Installing UberStudent on Chromebook

Martin N Brischetto · **Joined:** Thu May 15, 2014 6:43 am **Posts:** 27

I got Uberstudent to work a week ago but now i wanted to reinstall it because it broke when i ran some script. Now i doesn't work.

The exact process:

1. I prepare the usb as instructed on the Uberstudent site with UNetbootin. (the same way i did a week ago when it worked).

2. Boot into usb as instructed by several sites and get to a black screen with a blue box.

Blue box:

Code:

UNetbootin
----------------------------------
Default
Start UberStudent
Start in compability mode
Integrity check
Memory test
Boot from local drive
Start Uberstudent 4.1 Xfce 64-bit
Start Uberstudent 4.1 Xfce 64-bit (compability mode)
Start Uberstudent 4.1 Xfce 64-bit (alt compability mod
Start Uberstudent 4.1 Xfce 64-bit (ACPI and warn reboot
Check the integrity of the medium

3. I select "Start UberStudent" and press tab(if i just press enter it says there isn't enough "memory to load specified image") and i add " mem=4036M" to the line that appears beneath the blue box and press enter:

Code:

> /casper/vmlinuz initrd=/casper/initrd.img file=/cdrom/preseed/uberstudent.seed
boot=casper quiet splash -- mem=4036M

4. Last week a bunch of code appeared followed by the uberstudent logo and startup. This time, instead the "bunch of code" stops at the following screen:

Code:

[          1.292104] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(2,0)
[          1.292162] CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G              W             3.13.0-37-generic #64-Ubuntu
[          1.292235] Hardware name:  ,  BIOS
[          1.292278] 0000000000008001 ffff880079b47df0 ffffffff8171ed09 ffffffff81a3d1c0
[          1.292409] ffff880079b47e68 ffffffff81717e80 ffffffff00000010 ffff880079b47e78
[          1.292537] ffff880079b47e18 ffffffff817189ab ffff880079b47e88 0000000000000064
[          1.292667] Call Trace:
[          1.292712]  [<ffffffff8171ed09>] dump_stack+0x45/0x56
[          1.292760]  [<ffffffff81717e80>] panic+0xc8/0x1d7
[          1.292808]  [<ffffffff817189ab>] ? printk+0x67/0x69
[          1.292857]  [<ffffffff81d3746a>] mount_block_root+0x225/0x2b0
[          1.292906]  [<ffffffff81d37692>] mount_root+0x53/0x56
[          1.292954]  [<ffffffff81d37801>] prepare_namespace+0x16c/0x1a4
[          1.293004]  [<ffffffff81d3716e>] kernel_init_freeable+0x1f3/0x200
[          1.293054]  [<ffffffff81d368e5>] ? do_early_param+0x88/0x88
[          1.293103]  [<ffffffff8170d220>] ? rest_init+0x80/0x80
[          1.293151]  [<ffffffff8170d22e>] kernel_init+0xe/0x130
[          1.293199]  [<ffffffff8172f77c>] ret_from_fork+0x7c/0xb0
[          1.293247]  [<ffffffff8170d220>] ? rest_init+0x80/0x80
_

And this is where it stops with the last underscore just blinking.

How do i get it to work?

PS. i wrote all this by hand so there might be some small errors and it was alot of work so i hope it helps to diagnose

Please help

Stephen Ewen · **Posted:** Sat May 30, 2015 8:40 am

The relevant line here is

Code:

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-bloc

This is not an UberStudent problem but one with the thumb drive, the ISO file itself, or how the ISO was placed on to it.

First, please verify the ISO. The hash string for uberstudent-4.1-xfce-64bit.iso should be:

Code:

69c4e5c683a5561a835b104a24ab1eab

Then, try reformatting your thumb drive as FAT32, place the ISO on to it again with Unetbootin, and see if you get past the kernel panic.

Success?

Martin N Brischetto · **Joined:** Thu May 15, 2014 6:43 am **Posts:** 27

No success, I even downloaded the .iso again and verified it successfully.

The reason I am trying to restore the OS is explained in the topic "Sudo doesn't work!" but basically i ran a modified cros_haswell_modules.sh script to fix my touchpad:

Code:

# Create a temp directory for our work
tempbuild=`mktemp -d`
cd $tempbuild

# Determine kernel version (with and without Ubuntu-specific suffix)
mykern=${1:-$(uname -r)}
mykernver=linux-$(echo $mykern | cut -d'-' -f 1)

# Install necessary deps to build a kernel
sudo apt-get build-dep -y --no-install-recommends linux-image-$mykern

# Grab Ubuntu kernel source
wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/linux-3.12.5.tar.xz
tar -xJf linux-3.12.5.tar.xz
cd linux-3.12.5

if [ -f drivers/platform/x86/chromeos_laptop.c ]; then
  platform_folder=x86
elif [ -f drivers/platform/chrome/chromeos_laptop.c ]; then
  platform_folder=chrome
fi

