thread from Feb 2005 for Backpack DVD-RW

can't get Microsolutions Backpack dvd+rw to work in Warty
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=15663

[northd_tech]

Going back to RTFM:

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/.../fxload.8.html

...
DESCRIPTION

fxload is a program which downloads firmware to USB devices based on AnchorChips EZ-USB, Cypress EZ-USB FX, or Cypress EZ-USB FX2 microcontrollers. These have 8-bit 8051 cores with special extensions for USB I/O. The FX2 supports high speed USB 2.0 transfers (480 Mbit/sec) as well as full speed USB 1.1 transfers (12 Mbit/sec), while the earlier parts supports only full speed transfers. These controllers have several package options, and can be set up with external memory (on-chip memory is usually about 8K), EEPROMs, and ROMs when device costs allow. This uses "usbfs" (older name: "usbdevfs") to access devices, and issues vendor specific control requests to download and reset the EZ- USB devices. Normally, firmware will then "renumerate" by disconnecting from USB and then reconnecting as a new device. It then appears with new device descriptors and functionality, as provided by the firmware which has been downloaded. To support some non-firmware applications, this can also set up symbolic links for those usbfs names. It can also change their access modes. Both of these can help simplify software applications that need to talk to USB devices using user mode drivers, don’t want to run with privileges or to examine all of the existing USB devices, and which don’t need more kernel drivers. See the Linux-Hotplug web site for information about how to use fxload to download device firmware when hotplugging USB devices, using driver- specific scripts stored in the /etc/hotplug/usb directory.
...
NOTES

This program implements one extension to the standard "hex file" format. Lines beginning with a "#" character are ignored, and may be used to hold copyright statements and other information. Other tools may not handle hexfiles using this extension.

At this writing, "usbfs" is a kernel configuration option. That means that device drivers relying on user mode firmware downloading may need to depend on that kernel configuration option. A less preferable alternative involves compiling the firmware into the kernel and managing downloads and renumeration there. This is less preferable in part because much device firmware is provided with GPL-incompatible licensing, and in part because storing such firmware firmware wastes kernel memory.

For EZ-USB family devices, the hardware’s first stage loader (supporting the 0xA0 vendor request) can’t write into external memory. Configurations that put firmware into external memory thus need a second stage loader. For typical "flat" memory architectures, a loader supporting the 0xA3 vendor request is used to write into that memory. Similarly, a second stage loader that supports the 0xA2 vendor request is needed when writing boot firmware into an I2C EEPROM. These 0xA2 and 0xA3 vendor commands are conventions defined by Cypress. Devices that use bank switching or similar mechanisms to stretch the 64KByte address space may need different approach to loading firmware.

Not all devices support EEPROM updates. Some EZ-USB based devices don’t have an I2C EEPROM; many such EEPROMs are too small to store firmware; and some firmware can’t be placed in bootable I2C EEPROMs.

“fxload” package in Ubuntu

1. Ubuntu
2. “fxload” package

fxload: Firmware download to EZ-USB devices
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fxload


Source Package: fxload (0.0.20081013-1ubuntu1) [universe]
http://packages.ubuntu.com/source/lucid/fxload

[northd_tech]

At this writing, "usbfs" is a kernel configuration option. That means that device drivers relying on user mode firmware downloading may need to depend on that kernel configuration option. A less preferable alternative involves compiling the firmware into the kernel and managing downloads and renumeration there. This is less preferable in part because much device firmware is provided with GPL-incompatible licensing, and in part be
cause storing such firmware firmware wastes kernel memory.

This is beginning to look like a fair portion of my external USB/firmware trouble- the usbfs that has been removed from recent Ubuntu kernels (apparently since 9.10 and approx kernel 2.6.31-17):

Enabling USBFS in ubuntu 10.04
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1532263

usbfs is no longer supported by the kernel (not since ~2.6.31-17 IIRC) so quite a few older printers cause problems. There is a workaround, not terribly satisfactory, but usually does the job. The following commands:
Code:
sudo mount --bind /dev/bus /proc/bus
sudo ln -s /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices /proc/bus/usb/devices
before printing should do the necessary. After printing it's probably advisable to reverse the above with:
Code:
sudo umount /proc/bus
as you may well break something else.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...39&postcount=2

Possible shell script workaround at:

Usbfs Support, logic and understanding
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ubu...standing.html#

Edit: see also:

Fix “An error occurred while mounting /proc/bus/usb” Bootup Error after Upgrade to Lucid
May 7, 2010 by Ubuntu Genius
http://ubuntugenius.wordpress.com/20...rade-to-lucid/

[northd_tech]

usbfs is no longer supported by the kernel (not since ~2.6.31-17 IIRC) so quite a few older printers cause problems. There is a workaround, not terribly satisfactory, but usually does the job. The following commands:

sudo mount --bind /dev/bus /proc/bus
 sudo ln -s /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices /proc/bus/usb/devices

before printing should do the necessary. After printing it's probably advisable to reverse the above with:

sudo umount   /proc/bus

as you may well break something else.

The first code snippet above or some other thing broke my Linux boot (I'm unable to boot into Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS without using a USB or CD/DVD rescue disk or my UE Ubuntu 2.7 Live DVD).

I'm getting STACKS of error messages that begin "udevd-work" but they scroll past awfully fast, with many of them mentioning /sbin/modprobe and /sbin/init. I have looked around quite a bit in /var/log/, but my grepping didn't find much in the way of "udevd-work" error messages.

I'm posting this from Vista (since I needed to rebuild my USB rescue stick with Parted Magic 6.7- the wireless connection quit there after I tried to save the persistent changes so I need to go back to the original Parted Magic .ISO file that DID have working wireless). I cannot control or change too many things from the Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS Live DVD either- I've had better luck using Parted Magic's linux and changing to /mnt/sda5/var/log/ to review the logfiles.

I do/did have bootchart installed on the 'broken' Ubuntu partition /dev/sda5/, and inspecting the .PNG graphic files, the boot process looks to be freezing during the udev process (but I cannnot access those files right now from the Vista OS to post them here). There are also some archive files under /var/log/bootchart/ on /dev/sda5/ but those mainly look to be process statistics, not diagnostic/errors per se.

Image #1: (Oct. 26 PRE-'crash'):
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...d20111026.png/


Image #2 (Oct. 28- POST-'crash' with many "udevd-work" and "/sbin/modprobe" error messages:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...d20111028.png/


I am trying to avoid re-installing Ubuntu over my previous partition if at all possible (and I would like to know how to fix this problem instead of 'paving over' it, but I haven't see this "udevd-work" boot hang problem before).

