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mikeg99 · 2010-09-23, 19:27

I know there a tons of threads about installing XBMC live from a bootable USB thumb drive onto an Acer Revo 3610 and other platforms. I have read tons of threads, forums, blogs, walkthoughs, etc. to no avail.

Whenever I try to boot from a bootable USB thumb drive, I get an error message "remove disk or media and press any key to continue."

Here are the steps I took:

1. My bios appears to be the latest version
2. I manually changed the graphics memory - UMA to 256k (some of the screenshots show iGPU in this space but mine says UMA).
3. I looked for the tag line regarding revoboot but it is not in my bios. My advanced options does not list that (I have seen it on some screen shots).
4. I changed the bios to boot to the removable drive first and then the HDD
5. Boot system and press f12
6. Select thumb drive to boot from.
7. Get error message listed above

I created the bootable thumb drive by doing the following:
1. Downloaded the last stable iso version of XBMClive from XBMCfreaks (v9.11?)
2. Downloaded unetbootin
3. Ran unetbootin and selected the XBMC live iso as the disk image.
4. Chose my thumb drive as the "type"

I have tried several times to get this to work and I get the same error message every time. Any help would be appreciated.

danz0l · 2010-09-23, 20:32

Is it possible your downloaded XBMCfreak iso is corrupt ? It happens and may be something to consider. Maybe download again JUST to be sure.

alexpigment · 2010-09-23, 20:51

In my experience with the revo the boot order options are misleading. I think you have to choose the hard drive as the first boot device, then change the hard drive boot order separately. At any rate I would press f12 on startup and manually choose your device. See if you get the same error

mikeg99 · 2010-09-23, 20:56

alexpigment Wrote:In my experience with the revo the boot order options are misleading. I think you have to choose the hard drive as the first boot device, then change the hard drive boot order separately. At any rate I would press f12 on startup and manually choose your device. See if you get the same error

The only problem with changing the hard drive boot order manually is that the bios does not recognize the usb thumb drive in the HDD menu. It recognizes it as a removable drive. So, if I have it boot to the HDD first, it will automatically choose the internal Revo drive.

mikeg99 · 2010-09-23, 20:57

danz0l Wrote:Is it possible your downloaded XBMCfreak iso is corrupt ? It happens and may be something to consider. Maybe download again JUST to be sure.

I downloaded it twice and tried it with the same error message each time Sad

alexpigment · 2010-09-23, 21:05

mikeg99 Wrote:The only problem with changing the hard drive boot order manually is that the bios does not recognize the usb thumb drive in the HDD menu. It recognizes it as a removable drive. So, if I have it boot to the HDD first, it will automatically choose the internal Revo drive.

Go to BIOS > Advanced BIOS Features > Hard Disk Drive Priority . You don't see two drives under there?

danz0l · 2010-09-23, 21:16

mikeg99 Wrote:I downloaded it twice and tried it with the same error message each time

well it was worth a shot Sad

On my revo i do as you do, run the iso through unetbootin, insert usb to revo, reboot, press F12 and install from thumb to harddrive. No idea why its not working for you.

To rule out everything have you tried another ISO ? Maybe the official dharma beta 1 here ?

mikeg99 · 2010-09-23, 21:25

alexpigment Wrote:Go to BIOS > Advanced BIOS Features > Hard Disk Drive Priority . You don't see two drives under there?

I do not recall seeing two hard drives when the thumb drive was in. The thumb drive was considered a removable drive by the bios so it showed up in that menu. I suppose I can try that again tonight.

mikeg99 · 2010-09-23, 21:26

danz0l Wrote:well it was worth a shot On my revo i do as you do, run the iso through unetbootin, insert usb to revo, reboot, press F12 and install from thumb to harddrive. No idea why its not working for you.

To rule out everything have you tried another ISO ? Maybe the official dharma beta 1 here ?

I should have been more clear. I downloaded that particular iso twice to no avail. I tried the official live iso as well from XBMC.org with the same error.

**kurai** · (This post was last modified: 2010-09-23, 21:36 by kurai.)

Sounds like it's a boot-sector issue on the thumbdrive.

Make sure you format it in Windows first (Fat32, default block allocation size, quick).

Then install the .iso to it using Unetbootin version 471 or later.

Edit: Just remembered there's another boot option in some Revo BIOS versions ...
In Integrated Peripherals page check `USB Storage Emulation` setting.
If your thumbdrive is 2Gb or less make sure the setting is HDD, rather than FDD or Auto.

mikeg99 · 2010-09-23, 21:44

kurai Wrote:Sounds like it's a boot-sector issue on the thumbdrive.

Make sure you format it in Windows first (Fat32, default block allocation size, quick).

Then install the .iso to it using Unetbootin version 471 or later.

Edit: Just remembered there's another boot option in some Revo BIOS versions ...
In Integrated Peripherals page check `USB Storage Emulation` setting.
If your thumbdrive is 2Gb or less make sure the setting is HDD, rather than FDD or Auto.

I did format the thumb drive in windows twice.

Thank you for your comments on the Intergrated Peripherals. I do not recall doing that and I will check that when I get home. I hope it is in my bios settings since my bios version has different stuff than what other people have reported (as listed in my original post).

**kurai** · (This post was last modified: 2010-09-23, 22:13 by kurai.)

Acer have different BIOS versions for machines intended to run Windows instead of Linux.

Windows BIOS is P01.A4, Linux one is P01.A4L

The most obvious difference is that the Windows version has OA2.1 for allowing automatic OEM licence activation of Windows, and doesn't have the RevoBoot `instant start mini-Linux` thing.

There are other differences, apparently, but it's never caused me any problems before so I've never had to research exactly what they are.

Both my Revos (3600 & 3610) were shipped as Linux variants and the `L` BIOSes, without Windows pre-installed, so I don't know if the Windows specific BIOS would really have any ill effect on Linux installs.

From the other side of the coin - both machines quite happily allowed a Windows install on the Linux BIOS version - albeit without OEM licencing which I wasn't using anyway.

Not convinced that's the core of the problem, but it was worth mentioning Wink

It might just be that your particular thumb-drive can't act as a boot device with the nVidia USB chipset.
That's an issue that I haven't seen occur for years - most recent-ish thumbdrives work with pretty much anything, but you never know Sad

Drewdatrip · 2010-09-23, 22:04

Make sure you disable the Revo boot deal. that got me a few times

Drew

**linuxluemmel** · 2010-09-23, 22:05

and check the md5 checksumm ;-)

mikeg99 · 2010-09-23, 22:27

kurai Wrote:It might just be that your particular thumb-drive can't act as a boot device with the nVidia USB chipset.
That's an issue that I haven't seen occur for years - most recent-ish thumbdrives work with pretty much anything, but you never know

The thumb drive I am using is actually VERY VERY old. Maybe that's the problem. Thank you very much for the information and ideas.