yes, USB is there. In the cat/etc/fstab output it is the first UUID listed at /media/disk.

/media/disk2 then is the hard drive on this machine.

Embarassed to ask, but what do yu mean by "grub map files"? I have grub config, of course, but I do not know "grub map file".

If you can tell me more clearly what you would like I will try to supply it.

NOTE: techAdmin asked for an inxi output, but when I attempted that inxi apparently was not installed on the machine. I assumed it came down with the smxi package, but apparently not.
Back to top

Feeling dumber by the moment. inxi is not included in the basic simxi install, but is easily added later using smxi.

OK, here is the output from inxi -pluo, followed by inxi.

Partition: ID:/ size: 13G used: 2.3G (20%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb1 label: aptosid uuid: 5e6779e2-a542-4b36-8182-ca68d5ce6048
ID:/media/disk2part1 size: 15G used: 4.3G (31%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 label: Ubuntu/ uuid: ead8101b-24c3-4428-ac71-3c626207a755
ID:/media/disk2part10 size: 16G used: 213M (2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda10 label: DebianHome uuid: 23e20bde-ae05-4fe2-9f29-b217a0b51e61
ID:/media/disk2part2 size: 11G used: 5.5G (58%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 label: DebianRoot uuid: aa456124-3b05-43ca-8cbf-a49698adcad7
ID:/media/disk2part5 size: 13G used: 4.8G (42%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 label: UbuntuHome uuid: 47ab6425-2938-4ef0-a93a-a6b156546c54
ID:/media/disk2part6 size: 147G used: 63G (45%) fs: ext3 dev: /dev/sda6 label: BillDocs uuid: d806577f-2012-4631-99b5-501167ba7cf5
ID:swap-1 size: 2.18GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdb2 label: N/A uuid: c9527801-938a-4e68-b561-e37ee2192c00
ID:swap-2 size: 7.12GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda11 label: N/A uuid: d936986a-9136-4a12-b2fe-d571af8be4d6
ID:swap-3 size: 6.76GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda7 label: N/A uuid: 59d93a99-54da-4a6a-9360-b97f370288c1
Unmounted: ID: /dev/sda8 size: 12.60G label: N/A uuid: 6f6e5e08-6ec7-4c7b-aa09-cc9f502f0c8f
ID: /dev/sda9 size: 6.60G label: N/A uuid: a3d564ee-2c2a-473e-99ae-848c2bedd1cd
XXXX@aptoUSB:~$ inxi
CPU[-Dual core Intel Core2 Duo T6400 (-MCP-) clocked at 1200.000 Mhz-] Kernel[-2.6.37-0.slh.8-aptosid-amd64 x86_64-] Up[-56 min-] Mem[-203.0/3018.9MB-] HDD[-266.1GB(32.1% used)-] Procs[-121-] Client[-Shell-] inxi[-1.4.23-]
Back to top

hi

I was referring to techadmins reference to the map file but here is what it is, if you have one.....maybe that was the issue when you installed so

1) how did you install.....the aptosid script maybe?

www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#Device-map
Back to top

Apologies for not understanding.

Here is the device.map file that was corrupted.



Here is the present device.map on that same USB drive following a reinstall.



I do a very straightforward installation with sidux/aptosid being very careful to do it as the manual says it should be done. Once I have everything stable I add smxi, which always has worked very well for me.

Now to my eyes these things look identical save for the fact that (hd0) does not appear in the first listing. Aparently that is enough to cause the problem. All I know is that when I reinstalled GRUB I solved my problem.
Back to top

thanks for that.

FYI their manual is likely to be incomplete consider this if you like?

1) change bios boot order to usb stick and disable hard drive
grub's map file will then have to show hd0 info and no hd1

so a good map file is important but map files can also allow ms users to 'swap" drives which is the old trick needed because ms likes to find its C partiition on first partition first drive detected.

