Live DVD/Usb key feedback

Please would you kindly confirm the following for myself and other would-be users from the world of Windows...

Is it as simple as this - get a cheap/old 2GB USB stick, prepare it as per the instructions, boot up with it and the PC will be running Linux with Kdenlive there on the desktop - and it will be able to access video clips stored on the Windows hard-drive and save the rendered results there too?

i.e. a Windows user can load/manage/convert their clips as required in Windows, then plug in the magic stick, reboot into Linux, work on the video, save it, and then reboot again into Windows and enjoy their video there?
(or, if Firefox and net connections work, they may even find that they don't even need Windows any more, half the time?!)

Thanks for clarifying this for those of us who find it almost too good to be true if it all goes to plan!

> the pages still indicates its 0.7.2.
Yes I noticed that :)

> You may to explicitely indicate to the system
> that you want to *write* to the Windows disks,
> as it probably only allows reading by default
That would limit its usefulness a bit, I hope it is possible to save files larger than the remaining spare space on the USB key!

Thanks

Thanks.. 3 more questions if I may :

a) "Please note that after this step your USB mass-storage will be unreadable by Windows." - I assume that the USB key is not set to Linux for good, but may still be updated to new versions when they become available - and can be converted back to a Windows (FAT32) key if required?

b) Do the Linux/Kdenlive settings get stored on the USB stick, such that if we upgrade later to a newer version we'll be back to the defaults again?

c) How much setting up is required? Surely the USB-stick Linux will need to be configured for our PC specifics such as graphics/sound cards, display resolution etc?

thanks - it is a bit daunting :)

Thank YOU! I will buy a cheap USB stick now!

This may be all it takes for a huge wave of newbie Windows users trying it out... prepare for the onslaught :)

I've noticed the interesting new page
http://kdenlive.org/user-manual/downloading-and-installing-kdenlive/live...

May I make a suggestion?

Newbies like myself may be attempting this with the one PC available and no other machines nearby online to refer to for help. Would it be a good idea to have help available there on the new Linux desktop to guide us through each step?

Ideally, I imagine firing it up with my new USB stick and being greeted with the (alien looking!) Linux desktop with Firefox there, running, showing an HTML guide of what to do.... i.e. a local copy of the webpages here. A web browser is something we're all familiar with (many of us are already using Firefox on Windows already) and having it there in front of us as the first experience of Linux would make that initial shock of a strange new desktop a bit less baffling.

Even more ideally, seeing as 90%+ of people trying this will be coming from Windows, make the desktop as comfortingly similar to Windows as possible.... task bars at the bottom, desktop background that familiar teal-blue colour etc. It would make it a bit less daunting for so many people, and every little bit of friendliness helps... there's only so much challenge people can take in one go! If the learning curve can be flattened as much as possible, more of us will make it to the top :)

If I were to boot this thing up and be greeted with a webpage saying "Welcome to Kdenlive...." etc... and be guided through each necessary stage... that's as painless as it could possibly be!

Thanks

Some progress, but I'm stuck!
I've got a 2GB USB stick... I've spent 2.5hrs downloading the image file, I've installed RawWrite for Windows as per the instructions, but I can't select I: for my USB stick! The drop-down list only has A: for the floppy drive my PC doesn't have! I've tried SUBST but haven't had any luck getting a: to map to i: - it just won't play :)
So I'm a bit stuck now... I can't get I: in the writer program.
Any suggestions gratefully received as to how on earth I get this image file onto the memory stick!!
Thanks.

Good morning
Yes I downloaded it from there, it's Windows XP, and I can read/write to it as normal as drive I:
It looks like I might need http://www.chrysocome.net/dd instead, but although I'm quite happy with a command line, that utility looks like it requires a level of understanding that I simply don't have (and it doesn't explain).
Unless there's some other freebie that does the same thing, it looks like I might be stumped and will have to buy the Sony Vegas which is under half price at the moment on Amazon :(

Fail!

Key written to... at first when rebooting it didn't offer me the chance to boot with it, so I tried again with another normal USB key (no image written to it) and did get offered the chance to boot with that one. So I swapped keys at that point but it just booted up in Windows.

One final try and I did get the boot device selection with the new key available... but now there's an error message :
Invalid or damaged Bootable partition

No Linux & Kdenlive for me then! :(

Does the image file work for anyone else? I've got 3 days to decide to take up that special offer on Vegas 9 Platinum Pro....!!

EDIT: We've tried the BIOS settings for advanced USB support, emulation of floppy/harddisk/Forced etc but none of that made any difference.
I've booted back into Windows and allowed it to reformat the USB stick as 2GB FAT32 again... so at least it hasn't trashed it :)

So it's goodbye from me unless anyone has any bright ideas!

It's a Dane-Elec 2GB that comes up in the boot options as :
USB Flash MemoryPMAP

I've tried again, making sure it was finished before 'ejecting' the USB key, but it's still not working with the same error.

