[SOLVED] USB Disk boots to busybox

[amlucent23]

I am trying to set up a 4gb USB Disk as a persistent Hardy usb installer for a coworker of mine. I am following this guide http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/05/08/usb-ubuntu-804-persistent-install-via-the-live-cd/ and we have set this thing up exactly like the instructions stated no less than 8 times now and we always get the same result, it boots to the menu fine but when you choose persistent option it boots to a busybox terminal. I have done everything from blowing away the partitions and recreating them to re downloading ubuntu and burning a new cd! Always the same result. :mad:

I am starting to wonder if the last 2 files the guide has me download are set up correctly?


# Type wget pendrivelinux.com/downloads/u8/syslinux.cfg
# Type cd casper
# Type rm initrd.gz
# Type wget pendrivelinux.com/downloads/u8/initrd.gz

Anyone have any ideas or advice? Thanks!

[avtolle]

The problem may not be related to the USB installation at all (or it might). I've seen many a thread about booting into Busy Box from the Live CD, for example. Does your coworker have a SATA drive? What graphics card does that computer have? These are but two of the things that seem to cause a boot into Busy Box.

[avtolle]

Take a look at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions for some boot options to try as well.

[avtolle]

Take a look at this, too: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveUsbPendrivePersistent especially about the problem with Hardy.

[amlucent23]

The problem may not be related to the USB installation at all (or it might). I've seen many a thread about booting into Busy Box from the Live CD, for example. Does your coworker have a SATA drive? What graphics card does that computer have? These are but two of the things that seem to cause a boot into Busy Box.

but the Live CD boots fine.. its a Dell Latitude D610, sata drives I think. Excellent compatibility with Ubuntu.

[avtolle]

There have been several threads about the Live CD working well, but upon installation ending up in Busy Box as well. The key may well be in the last link I posted earlier.

[amlucent23]

We finally got it to work using these instructions http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/05/08/usb-ubuntu-804-persistent-install-tutorial/. It wasnt a problem with hardy or the machine, I think it was the altered files in the original instructions are not working for the current version of hardy.

[avtolle]

Glad to hear you got it working. Would you please mark the thread as solved, using the thread tools at the top? Thanks.

[ctefer]

Your USB stick must also be fat32 formatted