squashfs errors; work around by combining CD with USB boot?
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
lubuntu-meta (Ubuntu) |
Invalid
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
When attempting to install Lubuntu 11.04 on an old laptop (in response to one of those "my old laptop doesn't run Windows anymore" help requests from a friend), I was getting squashfs errors from the install CD that were causing random failures and general chaos, although the CD boot menu's integrity check did pass. I tried using the boot options mentioned at https:/
However, an old Knoppix 5 CD (which also uses squashfs) loaded without trouble on the same hardware, as did an old Debian 3 install CD, so I did a minimal install of Debian 3, booted into it, set its /etc/apt/
I did have an Lubuntu "Live USB" stick that I had made by mounting the iso with -o loop and copying its files to a USB stick, renaming isolinux files to syslinux, and running syslinux. That "Live USB" version of Lubuntu boots absolutely fine on modern laptops (sometimes requires Esc to be pressed to access a boot device menu), but the old laptop was of course too old to boot from USB.
It ought to be possible to boot from an Lubuntu CD but tell it to read its filesystem from USB instead of CD. That should work around squashfs errors. It might be possible to make such a version by adapting the instructions at http://
It would be nice if Lubuntu could officially support:
(1) creating a USB version as well as the CD version (just put up some instructions to do as I did above re syslinux),
(2) giving the CD version an option to find its files on USB or other media, to work around any problems with reading the CD on old hardware that can't boot from USB but can still read it.
Incidentally another workaround I tried was to do a network install by downloading "linux" and "initrd.gz" from http://
It's possible that a "Plop Boot Manager" CD would have helped me load Lubuntu from the USB drive. http:// www.plop. at/en/bootmanag er.html
(I did not try this, since I've already returned my friend's laptop with Debian 6 on it.)