With all my booting off rescue discs, attempts using boot-repair and boot_info_script.sh, etc. I did discover that I still had an old menu.lst file lurking from Ubuntu 9.04 and about 2 years ago- I moved/renamed that and boot_info_script.sh no longer sees that file that might have interfered with Grub2 somehow.

The boot_info_script.sh recently told me this (before I moved that Grub[1] menu.lst, but I forgot to copy the newer RESULTS.txt while I was in Parted Magic, and my wireless networking wasn't working there anyway):

Boot Info Script 0.60 from 17 May 2011


============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

=> Grub2 (v1.97-1.98) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector
1 of the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and
looks in partition 5 for /boot/grub.
=> Syslinux MBR (3.61-4.03) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc.

sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows Vista
Boot files: /bootmgr /boot/bcd

sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /bootmgr /BOOT/BCD

sda3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: Unknown
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS
Boot files: /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab
/boot/grub/core.img

sda6: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda4: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sdb1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: SYSLINUX 4.03 2010-10-22
Boot sector info: Syslinux looks at sector 39816 of /dev/sdb1 for its
second stage. SYSLINUX is installed in the /multiboot
directory. No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /bootmgr /boot/bcd

sdc1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sdc2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sdc3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sdc4: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sdc5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sdc5 starts
at sector 63.
Operating System:
Boot files: /BOOTMGR /BOOT/BCD

sdc6: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: FAT16
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sdc6 starts
at sector 63. But according to the info from fdisk,
sdc6 starts at sector 1483554618. "63" and "2048" are
quite common values for the starting sector of a
logical partition and they only need to be fixed when
you want to boot Windows from a logical partition.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sdc7: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sdc8: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sdc9: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:

============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 314,568,764 314,568,702 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda2 464,230,305 488,396,799 24,166,495 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3 377,334,844 464,230,304 86,895,461 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 377,334,846 455,844,374 78,509,529 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 455,844,438 464,230,304 8,385,867 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 314,568,765 377,334,719 62,765,955 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS


Drive: sdb __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 8029 MB, 8029470208 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 976 cylinders, total 15682559 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 44 15,679,439 15,679,396 b W95 FAT32


Drive: sdc __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sdc: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sdc1 63 488,343,869 488,343,807 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sdc2 488,343,870 976,687,739 488,343,870 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sdc3 976,687,740 1,465,031,609 488,343,870 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sdc4 1,465,031,610 1,953,523,711 488,492,102 f W95 Extended (LBA)
/dev/sdc5 1,465,031,673 1,483,554,554 18,522,882 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sdc6 1,483,554,618 1,487,747,519 4,192,902 6 FAT16
/dev/sdc7 1,487,751,168 1,532,389,375 44,638,208 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sdc8 1,532,392,218 1,591,784,459 59,392,242 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sdc9 1,591,784,523 1,953,523,711 361,739,189 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/loop1 squashfs
/dev/sda1 608A329A8A326CA2 ntfs Vista64_JonHP
/dev/sda2 F89A35E89A35A452 ntfs HP_RECOVERY
/dev/sda4 6A8D626A5A721890 ntfs CommonSpace1
/dev/sda5 d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ext4 JonUU2_79modA
/dev/sda6 732636ca-5163-4be5-b549-7cd02d7c5dcd swap
/dev/sdb1 6C3A-E22D vfat MULTIBOOT
/dev/sdc1 74EB3E075E7D553F ntfs Bakup_NTFS1
/dev/sdc2 060CDB330CDB1C8D ntfs 4_Media
/dev/sdc3 21BE4CB92A7E6250 ntfs 9G_storage
/dev/sdc5 01CBEFDB5C58F080 ntfs SergioL505_RecoveryD
/dev/sdc6 419B-E8F4 vfat 2BG_FATOLD
/dev/sdc7 232077426B338BBB ntfs Recover2
/dev/sdc8 783578773695B046 ntfs DualRecovery
/dev/sdc9 5EE9FE0131783E93 ntfs Spare172G

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/sda4 /media/sda4 fuseblk (rw,allow_other,blksize=4096)


=========================== sda5/boot/grub/menu.lst: ===========================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
splashimage (hd0,5)/boot/grub/splashimages/menu-sta.xpm.gz
default 0
timeout 10

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## specify if running in Xen domU or have grub detect automatically
## update-grub will ignore non-xen kernels when running in domU and vice versa
## e.g. indomU=detect
## indomU=true
## indomU=false
# indomU=detect

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

# pass the 'ipv6.disable=1' kernel parameter (in your menu.lst)
# configure your net manually, deleting all 'ipv6' strings (in /etc/network/interfaces or in /etc/resolv.conf)


# pass the 'ipv6.disable=1' kernel parameter (in your menu.lst)
# configure your net manually, deleting all 'ipv6' strings (in /etc/network/interfaces or in /etc/resolv.conf)


# pass the 'ipv6.disable=1' kernel parameter (in your menu.lst)
# configure your net manually, deleting all 'ipv6' strings (in /etc/network/interfaces or in /etc/resolv.conf)

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-18-generic
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-18-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro ipv6.disable=1
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-18-generic
savedefault

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-18-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-18-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-18-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-17-generic
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-17-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro ipv6.disable=1
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-17-generic
savedefault

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-17-generic (recovery mode)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-17-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-17-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

title Ubuntu 9.04, UU2.3, kernel 2.6.28-19-generic
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-19-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-19-generic
savedefault

title Other operating systems:
root

title Windows Vista (loader)
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title VistaRecovery (loader)
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1
savedefault

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=========================== sda5/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
set default="${saved_entry}"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
saved_entry=${chosen}
save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=800x600x24
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux_proxy ###
menuentry "UE2.7 hacked 2.9 Linux 2.6.32-34-generic on /dev/sda5" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
savedefault
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-34-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-34-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-34-generic (recovery mode)" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
savedefault
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-34-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-34-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-34-generic
}
menuentry "Ultimate Edition 2.7, with Linux 2.6.32-33-generic on /dev/sda5" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
savedefault
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-33-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-33-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-33-generic (recovery mode)" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
savedefault
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-33-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-33-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-33-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic on /dev/sda5" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
savedefault
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic (recovery mode)" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
savedefault
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-21-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux_proxy ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober_proxy ###
menuentry "iffy from USB Multiboot x64Repair_Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sdb1)" {
savedefault
insmod fat
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 6c3a-e22d
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Vista 64bit Home Premium(loader) (on /dev/sda1)" {
savedefault
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 608A329A8A326CA2
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "*** CAUTION- HP Vista64 RECOVERY- can OVERWRITE Windows!!! *** (on /dev/sda2)" {
savedefault
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set F89A35E89A35A452
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober_proxy ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=============================== sda5/etc/fstab: ================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/sda2 /media/HP_RECOVERY ntfs-3g user,noauto 0 0
/dev/sda4 /media/CommonSpace1 ntfs-3g user 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/Vista64_JonHP ntfs-3g user 0 0
/dev/sda5 / ext4 user 0 1
/dev/sda6 swap swap sw 0 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=================== sda5: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

