10.10 upgrade on USB Flash Drive fails to boot

[jimwg]

Seasons Greetings!

I have a 1.0 ghz G4 eMac running Tiger. Using Ubuntu 10.04's Live-CD I installed 10.04 on a 8-gig USB flash drive and it worked very well despite spending nearly five hours to download its files via DSL and a pokey USB 1.1 port. The flash drive's 10.04 installation worked just fine on my eMac and 900mhz G3 iBook except for Airport wireless non-connecting issues.(I like Ubuntu 10.04 because unlike Mint for PPC, you're not hassled or barred from accessing your Mac HD and its files.) THEN, to resolve my wireless issues, I decided to upgrade to 10.10 which took nearly 12 hours, and it seemed to've installed well until I tried booting the flash drive and it doesn't work. I get the Ubuntu icon in the Startup Disk screen but it keeps returning to it even after I select Ubuntu. The error screen I get reads:

Upgraded to 10.10 from 10.04
Welcome to yaboot 1.3.13
Boot Linux
Loading Kernel E1f64
Ramdisk loaded to 02300000 Size 17808 kbytes
Invalid memory access at SRR0: 014082f8 SRR1: 00083030
Apple PowerMac4,4,4 6.4f1 Bootram
Open Firmware

I'd hate to re-install 10.04 all over again for a bootable Ubuntu flash drive if there's another cure! I'd really appreciate any advice!

Thanks!

JimG in NYC

[C.S.Cameron]

If this is a persistent install that uses a casper-rw file an update is likely to fill it up and it will not boot,
One solution is to delete the casper-rw file and install a new one, loosing everything that has been saved,
Another solution is to mount the casper-rw file and delete stuff from it to regain space.

[jimwg]

If this is a persistent install that uses a casper-rw file an update is likely to fill it up and it will not boot,
One solution is to delete the casper-rw file and install a new one, loosing everything that has been saved,
Another solution is to mount the casper-rw file and delete stuff from it to regain space.

Thanks for the swift reply.
Understand that I'm a non-techie, so exactly how would I do this? I don't know anything about persistent, only that I initially used a 10.04 live-CD to install it on the USB drive and it worked fine. My "mistake" was upgrading to 10.10 and being unable to even boot it up. Any instructions would be most appreciated!

JimG in NYC

[C.S.Cameron]

Booting from the Live CD or desktop Ubuntu:

Make a directory to mount casper-rw in:


sudo mkdir /media/casper

and then mount it:


sudo mount -o loop casper-rw /media/casper/

A good source of stuff to delete is in var/cache/apt/archives

Use gksu nautilus to get there.

You might also try using Computer Janitor.

[wilee-nilee]

Thanks for the swift reply.
Understand that I'm a non-techie, so exactly how would I do this? I don't know anything about persistent, only that I initially used a 10.04 live-CD to install it on the USB drive and it worked fine. My "mistake" was upgrading to 10.10 and being unable to even boot it up. Any instructions would be most appreciated!

JimG in NYC

To confirm the actual type of installation and other pertinent data follow these instructions if you would like.

So from a booted live Ubuntu cd or thumbdrive lets see the bootscript read out; in my signature just click on it and follow the instructions. Come back to the thread and click on the # in the reply panel this makes code tags paste all the text in between.

Make sure the thumb is plugged in when you boot the live cd to run the script.

[jimwg]

To confirm the actual type of installation and other pertinent data follow these instructions if you would like.

So from a booted live Ubuntu cd or thumbdrive lets see the bootscript read out; in my signature just click on it and follow the instructions. Come back to the thread and click on the # in the reply panel this makes code tags paste all the text in between.

Make sure the thumb is plugged in when you boot the live cd to run the script.

Hope this works! It was one real hassle finding some local high school geeks to make a fresh flash drive partitioned as a Mac and DOS drive so that I could cut--and-paste/transfer the RESULT file from Ubuntu environment to Mac. I hope all the relevant data was retained for you! Good luck and thanks!


Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010

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

=> No known boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/hda
=> No known boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda
=> No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: hfsplus
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sdb2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Unknown
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sdb2 starts
at sector 0. But according to the info from fdisk,
sdb2 starts at sector 3459849216.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

hdb: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: iso9660
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

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

Drive: hda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___
fdisk [-h|--help]
fdisk [-v|--version]
fdisk [-l|--list [name ...]]
fdisk [-r|--readonly] name ...
fdisk name ...

