Problems Booting From USB

[phifedogg]

I am a complete newb to Linux, first of all... I'm running Linux Mint 12 off of a stick and I'm having major issues. It ran fine for about 2 weeks, but now it gives me the "unattended-upgrade in progress during shutdown" message when it's booting up.

I tried to read up on how to fix that, but I found that I can't try anything suggested because my sudoer file is has errors. I can't sudo anything.. I can't edit it because I don't have a username with admin rights..

I tried to read up on fixing that, but it looks like I need to boot up in Recovery mode. Recovery mode isn't an option on my GRUB. I have 4 options -- 1. Run Linux Mint 2.) Run Linux Mint Compatibility Mode 3.) Memory Test 4.) Boot From Local.

I wouldn't be sweating it, but the stick has my bitcoin info on it and I dont want to do anything to lose my funds.. The laptop I'm running has Windows Vista and Ubuntu on it. Can I boot one of those systems up, then access the USB stick to fix? Is there a way to recover or fix any of this? Please Help (and you probably have to dumb things down for me to understand).. Thanks.......

[usbtux]

From your ubuntu:

you want to get at those files in Linux on your computer outside the USB. In this case you’re going to have to mount the loop device (the casper-rw file) somewhere first.
The following commands show how to make a folder and mount the loop and then unmount it too.
Copy the casper-rw file to your home folder
Where XXXXX is the name of your home folder
To Mount:
Open a terminal in your home folder then type
mkdir ~/caspermnt
You'll only need to do this once as you’ve just made a folder (mkdir = make directory) called caspermnt in your home folder.
Next type
sudo mount -o loop casper-rw /home/XXXXX/caspermnt/
Your mounted casper-rw file will then appear as a drive icon on your desktop and a folder in home.

To Unmount:
sudo umount ~/caspermnt/

If it wont mount you are stuffed.

[phifedogg]

Thanks, I have it mounted.. I'm not sure what to do now, though. It's showing the sudoers file with a lock on the icon. Is there a way I can open and edit?

[usbtux]

Cant you copy all your stuff of the file to somewhere secure. Then remake the live stick.
Remember to backup all your stuff regularly.

If you need to change the ownership of the file you'll need = $ chown username somefile

[phifedogg]

Thanks! That recovered the files that I needed. I'm just trying to figure out the whole bitcoin recover thing now...

[RobartGilbert]

Hi phifedogg,

You might want to boot from a USB device, like an external hard drive or a flash drive, for many different reasons.

When you boot from a USB device, what you're actually doing is running your computer with the operating system that's installed on the USB device. When you start your computer normally, you're running with the operating system installed on your hard drive - Windows, Linux, etc.

Follow these easy steps to boot from a flash drive, an external hard drive, or some other bootable USB device.

Change the BIOS boot order so the USB device option is listed first. The BIOS is rarely setup this way by default.

If the USB boot option is not first in the boot order, your PC will start "normally" (i.e. boot from your hard drive) without even looking at any boot information that might be on your USB device.

Attach the USB device to your computer via any available USB port.

Creating a bootable flash drive or configuring an external hard drive as bootable is a task in itself. Chances are you made it to my instructions here because you know whatever USB device you have should be bootable after properly configuring BIOS.

Restart your computer.

Watch for a Press any key to boot from external device... message.

On some bootable devices, you may be prompted with a message to press a key before the computer will boot to the flash drive or other USB device.

If you do nothing, your computer will check for boot information on the next boot device in the list in BIOS (see Step 1) which will probably be your hard drive.

Most of the time when trying to boot to a USB device there is no key-press prompt. The USB boot process usually starts immediately.

Your computer should now boot from the flash drive or USB based external hard drive.

What happens now depends on what the bootable USB device was intended for. If you're booting to an old version of MS-DOS on a flash drive, MS-DOS will load. If you're booting to the DSL version of Linux, it will start. You get the idea.

If you tried the above steps but your computer did not boot from the USB device, check out some of the tips below.



Recheck the boot order in BIOS (Step 1). The number one reason a bootable flash drive or other USB device won't boot is because BIOS is not configured to check the USB port first.
Didn't find a "USB Device" boot order listing in BIOS? If your computer was manufactured around 2001 or before, it may not have this ability. If your computer is newer, check for some other ways that the USB option might be worded. In some BIOS versions, it's called "Removable Devices" or "External Devices".
Switch to another USB port. The BIOS on some motherboards only check the first few USB ports. Switch to another USB port and restart your computer.
Copy the files to the USB device again. If you created the bootable flash drive or external hard drive yourself, which you probably did, repeat whatever steps you took again. You may have made a mistake during the process.

Thanks |See if this helpshttp://www.techyv.com/questions/how-mak ... b-bootable