180.309809685 = 193.606183936 boot/grub/core.img 1
214.172751427 = 229.966240768 boot/grub/grub.cfg 2
183.356520653 = 196.877564928 boot/grub/menu.lst 1
179.971213341 = 193.242618880 boot/grub/stage2 1
206.309172630 = 221.522787328 boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic 7
215.043555260 = 230.901259264 boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-33-generic 2
188.652773857 = 202.564373504 boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-34-generic 1
184.606577873 = 198.219803648 boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic 1
211.327254295 = 226.910911488 boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-33-generic 1
184.651755333 = 198.268312576 boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-34-generic 1
188.652773857 = 202.564373504 initrd.img 1
206.309172630 = 221.522787328 initrd.img.old 7
184.651755333 = 198.268312576 vmlinuz 1
184.606577873 = 198.219803648 vmlinuz.old 1

======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc: ========================

Unknown BootLoader on sda3

00000000 1b 33 96 d6 5d 49 df 34 d5 27 4e ce 99 d3 1b 0c |.3..]I.4.'N.....|
00000010 4c 9d 06 d5 74 34 76 58 71 b5 7f 55 33 50 dc 5f |L...t4vXq..U3P._|
00000020 c0 c5 96 bf 04 2b d8 ba 0a 1c 16 d8 3e eb 01 b6 |.....+......>...|
00000030 96 fd 01 7b 04 e4 26 85 62 d0 bb 2c 68 13 ff f3 |...{..&.b..,h...|
00000040 98 e3 30 2b 63 dd 39 19 b8 bd d9 a8 56 5b bd 93 |..0+c.9.....V[..|
00000050 fd 78 8d a9 aa 0d 33 b6 ff 32 8a d8 99 0b 27 27 |.x....3..2....''|
00000060 72 5d c7 f3 7e 90 b3 18 c3 f4 aa 23 c5 eb 30 0e |r]..~......#..0.|
00000070 16 ba f5 f0 cf e0 73 a9 9a 89 7e 9f 38 e1 1b 3c |......s...~.8..<|
00000080 50 5f ad 3b 3d 89 8a 07 2e 45 74 19 9b 3e 41 cd |P_.;=....Et..>A.|
00000090 6b 7e d9 c6 18 4e a9 1f 6d d0 b6 d1 d2 b9 22 0b |k~...N..m.....".|
000000a0 77 31 5d 87 ab 85 e8 94 d7 e1 3b e5 b4 3c 2d 5d |w1].......;..<-]|
000000b0 37 3b e5 50 05 72 32 62 5f f3 61 2c a0 2c c4 03 |7;.P.r2b_.a,.,..|
000000c0 f0 27 a5 e7 8a 51 9b d9 a0 2c 86 77 6b f3 d3 30 |.'...Q...,.wk..0|
000000d0 ba a4 15 5d 9c 25 e8 29 1f 3e b0 53 1c 35 9c 6b |...].%.).>.S.5.k|
000000e0 a1 a2 b5 c9 94 64 7b 7e c0 cd 7b 1f 3f 42 2f d9 |.....d{~..{.?B/.|
000000f0 1d 23 fb 83 bc 6f d2 5f af fa ad 31 11 f8 75 2a |.#...o._...1..u*|
00000100 49 6a 58 dd 32 b3 db 7a 45 69 0d e9 f6 4d 12 ec |IjX.2..zEi...M..|
00000110 78 1d 56 6c c5 58 1a b0 92 9e 74 f7 9d 17 90 1f |x.Vl.X....t.....|
00000120 ce 42 15 62 54 c5 11 44 c4 75 7c 6a 29 42 7a da |.B.bT..D.u|j)Bz.|
00000130 e5 77 36 85 d3 07 bd 34 43 85 d1 3e f2 68 18 59 |.w6....4C..>.h.Y|
00000140 02 7a 22 ef c1 53 c5 69 d5 b8 c5 1b 11 07 d1 88 |.z"..S.i........|
00000150 a8 a1 f8 ae 6e ac 36 2b 31 69 98 32 dd cf 15 a2 |....n.6+1i.2....|
00000160 4c 66 ef ad 44 08 60 99 34 ed 46 db fd 43 8f a2 |Lf..D.`.4.F..C..|
00000170 3c 2a 01 1c d3 ac 44 63 c4 ad f3 e8 37 d1 bd c2 |<*....Dc....7...|
00000180 b3 5c 30 08 85 fc b7 ca 3d b5 29 80 ee 8b 07 6e |.\0.....=.)....n|
00000190 b7 21 b4 04 85 9d df d7 d9 83 51 09 7d a5 4d ec |.!........Q.}.M.|
000001a0 da f5 6c 5b a2 24 0c bc 0e 62 db f8 9b 3a bc fe |..l[.$...b...:..|
000001b0 76 da c1 6c 44 27 c9 e4 aa a7 2b 75 be 43 00 fe |v..lD'....+u.C..|
000001c0 ff ff 83 fe ff ff 02 00 00 00 d9 f5 ad 04 00 fe |................|
000001d0 ff ff 05 fe ff ff db f5 ad 04 8a f5 7f 00 00 00 |................|
000001e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200


=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

No volume groups found
mdadm: No arrays found in config file or automatically

Edit: related (pre-'crash') post #31 at:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1468486&page=4

[northd_tech]

The boot_info_script.sh recently told me this (before I moved that Grub[1] menu.lst, but I forgot to copy the newer RESULTS.txt while I was in Parted Magic, and my wireless networking wasn't working there anyway):

To simplify things a little, I ran another boot info shell inquiry WITHOUT my external USB hard disk plugged in this time (since it has 6 partitions). This time, I booted off my 8GB USB rescue stick, which has PartedMagic 6.7 on it. This is the more recent output (AFTER I had deleted the menu.lst file that I recently discovered was still hanging on from my old Ubuntu 9.04 & Grub[1] days:

============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

=> Grub2 (v1.97-1.98) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector
1 of the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and
looks in partition 5 for /boot/grub.
=> Syslinux MBR (3.61-4.03) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.

sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows Vista
Boot files: /bootmgr /boot/bcd

sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /bootmgr /BOOT/BCD

sda3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: Unknown
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS
Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda6: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda4: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sdb1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: SYSLINUX 4.03 2010-10-22
Boot sector info: Syslinux looks at sector 39816 of /dev/sdb1 for its
second stage. SYSLINUX is installed in the /multiboot
directory. No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /bootmgr /boot/bcd

============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 314,568,764 314,568,702 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda2 464,230,305 488,396,799 24,166,495 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3 377,334,844 464,230,304 86,895,461 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 377,334,846 455,844,374 78,509,529 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 455,844,438 464,230,304 8,385,867 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 314,568,765 377,334,719 62,765,955 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS


Drive: sdb __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 8029 MB, 8029470208 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 976 cylinders, total 15682559 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 44 15,679,439 15,679,396 b W95 FAT32


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/loop1 squashfs
/dev/sda1 608A329A8A326CA2 ntfs Vista64_JonHP
/dev/sda2 F89A35E89A35A452 ntfs HP_RECOVERY
/dev/sda4 6A8D626A5A721890 ntfs CommonSpace1
/dev/sda5 d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ext4 JonUU2_79modA
/dev/sda6 732636ca-5163-4be5-b549-7cd02d7c5dcd swap
/dev/sdb1 6C3A-E22D vfat MULTIBOOT

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/sda1 /media/sda1 fuseblk (rw,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sda4 /media/sda4 fuseblk (rw,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sda5 /media/sda5 ext4 (rw)


=========================== sda5/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
set default="${saved_entry}"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
saved_entry=${chosen}
save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=800x600x24
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux_proxy ###
menuentry "UE2.7 hacked 2.9 Linux 2.6.32-34-generic on /dev/sda5" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
savedefault
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-34-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-34-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-34-generic (recovery mode)" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
savedefault
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-34-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-34-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-34-generic
}
menuentry "Ultimate Edition 2.7, with Linux 2.6.32-33-generic on /dev/sda5" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
savedefault
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-33-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-33-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-33-generic (recovery mode)" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
savedefault
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-33-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-33-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-33-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic on /dev/sda5" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
savedefault
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic (recovery mode)" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
savedefault
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-21-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux_proxy ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d4d51f55-d761-4dac-b95c-eeca10eb553a
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober_proxy ###
menuentry "iffy from USB Multiboot x64Repair_Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sdb1)" {
savedefault
insmod fat
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 6c3a-e22d
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Vista 64bit Home Premium(loader) (on /dev/sda1)" {
savedefault
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 608A329A8A326CA2
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "*** CAUTION- HP Vista64 RECOVERY- can OVERWRITE Windows!!! *** (on /dev/sda2)" {
savedefault
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set F89A35E89A35A452
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober_proxy ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=============================== sda5/etc/fstab: ================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/sda2 /media/HP_RECOVERY ntfs-3g user,noauto 0 0
/dev/sda4 /media/CommonSpace1 ntfs-3g user 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/Vista64_JonHP ntfs-3g user 0 0
/dev/sda5 / ext4 user 0 1
/dev/sda6 swap swap sw 0 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=================== sda5: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

180.309809685 = 193.606183936 boot/grub/core.img 1
214.172751427 = 229.966240768 boot/grub/grub.cfg 2
179.971213341 = 193.242618880 boot/grub/stage2 1
206.309172630 = 221.522787328 boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic 7
215.043555260 = 230.901259264 boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-33-generic 2
188.652773857 = 202.564373504 boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-34-generic 1
184.606577873 = 198.219803648 boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic 1
211.327254295 = 226.910911488 boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-33-generic 1
184.651755333 = 198.268312576 boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-34-generic 1
188.652773857 = 202.564373504 initrd.img 1
206.309172630 = 221.522787328 initrd.img.old 7
184.651755333 = 198.268312576 vmlinuz 1
184.606577873 = 198.219803648 vmlinuz.old 1

=================== sdb1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

?? = ?? boot/initrd 1
?? = ?? boot/vmlinuz 1

======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc: ========================

Unknown BootLoader on sda3

00000000 1b 33 96 d6 5d 49 df 34 d5 27 4e ce 99 d3 1b 0c |.3..]I.4.'N.....|
00000010 4c 9d 06 d5 74 34 76 58 71 b5 7f 55 33 50 dc 5f |L...t4vXq..U3P._|
00000020 c0 c5 96 bf 04 2b d8 ba 0a 1c 16 d8 3e eb 01 b6 |.....+......>...|
00000030 96 fd 01 7b 04 e4 26 85 62 d0 bb 2c 68 13 ff f3 |...{..&.b..,h...|
00000040 98 e3 30 2b 63 dd 39 19 b8 bd d9 a8 56 5b bd 93 |..0+c.9.....V[..|
00000050 fd 78 8d a9 aa 0d 33 b6 ff 32 8a d8 99 0b 27 27 |.x....3..2....''|
00000060 72 5d c7 f3 7e 90 b3 18 c3 f4 aa 23 c5 eb 30 0e |r]..~......#..0.|
00000070 16 ba f5 f0 cf e0 73 a9 9a 89 7e 9f 38 e1 1b 3c |......s...~.8..<|
00000080 50 5f ad 3b 3d 89 8a 07 2e 45 74 19 9b 3e 41 cd |P_.;=....Et..>A.|
00000090 6b 7e d9 c6 18 4e a9 1f 6d d0 b6 d1 d2 b9 22 0b |k~...N..m.....".|
000000a0 77 31 5d 87 ab 85 e8 94 d7 e1 3b e5 b4 3c 2d 5d |w1].......;..<-]|
000000b0 37 3b e5 50 05 72 32 62 5f f3 61 2c a0 2c c4 03 |7;.P.r2b_.a,.,..|
000000c0 f0 27 a5 e7 8a 51 9b d9 a0 2c 86 77 6b f3 d3 30 |.'...Q...,.wk..0|
000000d0 ba a4 15 5d 9c 25 e8 29 1f 3e b0 53 1c 35 9c 6b |...].%.).>.S.5.k|
000000e0 a1 a2 b5 c9 94 64 7b 7e c0 cd 7b 1f 3f 42 2f d9 |.....d{~..{.?B/.|
000000f0 1d 23 fb 83 bc 6f d2 5f af fa ad 31 11 f8 75 2a |.#...o._...1..u*|
00000100 49 6a 58 dd 32 b3 db 7a 45 69 0d e9 f6 4d 12 ec |IjX.2..zEi...M..|
00000110 78 1d 56 6c c5 58 1a b0 92 9e 74 f7 9d 17 90 1f |x.Vl.X....t.....|
00000120 ce 42 15 62 54 c5 11 44 c4 75 7c 6a 29 42 7a da |.B.bT..D.u|j)Bz.|
00000130 e5 77 36 85 d3 07 bd 34 43 85 d1 3e f2 68 18 59 |.w6....4C..>.h.Y|
00000140 02 7a 22 ef c1 53 c5 69 d5 b8 c5 1b 11 07 d1 88 |.z"..S.i........|
00000150 a8 a1 f8 ae 6e ac 36 2b 31 69 98 32 dd cf 15 a2 |....n.6+1i.2....|
00000160 4c 66 ef ad 44 08 60 99 34 ed 46 db fd 43 8f a2 |Lf..D.`.4.F..C..|
00000170 3c 2a 01 1c d3 ac 44 63 c4 ad f3 e8 37 d1 bd c2 |<*....Dc....7...|
00000180 b3 5c 30 08 85 fc b7 ca 3d b5 29 80 ee 8b 07 6e |.\0.....=.)....n|
00000190 b7 21 b4 04 85 9d df d7 d9 83 51 09 7d a5 4d ec |.!........Q.}.M.|
000001a0 da f5 6c 5b a2 24 0c bc 0e 62 db f8 9b 3a bc fe |..l[.$...b...:..|
000001b0 76 da c1 6c 44 27 c9 e4 aa a7 2b 75 be 43 00 fe |v..lD'....+u.C..|
000001c0 ff ff 83 fe ff ff 02 00 00 00 d9 f5 ad 04 00 fe |................|
000001d0 ff ff 05 fe ff ff db f5 ad 04 8a f5 7f 00 00 00 |................|
000001e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200


