Porteus

I have installed the Portesu XFCE rc1 to my USB stick, but when I am booting from it I get the following error:

ERROR
Couldn't copy '/sbin/init' file
You need at least 100KB free space inside initrd!!

How can I solve this?

Welcome on board aszabo,

this is really rare error (and should never happen) so would be perfect if you could make a photo of the screen just after failure and upload it to imageshack.com
that would tell me a lot.

additionally please answer following questions:
1) which XFCE edition is it (32 or 64bit)
2) did you get any md5sum errors during installation? (md5sums are not checked when you performed installation from Windows) how did you install porteus on the stick?
3) are you able to recreate error at every boot?
4) did you try to reinstall porteus on the stick? (please make sure you have at least 000-kernel.xzm and 001-core.xzm modules placed in /porteus/base folder)
5) did you add any extra cheatcodes to /boot/porteus.cfg ?
6) have you added anything to initrd or it's the original one?

that's all the info which i need for now

Hi,

thanks for the answer.
Well, to your questions:

1.) 32bit
2.) No error, I installed it under Linux (of course Slackware )
3.) Yes, I got this error two times.
4.) Not yet, but I will do it. The 000-kernel.xzm and 001-core.xzm modules are in /porteus/base folder.
5.) No, I did not change anything on it.
6.) No, the initrd was the original one.

Yet something to the problem:
I tried to boot the iso file from grub, but I got the same error in this case too.
The grub config I used for iso boot is:
menuentry "Porteus 1.2" {
set isofile="(hd0,5)/iso/Porteus-1.2.iso"
set root="(hd0,5)"
loopback loop $isofile
linux /porteus/boot/vmlinuz from=$isofile ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw vga=791
initrd /porteus/boot/initrd.xz
}

Thanks for the help.

Please remove ramdisk_size=6666 as this is now handled at a different level.

Here is my grub entry:

OK, I try it but this could be the solution only for iso boot. At USB boot there is no Grub, and the problem still exists.

Welcome, aszabo!

Which bootloader did you install in the usb stick, lilo or extlinux? Perhaps I messed up one of the configs at the last minute...if you made any customizations to the bootloaders there, please show us the config you're using.

Please try plugging the usb stick into your slack box and running the 'chkbase' script inside the /porteus/ folder to check the md5's on all of the modules again. Also, try booting with the 'debug' cheatcode, which will give you a command prompt after the kernel and initrd are loaded but before the modules are activated. Then, cd to /mnt and verify that your USB device is mounted there and the modules are visible inside mnt/sdXY/porteus/base (replace XY with your usb's drive and partition info). If the drive is not mounted at this point, you might want to add 'delay=10' as a cheatcode as well (this really shouldn't be needed with fanthom's current linuxrc, but it wouldn't hurt).

Thanks for your patience, I know it's no fun trying a new distro and having it fail to boot right away.

Hi Ahau,

I installed it in both ways, first with bootloader extlinux then with lilo, the result is the same. I haven't made any costumizations in the bootloader.

I checked the md5's with 'chkbase' script, all is ok.
In which file should I change the cheatcode? And after this changing do I have to run the script 'lin_start_here.sh' again?

Thanks.

In which file should I change the cheatcode?

please show us /boot/porteus.cfg and tell which booting option are you using.

And after this changing do I have to run the script 'lin_start_here.sh' again?

this is not necessary

3 other questions:
1) what filesystem are you using on the stick?
2) did you try 'Always Fresh' mode?
3) are there any other errors printed on the screen before:
"Couldn't copy '/sbin/init' file ... " ?

/boot/porteus.cfg, but as mentioned I didn't change it:
=======
LABEL xfce
MENU LABEL Graphics mode (XFCE)
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/boot/initrd.xz vga=791 xfce changes=/porteus/
TEXT HELP
Run Porteus the best way we can.
Try to autoconfigure graphics
card and use the maximum
allowed resolution
ENDTEXT

LABEL no-compositing
MENU LABEL XFCE--no compositing
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/boot/initrd.xz vga=791 xfce autoexec=xf-compositing~off changes=/porteus/
TEXT HELP
Run Porteus the same as above.
compositing will be turned off
which will disable transparency
and shadow effects.
ENDTEXT

LABEL fresh
MENU LABEL Always Fresh
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/boot/initrd.xz xfce nomagic
TEXT HELP
Normally Porteus saves all changes
to the /porteus/changes/ directory
on the boot media (if writable)
and restores them next boot.
Use this option to start a fresh
system, changes are not read from
or written to any device
ENDTEXT

LABEL copy2ram
MENU LABEL Copy To RAM
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/boot/initrd.xz vga=791 xfce copy2ram
TEXT HELP
Run Porteus the same as above,
but first copy all data to RAM
to get a huge speed increase
(needs >768MB)
ENDTEXT

LABEL vesa
MENU LABEL Graphics VESA mode
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/boot/initrd.xz autoexec=vesa-mode xfce changes=/porteus/
TEXT HELP
Run Porteus with XFCE, but skip
the graphics card autoconfig.
This forces 1024x768 resolution
using a standard VESA driver
ENDTEXT
=========
The filesystem is VFAT on the stick.
Yes, I tried it but no success.
Other lines above it:
cp: can't create '/union/var/log/porteus-livedbg': No such file or directory
live system is ready now - starting Porteua
cp: can't stat '/union/sbin/init': No such file or directory
And then the mentioned error lines.

cp: can't create '/union/var/log/porteus-livedbg': No such file or directory

seems that aufs was not settled correctly thus no xmz modules were mounted in /union.
if you have tried 'always fresh' mode and still go the same error then i'm out of clues.
the only explanation is that you have damaged RAM - which i doubt.
on the other hand there could be something with VFAT filesystem and corrupted xzm modules (but you have said that md5sums are ok).

my last advices:
1) reformat the stick with VFAT (or better ext2 - just to check if it makes any difference)
2) try standard 32bit lxde/kde edition (to make sure it's nothing XFCE ISO related)
3) try Porteus on another PC (to make sure it's not RAM fault in your PC)
4) i have no other idea at the moment...

this is the first time when i see such case in my 2 years experience with slax-remix/porteus.
it's really weird...
OTOH - weird cases are interesting

let us know if any of my advices helped.

try delay cheatcode too!

The easiest way to use a cheatcode for one time use (like debug or delay=) is to press tab at the extlinux menu and then enter your cheatcode, or to press the up and down arrows in the lilo menu to highlight the entry, then type it in after the other boot text.

More info here: http://porteus.org/info/docs/57-general ... -them.html

By default, Porteus should wait some seconds if it's not able to find out the boot device/data device...At least it is what I get when I try to boot up on an "old" hardware