2011-10-09, 02:49
davilla Wrote:linux livecd
Alas. I have a MacMini and an iMac, both with broken optical drives and a brand new MacBook Air - no optical drive.
I wonder, does Linux running under VirtualBox talk to USB thumb drives?
Alas. I have a MacMini and an iMac, both with broken optical drives and a brand new MacBook Air - no optical drive.
I wonder, does Linux running under VirtualBox talk to USB thumb drives?
2011-10-09, 03:45
Buadhai Wrote:I wonder, does Linux running under VirtualBox talk to USB thumb drives?
Yes it does. I've got the USB stick mounted, but I can't find how it should be formatted: FAT? Mac OS Extended?
2011-10-09, 05:02
Just to confirm how technically dense I am:
- It took me an hour to figure out how to mount a USB thumb drive in Linux running under VirtualBox.
- When running the script I get a dialog box asking for the "Drive letter of USB (Careful)". Drives have letters? What does "/dev/sdb" mean and why do I have to be careful? How do I find out the "drive letter" of my USB thumb drive?
- I decided to run the script with the default "drive letter", but changed my mind half way through because I didn't (and still don't) know what format the thumb drive should have. Right now it's Mac OS Extended, which the AppleTV should be able to boot from, so I'll leave as is.
- Only now after running the script I have: USB.img.gz.1 and USB.img.gz. Uh oh.
- At this point the script went on to (I think) copy the img file to the USB stick. But, there was no progress indicator so I figured nothing was happening. Maybe because the img file was named wrong or the USB drive had the wrong format. So, I cancelled it.
- I renamed the complete image file (USB.img.gz.1) to USB.img.gz. But now, when I run the script it insists on downloading again (one hour) instead of using the already-downloaded image.
As I said: "Beyond my technical ability."
Unfortunately, not easy enough for someone as dumb as I.
- It took me an hour to figure out how to mount a USB thumb drive in Linux running under VirtualBox.
- When running the script I get a dialog box asking for the "Drive letter of USB (Careful)". Drives have letters? What does "/dev/sdb" mean and why do I have to be careful? How do I find out the "drive letter" of my USB thumb drive?
- I decided to run the script with the default "drive letter", but changed my mind half way through because I didn't (and still don't) know what format the thumb drive should have. Right now it's Mac OS Extended, which the AppleTV should be able to boot from, so I'll leave as is.
- Only now after running the script I have: USB.img.gz.1 and USB.img.gz. Uh oh.
- At this point the script went on to (I think) copy the img file to the USB stick. But, there was no progress indicator so I figured nothing was happening. Maybe because the img file was named wrong or the USB drive had the wrong format. So, I cancelled it.
- I renamed the complete image file (USB.img.gz.1) to USB.img.gz. But now, when I run the script it insists on downloading again (one hour) instead of using the already-downloaded image.
As I said: "Beyond my technical ability."
Sam.Nazarko Wrote:When I made that I made it as easy as possible.
Unfortunately, not easy enough for someone as dumb as I.
2011-10-09, 06:39
Back again.
Decided to start all over.
I think the script got to here:
This ran for about an hour. At least I think it was running. The 'top' command continued to show 'dd' as an active process.
Should it really take an hour to copy a few hundred megabytes to an external USB drive?
In any event, Linux froze up so I had to force it to restart.
At this point I have a total of, maybe, five hours invested in this. Not sure if it's worth going on....
Decided to start all over.
I think the script got to here:
Code:
gunzip -c USB.img.gz | sudo dd of="$driveletter"This ran for about an hour. At least I think it was running. The 'top' command continued to show 'dd' as an active process.
Should it really take an hour to copy a few hundred megabytes to an external USB drive?
In any event, Linux froze up so I had to force it to restart.
At this point I have a total of, maybe, five hours invested in this. Not sure if it's worth going on....
2011-10-10, 09:34
Day Two:
I finally built what I thought would be a bootable USB stick. Plugged it in and power cycled the AppleTV, but no joy. It booted up into the internal hard drive, as usual.
So, I guess I've proved my point: I'm too dumb to try Crystalbuntu.
I guess it's back to square one on the intermittent CrystalHD card.
I finally built what I thought would be a bootable USB stick. Plugged it in and power cycled the AppleTV, but no joy. It booted up into the internal hard drive, as usual.
So, I guess I've proved my point: I'm too dumb to try Crystalbuntu.
I guess it's back to square one on the intermittent CrystalHD card.
2011-10-10, 22:35
I had a heck of a time getting it to work as well. Turns the ATV1 and/or Sam's image creator didn't like my USB drive and I had to use another one. Try that before giving up.
2011-10-11, 02:33
I may try again, but my technical level is such that I don't have much confidence:
- Is buying a USB flash drive sort of a crap shoot? Do you just have to keep buying until you find one that works, or are there brands known to be good?
- Is a drive labeled 4GB big enough? Sam's web site says: "Both the Linux and Windows version require a flash drive with a minimum of 4GB free." But, a drive labeled 4GB has some what less than 4GB free. Is that a problem?
(I live in rural Thailand. The only USB flash drives available locally are Kingston 4GB. If I have to drive into town I'd like some advanced knowledge on what will work.)
- Does the USB flash drive have to be formatted before running the script? If so, what format?
- Can the following line be commented out of the script:
The scripts seems to assume that you'll only run it once. If the installation fails and you have to run it again, it downloads parted, zenity and the whole disk image again. But, subsequent downloads of the disk image are sequentially numbered and not usable by the script because the script has the file name hard coded.