=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

No volume groups found
mdadm: No arrays found in config file or automatically

Still no luck booting Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS off the hard disk, but I think I will attempt plugging in the external Backpack USB drive to see if it will bypass the "udevd-work" part where it seems to be 'hanging' repeatedly. I might also wait for an EXCEEDINGLY long time to see if it will somehow bypass the udev section(s).

[northd_tech]

Also, this may or may not be helpful information:

cat /media/sda5/lib/init/fstab
# /lib/init/fstab: static file system information.
#
# These are the filesystems that are always mounted on boot, you can
# override any of these by copying the appropriate line from this file into
# /etc/fstab and tweaking it as you see fit. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/root / rootfs defaults 0 1
none /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc nodev,noexec,nosuid,optional 0 0
none /sys sysfs nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
none /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl optional 0 0
none /sys/kernel/debug debugfs optional 0 0
none /sys/kernel/security securityfs optional 0 0
none /spu spufs gid=spu,optional 0 0
none /dev devtmpfs,tmpfs mode=0755 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts noexec,nosuid,gid=tty,mode=0620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs nosuid,nodev 0 0
none /tmp none defaults 0 0
none /var/run tmpfs mode=0755,nosuid,showthrough 0 0
none /var/lock tmpfs nodev,noexec,nosuid,showthrough 0 0
none /lib/init/rw tmpfs mode=0755,nosuid,optional 0 0

Edit: It looked like only one file had been modified in the last 2 weeks in this directory:

/media/sda5/lib/udev/rules.d/

This is the file that was last modified on Oct. 20 (nearly one week BEFORE the Ubuntu udev booting problem started):

/media/sda5/lib/udev/rules.d/64-xorg-xkb.rules
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 537 Oct 20 09:04 64-xorg-xkb.rules

root@PartedMagic:/media/sda5/lib/udev/rules.d# cat 64-xorg-xkb.rules
ACTION!="add|change", GOTO="xorg_xkb_end"
SUBSYSTEM!="input", GOTO="xorg_xkb_end"
KERNEL!="event*", GOTO="xorg_xkb_end"

# import keyboard layout from /etc/default/keyboard
ENV{ID_INPUT_KEY}=="?*", IMPORT{program}="/bin/grep ^XKB /etc/default/console-setup"

# ignore "SKIP" keyboard model, which is a magic value from console-setup's debconf
ENV{XKBMODEL}=="SKIP", ENV{XKBMODEL}=""
# Similarly, ignore this broken default variant, which breaks keyboard entirely
ENV{XKBVARIANT}=="U.S. English", ENV{XKBVARIANT}=""

LABEL="xorg_xkb_end"

[northd_tech]

In one of my many reboots with various rescue and Live Linux versions, I was finally able to read where exactly it looks like my boot troubles are beginning.

Right after and below "fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2" I see:

mountall: mount / [505] : Permission denied

I still haven't found where this is being called from. In /mnt/sda5/etc/init/ , the newest file modification was 28 Apr 2011 (months before my trouble began). In directory /mnt/sda5/etc/init.d/ I did locate 2 files that could be related to my boot troubles based upon the file timestamp:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 13333 2011-10-27 02:34 vmware
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2908 2011-10-27 02:35 vmware-USBArbitrator

vmware-USBArbitrator:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# Copyright 1998-2010 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.
#
# This script manages the VMware USB Arbitrator service
#

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: vmware-USBArbitrator
# Required-Start: localfs
# Required-Stop: localfs
# X-Start-Before:
# X-Stop-After:
# Default-Start: 2 3 5
# Default-Stop: 0 6
# Short-Description: This services starts and stops the USB Arbitrator.
### END INIT INFO


# Load bootstrapper info
. /etc/vmware/bootstrap

# This defines echo_success() and echo_failure() on RedHat
if [ -r "$INITSCRIPTDIR"'/functions' ]; then
. "$INITSCRIPTDIR"'/functions'
fi

vmware_failed() {
if [ "`type -t 'echo_failure' 2>/dev/null`" = 'function' ]; then
echo_failure
else
echo -n "$rc_failed"
fi
}

vmware_success() {
if [ "`type -t 'echo_success' 2>/dev/null`" = 'function' ]; then
echo_success
else
echo -n "$rc_done"
fi
}

# Execute a macro
vmware_exec() {
local msg="$1" # IN
local func="$2" # IN
shift 2

# On Caldera 2.2, SIGHUP is sent to all our children when this script exits
# I wanted to use shopt -u huponexit instead but their bash version
# 1.14.7(1) is too old
#
# Ksh does not recognize the SIG prefix in front of a signal name
if [ "$VMWARE_DEBUG" = 'yes' ]; then
(trap '' HUP; "$func" "$@")
else
(trap '' HUP; "$func" "$@") >/dev/null 2>&1
fi
if [ "$?" -gt 0 ]; then
vmware_failed
echo
return 1
fi

vmware_success
echo
return 0
}

# Start the virtual machine USB Arbitrator service
vmwareStartUSBArbitrator() {
# The executable checks for already running instances, so it
# is safe to just run it.
"$BINDIR"/vmware-usbarbitrator
}