(true when I was using w98se and xp not sure about vista and w7)


2) my old sidux wiki...no longer maintained ...shows


menuentry" boot another ms partition"{
set root=(hd0,4)
drivemap -s (hd0,1) (hd0,4)
chainloader +1
}
Back to top

aus9, this is terrific. Thank You!

Your first suggestion gets right at something I hve always wanted to do and physically removing the HD seemed a silly way to do it, so I did not bother.

And I'l explore your other suggestions as well.

Your time and advice very much appreciated.
Back to top

Hey Bill, congratulations on writing such good stuff for h2! This really helps out and makes future updates even more solid!

I don't recall exactly when it was, but a few weeks ago, the Damentz site was acting up. From my recollection, it was only one day, and it was what seemed to be an isolated incident. His site was also pretty slow for a few days right around that same time, but those issues seem to be largely resolved as well.

As I recall, I was working with antiX at the time I encountered the issue. I just temporarily commented out the Damentz Liquorix site, did the rest of my work, and came back in a day or two, and things seemed to be taken care of by then. I believe that on my Debian Sid system, I simply waited a day or two for updates because it was pretty dormant then anyway.

Speaking of that, THANKS h2, for highlighting the Sid recommended hold on upgrades. I beat your script to it once and broke X, but I back filled the X server environment from Squeeze repos (and I have two or three other distros as backups in case I badly torch it) but I got it back cleanly.

The value of smxi (and who cares about those past critics) is that it saves time but it also frequently gives heads up on issues. I'm using it with MEPIS, antiX, Debian Sid, and yes, even with one straggling aptosid system that I keep around, just to see what they're up to. I've recommended it to many people - Bill Julian is one of many - and lots of my friends on both the MEPIS Lovers Forum and the antiX forums have also caught word and news of smxi. As some of you undoubtedly know, anticapitalista already includes it, and some of us have been lobbying Warren Woodford to add it to SimplyMEPIS as a console based tool for advanced users (not sure that will happen), but at the very least, word HAS gotten out among those two communities. I'm not the only one talking about it, but I may well have been the first to attempt to use it with MEPIS (back in the 07-08 time frame), and I also used it with Debian Sid before I ever even ran true sidux, so I'm a bit of a pioneer there - it has always worked really well for me!

Thanks Bill for this great report, and thanks Harold for the great work you do! I'm still plugging this software every chance I get - at Desktop Linux Reviews (Jim Lynch) Newbies Linux (now based at "Knowledge of the Universe", by John Fish), the USALUG, operated by Dave Crouse, and of course, anti's site and the MEPIS Lovers Forum.

Seems the word IS trickling out - of course the DistroWatch exposure undoubtedly helped A LOT! Congratulations, keep up the GREAT work!

Brian
Back to top

Thanks for the nice words Brian, by the way, if you'd like to join the smxi Sid back end warning group, send me a pm, the more the merrier, the goal here is have those warnings up within minutes, or hours, of the break not a day or more, which is what it's tending to now.

I think many of the backend people are not using sid anymore, or have forgotten, or have exited the upgrade daily cycle, so it might be a good time to refresh that group now that sid is live and active again.
Back to top

Sure, count me in and I will help in any way I can. I use all three: Sid, Testing, and Stable, but Sid is still my home. I am being ultra cautious now about anything I change there, having dodged one fast bullet already! ;-)
Back to top

h2 if I had the technical skills to contribute to your project I would. As it is I contribute in other ways. I prefer Debian and Debian-based distributions but I am at the point where I do not fool much with distributions that do not run the smxi scripts. They simply are a better way to do the tasks for which they are designed.

Granted there are a variety of GUI tools but I increasingly find that they place a curtain between me and what I am doing. In that regard the cli is much more transparent. I do make mistakes to be sure, but I have a much better chance of learning something for it.

My thanks to you and to Brian Masinick who got me going in this direction. It is all wonderful therapy for a retired fellow who decided a few years ago to learn something (Linux) he knew absolutely nothing about.

Great fun and thank you!
Back to top