# Ok I tried out "flashlinux"

## mikecore

Ok I tried out flashlinux and now my computer will not boot off the harddrive.

I wanted to give flashlinux a try so I installed it on a 256MB sony flash drive.

I followed the install guide.

basicly you mount your drive and use fdisk to make two partitions 

one /dev/sda1(boot and 4MB) and the second /dev/sda2(size= what ever is left)

next you bootof there live cd wich you burnt before and then run

code  [ make_key.sh /dev/sda /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 ]

the script then installs the system onto your flash disk.

Note "it stated during install that it was repartitioning the fash drive again with

the same partitions lables and addinf JFFS2 file system." 

The install guide tells you you partion your usb drive so why does the script also do it?

(I have a support e-mail in to there dev's to find out why?)

Anyhow I then setup my box the boot off of the usb drive first.

when it tried to boot it came back with "Invalid partition table"

and just sits there.

I use my gentoo live cd to boot it and the mounted my /boot partition 

it mounted fine and my grub.conf looks intact. I also mounted my /root partion

and it looks fine. next I mounted my sec hardrive and it looks fine also.

So Im not sure what the problem is. I googled it and some of the things that cme back are that my MBR is hosed. is this true? and if so how can I recove from this?

Or am I really HOSED and its reinstall time?

ME and my bright Ideas<---install flashlinux ---when am I ever going to learn--LOL

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## mikecore

I have been lookin all over the net for a fix

I found a post about how to restore your partition table

it talks about trying to boot of a live cd and using fdisk to dele your current partitions

and then make new one with the same exact info that was really on there. then reboot and evething should be fine.

Is this correct? Im not sure and I have screwed things up enough for tonight I don't want to make it worse.

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## knarf91

 *Quote:*   

> I use my gentoo live cd to boot it and the mounted my /boot partition
> 
> it mounted fine and my grub.conf looks intact. I also mounted my /root partion
> 
> and it looks fine. next I mounted my sec hardrive and it looks fine also.
> ...

 

If you're able to mount your /boot and /root partitions then my guess is that they are NOT hosed and your partition table is NOT hosed and doing this fdisk handwaving is unnessary.  If your MBR is hosed then all you need to do re-write grub on it.  Something like what's in the handbook: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=10

code listing 7 and beyond.

 *Quote:*   

> Anyhow I then setup my box the boot off of the usb drive first.
> 
> when it tried to boot it came back with "Invalid partition table"
> 
> and just sits there. 

 

Anyway I'm confused.  Is the flash drive still in the USB slot?  If so then this error message could be from that...

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## amne

Moved from Kernel & Hardware to OTW.

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## mikecore

MOD!

Thanks for buring my problem on a fourm header no one will respond to!

I know its not a true "Gentoo" problem but it is cause Im running gentoo and my install is fucked right now.<----yes of course it is my fault I know that. Im just trying to fix my screw up and was hoping for some Gentoo guru help.

Any how I got a e-mail back from flashlinux support at told me my problem also wasn't 

a "partition table" he had me reinstall grub. this didn't work! same failure as before.

any suggestions would be great I would hate to pull an further "noobie" mistake and reinstall instead of learning of to recover from My mistake. Plus it takes a long time.

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## richk449

Don't argue with the mods.  You will just decrease your chances of getting a solution to your problem.

It is not clear at all from your description what your problem is.  

If you remove the flash drive, and set your bios to boot from HD, what happens?  Is that when you get the "Invalid partition table" error?  

But if you boot off of a livecd, then you can mount all the partitions on your hard disk?

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## mikecore

 *richk449 wrote:*   

> Don't argue with the mods.  You will just decrease your chances of getting a solution to your problem.

 

I wasn't tring to argue with anybody! just expressing my displeasure with his choice to move my post. 

 *richk449 wrote:*   

> It is not clear at all from your description what your problem is.

 

Im sorry for not putting clearer info in this post it was very late when I made it. 

 *richk449 wrote:*   

> If you remove the flash drive, and set your bios to boot from HD, what happens?  Is that when you get the "Invalid partition table" error?

 

That is correct it still could not boot and it failed with "invalid partitions table" error  

 *richk449 wrote:*   

> But if you boot off of a livecd, then you can mount all the partitions on your hard disk?

 

Yes you are correct i was able to boot of a gentoo live cd and mount my harddrives.

/dev/hda1 /dev/hda3 and everthing looked good in both. 

So now I was able to recover from my problem.

And this is how I did it.

1) I booted off the live cd(gentoo)

2) mounted /dev/hda1 and backed up my bzImage and my grub.conf

3) next I fdisk my /dev/hda1 marked it as a boot again and wrote it.

4)next I mke2fs /dev/hda1

5) i then chroot into my install

6) emerge grub --- install-grub

7) then copied my backed up files over bzImage and grub.conf

 :Cool:  rebooted 

At this point when it rebooted instead of an invalid partition table error i got a grub promted.

i tried to load my kernel for the command line and it failed with could not find the file.

So i rebooted off live cd mounted my /dev/hda1 and check things out. 

I found the link for the dir "boot"  was missing.

so i deleted it and made a new soft link from boot to "." 

I then rebooted and everthing came back like nothing ever happen.

I don't understand the soft link on boot so if there is some one that could explain it to me I would be grateful.

Im really still a noob to linux but im learning more and more everday.

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## PowerFactor

The softlink is just so that you can have the same entries on grub.conf whether you have a separate boot partition or not.

For example without the softlink you you would need to use "kernel=/bzImage" if you had a separate boot partition and "kernel=/boot/bzImage" if /boot was just a directory on the root partition.  With the softlink you can use "kernel=/boot/bzImage" in either case.

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## amne

 *mikecore wrote:*   

> MOD!
> 
> I know its not a true "Gentoo" problem but it is cause Im running gentoo and my install is fucked right now.

 

MIKECORE! Sorry, i misread your posts a bit and thought you were still having trouble booting Flash-Linux (in which case it would have been a topic for OTW). As the topic is about your broken Gentoo it belongs back into the Gentoo support forums. Moved back, sorry.

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