USB install error "No root device found", can't install, Tried different images, none worked

Hello,
I am trying to install SL6 from my USB drive, and I have tried the DVD install, Live CD, and Live DVD images.
I "installed" the images onto the USB drive via Universal USB Installer 1.8.1.4 from http://www.pendrivelinux.com/.
It has worked for other OSes, but when I try it with SL6, I consistently get the following error:

"No root device found

Boot has failed, sleeping forever"

Any idea what it means, and what I can do to successfully install SL6 via USB? Thanks.

Other than the 5 to 10 minute boot-up time problem I am experiencing with SL6, and after using it for about a week, I just received this exact same message for the first time today during the boot process. I rebooted, did not get the message a second time, and was able to log into SL6.

Other than the 5 to 10 minute boot-up time problem I am experiencing with SL6, and after using it for about a week, I just received this exact same message for the first time today during the boot process. I rebooted, did not get the message a second time, and was able to log into SL6.

But were you able to install SL6 onto your machine in the first place? I can't even get that far, because I don't have an optical drive so I have to install from USB. And again when I try to boot the live images from USB I get that error. Any help would be great!

I installed from the DVD's, which eventually completed without any other errors. I have not tried a USB install nor did I receive the "No root device found" during the install. I just found it interesting that I got the same error after the install.

Just an idea - I had a similar problem a while ago, although I can't remember the exact error message. Turned out in my case that my USB drive was being incorrectly recognized as a HDD; so I had to change the BIOS to boot from the (2nd) HDD before USB.

Checked that, my USB is being recognised as an HDD. Any other ideas?
This is my first time installing SL in a real, physical machine, and I really want to make it work!
If no one here knows a solution, are there other places I can ask? If so, I will post whatever answer I get back here.

Edit: P.S. I posted this question on the Scientific Linux users mailing list, but if anyone here has ideas please still let me know! Thanks.

So do you have your BIOS set to boot from HDD before booting from USB? If you have it set to boot USB first it may well be causing the problem.

I just saw your post on the mailing list; you should hopefully have some success on there.

Progress!
Based on the reply I got from the mailing list from Artem, here is what I did:

• Download SL 6 live CD image ISO.
• Use the Fedora Live USB Creator to make the SL 6 live USB from the ISO.
• Download syslinux >4.03 from here and install the RPM in another working Linux system, find /usr/share/syslinux/vesamenu.c32 on that system and replace vesamenu.c32 file on the live USB stick with it.
• Boot with USB and it worked for me.

Apparently this is because the syslinux provided by the Live USB Creator is too old and won't work. Hope this will be of use to someone else one day.
Now that the live USB boots, I ran into another problem , which I will report in another post.....

QUOTE (avamk @ Jun 6 2011, 09:24 PM)

Progress! Based on the reply I got from the mailing list from Artem, here is what I did: Download SL 6 live CD image ISO. Use the Fedora Live USB Creator to make the SL 6 live USB from the ISO. Download syslinux >4.03 from here and install the RPM in another working Linux system, find /usr/share/syslinux/vesamenu.c32 on that system and replace vesamenu.c32 file on the live USB stick with it. Boot with USB and it worked for me. Apparently this is because the syslinux provided by the Live USB Creator is too old and won't work. Hope this will be of use to someone else one day. Now that the live USB boots, I ran into another problem  , which I will report in another post.....

Thanks for the advice. Ran into the same problem, works like a charm

Hi there,

I ran into the same problem, cannot manage to install SL 6.0 with my USB stick...
The link towards syslinux leads to an empty directory, anyone knows where I could find it?
Thank you for your help and keep up the great work!

QUOTE (freddie50 @ Feb 5 2012, 04:24 PM)

The link towards syslinux leads to an empty directory, anyone knows where I could find it?

I can't find it either, anyone has ideas?

Hi people,

Just thought I would let you know that I just tried the livecd-iso-to-disk way of creating a live usb stick from http://www.livecd.ethz.ch/usbdisk.html and booted it as a VM without issue.

Might be worth a try.

QUOTE (AndrewSerk @ Feb 9 2012, 07:04 PM)

Hi people, Just thought I would let you know that I just tried the livecd-iso-to-disk way of creating a live usb stick from http://www.livecd.ethz.ch/usbdisk.html and booted it as a VM without issue. Might be worth a try.

Thanks very much Andrew!

