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[mavrothal]

Is there any tool on XO that I can use to clean out the drive?

the command

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda conv=notrunc

will do a DoD level of "cleaning" to your stick! Depending on its size may take HOURS! But there is certainly nothing left on the device at the end

[Rao]

Is there any tool on XO that I can use to clean out the drive?

the command

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda conv=notrunc

will do a DoD level of "cleaning" to your stick! Depending on its size may take HOURS! But there is certainly nothing left on the device at the end

I ran the following command on my Ubuntu containing USB drive,

sfdisk -l /dev/sda > sda.out

The output is as follows,


Disk /dev/sda: 1011 cylinders, 64 heads, 62 sectors/track
Units = cylinders of 2031616 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

   Device Boot Start     End   #cyls    #blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *      0+   1010    1011-   2005823+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2          0       -       0          0    0  Empty
/dev/sda3          0       -       0          0    0  Empty
/dev/sda4          0       -       0          0    0  Empty

If I understand it right, this means that the disk has one partition and it is of type EXT3.
thanks,

Rao

[mavrothal]

Disk /dev/sda: 1011 cylinders, 64 heads, 62 sectors/track
Units = cylinders of 2031616 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

I'm far from expert but this looks like you still have the W95 structure. If formatted correctly should have 62400 cylinders. Older systems and Dos have a 1024 limit.

   Device Boot Start     End   #cyls    #blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *      0+   1010    1011-   2005823+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2          0       -       0          0    0  Empty
/dev/sda3          0       -       0          0    0  Empty
/dev/sda4          0       -       0          0    0  Empty

That is 4 partitions. You probably used the old version of the script. The latest is

Code:

sfdisk /dev/sda << EOF
0,,83,*
EOF

and gives only one partition in /dev/sda, /dev/sda1
At this point I would say use the above dd command to clean the disk and start over. It only takes 15 minutes...

[Rao]

At this point I would say use the above dd command to clean the disk and start over. It only takes 15 minutes...

I did use the code
(sfdisk /dev/sda << EOF
0,,83,*
EOF
)

you suggested. That is what I have in my Ubinstall.sh.

Anyway, as you suggested, I will run the dd command first and rerun the
Ubinstall.sh command and will post the results.

thanks,

Rao

[mavrothal]

I did use the code
(sfdisk /dev/sda << EOF
0,,83,*
EOF
)

Then this poor stick has been through a lot in its life...

[Rao]

I did use the code
(sfdisk /dev/sda << EOF
0,,83,*
EOF
)

Then this poor stick has been through a lot in its life...

That is true!

Anyway, I first ran the dd command suggested and then the Ubinstall.sh.
The end result is that the boot-up still fails with the same messages (shown below) repeatedly,

EXT3-fs error (device sda1): exte-find-entry reading directory... offset 0

INIT: cannot execute "/sbin/getty Id "1" respawning too fast

INIT: no more processes left in this level

I must mention the stdout and stderr messages from  Ubinstall.sh are only
slightly different, possibly because of the dd command run before.  However
sfdisk still shows 4 partions (sda2, sda3, sda4 empty) after installing Ubuntu on the USB stick.

Well, as a last resort I will try on a brand new stick.  If that also fails, I will have to give up on my Ubuntu dream.

thanks,

Rao

[Rao]

I did use the code
(sfdisk /dev/sda << EOF
0,,83,*
EOF
)

Then this poor stick has been through a lot in its life...

Well, the news is not good!

EVEN WITH A BRAND NEW SANDISK USB stick (and after running the "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda conv=notrunc" on it)  the problem with the same messages occurs.

There ends my Ubuntu on XO dream!

thanks,

Rao

[mavrothal]

EVEN WITH A BRAND NEW SANDISK USB stick (and after running the "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda conv=notrunc" on it)  the problem with the same messages occurs.

There ends my Ubuntu on XO dream!

Don't give up so easily
Do you still have 4 partitions?
the dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda conv=notrunc is not needed in a new card. ( by the way, how long did it take to complete the wipe out?) Just the dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1 bs=4096 count=1.
Do you still get warnings about the partitions?
Do you still have the same ext3 fs error?
Is everything done in the XO?
Did you manage to rename the stick?
What is the OS of your other computer?
Did you try to redownload the torrent?
Is the script modified in any way?
Did you try to just issue the commands manually by copy-paste? In 767 is easy you just use ctrl-shift-V to paste in the terminal and ctrl-C in the browse to copy. You do not even need to go through the edit tab.
It's  a shame to waste all this effort and experience. The next one will be grateful

[Rao]

EVEN WITH A BRAND NEW SANDISK USB stick (and after running the "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda conv=notrunc" on it)  the problem with the same messages occurs.

There ends my Ubuntu on XO dream!

Don't give up so easily
Do you still have 4 partitions?
the dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda conv=notrunc is not needed in a new card. ( by the way, how long did it take to complete the wipe out?) Just the dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1 bs=4096 count=1.
Do you still get warnings about the partitions?
Do you still have the same ext3 fs error?
Is everything done in the XO?
Did you manage to rename the stick?
What is the OS of your other computer?
Did you try to redownload the torrent?
Is the script modified in any way?
Did you try to just issue the commands manually by copy-paste? In 767 is easy you just use ctrl-shift-V to paste in the terminal and ctrl-C in the browse to copy. You do not even need to go through the edit tab.
It's  a shame to waste all this effort and experience. The next one will be grateful

Thanks for the concern!
I am a 7o year old (exposed to UNIX and C in his 40's) who doesn't give up so easily.

I had a hunch that there may be some incompatibility between build-767 and Ubuntu version.

