Stephen Isard wrote:
> On Mon, 4 May 2009, Urs Beyerle urs.beyerle-at-env.ethz.ch |Scientific
> Linux| wrote:
> 
>> Hi Stephen,
>>
>> Booting with option "failsafe" is equal to booting with "linux |nonet
>> simplex apm=off acpi=off noapic nofstab". One or more of these options
>> make your system work correctly. Can you try to identify which option(s)
>> are needed?
> 
> Hi Urs,
> 
> It seems to be nofstab that is required.  When I use that on its own, I
> get to set the password.  None of the others on their own help.

Hi Stephen,

That's interesting.

If you boot without nofstab option, the livecd bootup script scans your hard disks and puts an entry
for each partition it can mount into /etc/fstab. This feature is not essential for the functionality
of the livecd. In fact, I don't know why this should break things later in the bootup script, when
your are asked to provide a password. Maybe your USB DVD-ROM confuses the bootup script?

Solution: Just boot the livecd with "linux nofstab".


If you want to debug this, you can execute some parts of the bootup script (/etc/init.d/runlast)
manually after booting the livecd.

For example, scan for partitions:

. /livecd/live/liblinuxlive
list_partition_devices

Or you can run the bootup script /etc/init.d/runlast once again without the nofstab option:

edit /etc/init.d/runlast and comment out the line

# NOFSTAB=$( cmdline_parameter nofstab )

Now run the script manually

/etc/init.d/runlast

or even run the script in bash debug mode

bash -x /etc/init.d/runlast

Cheers,

	Urs