# Stop the virtual machine USB Arbitrator service
vmwareStopUSBArbitrator() {
# Find the running process
# grep instead of pgrep... Turns out to be more reliable. pgrep
# would return extranneous results.
pid=`pgrep -f "$BINDIR"/vmware-usbarbitrator`
# If it is not running
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
# PID was found, stop it.
kill $pid
return 0
else
# No process found.
return 0
fi
}

vmwareService() {
case "$1" in
start)
vmware_exec 'VMware USB Arbitrator' vmwareStartUSBArbitrator
exitcode=$(($exitcode + $?))
if [ "$exitcode" -gt 0 ]; then
exit 1
fi
;;
stop)
vmware_exec 'VMware USB Arbitrator' vmwareStopUSBArbitrator
exitcode=$(($exitcode + $?))
if [ "$exitcode" -gt 0 ]; then
exit 1
fi
;;
restart)
"$SCRIPTNAME" stop && "$SCRIPTNAME" start
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $BASENAME {start|stop|restart}"
exit 1
esac
}

SCRIPTNAME="$0"
BASENAME=`basename "$SCRIPTNAME"`

# Check permissions
if [ "`id -ur`" != '0' ]; then
echo 'Error: you must be root.'
echo
exit 1
fi

vmwareService "$1"

exit 0

vmware

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# Copyright 1998-2008 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.
#
# This script manages the services needed to run VMware software.
#

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: vmware
# Required-Start: $network $syslog
# Required-Stop: $network $syslog
# X-Start-Before:
# X-Stop-After:
# Default-Start: 2 3 5
# Default-Stop: 0 6
# Short-Description: This service starts and stops VMware services
### END INIT INFO


ETCDIR=/etc/vmware
VMIS_MAJOR_VERSION=1

. $ETCDIR/bootstrap
libdir="$LIBDIR"/vmware

. "$libdir"/scripts/util.sh

load_settings "$libdir" || exit 1

VNETLIB_LOG=/var/log/vnetlib
PRODUCT_NAME="VMware VMX"
COMPONENT_NAME="vmware-vmx"

# This comment is a hack to prevent RedHat distributions from outputing
# "Starting <basename of this script>" when running this startup script.
# We just need to write the word daemon followed by a space

# This defines echo_success() and echo_failure() on RedHat
if [ -r "$INITSCRIPTDIR"'/functions' ]; then
. "$INITSCRIPTDIR"'/functions'
fi

# This defines $rc_done and $rc_failed on S.u.S.E.
if [ -f /etc/rc.config ]; then
# Don't include the entire file: there could be conflicts
rc_done=`(. /etc/rc.config; echo "$rc_done")`
rc_failed=`(. /etc/rc.config; echo "$rc_failed")`
else
# Make sure the ESC byte is literal: Ash does not support echo -e
rc_done=' done'
rc_failed='failed'
fi

subsys=vmware
driver=vmmon
vnet=vmnet
vmblock=vmblock
vmci=vmci
vmhgfs=vmhgfs
vsock=vsock

vmciNode=vmci
vsockNode=vsock

# SHM settings
shmmaxPath=/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax
shmmaxMinValue=268435456 # 256MB

#
# Are we running in a VM?
#
vmwareInVM() {
"$BINDIR"/checkvm >/dev/null 2>&1
}

#
# Report a positive number if there are any VMs running.
# May not be the actual vmmon reference count.
#
vmmonUseCount() {
local count
# Beware of module dependencies here. An exact match is important
count=`/sbin/lsmod | awk 'BEGIN {n = 0} {if ($1 == "'"$driver"'") n = $3} END {print n}'`
# If CONFIG_MODULE_UNLOAD is not set in the kernel, lsmod prints '-' instead of the
# reference count, so ask vmrun, or if we don't have vmrun, look for running vmx processes
if [ x${count} = "x-" ]
then
type vmrun > /dev/null 2>&1
if [ $? -eq 0 ]
then
count=`vmrun list | awk 'BEGIN {n=0} /^Total running VMs:/ {n = $4} END {print n}'`
else
count=`ps -afe | grep "/bin/vmware-vmx" | grep -v grep | wc -l`
fi
fi
echo $count
}

# Is a given module loaded?
isLoaded() {
local module="$1"

/sbin/lsmod | awk 'BEGIN {n = "no";} {if ($1 == "'"$module"'") n = "yes";} END {print n;}'
}

# Build a Linux kernel integer version
kernelVersionInteger() {
echo $(((($1 * 256) + $2) * 256 + $3))
}

# Get the running kernel integer version
getVersionInteger() {
local version_uts
local v1
local v2
local v3

version_uts=`uname -r`

# There is no double quote around the back-quoted expression on purpose
# There is no double quote around $version_uts on purpose
set -- `IFS='.'; echo $version_uts`
v1="$1"
v2="$2"
v3="$3"
# There is no double quote around the back-quoted expression on purpose
# There is no double quote around $v3 on purpose
set -- `IFS='-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvw xyz'; echo $v3`
v3="$1"

kernelVersionInteger "$v1" "$v2" "$v3"
}

vmwareLoadModule() {
/sbin/insmod -s -f "/lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/$1.ko" || exit 1
return 0
}

vmwareUnloadModule() {
if [ "`isLoaded "$1"`" = 'yes' ]; then
/sbin/rmmod "$1" || exit 1
fi
return 0
}

# Start the virtual machine monitor kernel service
vmwareStartVmmon() {
vmwareLoadModule $driver
}

# Stop the virtual machine monitor kernel service
vmwareStopVmmon() {
vmwareUnloadModule $driver
}

# Start the virtual ethernet kernel service
vmwareStartVmnet() {
vmwareLoadModule $vnet
"$BINDIR"/vmware-networks --start >> $VNETLIB_LOG 2>&1
}

# Stop the virtual ethernet kernel service
vmwareStopVmnet() {
"$BINDIR"/vmware-networks --stop >> $VNETLIB_LOG 2>&1
vmwareUnloadModule $vnet
}

