Ratel here!
I've tried navigatrix on the external hard drive. It behaves exactly like the memory stick! I get the writing, then the screen goes black!

Ok. You get the blue screen with the ray in the little corner?

...or only the one line of text across the top of the screen on a black background?

If you see the blue screen--as soon as you see it--hit the <esc> key as many times as necessary to get and keep the screen blank with the word boot: in the upper left corner.

At boot:

type in:

old

and then hit <enter>

This will boot up a failsafe video driver, because the automatic hardware detection is picking the wrong video driver.

We can move beyond the failsafe later.

If the writing is just the one line on the top with no blue screen you have a buggered stick. If the checksum matches and it was written properly the stick itself might have a defect.

Give that a go....

Hi Moe!
I'm not getting a blue screen as you describe. I'm getting a lot of writing on the screen referring to booting from CASPER. The writing is on a black screen. The writing is followed by several lines of dots then the word "ready".
The impression I get is that the computer goes through the intial stages of booting off the memory stick but that it reaches a point where it can go no further. I suspect that something is missing.

I opened all the files on the memory stick, one by one. Many of them are empty. I can find reference to a system called CASPER. There is a "box" - opencpn 3.0.2-1 i386 deb

I have tried re-downloading the navigatrix iso file from the internet. I get a file that is 1.3 gigs and calls itself a raw CD image.

I'm beginning to suspect it . . .

Your stick is not made correctly.

Go back to the screenshots of the Startup Disk Creator and try again.

If you wonder what's suppose to be on the stick go to a post further upstream where I listed what you should see and only those....in fact, if I remember correctly, I said only those.

Yes, I remember correctly....at least regarding this.

Yes, you are downloading a raw CD image.

You are making a LiveCD. It works like a CD (that you can write to). You computer thinks it's a CD (that it can write to)...not a hard disk. If it thinks otherwise it must be corrected.

Have you run a checksum?

Do you know how to run a checksum? A checksum if far faster than re-downloading....because re-downloading doesn't answer the question. If you don't answer the question the question doesn't go away.

When you did run this checksum what did it say?

Hi Moe,

My apologies.
The Memory Disk has exactly the files you listed in your earlier Email and no others.
I was looking at the Hard Drive - which I have now put aside.

Some of the files on the Memory stick are empty. For example, music and documents.

I don't know how to run a checksum.

Thank you so much for your Email.

Ratel.

since you're running ubuntu....

In the terminal....at the prompt...enter

md5sum /dir/to/the/navigatrix.iso

where /dir/to/the/navigatrix.iso is the dir to the navigatrix.iso

e.g., md5sum /home/ratel/Downloads/navigatrix.iso

It'll take a minute or so because it is a big file it will generate a long alphanumeric signature.

It must...must match

MD5: 1ffb7ab0ea86ad334262290d68484612

This is the Checksum that appears on the Download page.

See what you get and when the downloaded ISO matches the checksum 1ffb7ab0ea86ad334262290d68484612 then you can make a Startup Disk.

Some directories are originally empty. They are place holders for data that you can enter later.

I don't want to complicate things but perhaps it's worth looking at this recent post: http://navigatrix.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=358. It seems that newer HP hardware comes with a new kind of BIOS labeled UEFI which may throw a wrench into the boot process.

Not sure if this applies in this case as it seems that (a) Ratel was actually getting the traditional BIOS boot menu (?) and (b) the same laptop boots on ubuntu (though ubuntu may have undergone the veri$ign process described in the post above).

Personally, I would be very suspicious towards anything that sounds alarmingly like the European soccer federation UEFA. It's gotta be some barely ethical money making scheme...

Good point. It was my thought as well since reading the post from SailSanBlas the reference states that hp has been messing with it since 2008 and the boot menu in other sites looks the same....if it's the same as Ratel's I don't know.

...but he is running Ubuntu on the machine.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI - if I read this correctly, it seems that ubuntu (at least 12.10) does run with UEFI?

Maybe dmidecode will provide a hint?

@Ratel: Booting either from your ubuntu partition or from the Navigatrix USB stick, can you (after the system has booted)

(1) press [ctrl]+[alt]+[T] to bring up a little command line window

(2) type "sudo dmidecode -t 0" (without the quotes), hit [enter] and post the output you see back to this discussion

Hi Markus,
It's been blowing great guns here for days, so please forgive the delay. I was huddled on my boat praying that the anchor would not drag!

It seems absurd, but I cannot - for the moment - do what you asked! With only two hands I can't hold down that combination of keys and type! However, I'm meeting with someone tomorrow and I'll get them to hold the keys while I type. Then I'll get back to you!

Hi Moe,
I'll try your suggestion and revert.
Thanks.

Hi Moe,
The answer I get from the terminal is "No such file or directory".

I'm probably doing something wrong as I've never got any other answer from the terminal!

Befuddled Ratel

I didn't mean to ask you to be superhuman... after you pressed [ctrl]+[alt]+[t] and the terminal window comes up, you can release these keys again and then type at the command line in the terminal window "sudo dmidecode -t 0 [enter]". If you were able to try Moe's checksum test, you should be able to do the above with the same number of hands, whatever that may be.

Re. the message you got when trying Moe's md5 checksum test: That sounds as if you were pointing the "md5sum" to the wrong (or rather: a non-existing) file. In Moe's example:

"md5sum /home/ratel/Downloads/navigatrix.iso"

you will have to replace the "/home/ratel/Downloads/navigatrix.iso" with the correct path to your downloaded iso file. Check in the file manager what the name of the iso file in your download directory is. It may be "navigatrix(1).iso" if you had multiple download attempts in which case you would have to type

"md5sum /home/ratel/Downloads/navigatrix(1).iso"

at the terminal's command line prompt (as always without the quotes).

