[SOLVED] can't boot LiveCD

[kmitnick]

Hey Guys, I posted a thread like this one maybe 5 months ago, and since then I haven't succeeded with booting a LiveCD ( I gave UP).

bt now I want it to be solved and I want you guys to help me...

when I try to boot BackTrack 4 ( Ubuntu based OS but with PenTesting frameworks) I get the following errors:

P.S: hdb is my very OLD 40 GB HardDisk

hdb dma timeout error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest}
hdb: possibly failed opcode:0xc8

I get this for like 4 to 5 times, then It seems to boot then I get another bunch of errors.

SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x5b7ef4f0
SQUASHFS error: unable to read metadata cache entry [5b7ef4f0]
SQUASHFS error: unable to read directory block [5b7ef4f0:226]
udevd-event[5483]:run_program: '/sbin/modprobe' abnormal exit
udevd-event[5560]:run_program:'exec of program '/lib/udev/ide_media' failed'

and a bunch of another errors like do_page_fault ----

so any suggestions???

[MikeTbob]

I think hdb is failing and needs to be replaced. The other errors might be a bad burn on the CD/DVD, have you tried to the CD/DVD on another machine?

[kmitnick]

yes I tried, It boots very well.
anyway I am planning on having new Desktop with 500GB HDD, so I will get rid of the 40 GB

thx

[kmitnick]

the problem is that on the faulty desktop ( with old 40gb) when i run slitaz livecd it boots, it tells me that dma_timeout_expiry but it kinda ignore it and boot, so can i ignore dma in Backtrack???

[MikeTbob]

I had Ubuntu on a failing drive for our son, we got a lot of those errors but ignored them because we didn't have a spare drive at the time.....the worse that can happen is a HD failure. I just wouldn't keep anything critical on the drive.

[kmitnick]

I am now copying the files from the faulty HDD
in case of the complete failure and waiting for the dma ignoring command.

[MikeTbob]

I think you need to look at the man page for hdparm...in short

hdparm -d0 /dev/sdx

This will only last until you reboot, the man pages should tell you how to make this permanent. And be aware, this could slow the drive down or possibly crash it. hdparm can be very dangerous if used incorrectly, so do your homework.

[mrkoconnell]

I had a problem booting live from Ubuntu 8.10 especially on older machines. I have no trouble with Ubuntu 8.04. I boot live CD and live USB drive. Also I have just booted live USB with Damn Small Linux. Try some different distributions and see how that works.

[thomas.hedden]

Have you set up your computer to allow booting
off the CD-ROM drive? This is configurable, and
this option is often turned off. Read my article
about this:
(This web site won't allow me to include the URL,
but if you go to the URL `hedden' DOT `org' DOT
`bootcd' DOT `html', then you will see my article.)
If your computer is set up to boot off the CD-ROM
drive, then try booting another computer off its
CD-ROM drive using the same CD-ROM. If you can
do this, then probably the CD-ROM is OK. If your
computer is set up to boot off the CD-ROM drive,
and if your CD-ROM is good, then try booting
your computer off another bootable CD-ROM. If
that doesn't work, then perhaps there must be
something wrong with your CD-ROM drive.
In any case, the problem has nothing at all to do
with your hard disk. When you boot your computer
off the CD-ROM drive, it does not even look at the HD.
Tom

[Mudgen]

There should be a way to intercede in the boot process and edit the boot options. I don't think the idea of turning dma off for the drive with hdparm is going to be useful if you can't boot.

There should be a way to intercede in the boot process and edit the boot options. The link below suggests that "ide=nodma", "acpi=off",and/ or "all_generic_ide" may help. It also notes hardware and media issues that could be in play.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SquashfsErrors