# Returns 0 if networking is enabled, otherwise 1
vmwareIsNetworkingEnabled() {
[ "$vmdb_NETWORKING" = 'yes' ]
return
}

# Start the virtual machine communication interface kernel service
vmwareStartVmci() {
# only load vmci if it's not already loaded
if [ "`isLoaded "$vmci"`" = 'no' ]; then
vmwareLoadModule "$vmci"
fi
vmware_rm_stale_node "$vmciNode"
if [ ! -e "/dev/$vmciNode" ]; then
local minor=`cat /proc/misc | grep $vmciNode | awk '{print $1}'`
mknod --mode=666 "/dev/$vmciNode" c 10 "$minor"
else
chmod 666 "/dev/$vmciNode"
fi

return 0
}

# Make sure the system has enough shared memory available to cover shmmaxMinValue.
# To handle overflow/wrapping, check that shmmax is greater than 1 since any overflow
# will make shmmax look negative. At least until shmmax or shmmaxMinValue wrap around
# again.
vmwareCheckSharedMemory() {
if [ -f "$shmmaxPath" ]; then
shmmax=`cat $shmmaxPath`
# Account for numbers that are too large that they wrap around and alias
# to a smaller number or they are outright set to -1. If "1 < XXXX" fails
# then the XXX value is # out of bounds. The only acceptable combo is that
# both values satisfy that condition, else report that the max value the
# system supports may not satisfy this programs requirements.
if (( $shmmax < 1 )) || (( $shmmaxMinValue < 1 )) \
|| (( $shmmax < $shmmaxMinValue )) ; then
echo "$shmmaxMinValue" > "$shmmaxPath"
echo ""
echo "Setting the max shared memory the system will allow to $shmmaxMinValue."
echo ""
fi
fi
return 0
}


# Stop the virtual machine communication interface kernel service
vmwareStopVmci() {
# Hosted now has to interface with Tools. vmhgfs could possibly be loaded, which
# will interfere with the removal of vmci. Only unload it if it's already
# loaded.
if [ "`isLoaded "$vmhgfs"`" = 'yes' ]; then
vmwareUnloadModule "$vmhgfs"
fi


# only unload vmci if it's already loaded
if [ "`isLoaded "$vmci"`" = 'yes' ]; then
vmwareUnloadModule "$vmci"
fi
rm -f "/dev/$vmciNode"
}

isVmciNeeded() {
if [ "$vmdb_VMCI_CONFED" = 'yes' ]; then
echo yes
else
echo no
fi
}

# starts after vmci is loaded
vmwareStartVsock() {
# only load vsock if it's not already loaded
if [ "`isLoaded "$vsock"`" = 'no' ]; then
vmwareLoadModule "$vsock"
fi
vmware_rm_stale_node "$vsockNode"
# Give udev 5 seconds to create our node
vmware_delay_for_node "/dev/$vsockNode" 5
if [ ! -e "/dev/$vsockNode" ]; then
local minor=`cat /proc/misc | grep $vsockNode | awk '{print $1}'`
mknod --mode=666 "/dev/$vsockNode" c 10 "$minor"
else
chmod 666 "/dev/$vsockNode"
fi

return 0
}

# unloads before vmci
vmwareStopVsock() {
# only unload vsock if it's already loaded
if [ "`isLoaded "$vsock"`" = 'yes' ]; then
vmwareUnloadModule "$vsock"
fi
rm -f /dev/vsock
}

isVsockNeeded() {
if [ "$vmdb_VSOCK_CONFED" = 'yes' ]; then
echo yes
else
echo no
fi
}

vmware_start_authdlauncher() {
vmware_bg_exec "`vmware_product_name` Authentication Daemon" \
"$SBINDIR/vmware-authdlauncher"
}

vmware_stop_authdlauncher() {
local launcherpid=`pidof vmware-authdlauncher`
if [ -n "$launcherpid" ]; then
vmware_synchrone_kill $launcherpid "TERM"
fi
}

vmwareService() {
case "$1" in
start)
if vmwareInVM; then
# Refuse to start services in a VM: they are useless
exit 1
fi

echo 'Starting VMware services:'
exitcode='0'

vmware_exec 'Virtual machine monitor' vmwareStartVmmon
exitcode=$(($exitcode + $?))

if [ "`isVmciNeeded`" = 'yes' ]; then
vmware_exec 'Virtual machine communication interface' vmwareStartVmci
exitcode=$(($exitcode + $?))
fi

# vsock needs vmci started first
if [ "`isVsockNeeded`" = 'yes' ]; then
vmware_exec 'VM communication interface socket family' vmwareStartVsock
# a vsock failure to load shouldn't cause the init to fail completely.
fi

if [ "`is_vmblock_needed`" = 'yes' ] ; then
vmware_exec 'Blocking file system' vmware_start_vmblock
exitcode=$(($exitcode + $?))
fi

# Try to load parport_pc.
/sbin/modprobe parport_pc >/dev/null 2>&1

if vmwareIsNetworkingEnabled; then
vmware_exec 'Virtual ethernet' vmwareStartVmnet
exitcode=$(($exitcode + $?))
fi

vmware_exec 'VMware Authentication Daemon' vmware_start_authdlauncher

if [ "$exitcode" -gt 0 ]; then
exit 1
fi

[ -d /var/lock/subsys ] || mkdir -p /var/lock/subsys
touch /var/lock/subsys/"$subsys"

vmware_exec "Shared Memory Available" vmwareCheckSharedMemory
;;

stop)
echo 'Stopping VMware services:'
exitcode='0'

vmware_exec 'VMware Authentication Daemon' vmware_stop_authdlauncher

# If the 'K' version of this script is running, the system is
# stoping services not because the user is running vmware-config.pl
# or running the initscript directly but because the user wants to
# shutdown. Suspend all VMs.
if [ "`echo $BASENAME | sed -ne '/^K[0-9].vmware/p'`" ] ; then
if [ -x "$BINDIR"/vmrun ] ; then
for i in `pidof vmware-vmx` ; do
"$BINDIR"/vmrun suspend `ps -p $i -f | \
sed -ne '/vmware/s/.* \(\/.*\.vmx\)/\1/p'` 2> /dev/null
done
fi

fi

if [ "`vmmonUseCount`" -gt 0 ]; then
echo 'At least one instance of '"$PRODUCT_NAME"' is still running.' 1>&2
echo 'Please stop all running instances of '"$PRODUCT_NAME"' first.' 1>&2
echo " " >&2

# Since we stopped authdlauncher to prevent new connections before disabling
# any vmxs, need to restart it here to restore the environment back to
# what it was before this init script ran.
vmware_exec 'VMware Authentication Daemon' vmware_start_authdlauncher

# The unconfigurator handle this exit code differently
exit 2
fi

# vmci is used by vsock so the module can't unload until vsock does.
if [ "`isVsockNeeded`" = 'yes' ]; then
vmware_exec 'VM communication interface socket family' vmwareStopVsock
exitcode=$(($exitcode + $?))
fi

if [ "`isVmciNeeded`" = 'yes' ]; then
vmware_exec 'Virtual machine communication interface' vmwareStopVmci
exitcode=$(($exitcode + $?))
fi

vmware_exec 'Virtual machine monitor' vmwareStopVmmon
exitcode=$(($exitcode + $?))

