Feisty LiveCD /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off - Weird Workaround

[klytu]

Not sure if this is the correct forum to post this ...

Downloaded the new Feisty LiveCD yesterday, but the CD wouldn't boot on one of my computers. md5sum matched, CD was burned nice and slow and appears to be good - same CD boots all my other machines without difficulty. The approximate specs of the one it wouldn't boot:

Compaq Desktop, 700Mhz Celeron Processor, 300MB RAM, ESS ES1988 Allegro Sound Card, Integrated Intel 82810E DC-133 Graphics,
Accton EN-1207D Fast Ethernet Adapter, PCTel Inc HSP MicroModem 56

LiveCD boot would fail with the commonly posted error:

/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

This Compaq machine appears to be decidely hostile to Linux in general, but I was able to boot other live CDs on it including Knoppix, Damn Small Linux, and Dapper live. Tried many boot options I saw posted in the forums for the Fiesty Live CD - all failed with the same error. (Minor rant: At first it was not at all clear to me exactly WHERE or HOW to give the boot options with this live CD. I am no expert but I'm also far from being a NOOB with Linux/Ubuntu. If I got confused, I would bet heavily that a beginner would be also.) I removed the quiet splash boot options so I could watch and maybe see exactly where the boot process was failing. I noticed a repeated attempt to access my floppy drive just before the failed boots. There was no floppy in the drive and this seemed odd. I put in a read-only floppy containing some text files and re-booted from the Fiesty LiveCD, again removing the quiet splash boot options. Throughout the (looong) boot process, I continued to note periodic activity trying to access the floppy drive. But eventually the boot completed to the Ubuntu desktop. Confirmed I can boot the live CD on the Compaq every time this way, but fails all other ways tried.

I'll play around with it more and post back if I figure anything else out. I think this indicates a bug somewhere in the Fiesty live CD's boot up process.

04/26/2007 After reading the MANY replies and posts in this thread so far, it's clear that the error message in the subject line can occur for MANY different specific reasons. What all of these reasons seem to have in common is that the new 2.6.20-15 kernel used by Fiesty chokes when it encounters hardware or combinations of hardware that its boot-up routines aren't coded to handle properly. When it chokes, it almost always spits out that error message at the end. Solving your particular issue or finding a workaround for it may require a lot of time and patience, if you ever solve it all. Many have posted solutions that worked for them and many haven't found an answer. It's probably a good idea to post your hardware and how it's connected when you add to the thread. That way if you find an answer for yourself, someone else with a similar set-up can try your solution. (I plan to edit this post with more specific hardware info later as well.)

[elect]

me too

[klytu]

Originally Posted by elect me too

Do you mean that you also can boot by inserting a floppy? Or do you mean that you can't boot with Feisty LiveCD and get the error below?

/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

[elect]

Originally Posted by klytu Do you mean that you also can boot by inserting a floppy? Or do you mean that you can't boot with Feisty LiveCD and get the error below?

Same problem, unable to boot with both versions (live&alternate) and it search in the floppy.

I think its a Controller problem..


after spoken with my friend, I will try to install ubuntu in the same hd by another computer, after that patching the kernel with some Alan cox patches then put it back and try,I will let u know

prey for me

[cogadh]

Didn't work for me, all I get is a repeating error:

Buffer I/O error on device fd0, logical block 336

Followed by the standard:

/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

I've checked the floppy and it is readable from Windows and it doesn't report any sector errors. I still think we are seeing the ongoing SATA/PATA controller issues inherent to the new kernel.

[klytu]

Originally Posted by elect Same problem, unable to boot with both versions (live&alternate) and it search in the floppy. I think its a Controller problem.. after spoken with my friend, I will try to install ubuntu in the same hd by another computer, after that patching the kernel with some Alan cox patches then put it back and try,I will let u know prey for me

If you think the floppy controller is bad, you might try disconnecting the floppy drive altogether and then try booting. In my case, I don't think there are any particular hardware problems - other LiveCDs boot without any particular difficulty, just the recent Feisty LiveCD has problems.

[edmondt]

I had to remove all removable drives connected via usb... bad stuff....

[cogadh]

Originally Posted by klytu If you think the floppy controller is bad, you might try disconnecting the floppy drive altogether and then try booting.

Don't bother, I already did that, it doesn't change a thing. The install still looks for the floppy and throws a new error when it can't find it.

The controller problem is a known issue with the current kernel. The whole method of handling SATA/PATA/IDE controllers was changed and it is aparently still a little buggy.

[Narf]

I get the same error message ... BUT I get it after my computer decided to completely freeze in the middle of the distribution upgrade to Feisty(while generating the locales) and now it doesn't even boot!
If any of you guys can help me, I'd be very thankful.

[elect]

I get it work properly in an unfair way....


But that wasnt the right solution, u should search for Alan Cox kernel (-ac)