[DONE] Unable to boot off a USB

[shashi]

I downloaded the Mageia 3 DVD ISO and used dd to dump it on a stick, as the documentation says I should. When I try to boot off the USB stick, though, my computer (Toshiba Satellite series) seems to be unable to boot from it. The ISO downloaded is fine by md5sum, and the contents of the ISO on my hard disk seem to match what dd put on the stick. What am I missing?

[Mixx]

You might try changing the USB stick's MBR type. UltraISO seems to work on a greater variety of PCs.

On a Windows PC, there is a program called BootICE (aka usbMBR.exe), that can change your MBR.

You can download the usbMBR.exe file at the link below or search for BootICE on the web.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... 9pMGM#list

[shashi]

@Mixx, thanks very much. I'll try to fix the MBR.

Just for info: Xubuntu 13.04 booted perfectly well off off the same USB stick just a couple of days back, as did PCLOS a week before that. I've been using Fedora for the past few years, but have been experimenting with different distros this year. Mageia and OpenSUSE are the the only ones that mess up this stick.

[shashi]

@Mixx, that solved one of the problems. After power-on, the system displayed the install menu. However, when I chose to install, it kept displaying a message that it couldn't find the required files on the CD drive! I've more or less given up on trying to start Mageia with a stick, and will try from a DVD.

Thanks anyway. Bootice is good to know about.

Shashi

[shashi]

dd on Xubuntu 13.04 overwrites the MBR of the stick. No use changing the MBR elsewhere.

Tried to use Rufus under Windows 7 to get Mageia DVD ISO onto a stick. It worked, but when the system booted from the stick, it said it couldn't find the DVD with the Mageia files on it! By the way, Rufus asked what kind of MBR was required, giving three options: for BIOS or UEFI, MBR for UEFI, or GPT for UEFI. When I chose MBR for UEFI, Rufus said that the ISO didn't permit that, so I made MBR for BIOS or UEFI.

Finally used a stick burner under LinuxMint 15 RC to burn the stick. It booted, and installed Mageia.

Under reboot after completing installation, Mageia showed the grub screen with only two options, Windows and Mageia: Xubuntu 13.04 and Linux Mint 15 RC had disappeared! When I chose Mageia the system displayed the splash screen and seemed to hang, then went into text mode and showed a panic message and halted for good. This kept happening.

Mageia seems to have destroyed the MBR on the hard disk. I had to reinstall Xubuntu to get it back, and then Windows. Essentially I had to reconstruct the hard disk.

Sorry to say this, but Mageia, after all those good reports, has been an unmitigated disaster. I will not touch it again.

[doktor5000]

Mageia seems to have destroyed the MBR on the hard disk. I had to reinstall Xubuntu to get it back, and then Windows. Essentially I had to reconstruct the hard disk.

Sorry to say this, but Mageia, after all those good reports, has been an unmitigated disaster. I will not touch it again.

Well, as any other linux distribution, Mageia will install the bootloader by default in the MBR, if you don't change that.
http://doc.mageia.org/installer/3/en/co ... oader.html

[shashi]

Yes, but the other linux distros I tried, Fedora, Ubuntu (and Xubuntu) and PCLOS didn't disable the other linux distros already installed. You can put the bootloader on the MBR without destroying access to the linuxes already on the system.

In any case, since I never will be a Mageia user, I am withdrawing from this forum.

Thanks.