Hope the wind has eased and the anchor didn't drag. Good luck.

I also considered that Ratel installation of Ubuntu doesn't have md5sum installed.

But then its part of the core utilities and should be on every machine....but then again maybe it's not there.

Ratel, try just md5sum with no further instructions.

If you keep getting the file not found error enter:


and then chase it with <enter> You will need to be connected to the internet.

This will install the tools that come in handy if you need to do more than read email and look up cricket scores.

If this installation fails for some reason enter

again followed by <enter>...and then try it again.

Hi Markus!

I did as you suggested.

When I try to boot off the memory stick I get a black screen with writing that appears progressively. It "unrolls". It says that it is preparing to boot off Casper and various other things.
There are then several lines of dots followed by the word "Ready".
Below the word "ready" on the left is a small flat flashing cursor.
All this remains on the screen for perhaps 1 - 2 seconds. The screen goes light grey, then black . . . and that's it!

I tried holding down the ctl + alt + T keys while the little cursor was flashing, but nothing happened - the screen just went black as usual.

I have to go to a meeting of guys going across the Pacific now. I'll be back online tomorrow. Thanks for your help!

What Markus was saying was not when you boot from the stick, but when you are in Ubuntu...just as what I was saying in the previous post.

Remember, you can cut'n'paste.....

Ratel, if there a boot menu in your BIOS that looks like this?

Hi Moe!

1. I typed md5sum into the terminal. Absolutely nothing happened.

2. I typed the other two instructions, one at a time. Something happened because when I tried to put the terminal away, I got a flag saying that there was a process running and I'd kill it if I quit terminal. I waited half and hour, and still got the same flag. I then tried to boot navigatrix and there was no change.

3. I do not have the picture you sent in my Bios. I do have some of the individual items, but the whole format is quite different.

Thanks,

Ratel

Hi!
I keyed "sudo dmidecode -t0" into the terminal.
I got "[sudo] password for andrew: " (without the inverted commas).
I tried to key in my password but it would not accept it.
Ratel!

Hi Guys!

Ratel here.

I've been trying to read the blurb that comes up when I try to boot off the memory stick.

It comes and goes so fast that I can only read one line per boot up attempt.

One such line says "Unknown word in configuration file"

Does this hold any kind of deep significance?

Ratel.

It says to me that the ISO you downloaded is corrupted.

When you execute md5sum from the terminal and it didn't do anything means that the program is setting ther waiting. If you didn't have it, it would let you know. In retrospect it might have been more helpful to enter md5sum --version, or md5sum --help...but there ya' go.

Ok, so you have md5sum...the next thing is to get it to find and check the file.

There are a couple or reasons why it's not finding it.

1) You are giving it the wrong path (directory(s)).
2) You are giving it the wrong file name.
3) There is a typo in the location or filename.

You will notice that those reasons are variations of the same idea. Computers aren't real good at fuzzy logic.

I don't type all that well. My proofreading is even worse. Sometimes I can't quite remember the spelling on a command or directory. There is a feature in the terminal I use quite frequently. This feature is "auto-completion". It should be enabled on your machine. You should be able to use it as well.

To use this auto-completion feature you hit the <tab> key. It permits typing a partial command, then pressing the <Tab> key to auto-complete the command sequence.

If nothing happens; there are multiple possibilities and the computer needs additional information. Hitting <tab> again lists them all.

Or, or,...OR, you have given your computer the wrong lead and it can't find any possibilities available.

This is how it works:

Nothing happens. But hit <tab> twice

Too many options and/or you have an idea where you're going;

You see there are two listing that being with md5. If you hit <tab> once it will auto-complete until there is a difference between possibilities....after that the computer needs additional input. Try it. Enter md5. Hit <tab>. It stops at md5sum Hit <tab> again and it lists the possibilities.

If you are going in the wrong direction....
You can bang on the keys until they're bloody and nothing will happen.

So, let's make an assumption the file you want to check is in your Downloads directory.

Enter:

md5sum /h<tab>a<tab>Dow<tab>nav<tab>

Notice you've entered Dow. This is because Downloads begins with an uppercase "D". Desktop also begins with the letter D. People also tend to have a directory Documents which has Do. Using the first three letter makes it a unique command and is then auto-completed. The same goes for the following nav. Your looking for files that begin nav. This includes the navigatrix.iso, but also incluses 'navigatrix[1].iso'; 'navigation.pdf'; 'navionics.doc'. But it excludes "nubian"; "namibia"; "nome"; "natural" ...or any other of the innumerable possibilities. It also excludes "Navigatrix.iso" because upper and lower case letters are different creatures.

If anywhere along the line <tab> does not auto-complete; or <tab><tab> does not list your options you are at the end of the line. Either you have the correct (intended) command, or you have a typo...usually in the form of an upper/lower case; missing letter (navgat...), or however we can mangle the command....or, and this is always a possibility; what you are trying to do; what you are looking for; is not there.

So you've entered the command, and thus far you have, e.g., wadda@example:~$md5sum /home/wadda/Downloads/navigatrix. If it stops <tab><tab> to list your options, and then type in the proper one tabbing when you can auto-complete you selection. Do it until you see the .iso at the end.

Check the checksum....delete any file that doesn't match what it's suppose to be.

Give it a go.