Solve : Problems running PCLinuxOS LiveCD?

1.	Solve : Problems running PCLinuxOS LiveCD?
Answer» I'm a newbie, although I have tinkered with Unix before today. I have just tried to run a PCLinuxOS v9.3 - big daddy - from my CD on an XP configured machine by simply altering the boot drive sequence. I get the list of boot options as expected and choose LIVECD - default. The PCLinuxOS coloured badge appears and starts the loading process, then I get an error message "ERROR: Unable to mount the livecd" - "dropping you to a limited shell". It then loads /initrd/bin/ash - ending with a message - "cant access tty; job control turned off" and then leaves me with the ash command prompt. Bearing in mind this whole apparatus works perfectly well with XP at the moment and also that I have a perfectly normal IDE CD READ drive unit, this was unexpected. It looks very serious and basic to me - can anyone shed some light on what the problem might be / where to get help etc. MANY THANKS - a newbie. By far the easiest thing to do is simply try a different distribution. What do you intend to use this Linux machine for? UBUNTU, VectorLinux, SuSE and Fedora are all good alternative choices and there are many others.Thanks for the opinion Rob. I was coming round to that idea myself as I've made no progress over the past 2 days. The problem is it may be a faulty distribution burn but I cant even check the CD as it wont mount. I will download something fairly simple - as you suggest - and try that first. Probably getting back to some basic Unix type scripting and a basic shell is needed first. With regards to what do I want to do with the PC - this is my first attempt to create a working desktop Linux based system. I have eventually decided to give Microsoft the heave-ho as their software distributions and VISTA are just a joke - the costs are just not worth it. Will let you know what happens. Thanks.In that case, Ubuntu is an OBVIOUS choice. I would prefer the Kubuntu flavour (more of a desktop for power users) or the Xubuntu flavour (for older hardware). I presume you did md5 sum checks on your downloaded ISOs? Do keep us posted!Rob, Success, ran the same CD distribution on another machine quickly put together and no problems. Live CD ran but a little slow. I suspect something to do with the sequence of CD access on the first system was at fault - will partially rebuild it and try again. Thanks. P.S. Havnt yet needed to try another distro so will persevere with this one for the time being - keep things as simple as possible. Now have to get to grips with what an ISO image is prior to the installation.Quote Live CD ran but a little slow. Try running Windows off a CD!!! Quote Now have to get to grips with what an ISO image is prior to the installation. I don't follow you - haven't you've already created a burnt CD from an ISO?I bought a distribution CD from Linuxman Rob - so it's all pretty new to me.Ah, got you. If you have a fat enough internet pipe, you can download different Linux distributions rapidly. Once you have the ISO images, use something like DeepBurner (see the software FAQ - link is in my signature) to write to CD. But I do recommend using >md5summer< prior to burning to verify your downloaded ISOs.Thanks for the info Rob - have just returned from holiday.

Answer»

I'm a newbie, although I have tinkered with Unix before today. I have just tried to run a PCLinuxOS v9.3 - big daddy - from my CD on an XP configured machine by simply altering the boot drive sequence. I get the list of boot options as expected and choose LIVECD - default. The PCLinuxOS coloured badge appears and starts the loading process, then I get an error message "ERROR: Unable to mount the livecd" - "dropping you to a limited shell". It then loads /initrd/bin/ash - ending with a message - "cant access tty; job control turned off" and then leaves me with the ash command prompt.

Bearing in mind this whole apparatus works perfectly well with XP at the moment and also that I have a perfectly normal IDE CD READ drive unit, this was unexpected.

It looks very serious and basic to me - can anyone shed some light on what the problem might be / where to get help etc.

MANY THANKS - a newbie.
By far the easiest thing to do is simply try a different distribution. What do you intend to use this Linux machine for?

UBUNTU, VectorLinux, SuSE and Fedora are all good alternative choices and there are many others.Thanks for the opinion Rob. I was coming round to that idea myself as I've made no progress over the past 2 days. The problem is it may be a faulty distribution burn but I cant even check the CD as it wont mount. I will download something fairly simple - as you suggest - and try that first. Probably getting back to some basic Unix type scripting and a basic shell is needed first.

With regards to what do I want to do with the PC - this is my first attempt to create a working desktop Linux based system. I have eventually decided to give Microsoft the heave-ho as their software distributions and VISTA are just a joke - the costs are just not worth it.

Will let you know what happens. Thanks.In that case, Ubuntu is an OBVIOUS choice. I would prefer the Kubuntu flavour (more of a desktop for power users) or the Xubuntu flavour (for older hardware).

I presume you did md5 sum checks on your downloaded ISOs?

Do keep us posted!Rob,

Success, ran the same CD distribution on another machine quickly put together and no problems. Live CD ran but a little slow. I suspect something to do with the sequence of CD access on the first system was at fault - will partially rebuild it and try again.

Thanks.

P.S. Havnt yet needed to try another distro so will persevere with this one for the time being - keep things as simple as possible.

Now have to get to grips with what an ISO image is prior to the installation.Quote

Live CD ran but a little slow.

Try running Windows off a CD!!!

Quote

Now have to get to grips with what an ISO image is prior to the installation.

I don't follow you - haven't you've already created a burnt CD from an ISO?I bought a distribution CD from Linuxman Rob - so it's all pretty new to me.Ah, got you.

If you have a fat enough internet pipe, you can download different Linux distributions rapidly. Once you have the ISO images, use something like DeepBurner (see the software FAQ - link is in my signature) to write to CD. But I do recommend using >md5summer< prior to burning to verify your downloaded ISOs.Thanks for the info Rob - have just returned from holiday.

Solve : Problems running PCLinuxOS LiveCD?

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