Looks like it's a dead end with this USB stick, I googled about for that error message and it seems like some USB keys simply don't work as boot devices. I can't face buying a different type just to risk the same thing :(

I bought a 4GB key for about €11 in my local supermarket. It boots very nice, but comes up with "Mlt's SDL module not found" when I try to start Kdenlive. Melt segfaults in the konsole. The stack trace blaims selinux.

I then tried to disable selinux as documented on http://www.crypt.gen.nz/selinux/disable_selinux.html

At first it complained about permissions. I then did
apt-get install policycoreutils
echo 0 >/selinux/enforce

Then I was able to start kdenlive and it seemed to work well. Perhaps you (jmpoure) should disable selinux on the DVD/USB images? I think this selinux problem may only manifest itself on certain machines. Please ask if you need me to test some more.

This is the 0.7.4 version - looking forward to trying again with the 0.7.5 - this is a great feature of the Kdenlive project.

too late... I've just ordered the half price Sony Vegas before the offer ran out, so I guess it's goodbye from me :)

I might actually keep an eye on how things are going, and try the USB stick at some point if I can get it to work, just out of curiosity and to see what this Linux thing is all about! If it looks like I would have been happy with it.. well.. that's life, I couldn't wait... but 40 quid for software that complex and capable (hopefully!) isn't a bad deal (considering I've used freebies for everything else up to now I haven't done badly)... and I'll certainly recommend Kdenlive on any forums I inhabit, if I think Joe Average could manage with it.

All the best

I've just tried this USB boot test - and it worked!
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/testing-your-system-for-usb-boot-compatibil...
So, my system *can* boot up with this memory key after all.

Later on I will try putting the image onto it again, in the hope that the RawWrite program isn't doing the MBR properly, but now that there's a working one on it, maybe it will work this time. Nothing like a stab in the dark is there? :)

1) Sorry, I don't fancy fiddling about with DVDs and haven't got any blank discs here anyway :)

2) I'm having to learn a lot more than I thought I would and I'm still trying to figure out if the MBR is separate from the remainder of the USB key which is formatted by Windows or written to by RawWrite... if it _is_ separate then there's a hope that now my stick has been made bootable, then the Live USB Key install may actually work. I'm about 20 minutes from trying it out.

3) QEMU is new to me, I did notice a mention of it earlier today when googling for "linux on a stick". These guys use it for a reboot-less solution :
http://www.penlinux.com/articles/put-linux-on-a-flash-drive.html

... which makes me wonder - Would there be a way for Windows users to run Linux+Kdenlive via this Qemu program? No reboots required? Or would it be too slow for video editing?

Thanks

OK thanks, I'll try that later (my home PC is here at the office but I can't play with it until lunchtime or after hours).

I thought this page was interesting http://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/Default.aspx?pageid=45
as he says "All USB sticks are (or at least, can be made) bootable. It seems to be a well established myth that it is important to buy a "bootable" USB stick, and it is cited often on various web pages. But there is no reason why any USB stick should not be able to boot any operating system. After all, it's just a mass storage medium accessed via a well-defined USB protocol. Just because a standard hard disk is not declared as bootable does not mean that anybody would not expect it to fail being bootable. The only catch with USB sticks is that some manufacturers pre-format them in a way that makes it easy to boot from them, while others don't. But I have not yet found a single USB stick that I could not get to boot."

.. so my gut instinct is that it's probably something fairly simple going wrong here, if only we can figure out what! After all, I did get the stick to boot up with the memory check program as I mentioned a few posts back, so the stick is capable of it.

BTW if you want to move all this to another thread, be my guest... it might be offputting to newcomers and I suspect you might prefer to keep this thread nice and clean for the next commenter who comes along...?

So... what now?
Is it possible that the USB stick partitions were OK enough to load the code from, but not fully correct to use?! Does that make sense to anybody?! :)

The ability of the USB key itself to boot seems to be a red herring.
The PC boots with it, it loads and runs the code, but fails to mount the file system.

From what little I know, I suspect that the thumbdrive is OK but there's some problem with the USB controller interface. I will try the memory key in the other USB sockets and another PC later.

(originally 12:52pm)
Thanks.

I tried the key in the front panel sockets of my work PC, but the USB mouse (connected at the back) froze and ceased working. I tried to reboot but the machine wouldn't even turn on! It remained unwell until I actually removed and re-attached the mains cable.
UPDATE (1.13pm) Tried again on this PC (a Vista PC from Dell, about a year old). This time I got as far as F12 for the boot menu, selected the USB key it detected, but got an instant "Boot error" message.

So, going back to my "home" PC (on the other side of the office until it's ready to go home) I tried the key on a front panel socket instead of the flying lead from a rear one. It flashed a lot but after 10 minutes of blank screen I gave up. Moving it to another front socket in a card reader bay, it has booted up this time, and gives a Debian menu :

Live
Live (failsafe)
Text Install
Text Expert
Text Rescue
Text Auto
GUI Install
GUI Expert
GUI Rescue
GUI Auto

I assume selecting "Live" is the right one?! :)

Again it has failed with the message "Unable to find a medium containing a live file system" and has given me a BusyBox. The file live.log contains:
Begin: Running /scripts/live-premount ... done.