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

Invalid MBR Signature found


Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___
fdisk [-h|--help]
fdisk [-v|--version]
fdisk [-l|--list [name ...]]
fdisk [-r|--readonly] name ...
fdisk name ...

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

Invalid MBR Signature found


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___
fdisk [-h|--help]
fdisk [-v|--version]
fdisk [-l|--list [name ...]]
fdisk [-r|--readonly] name ...
fdisk name ...

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

Invalid MBR Signature found
/dev/sdb1 1,056,964,608 2,402,884,607 1,345,920,000 af000000 Unknown
/dev/sdb2 3,459,849,216 3,641,646,335 181,797,120 b000000 Unknown

/dev/sdb1 ends after the last sector of /dev/sdb
/dev/sdb2 ends after the last sector of /dev/sdb

blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/hda10 c23b4a0c-1695-3b9e-a8ee-6f4e922061ab hfsplus IceTiger
/dev/hda11 69f23bf4-0eae-4aea-b9db-c6b6f611d8df ext3
/dev/hda12 3f24cd9c-ea4c-355f-a64e-0acfa6e8df02 hfsplus icePanther
/dev/hda13 hfs bootstrap
/dev/hda14 44bd78d5-cfce-4d7e-97f6-db69436e4b77 ext3
/dev/hda9 swap
/dev/hda: PTTYPE="mac"
/dev/hdb iso9660 Ubuntu 10.04 LTS ppc
/dev/sda2 hfs bootstrap
/dev/sda3 7b38dfe5-6423-4700-9674-c978b15c5587 ext4
/dev/sda4 db19b404-a9ec-4c82-ba50-2ff1ac6753a9 swap
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="mac"
/dev/sdb1 a0fb58ba-eb23-3b28-8f95-472ebe22b1d9 hfsplus Mac Flash
/dev/sdb2 87A7-11EB vfat DOS FLASH
/dev/sdb: PTTYPE="dos"

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/hda14 / ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)
/dev/hda11 /tmp ext3 (rw,commit=0)
/dev/sdb1 /media/Mac Flash hfsplus (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal)
/dev/sdb2 /media/DOS FLASH vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,uid=1000,utf8,shortna me=mixed,flush)
/dev/sda3 /media/disk ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal)

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

Unknown MBR on /dev/hda

00000000 45 52 02 00 04 a8 53 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |ER....S.........|
00000010 00 04 00 00 00 40 00 17 00 01 00 00 00 78 00 24 |.....@.......x.$|
00000020 ff ff 00 00 00 b0 00 15 07 01 00 00 00 e8 00 22 |..............."|
00000030 f8 ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000100 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000170 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 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 00 00 |................|
00000200

Unknown MBR on /dev/sda

00000000 45 52 02 00 00 ee 60 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |ER....`.........|
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000100 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000170 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 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 00 00 |................|
00000200

Unknown BootLoader on sdb2

00000000 eb 3c 90 42 53 44 20 20 34 2e 34 00 02 04 01 00 |.<.BSD 4.4.....|
00000010 02 00 02 00 00 f0 76 00 20 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 |......v. .......|
00000020 0a d6 01 00 00 00 29 eb 11 a7 87 44 4f 53 20 46 |......)....DOS F|
00000030 4c 41 53 48 20 20 46 41 54 31 36 20 20 20 fa 31 |LASH FAT16 .1|
00000040 c0 8e d0 bc 00 7c fb 8e d8 e8 00 00 5e 83 c6 19 |.....|......^...|
00000050 bb 07 00 fc ac 84 c0 74 06 b4 0e cd 10 eb f5 30 |.......t.......0|
00000060 e4 cd 16 cd 19 0d 0a 4e 6f 6e 2d 73 79 73 74 65 |.......Non-syste|
00000070 6d 20 64 69 73 6b 0d 0a 50 72 65 73 73 20 61 6e |m disk..Press an|
00000080 79 20 6b 65 79 20 74 6f 20 72 65 62 6f 6f 74 0d |y key to reboot.|
00000090 0a 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000a0 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