[SLOVED] ERROR: No configuration file found

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kata930
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[SLOVED] ERROR: No configuration file found

Post#1 by kata930 » 08 Mar 2012, 03:41

I downloaded Porteus v1.10 32bit version.
I create a bootable USB stick and a bootable CD-RW using iso image.
It works fine on some PCs, but one of them show this error while booting.

--------------
SYSLINUX 4.04 CHS 2011-04-18 Copyright (C) 1994-2011 H. Peter Anvin et al
ERROR: No configuration file found
No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found!
boot:
--------------
I checked this page below.
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=1067

This USB stick can start Porteus on the other PCs.

This is the PC spec:
--------------
CPU:Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Memory: 2GB
MB: GIGABYTE G33-DS3R
--------------
It happen only when using USB stick on this PC.
When using CD-RW bootable, Porteus starts normally on this PC.

I downloaded newer version Porteus v1.2 rc.
It includes SYSLINUX 4.05 (newer version),but same problem happen.

I suppose it is a problem of SYSLINUX....
If something , please advice.
Last edited by kata930 on 13 Mar 2012, 07:47, edited 1 time in total.

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Ahau
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Re: ERROR: No configuration file found

Post#2 by Ahau » 08 Mar 2012, 06:41

Would this machine (the one that is failing to boot) happen to be an HP? I've seen scattered reports that HP's have issues booting flash drives with recent versions of SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX. If so, check out this link:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/72696/sy ... a-live-usb
And today I found the solution. You need to go into BIOS setup (for HP usally f10 during startup), go to "System Configuration" tab or similar and to Boot Options. Setup the highest priority for USB Hard Disk (should be before USB CD-ROM - the best is to give USB CD-ROM the lowes priority eg. seventh). Also USB Hard Disk should be before USB Floppy.
another that may come in handy: http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/open-so ... aptop.html

You might need to change some settings in your BIOS to make sure your flash drive is recognized as a USB hard drive instead of something else. If this fails, you can try installing LILO to your drive instead of EXTLINUX. If you're dead set on a graphical boot menu, you can try Porteus v.09, it has an older version of SYSLINUX, and it has been known to work on the occasional machine where 4.04 has issues. See this thread for more information and a lengthy discussion: http://porteus.org/forum/viewtopic.php? ... t=10#p7041

Hope that helps, and welcome!
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kata930
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Re: ERROR: No configuration file found

Post#3 by kata930 » 08 Mar 2012, 08:36

Thank you for your comment!

My PC is not hp. I bought GIGABYTE mother board.

I checked the Bios setting, and confirmed that the USB stick is recognized as USB-HDD.

Actually, when using LiveCD , it works fine.
I suppose some people have same experience.

I have Porteus v09.iso image, and create USB bootable image with it.
But the result was same. It show those messeage below.

>SYSLINUX 3.71 ...
>Could not find kernel image: linux

I entered "vmliuz" and "/boot/vmlinuz", but ignored.

I did not try LILO, because I don't want to use it....

Anyway, thank you for your advice.. :)

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brokenman
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Re: ERROR: No configuration file found

Post#4 by brokenman » 08 Mar 2012, 13:27

OK so the same USB works in other systems. This points to the computer being the problem. The error comes about because syslinux can't find the configuration file syslinux.cfg which tells it where initrd is (in our case it tells where porteus.cfg is). Please try putting the syslinux.cfg file in /boot and seeing if this works (unlikely since it works on other machines).

If Ahau is right that the system expecting a usb-floppy and not getting it ... even though the bios reports otherwise ... then try to dd the porteus iso file directly to the USB stick. I saw this on a launchpad some time ago.

dd if=Porteus-v1.1-i486-1.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=1M
WARNING: Make sure you get the sdX bit correct or you will nuke your partition.

How did you format the USB device?

NOTE: Syslinux also has a -stupid mode.
-s, --stupid
Install a "safe, slow and stupid" version of SYSLINUX . This version may work on some very buggy BIOSes on which SYSLINUX would otherwise fail. If you find a machine on which the -s option is required to make it boot reliably, please send as much info about your machine as you can, and include the failure mode
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Ahau
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Re: ERROR: No configuration file found

Post#5 by Ahau » 08 Mar 2012, 13:31

one other thing to try -- plug in the USB and put the CD in as well, set your bios to boot from CD first. Then on the boot menu that pops up (from the CD), select the Plop Bootloader entry, then select 'USB' from the Plop menu that comes up. That should load syslinux from the USB device and if that works, it's an additional data point for us.
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kata930
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Re: ERROR: No configuration file found

Post#6 by kata930 » 10 Mar 2012, 01:33

Dear brokenman san, Ahau san,

Thank you for comment and advice!

I could solve the problem.
Porteus USB stick can boot on the PC.

The root cause was FAT32.
I suppose the Bios cannot understand FAT32 file system.
I guess newer PC bios supports FAT32 ??

I format the USB with FAT16, then it was solved.

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