This livecd-iso-to-disk tool is absolutely perfect for SL!

But it does not seem to work with other distros... openSuse liveCD did not like it...

Could you please lead me to some reading where I could start to understand the actual problem of flashing a LiveCD image to a USB pendrive?
I used to do it with dd but for some reason it is far from working all the time now...

Thanks again and keep up the great work!

QUOTE (freddie50 @ Feb 17 2012, 10:21 AM)

QUOTE (AndrewSerk @ Feb 9 2012, 07:04 PM) Hi people, Just thought I would let you know that I just tried the livecd-iso-to-disk way of creating a live usb stick from http://www.livecd.ethz.ch/usbdisk.html and booted it as a VM without issue. Might be worth a try. Thanks very much Andrew! This livecd-iso-to-disk tool is absolutely perfect for SL! But it does not seem to work with other distros... openSuse liveCD did not like it... Could you please lead me to some reading where I could start to understand the actual problem of flashing a LiveCD image to a USB pendrive? I used to do it with dd but for some reason it is far from working all the time now... Thanks again and keep up the great work!

Hi freddie50,

You are welcome I will post a "How To" with 3-4 different methods just as soon as I can get a chance to write it hopefully in the next day or two.

I will post a link here for anyone following this thead once I have posted the How To.

Thanks again Andrew,

I am sure you must be very busy as your skills are for sure in hi demand!
I wish I was as talented as you are with Linux...
Once again many thanks for your great support!
All the very best and keep up the good work!

Here's a solution I came up when my only DVD burner quit on me last week.

Part 1 ("SL to USB"):
- downloaded SL 6.2 install DVD .iso file
- installed UNetbootin (from EPEL repository, I think)
- ran UNetbootin to make a bootable USB stick of the .iso file

Part 2 ("USB fix"):
- deleted the Packages directory from the USB stick
- copied the .iso file to the USB stick

Part 3 ("SL installation"):
- restarted computer (and changed boot device order)
- selected "Install or upgrade an existing system"
- installed SL 6.2 on the hard disk
The first time I was not paying enough attention and did not notice that the installation put the boot loader onto the USB stick which is treated as HDD on my machine.

Just 2 Steps

Try this one... No need to copy files here & there...
Works like a charm on SL6.2 Install DVD.iso in windows.

1. Download iso2usb.exe (Ver.0.7) from http://iso2usb.sourceforge.net.
2. Leave every setting as default except carefully selecting your USB drive.

Cheers
Ramin Sidhu

Here is a link to a How To with 4 different methods to create a live USB stick: http://scientificlinuxforum.org/index.php?showtopic=1433

Hope this helps,

QUOTE (AndrewSerk @ Feb 26 2012, 02:47 AM)

Here is a link to a How To with 4 different methods to create a live USB stick: http://scientificlinuxforum.org/index.php?showtopic=1433 Hope this helps,

Andrew, thanks for the HOW-TO it surely will come handy for some.

Personally I'm more interested in an easy way to make a bootable USB stick off the SL install CD/DVD images (as opposed to the Live images). I tried to do that a couple of times following some (IMHO overcomplicated) guides I found on the Centos web site and on the web, but never succeeded.
I never really looked further into this due to lack of time and since I have an external USB DVD drive I found it quicker to just use that.

IMHO this is one aspect of SL (and Centos) that would need improving, Mandriva has had hybrid CD/DVD/USB bootable install images for years, basically any Mandriva ISO can just be dumped (using dd or a simple cat image.iso > /dev/sdX) onto a USB stick and then booted from.

I know, given enough time I probably would be able to figure out myself how to improve SL isos to work like the Mandriva isos, but so far this hasn't been pressing enough for me and I always had more pressing stuff that has taken up all my time.
so I'm just throwing this out there in the hope that it stimulates someone else's interest to look into this.

