Mageia forum

I see that someone has already made a post like mine. I read over it and see that he or she has what I assume is the same problem as me. Which is "can't mount the root file system". I am making this topic because the other topic is marked as [SOLVED] and because I have more info to give from what I have seen. I downloaded Mageia-2-LiveCD-GNOME-Europe1-Americas-x86_64-CD.iso and Mageia-2-LiveCD-KDE4-Europe1-Americas-x86_64-CD.iso. I looked around and fount this page Dump Mageia ISOs on a USB stick?. I tried mandriva-seed but could not get it to work. I also tried Rufus, Fedora LiveUSB Creator, SARDU and UNetbootin. I get the problem "can't mount the root file system" with all of them but UNetbootin. I decided to try the Live USB stick in Oracle VM VirtualBox. I had the same problem, so I decided to post screenshots.

Fedora LiveUSB Creator GNOME screenshot


Fedora LiveUSB Creator KDE screenshot


SARDU GNOME screenshot


SARDU KDE screenshot



With Rufus I got more errors than what is shown in Oracle VM VirtualBox

Rufus GNOME screenshot


On the computer for GNOME there errors are

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mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb,
    missing codepage or helper program, or other error
    In some cases useful info is found in syslog – try
    dmesg | tail or so

losetup: failed to setup loop device: No such file or directory
mount: /dev/loop0: can't read superblock
dracut Warning: /sysroot has no proper rootfs layout, ignoring and removing offending mount hook


dracut Warning: Can't mount root filesystem

Dropping to debug shell

sh: 0: can't access tty; job control off
dracut:/# [   6.327317] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[   6.327364] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cashe: write through
[   6.332200] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[   6.332246] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cashe: write through
[   6.343948] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[   6.343995] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cashe: write through

Rufus KDE screenshot

On the computer the errors for KDE is

Code: Select all

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb,
    missing codepage or helper program, or other error
    In some cases useful info is found in syslog – try
    dmesg | tail or so

losetup: failed to setup loop device: No such file or directory
mount: /dev/loop0: can't read superblock
dracut Warning : /sysroot has no proper rootfs layout, ignoring and removing offending mount hook


dracut Warning: Can't mount root filesystem

Dropping to debug shell

sh: 0: can't access tty; job control off
dracut:/# [   6.311170] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[   6.311217] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cashe: write through
[   6.316052] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[   6.316098] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cashe: write through
[   6.327675] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[   6.327722] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cashe: write through


I do not know why the errors for GNOME is different than the errors for KDE.

For UNetbootin, I get no errors it just sits there loading the Mageia logo. I think that problem is because of my video card and the video card drivers, but not sure for this. The just sitting there loading the distro logo happens with more than 1 distro and is because of video card drivers. The Nouveau driver is usually the problem. They need to update or fix that driver.

I hope this helps out on the problem and solution.

actually I'm always doing the 'dd' from the console which is also explained in the link you've posted and it always worked fine to me.

First check device name of your USB-stick with

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fdisk -l

l is a small 'L'

if your stick is /dev/sdb then

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dd if=/path/to/your.iso of=/dev/sdb

correct me if I'm wrong but both commands need to be executed as root?

I'm not sure if you want to create it from Windowsor LInux: it seems there is also dd.exe for windows (explained in this bugreport) - but I never tried it.

And furthermore in general: in case that all failed, did you check the md5 of your isos?

Latte wrote:correct me if I'm wrong but both commands need to be executed as root?

Yes, exactly.

Latte wrote:I'm not sure if you want to create it from Windows or LInux: it seems there is also dd.exe for windows (explained in this bugreport) - but I never tried it.

AFAIR does not work anymore starting with Vista or 7, and syntax is quite weird, when it comes to telling it which drive to write to ...

Latte wrote:actually I'm always doing the 'dd' from the console which is also explained in the link you've posted and it always worked fine to me.

I'm not sure if you want to create it from Windowsor LInux: it seems there is also dd.exe for windows (explained in this bugreport) - but I never tried it.

And furthermore in general: in case that all failed, did you check the md5 of your isos?

I am trying to make the USB-stick from Windows 7 btw. The md5 matches.

drthrd wrote:For UNetbootin, I get no errors it just sits there loading the Mageia logo. I think that problem is because of my video card and the video card drivers, but not sure for this. The just sitting there loading the distro logo happens with more than 1 distro and is because of video card drivers. The Nouveau driver is usually the problem. They need to update or fix that driver.

An update. I burned each image to a CD and everything worked fine. I went back and looked at Dump Mageia ISOs on a USB stick? and read where it said "Note that programs such as Unetbootin should not be used to copy the iso image to a usb drive.". That is why I had problems when using UNetbootin. But I wonder why it did not give any errors like the others. I also wonder why you cannot use that program for Mageia. As far as Nouveau not sure about it. I assume Mageia uses that driver right? After Mageia worked I tried another Linux OS that I had problems with the Nouveau driver before and it also worked. So I hope it was updated. Now I will go off and try out the other distros I had problems with lol.

I was reading over [SOLVED] Create live usb-stick from Windows ? and seen where someone mentioned https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/. I tried that program and it worked.

I had an identical problem with USB live operation - and the same solution. The only (Windows) writer to work for me is win32-image-writer. I forced it to load the iso file (after checking the md5), and were now well away.

Best regards

Instead of doing it from MS why not burn a Live DVD, boot to it and then you can run the "dd" command from there to put it on the stick.

I know you are wanting to use the stick instead of burning a DVD but after you get an install on your drive you will not need to burn any more. The Live Session will do anything you want to do.

You will also have a Live DVD that you can give to a friend.

They need to update Dump Mageia ISOs on a USB stick? and remove the programs that do no work. Mageia needs to make their own program and/or maintain and update the list of programs that will work. The MS programs they list on Dump Mageia ISOs on a USB stick? do not work. On the page where you download the ISOs they should have a link linking to that page. It should be clear and easy to find out how to use the ISOs. Does anyone know if there is any problems with DVDs using the same programs?

drthrd wrote:They need to update Dump Mageia ISOs on a USB stick? and remove the programs that do no work. Mageia needs to make their own program and/or maintain and update the list of programs that will work.

Who do you mean by "they" ? Mageia is run by the community for the community, so it's more a "we".
As it is a wiki, anybody can edit the pages and adjust them or fix instructions there.

For the webpages and missing instructions there, feel free to report that as a bug https://wiki.mageia.org/en/How_to_report_a_bug_properly
so it will be adressed by Web and/or Documentation Teams.