if [ "`is_vmblock_needed`" = 'yes' ] ; then
vmware_exec 'Blocking file system' vmware_stop_vmblock
exitcode=$(($exitcode + $?))
fi

# Try to unload parport_pc. Failure is allowed as it does not
# exist on kernels 2.0, and some other process could be using
# it.
/sbin/modprobe -r parport_pc >/dev/null 2>&1

if vmwareIsNetworkingEnabled; then
vmwareStopVmnet
fi

# The vmware and vmware-tray processes don't terminate automatically
# when the other services are shutdown. They persist after calling
# 'init.d/vmware stop' and will happily keep going through an init
# start command, continuing to minimally function, blissfully ignorant.
# Time for a buzzkill.
for i in `pidof vmware vmware-tray` ; do
vmware_synchrone_kill $i "INT"
done

if [ "$exitcode" -gt 0 ]; then
exit 1
fi

rm -f /var/lock/subsys/"$subsys"
;;

status)
if [ "`vmmonUseCount`" -gt 0 ]; then
echo 'At least one instance of '"$PRODUCT_NAME"' is still running.'
echo
if [ "$2" = "vmcount" ]; then
exit 2
fi
fi
if [ "$2" = "vmcount" ]; then
exit 0
fi

exitcode='0'

echo -n "Module $driver "
[ "`isLoaded "$driver"`" = 'yes' ] && echo loaded || echo "not loaded"
if vmwareIsNetworkingEnabled; then
echo -n "Module $vnet "
[ "`isLoaded "$vnet"`" = 'yes' ] && echo loaded || echo "not loaded"
fi

if [ "$exitcode" -gt 0 ]; then
exit 1
fi
;;

restart)
"$SCRIPTNAME" stop && "$SCRIPTNAME" start
;;

# Called to make sure script is in a runnable state.
validate)
exit 100
;;

stoppable)
[ "`vmmonUseCount`" -lt 1 ]
exit
;;

*)
echo "Usage: "$BASENAME" {start|stop|status|restart|stoppable}"
exit 1
esac
}

SCRIPTNAME="$0"
BASENAME=`basename "$SCRIPTNAME"`

# Check permissions
if [ "`id -ur`" != '0' ]; then
echo 'Error: you must be root.'
echo
exit 1
fi

vmwareService "$1"

exit 0

I'm not really sure if these are the problem or not, but that error message above did point me toward these links:

10.10 on startup - init: failed to spawn hostname, plymouth, hwclock, mountall: permission denied
http://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comme...pawn_hostname/

bind or devpts mounts in /etc/fstab stop the boot process

1. Ubuntu
2. “mountall” package
3. Bugs
4. Bug #524972

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ll/+bug/524972

LVM - /var failed to mount during boot

1. Ubuntu
2. Lucid (10.04)
3. “mountall” source package
4. Bugs
5. Bug #561390

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/lu...ll/+bug/561390

the device is busy-Ubuntu 10.10 not booting up on start up dev/sda1 no such directory

1. Ubuntu
2. “mountall” package
3. Questions
4. Question #152826

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu...uestion/152826

UbuntuBootupHowto
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuBootupHowto

Directories and Configs

• /etc/init is where the upstart init configs live. While they are not scripts themselves, they essentially execute whatever is required to replace sysvinit scripts.
• /etc/init.d is where all the traditional sysvinit scripts and the backward compatible scripts for upstart live. The backward compatible scripts basically run service myservice start instead of doing anything themselves. Some just show a notice to use the "service" command.
• /etc/init/rc-sysinit.conf controls execution of traditional scripts added manually or with update-rc.d to traditional runlevels in /etc/rc*
• /etc/default has configuration files allowing you to control the behaviour of both traditional sysvinit scripts and new upstart configs.

Using Services

Please note that generally, you can use either traditional sysvinit scripts and the methods of working with them as well as the new upstart configs and the command: "service" interchangeably. It is however recommended you use the new upstart methods which are both forward and backward compatible.

Starting a Service

# Traditional:
/etc/init.d/myservice start
# Upstart
service myservice start

Stopping a Service

# Traditional:
/etc/init.d/myservice stop
# Upstart
service myservice stop

Getting a list of Services

# Traditional:
ls /etc/init.d
# Upstart:
service --status-all

• Note: Upstart method will show both traditional and upstart services.

Adding a Service to Default runlevels

# Traditional
update-rc.d apache2 defaults

• Upstart: there is no concept of runlevels, everything is event driven with dependencies. You would add an upstart config to /etc/init and potentially source a config file in /etc/default to allow users to override default behaviour.

Removing a Service from Default runlevels

# Traditional - Something along the lines of
rm /etc/rc*/*myscript

• Upstart: If no config is available in /etc/default, edit config in /etc/init

Other Upstart Commands

Controlling Services - interchangeable with the "service" command

• initctl - can use in place of "service" with the commands bellow. Run initctl help.
• start - start a service
• stop - stop a service
• reload - sends a SIGHUP signal to running process
• restart - restarts a service without reloading its job config file
• status - requests status of service

Rebooting and Powering off the system

• halt - shutdown the system then power off
• poweroff - shutdown the system then power off
• reboot - reboot the system
• shutdown - bring the system down

Misc Upstart Commands - you generally don't use these directly

• init - Upstart process management daemon
• runlevel - Backward compatibility with traditional runlevels
• telinit - Backward compatibility with traditional runlevels
• upstart-udev-bridge - Bridge between upstart and udev

While this has been interesting research, I'm looking forward to having a bootable Ubuntu partition back, so I may just reinstall my modified Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS. I still suspect that my VMware virtual WinXP and/or the USB backpack driver colluded to somehow take over my Ubuntu boot process, so I will watch that more carefully in the future.

[northd_tech]

After installing a newer remix of an 'older' 10.04.3 LTS Ubuntu Lucid Lynx, I was able to access the external Backpack USB CDRW drive under a virtual Windows XP (using the Backpack PNP407__.exe Windows drivers) under VMware Player.

I still wasn't able to get any recognition of the USB CDRW drive under Ubuntu natively though.

While this wasn't the 'proper Linux' solution- it was at least workable using 'virtual WinXP.'

I still might play with this hardware and Ubuntu a little, if for no reason other than to learn more about how external USB 'hotplugging' is implemented (esp. with 'external' firmware on EXTERNAL drives using fxload ).