So I went back to build-711 on my XO and executed the same procedure, including the dd command you suggested.  Lo and Behold, the boot-up works (as it did before I updated to 767). As a matter of fact I making this post from within Ubuntu/Firefox.
Let Teapot (I said Atraw before) draw his/her own conclusions.

Now to answer your questions,

1. I used the same bz2/torrent file always
2. Used the same USB stick
3. I used my Windows desktop to download the torrent (about 2-3 weeks ago)
4. Yes, even in this run it shows 4 partions like it did before but 2,3,4 are empty.
5. With build-767 the EXT3 error/warning was always there.
6. I use just one XO and two USB ports
7  I got tired of typing and used your Ubinstall.sh script with USB replaced by whatever the name of the other USB stick is  (7008-CB1C), that is how shows up when I type ls -l  /media) for the last 4-5 times
8 the dd command takes about 5 minutes
9 Ubinstall.sh takes about 10 minutes
10 I am inclined to think that one can use any formatting tool before running Ubinstall.sh

I hope I have answered all your questions.

thanks,

Rao

[mavrothal]

I hope I have answered all your questions.

You sure did!
I have done the installation under Joyrides but not 767. I have updated to 767 but did not do it from scratch. You could do the same (if you didn't already). Update to 767 and then update kernel, modules and firmware on the Ubuntu, and see how it goes. However I'll try  the installation form 767 and let you know.

I am inclined to think that one can use any formatting tool before running Ubinstall.sh

Sure you can use the dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1 bs=4096 count=1 command and then fdisk  for a manual formatting as in the original teapot's post in page 2 of this tread. Works fine but can not be scripted. The commands are
p to see partition table
d delete
n new
p or e primary or extended (you want primary)
t  for the format (and then 83 for ext3)
a to make it bootable
w to write the partition table and
q to quit!
After that you do the rest manually or delete/comment-out the relevant script commands and use it.
Have fun

[cruisingjack]

After reading the recent posts about build 767, I thought I'd let you know of my experience.  I  updated my two granddaughters' XO's to Ubuntu using 8GB SD cards.  Prior to installing Ubuntu I upgraded both XO's to build 767.  I have experienced no problems with the installation or upgrading Ubuntu to the final Hardy release.

One thing I did prior to the using Teapots install instructions was to format the new SD cards on my PC to Fat32 even though they were new out of the box.  I also had to check to see if the XO was remounting the SD cards after each file operation.

(BTW, I am glad to see that I am not the only senior (I'm 65) still hacking away at computers, although I haven't attempted to write a program in some 40 years.  The last time I wrote a program was in Basic on a timesharing teletype in 1968.)

[Rao]

After reading the recent posts about build 767, I thought I'd let you know of my experience.  I  updated my two granddaughters' XO's to Ubuntu using 8GB SD cards.  Prior to installing Ubuntu I upgraded both XO's to build 767.  I have experienced no problems with the installation or upgrading Ubuntu to the final Hardy release.

One thing I did prior to the using Teapots install instructions was to format the new SD cards on my PC to Fat32 even though they were new out of the box.  I also had to check to see if the XO was remounting the SD cards after each file operation.

(BTW, I am glad to see that I am not the only senior (I'm 65) still hacking away at computers, although I haven't attempted to write a program in some 40 years.  The last time I wrote a program was in Basic on a timesharing teletype in 1968.)

Thanks for the informative post!
Now the questions, if you don't mind.
What kind of SD cards did you use? And the formatting program on PC?
It seems that the very first time you booted up the XO with Ubuntu was after updating the XO to build 767.  Is that right?
Where are the Teapot's instructions?

thanks

[cruisingjack]

Thanks for the informative post!
Now the questions, if you don't mind.
What kind of SD cards did you use? And the formatting program on PC?
It seems that the very first time you booted up the XO with Ubuntu was after updating the XO to build 767.  Is that right?
Where are the Teapot's instructions?

thanks

I purchased Transcend SDHC Cards 8GB (based on price, not manufacturer).  You'll need a card reader that can handle SDHC cards.  Amazon had a sale on them last week at $14.99 with a card reader included.  The XO can handle SDHC cards.

After I updated to 767, I booted the XO into Sugar.  Then I had to update the applications.  Thus, if I was to remove the SD card, the XO would again revert back to the Sugar interface with build 767.

Connect the SD card and reader to a USB port on your PC.  Click on >my computer.  The SD card should appear as a new drive letter.  Right click the drive letter and scroll down to format and left click.  The menu should show FAT32 as the format and click for a full format, not express formatting. 

Teapot's instructions are post #18 on this thread.  After entering "sudo -s", I start at instruction 1. " Unmount SD card if it was mounted" and have ignored the previous instructions on preventing mounting.  I just check to see if the SD card was mounted after a file operation.  Also type each command carefully, for example in item 7  "cp -a /security ." there is a space and period after /security which is easy to miss.

Per Teapot's instructions, make sure you run "sudo aptitude" in the terminal.  His file is a pre-release version of the final Hardy-Ubuntu release, so the sudo aptutude downloads the final version of Hardy.

I have used Teapot's instructions on four XO's and they are excellent.

[mavrothal]

However I'll try  the installation form 767 and let you know.

After having few hours of fun myself  using a new 2GB USB stick I can confirm that I could not get Ubuntu running  off the USB stick. 
Script works for the installation of the files but during boot at the hardware initialization step you get a bunch of etx3 fs errors and the process halts as rao describes above in this page. Installing manually following the original teapot's instructions and modifying the olpc.fth and fstab files to read the USB stick at /dev/sda1 ends up at the exact same point.   
Was good while it lasted...

[teapot]

Sure you can use the dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1 bs=4096 count=1 command

/dev/sda , NOT /dev/sda1 !

Otherwise if your first sector by any chance resembles a filesystem (perhaps from a previous attempt of installation), firmware will try to boot from it.