- How long should it take to execute the following line:
On my system it takes well over two hours. And, since there's no progress indicator it's hard to know if anything is really going on. (Doesn't zenity have a progress bar of some sort?)
TIA
- Is buying a USB flash drive sort of a crap shoot? Do you just have to keep buying until you find one that works, or are there brands known to be good?
- Is a drive labeled 4GB big enough? Sam's web site says: "Both the Linux and Windows version require a flash drive with a minimum of 4GB free." But, a drive labeled 4GB has some what less than 4GB free. Is that a problem?
(I live in rural Thailand. The only USB flash drives available locally are Kingston 4GB. If I have to drive into town I'd like some advanced knowledge on what will work.)
- Does the USB flash drive have to be formatted before running the script? If so, what format?
- Can the following line be commented out of the script:
Code:
wget http://download.stmlabs.com/atv-images/$path/usb/USB.img.gzThe scripts seems to assume that you'll only run it once. If the installation fails and you have to run it again, it downloads parted, zenity and the whole disk image again. But, subsequent downloads of the disk image are sequentially numbered and not usable by the script because the script has the file name hard coded.
- How long should it take to execute the following line:
Code:
gunzip -c USB.img.gz | sudo dd of="$driveletter"On my system it takes well over two hours. And, since there's no progress indicator it's hard to know if anything is really going on. (Doesn't zenity have a progress bar of some sort?)
TIA
2011-10-16, 08:24
Sam.Nazarko Wrote:Sandisk Cruzer Titanium 4GB works nicely.
I went out and bought a Sandisk Cruzer. Ran the script. The script failed. Crashed Linux.
Now my Linux installation will not recognize any USB device. Before running this script it used to recognize everything: USB printer, scanner, external drive, etc. Now it sees nothing.
I'm very sorry I tried this.
2011-10-16, 23:41
Buadhai Wrote:I went out and bought a Sandisk Cruzer. Ran the script. The script failed. Crashed Linux.
Now my Linux installation will not recognize any USB device. Before running this script it used to recognize everything: USB printer, scanner, external drive, etc. Now it sees nothing.
I'm very sorry I tried this.
What ever caused the crash wasn't the USB drive or Sam's image creator. It's far more likely that there is a larger problem at hand, which might be why you were having problems making the install USB drive in the first place.
2011-10-17, 01:03
Ned Scott Wrote:What ever caused the crash wasn't the USB drive or Sam's image creator. It's far more likely that there is a larger problem at hand, which might be why you were having problems making the install USB drive in the first place.
Although the problem is reproducible, you're probably right. May have something to do with the way VirtualBox handles USB storage.
Can we accept the fact that I lack the expertise needed to boot my AppleTV into linux and get back to the OT:
Why does XBMC fail to detect my Broadcom CrystalHD card now and then?
Sometimes I see this:
Code:
17:28:39 T:2684407808 DEBUG: Loading: libcrystalhd.dylib
17:28:39 T:2684407808 DEBUG: CrystalHD: device open failed , returning(0x6)
17:28:39 T:2684407808 DEBUG: CrystalHD: broadcom crystal hd not foundand sometimes I see this:
Code:
17:31:32 T:2684407808 DEBUG: Loading: libcrystalhd.dylib
17:31:34 T:2684407808 DEBUG: CrystalHD(new API): device opened
2011-10-17, 17:14
If you are running Linux in a Vm are you willing to try Windows? This will let you make a USB and eliminate a BCM hardware issue
2011-10-18, 02:39
Sam.Nazarko Wrote:If you are running Linux in a Vm are you willing to try Windows? This will let you make a USB and eliminate a BCM hardware issue
I tried, but ever since running your linux script I can no longer attach any USB storage device to any virtual machine. I've tried both Ubuntu 11.04 and Windows 7. I always get this error message:
Code:
Failed to attach the USB device Unknown device to the virtual machine .
Callee RC: NS_ERROR_CALL_FAILED (0x800706BE)It doesn't matter what USB flash drive I try. They all fail with the above error.
And, once the above error happens, all USB devices suddenly disappear: printer, scanner, etc.
I know it seems impossible that your script could cause this, but I never had this error before. I've always been able to mount and unmount USB storage devices on any virtual machine.
2011-10-21, 02:14
I managed to restore USB functionality by completely removing all vestiges of VirtualBox, reinstalling the application and restoring the virtual machines from a known good backup.
I again tried creating the Crystalbuntu USB boot stick in a virtual Ubuntu environment.
It seems to have worked, although it took about six hours.
The USB stick booted the ATV. Crystalbuntu spent about an hour downloading and installing lots of stuff. Then it rebooted and I ended up with just a command line prompt:
I'm assuming that I should get some sort of GUI instead of a login prompt.
I can ssh into the machine, but I really don't know what to look for.
I believe I solved the problem with the Broadcom CrustalHD card by moving the ATV to a place where there is less heat buildup and better air circulation. Thanks to Atari800 for suggesting that heat might be a problem.
I again tried creating the Crystalbuntu USB boot stick in a virtual Ubuntu environment.
It seems to have worked, although it took about six hours.
The USB stick booted the ATV. Crystalbuntu spent about an hour downloading and installing lots of stuff. Then it rebooted and I ended up with just a command line prompt:
Code:
crystalbuntu login:I'm assuming that I should get some sort of GUI instead of a login prompt.
I can ssh into the machine, but I really don't know what to look for.
I believe I solved the problem with the Broadcom CrustalHD card by moving the ATV to a place where there is less heat buildup and better air circulation. Thanks to Atari800 for suggesting that heat might be a problem.
