I am running a sony vaio pcg-r505el laptop
I have tried all the boot options. I keep getting this error.
Can't find MEPIS filesystem, sorry dropping to a limited shell
/static/ash: can't access tty:job control turned off
I have searched the forum and can't figure why the MEPIS filesystem can't be read.

Thanks in advance as this will help others in the same boat looking to revive their sweet sony vaios- I tried 8.0 and 7.5 and I checked the MD5sums of each ISO.

I am on a IBM 390 E booted up with AntiX 8.2 Prefinal. It only has a 333mhz processor and 198mb of ram. I just repaired this laptop (Broken Bottom case,hinges,ribbon cable going to back of LCD Screen). I got everything working and just down loaded and booted up CD. I am curious as to what boot codes you tried when trying to boot up. On my bootup The only message I got was about acpi. It basically said to use acpi=force. I didn't need it though because AntiX 8.2 booted up just fine without using that boot code. I am in Links Browser right now replying to your post using a hard line connection.All I can think of is that your boot sequence isn't seeing the cdrom drive to pull the Mepis files from. I forget the command for boot to see cdrom and since I am in Links Browser (which I am a noob at using) I can't find the command at present. I just figured I would post to show How minimal my computer specs are and that it booted up OK for me. Good luck Kubuntu 76

It just hit me, Maybe you burned the cd at to fast of a speed. I always burn mine at 4x whenever possible and on older computers like the IBM I can not use CDRW discs. It flakes out on the cdrom drive if I use a CDRW. So I use a HP CD-R for burning and everything works fine then. Just a hint there.

I think you were closer with your first guess. If you could point me in the right direction to get a full list of the cheatcodes that would be brilliant. Thanks for your help

-boot options used failsafe, faster boot, vesa, toram, nonet

Cheat codes below. I hope they help ya.


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Cheatcodes"
linktext was:"http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Cheatcodes"
====================================
" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false

That message often comes up when there is a bad burn or when the cd drive is a bit flakey. Try burning at very slow speed.

kubuntu76,

one other thing to try, on my old dell laptop, I had to go into the bios setup and set the cd-rom as 1st in the boot order, it then booted up immediately.

cheers,
oldhoghead

I wish it wasn't the case but i'm not a noobie. I have tried the list of things to try. The drive is good as it boots other distros. I still believe it is not getting to the /dev/Sr0 to read the filesystem. If anyone knows of a boot code to change where the distro looks for the MEPIS filesystem that would be a great help thanks again.

Try two of the classic cheat codes for laptops:

nodma acpi=off

john

unfortunately that boot code is included in failsafe mode so no go. Is there a boot code to tell the cd where to look for the filesystem such as in Knoppix i.e. bootfrom=/dev/sr0 something like that because antix seem to be looking for it and can't find it.

Can you verify the disc has a good burn? Maybe another system?

yep both copies 7.5 and 8.0 work on my desktop they were burnt at 4x also as previously stated I checked the md5sums

If it looks as though it's seaching /dev/sr0 the point it to it"root=/dev/sr0". Who knows it just might work.

Also, Have you tried to boot any other live discs on this machine? Just want to rule out the laptop itself.

yeah just was surfing with parted magic live not quite a full distro though

the original error is the first post. I am looking for a boot code or something to point to /dev/sr0

What is on the box? You could try a fromhd install?