Mageia live USB boot problem with ASUS F5GL-AP079 laptop

[rics]

Hello,

I wanted to have some experience with Mageia so I have installed mageia-1-live-gnome-europe2-cd-i586 to a 4 GB KINGSTON DataTraveler USB key.
However before modifying anything in the configuration Mageia hangs during boot at various times: after selecting the language or after clicking on advanced in keyboard selection. The furthest I got after several attempts is the desktop with all elements loaded but the cursor still in loading state, so I could not even check the logs.
The USB key has no hardware problems I could boot from the same install on a different HP desktop.
I have tried to install the iso with mandriva-seed-windows.zip from Windows 2000 and with dd command as well but no luck.
My laptop is an ASUS F5GL-AP079 machine running a Mandriva 2010.0 without problems.

Is there a hardware support problem or am I missing something?

Thanks in advance,
Richard

[claire]

Do you use that USB port very often on the laptop? It's not uncommon for the contacts in the USB port to become dirty, especially on portable things like laptops. That can cause read errors.

[zugunder]

In other words, have you tried different USB ports or just one?
I actually have on my desktop 2 "flimsy" USB ports that are very unstable at work with any thumb drive. I am not sure if it is really due to bad contacts or maybe, hardware problems of USB controllers, but it would be a good idea to try a different port (or a different controller) - preferably on the other side of the laptop.

[rics]

Yes, I use those USB ports for another USB key and android phones without problems.
Now I have tried the port of the mouse on the other sie of the machine: the system still hangs before the first configuration choice with an empty, grey rounded dialog.

[zugunder]

In this case I do not have any ideas... To me it looks like either some hardware incompatibility or (more likely) an installer issue as the laptop is not from the newest models...

[rics]

It is sad because without a successful test I do not dare to try to reinstall the machine so I have to find an alternative or wait for Mageia 2 and hope.
Anyway the laptop is less than 3 years old brand model so I think it should work.

[benmc]

you may have a corrupted iso image in your usb stick.
have you tried the live cd on this laptop. verify the image after burning.

[zugunder]

benmc:
He says he tried the same image on the same USB drive on a different desktop as afar as I understood... and it worked.

rics:
Pure theoretically, it might be an Asus fault. Although I have a working installation of Mageia on my Asus laptop, some functions are still not available, though I spent a lot of time to find out how to make them work. For example, screen doesn't dim on my machine and I can access only one CPU temperature sensor and nothing else. This is due to notorious Asus unfriendly engineering of course... but in your case - I am not sure it is a problem.
But just for case - I'd try a LiveCD. They work far better than thumb drives sometimes...

[rics]

I have tried to boot from a DVD and it is still hangs at the end of the boot: cursor is in waiting mode and the desktop is not responding. So the problem cannot arise from the installation media.

[benmc]

hi

from memory i had something similar Mandriva 2009 in a desktop. at boot, system would hang forever with the cursor middle of screen. that problem was due to poor automatic configuration of video display setting due to unsupported display vendor. I set resolution to 800 x 600 with a vendor driver that worked thru´ trial and error, you may have to do the same. it may take some time......

i later set resolution to 1024 X 768 which was the highest that system would operate at without hanging.

i hope this helps

regards

benmc