# Use Benson Leung's post-Pixel Chromebook patches:
# https://patchwork.kernel.org/bundle/bleung/chromeos-laptop-deferring-and-haswell/
for patch in 3078491 3078481 3074391 3074441 3074421 3074401 3074431 3074411; do
  wget -O - https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/$patch/raw/ \
  | sed "s/drivers\/platform\/x86\/chromeos_laptop.c/drivers\/platform\/$platform_folder\/chromeos_laptop.c/g" \
  | patch -p1
done

# Need this
cp /usr/src/linux-headers-$mykern/Module.symvers .

# Prep tree
cp /boot/config-$mykern ./.config
make oldconfig
make prepare
make modules_prepare

# Build only the needed directories
make SUBDIRS=drivers/platform/$platform_folder modules
make SUBDIRS=drivers/i2c/busses modules

# switch to using our new chromeos_laptop.ko module
# preserve old as .orig
sudo mv /lib/modules/$mykern/kernel/drivers/platform/$platform_folder/chromeos_laptop.ko /lib/modules/$mykern/kernel/drivers/platform/$platform_folder/chromeos_laptop.ko.orig
sudo cp drivers/platform/$platform_folder/chromeos_laptop.ko /lib/modules/$mykern/kernel/drivers/platform/$platform_folder/

# switch to using our new designware i2c modules
# preserve old as .orig
sudo mv /lib/modules/$mykern/kernel/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-core.ko /lib/modules/$mykern/kernel/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-core.ko.orig
sudo mv /lib/modules/$mykern/kernel/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-pci.ko /lib/modules/$mykern/kernel/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-pci.ko.orig
sudo mv /lib/modules/$mykern/kernel/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-platform.ko /lib/modules/$mykern/kernel/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-platform.ko.orig
sudo cp drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-*.ko /lib/modules/$mykern/kernel/drivers/i2c/busses/
sudo depmod -a $mykern
echo "Finished building Chromebook modules in $tempbuild. Reboot to use them."

The modification is that i had

Code:

# Grab Ubuntu kernel source
wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/linux-3.12.5.tar.xz
tar -xJf linux-3.12.5.tar.xz
cd linux-3.12.5

instead of

Code:

# Grab Ubuntu kernel source
apt-get source linux-image-$mykern
cd $mykernver

as instructed by http://realityequation.net/installing-elementary-os-on-an-hp-chromebook-14

This resulted in sudo commands not working(I tried things like "sudo echo "hello""), it just loaded. and wifi couldnt connect. Also three files with names containing "chromeos" appeared in the folder of the script which I'm guessing is because it tried to save the files to a folder that didn't exist.

But since then i have reinstalled ChromeOS and performed a powerwash which should have restored the laptop to factory settings. Could it still be the culprit?

Martin N Brischetto · **Joined:** Thu May 15, 2014 6:43 am **Posts:** 27

I bought a new USB and repeated the process but it still doesn't work. so its not the USB

Martin N Brischetto · **Joined:** Thu May 15, 2014 6:43 am **Posts:** 27

Now i have tried installing ubuntu the same way and i got the same error. So it is definetly the computer and it is not fixed by the chromebooks powerwash. How do i reset it even further?

Stephen Ewen · **Posted:** Sun May 31, 2015 2:32 am

What kind of processor does your Chromebook have?

Martin N Brischetto · **Joined:** Thu May 15, 2014 6:43 am **Posts:** 27

Intel Celeron 2955U Dual-core 1.40 GHz

But it can't be anything wrong with the hardware. Uberstudent worked fine for a week on this chromebook until it didn't.

Stephen Ewen · **Posted:** Sun May 31, 2015 7:51 am

Yes, it can. The issue is hardware related in one way or another. The kernel panic is either trouble copying FROM the USB disk or TO your re-purposed Chromebook's SSD drive.

Having ruled out your thumb drive as the issue, I suspect and am very probably right that issue is that your SSD drive is tired and old. It can handle booting from files already on the drive, but it errors out when copying new files to it; hence, the reason for the kernel panic, the drive's inability to accept a large swath of files to it to boot another OS.

SSD drives are not known for their long life.

I wish I could offer you more but I can't.

Martin N Brischetto · **Joined:** Thu May 15, 2014 6:43 am **Posts:** 27

Thanks for all the help!

Stephen Ewen · **Posted:** Sun May 31, 2015 8:18 am

To be completely clear:

This is not an UberStudent tissue. Having ruled out the installation media thumb drive as the issue, the issue is almost certainly because your used Chromebook's SSD drive is old and tired. It cannot handle the amount of writing to it required to install a new and full Operating System; hence, the kernel panic. SSD drives are not known to live long.

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