[Clinton_W]

Subject line says it all really. Install is proceeding nicely. Finishes copying files for install. Begins actual installation. Gets to about 15%. Flashes briefly a message about installing applications(?) from the CD. Since there is no CD ( or CD drive ) the install quits. Says the install is complete, and requests reboot. Hangs on reboot after bios screen ends ( I mean F2 for setup and F10 for pick a boot device).

This has happened on a USB prepared with Unetbootin and XBMC 11, and a different USB drive prepared with YUMI and XBCM 10. All the distros on the drive will run live. This is the only one I have tried to install on this system ( so far ).

PC is a small form factor, generic. Has a Intel Celeron 1.8, 1Gb RAM, 4Gb SSD drive. I'm just planning on using this with a 1TB external drive to play media files, and this seem like a good experiment.

Is there a file I can edit on the USB to make the install look elsewhere for the data it wants? Anything else I might try? I actually bought this little system with this distro in mind. I'd hate to put something else in it!

TIA- C_W

[unicorn13ocp]

Are you using the XBMCbuntu on a usb flash drive to install, made with unetbootin or similar?

If so it might be installing the grub boot loader onto the USB's mbr rather than the HDD

Sometimes the ubuntu installer assigns the usb as /dev/sda which is normally where ubuntu likes to install the bootloader, found this out on early versions of 10.04 ubuntu.

Found this it might be of help

http://superuser.com/questions/176050/ub...f-the-hard

[Clinton_W]

"This has happened on a USB prepared with Unetbootin and XBMC 11, and a different USB drive prepared with YUMI and XBCM 10. All the distros on the drive will run live. This is the only one I have tried to install on this system ( so far ). "

I used my larger, YUMI USB drive to start Racy Puppy. I can see the 4GB system drive and the 16GB YUMI USB drive mounted on the system.

The system ( 4GB ) HD has a file /root with two files .bashrc and .profile. Also a subdirectory with a link to GTK-3.0.

Also a folder /boot with 4 .img ( like memtest+ ) as well as 4 "text" files (like config-300-16 generic ), and a subdirectory called /grub which includes GFXblacklist.txt.

So it seems to me that there is already a grub, boot and root file on the system! BTW- I unmounted and physically removed the 16GB USB drive just to sure that I was only looking at the local HD for information.

Is there a file I can edit in the either folder? I can read them in Geany. I just don't know which one to edit or what to edit!

---

More info: this was a blank SSD HD. So the install was fresh and I just let the installer do what it wanted with the partitions and formatting.

[unicorn13ocp]

Hi Clinton

The problem arises from usb flash drives being treated the same as HDD in the pc's BIOS, and in how they are named as a result in most if not all linux variants.

When you boot from a usb flash drive linux usually sees it as a harddrive and assigns it as the first harddrive /dev/sda because this is the drive it booted from, your ssd would then be assigned as /dev/sdb.

At the end of the install it then assumes that your usb flash drive (/dev/sda) is the location to install grub's mbr part, and the user viewable editable parts to your SSD (/dev/sdb), when all part should be on the mbr of /dev/sdb your SSD.

Its like giving your best friend a map to your birthday party but then not telling him which town it is in, in this case the map is the folders you can see and the town is the portion of grub that is in the mbr of the first hdd which it assumes to be /dev/sda, so when you reboot and remove the flash drive, it cannot find a part it needs and stalls the system.

In the /grub folder there should be a file called menu.lst, in this config file are the locations of the root harddrive ROOT (hdx,y), kernel location the uuid of the hdd, initrd img location etc...

All I can say is try installing XBMCbuntu again and when it get to te part for partitioning your ssd look for any advanced options that allow you to specify the location to install the bootloader grub and tell it to use the SSD.

I mainly install from cd, by external cdrom as they are assigned differently (/dev/scda) and it avoids the hassle of fixing the grub/mbr issue, as the first harddrive is always /dev/sda.

Another, link that might help.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Recove...ingWindows

Andy

[Clinton_W]

Thanks Andy,

I'll have to give that a try later tonight. I believe there was only the blacklist file in the grub folder, but I'll have to check and see if I was viewing the hidden files as well. If push comes to shove, I think there is a USB DVD burner at work I could borrow for a couple days ( I swear it hasn't been out of the box since it was ordered two years ago ).

I been using Linux Mint 9 for a while now, and I've been spoiled. It runs so stable that I've forgotten so much about the system issues! I'll check out the link as well. Fingers crossed!

[Clinton_W]

An update: Using the USB DVD drive I was able to do the install without a hitch. I knew I was beyond the trouble spot when I got to the installing apps and the "installing files 1-16" ended and it went on to download another 70 files or so. By the way the bootloader / grub install is about 75% of the way in. Another point to relax after. Everything looked good and I even logged out to the Ubuntu desktop for a look.

New DOH! I go into file manager just to see what's there and how much space is left. Wait for it.... 292Mbs out of 4Gbs. I don't even think I can install Leafpad, or the like, with that little room! ( Yeah, I know you probably can but...) Now I'm hoping that you are right in post #4. I'm thinking about getting a 16Gb USB drive, plugging it in and using it for /root and /swap and the 4Gb SSD for /home. Like I said before, most of what I'm listening to or watching is on an external USB drive. Gonna try it and see.

BTW Staples has a heck of a deal on these right now. I hope this is okay to do: http://www.staples.com/Staples-16GB-Micr...-nr_409943 for $14.99 an low profile type. The kind you put in and don't expect to take out.

Still happy for hear any advice! Suggestions? Be kind now!

[bollerfant]

Hi,
i still have a similar problem with grub (http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...id=1067890). Maybe you could tell me how you exactly installed your XBMCbuntu step-by-step?

[Clinton_W]

First, I'm only a toddler to Linux distros so my advice may not be the best. Second, I haven't done this yet. I'm going to pick up the drive tonight. This device comes with a SATA SSD (4 GB) drive internally installed, and that's how I got this going so far. I'm still trying to figure out "mount points" and such.

Post #4 above is the strategy I hoping for with purchasing the USB thumbdrive. Accept in this case the drive will not already be bootable, but blank/ unformatted and I'll be using the external DVD drive to load the system! I'll post what I did and if I get it work, but don't hold your breath! I think this might be a bumpy ride.

[Clinton_W]

Bollerfant- I did successfully get the install to work. I can't possibly give you a step by step, because there are too many.

What I learned:
1) Made sure the USB drive was inserted before power on.
2) Poked around in the BIOS settings ( yours are bound to be different ). Found a way to reorganized the boot sequence order and made sure the USB drive was first. Also made sure that the USB as boot device was enabled.
3) Read a few webpages on partitioning and setup configurations. ( Also had gone though this with a Slackware install not to long ago and remembered most. ) When the install got to the hard drive selection screen I picked "Something Different". At the bottom of the next dialog box there was a dropdown selector for picking the boot device ( or grub location? ). Look out for that it is easy to miss with all the info being presented above it. Selected the USB drive for two partitions / (root) and swap. The internal small drive was formated and set for /home. Ubuntu has several community pages on this process. This was the part that I really paid close attention to.
4) Rest of the process was automatic.
5) Reboot and got an error message about not finding a grub > recovery file. Ignored it ( I've got nothing to lose at this point ). Ctrl+alt+delete to reboot again. Everything started as expected. Tested video playback, Chromium, in and out of Ubuntu. Shut down. Restart and test again.

Hope this helps. CW