QUOTE (tux99 @ Feb 25 2012, 09:00 PM)

QUOTE (AndrewSerk @ Feb 26 2012, 02:47 AM) Here is a link to a How To with 4 different methods to create a live USB stick: http://scientificlinuxforum.org/index.php?showtopic=1433 Hope this helps, Andrew, thanks for the HOW-TO it surely will come handy for some. Personally I'm more interested in an easy way to make a bootable USB stick off the SL install CD/DVD images (as opposed to the Live images). I tried to do that a couple of times following some (IMHO overcomplicated) guides I found on the Centos web site and on the web, but never succeeded. I never really looked further into this due to lack of time and since I have an external USB DVD drive I found it quicker to just use that. IMHO this is one aspect of SL (and Centos) that would need improving, Mandriva has had hybrid CD/DVD/USB bootable install images for years, basically any Mandriva ISO can just be dumped (using dd or a simple cat image.iso > /dev/sdX) onto a USB stick and then booted from. I know, given enough time I probably would be able to figure out myself how to improve SL isos to work like the Mandriva isos, but so far this hasn't been pressing enough for me and I always had more pressing stuff that has taken up all my time. so I'm just throwing this out there in the hope that it stimulates someone else's interest to look into this.

Hi Tux,
The livecd-iso-to-disk method that is in that "How To" works great for putting install DVDs to USB. That is pretty much the only time use that method.

The SL6 and greater livecd/dvds are capable of being "dumped" with dd to USB. That is the method I use the most. Saves on CDRs.

This post has been edited by AndrewSerk: Feb 26 2012, 02:17 AM

QUOTE (AndrewSerk @ Feb 26 2012, 03:09 AM)

Hi Tux, The livecd-iso-to-disk method that is in that "How To" works great for putting install DVDs to USB. That is pretty much the only time use that method.

Hmm, I overlooked that, I will have to try it.

Edit: now I see why that didn't work for me in the past. Because it requires access to a SL/Centos/Fedora box with that particular tool (livecd-iso-to-disk), while when I needed to do it I only had a Mandriva box to do it on. I tried to get it to run on Mandriva but for some reason I can't remember I couldn't get it to work. 'dd' or 'cat' on the other hand are available on every Linux box!

QUOTE (AndrewSerk @ Feb 26 2012, 03:09 AM)

The  SL6 and greater livecd/dvds are capable of being "dumped" with dd to USB. That is the method I use the most. Saves on CDRs.

Agreed, what I wonder is why don't they also make it work with the install CD/DVDs? If Mandriva can do it then surely any other distro could do it too?

QUOTE (avamk @ May 31 2011, 04:17 AM)

Hello, I am trying to install SL6 from my USB drive, and I have tried the DVD install, Live CD, and Live DVD images. I "installed" the images onto the USB drive via Universal USB Installer 1.8.1.4 from http://www.pendrivelinux.com/. It has worked for other OSes, but when I try it with SL6, I consistently get the following error: "No root device found Boot has failed, sleeping forever" Any idea what it means, and what I can do to successfully install SL6 via USB? Thanks.

-------------
Hello

I know this post is quite old but anyway... I though this may help someone...
Essentially that error means that for any reason the kernel+initrd are having problems to continue to the next stage of booting.

Frequently when we get "No root device" the underlying cause is a required driver missing from the initrd img for the particular hardware.

In some cases when USB drives/pendrives are involved it may be we're trying to use a non properly supported port, for example: USB3.0 vs USB2.0 port

Some ideas:
-Try not to use a USB3.0 port [blue port] (if that is the case)
-Try to use different USB2.0 ports.. some machines have several ports connected to different USB controller chips (and some of the chipset may be supported and others may not)
-Try to create your own initrd with support for your "controller"
...


Hope that helps...
I was trying for hours before I found what was going on...
Placing the USB drive (with the live SL 6.3 distro) in a USB2.0 port worked

Regards
TrxWiz

Thanks for the additional info

QUOTE (redman @ Mar 22 2013, 08:01 PM)

Thanks for the additional info

Thanks to you

Also trying to help another user I detailed a little on the method I used .

Solved the problem to boot Scientific Linux 6.3 from a USB3.0 port (and a USB3.0 pendrive/USB flash drive):

http://scientificlinuxforum.org/index.php?act=ST&f=5&t=2034&st=0#entry15516

This will save some time to someone.

IDEA: This could be forwarded to the developers/packagers so they rebuild the initrd image included in the ISOs.

This will make Scientific Linux even better. You know... some users/newcomers may feel terribly discouraged if the first thing they see is a direful kernel panic just because of an incomplete initrd/initramfs



Thanks

QUOTE (trxwiz @ Apr 11 2013, 06:59 PM)

IDEA: This could be forwarded to the developers/packagers so they rebuild the initrd image included in the ISOs.

Sorry, but since none of us here belong to the dev-team, you might want to drop a line yourself on the SL mailinglist