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Aane
November 10th, 2009, 05:58 AM
I am having problems running Ubuntu 9.10 netbook remix from a 4Gb usb drive on my eee pc 701 4g (512 Mb RAM). I downloaded the ISO onto a Windows desktop and used UNetbootin to put the files on the usb stick. When I try to boot the eee pc with the usb drive, I see the Ubuntu screen for a few seconds. Then the screen goes black and the round curser spins and spins. AFter 20 minutes with nothing else happening, I give up.

Does anyone have any suggestions? (I did use WinMd5sum to verify the ISO download). I have looked at the instructions on the Ubuntu NBR download about using usbcreator to create the usb bootable drive, but I don't fuly understand the instructions. I also downloaded win32diskimager, but it only works with IMG files not the ISO file.

I have read where others have been able to get ubuntu 9.10 on their 701's and am jealous of their success. Is the fact that I still use the original 512 MB RAM a problem? Or is the 7" screen and display resolution just too small?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

efflandt
November 10th, 2009, 08:40 AM
Do you have Ubuntu on any computer? System, Administration, USB Startup Disk Creator effortlessly installs a live installation iso on USB. I did it with Ubuntu 64-bit to install that on one partition and 32-bit for another partition to compare them.

At the moment I am running 32-bit Unbuntu 9.10 on a company laptop from 4 G USB stick. With the CD data and 2.1 G reserved for persistent data (including settings, other installed packages for media and Firefox plugins, I still have 1.6 G free space on the Linux file system and 1 G vfat space if I want to put anything onto it from Windows. I guess the 4G USB is mounted on /cdrom because that is where the install would expect to find it.


efflandt@ubuntu:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
aufs 2.1G 414M 1.6G 21% /
udev 501M 284K 501M 1% /dev
/dev/sdb1 3.8G 2.8G 1000M 74% /cdrom
/dev/loop0 668M 668M 0 100% /rofs
none 501M 344K 501M 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 501M 28K 501M 1% /tmp
none 501M 96K 501M 1% /var/run
none 501M 4.0K 501M 1% /var/lock
none 501M 0 501M 0% /lib/init/rw

efflandt@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 4009 MB, 4009754624 bytes
124 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1018 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 7688 * 512 = 3936256 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00044144

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 1018 3913161 b W95 FAT32

efflandt@ubuntu:~$ free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1001 927 73 0 106 564
-/+ buffers/cache: 256 744
Swap: 0 0 0So maybe the method you are using is not quite doing it properly.

Aane
November 11th, 2009, 07:53 PM
I solved my problem and have been able to run Ubuntu NBR 9.10 live from usb. I found additional instructions on the ubuntu help site:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/USB%20Installation%20Media about what do to after using unetbootin to put the iso image files on a usb stick.

The following additional steps were taken, making changes to the usb drive files:

1. Delete syslinux.cfg file or rename it to syslinux.old

2. Enter isolinux folder and rename isolinux.cfg file to be syslinux.cfg. Rename isolinux.bin to syslinux.bin.

3. Move to top level and rename the isolinux folder to be syslinux.

These changes enabled the ununtu live cd boot menu, and from there I was able to run nbr 9.10 live from usb. It runs very well. I enabled my wireless connection. It looks really slick. Everything fits on my 701's 7 inch screen.

Aane Aaby

Aane
November 12th, 2009, 05:54 AM
Oops. Although I was able to run a live version of NBR 9.10 on my eee pc one time, I have since been unable to do it again. The next time I tried to run off the USB, I got an endless series of repeating error messages. The next two times, I got only the black screen with the rotating white disk.

I had created the bootable usb stick using unetbootin. I can't figure out why it worked once but won't work now. This is frustrating for someone who doesn't use ubuntu regularly (my eeepc runs on the original xandros).

The earlier respondant said I should use the usbcreator program that is part of the NBR ISO. Do I need to burn the NBR ISO to a cd and run NBR live on my windows desktop. Or can I use the ubuntu 9.04 cd I made earlier this year and select the NBR 9.10 ISO while running 9.04 live?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Aane Aaby

paxmark1
November 12th, 2009, 06:57 AM
There is one ubuntu variant that was extremely focused on the 701'a and 900's of the eee. It is called crunch bang linux. You could try a live usb of that. It even had a kernel called cruncheee. It has evolved to be usable for all sorts of computers, but it will probably always have an affinity for netbooks and the eee's

The kernel comes from http://array.org/ubuntu/

Easypeasy, eeebuntu and crunchbang all are netbook orientated and ubuntu based.

Some people have had problems with the liveusb programs on the 9.10 version of Ubuntu. Crunchbang will be at 9.04 for a few more months probably. It is very fast and nimble, being based on the minimalist Openbox instead of Gnome or KDE. If you have a spare usb stick, download the iso and put it on a stick and try it out if you are still having problems.

peace, mark