Want to clear unneeded OpenSUSE Live USB

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Right now I’m using my Eee PC 900 with Fedora (LXDE). I started Palimpsest Disk Utility (using beesu) and tried to delete the “CDROM” partition from my 4 GB Lexar thumb drive (Live USB created using these directions, GNOME section). Ended up getting this error:

Error erasing: helper exited with exit code 1: In part_del_partition: device_file=/dev/sdc, offset=0
Entering MS-DOS parser (offset=0, size=4009754624)
MSDOS_MAGIC found
looking at part 0 (offset 0, size 722468864, type 0x83)
new part entry
looking at part 1 (offset 0, size 0, type 0x00)
new part entry
looking at part 2 (offset 0, size 0, type 0x00)
new part entry
looking at part 3 (offset 0, size 0, type 0x00)
new part entry
Exiting MS-DOS parser
MSDOS partition table detected
got it
Error: Invalid partition table - recursive partition on /dev/sdc.
ped_disk_new() failed

What to do…? At first I tried just deleting the contents via PCManFM, but that just gave me an error about it being read-only, and I couldn’t change it…

#2

You should be able to manipulate the partitions by inserting it into any running Linux machines and using fdisk (or other) partition tools.
Also, fdisk under Win may work - not sure, no experience.

#3

Manipulating the partition is exactly what I’m trying to do. You’re just suggesting I use a different partition tool than Palimsest?

#4

With usb drive connected and unmounted
with fdisk -l check the device Eg: sdb, sdc, or whatever

Then:

mkfs -t fat /dev/sdc

Would that not format it?

#5 
Disk /dev/sdc: 4009 MB, 4009754624 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 3824 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8c71ad6e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1         689      705536   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdc1: 722 MB, 722468864 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 689 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8c71ad6e

     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1p1   *           1         689      705536   83  Linux

Then when I try the mkfs line:

mkfs.fat: No such file or directory

Am I missing a package or something? Something misconfigured?

Also, are you paid for this moderator job? I see you everywhere answering people’s questions. You’ve solved a good number of my problems, IIRC.

#6

I had the same problem not being able to delete the “CD-ROM” from usb. This is how I did it:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx

Be careful, this will delete everything on the disk.

Afterward, I used partitionmanager to create the partition table and format it.

#7

fdisk /dev/whatever
o create an empty dos partition table
w write changes to disk

Now you cany use yast partitioner to create partitions on the drive

#8

Hey thanks! KDE’s got a pretty good partition manager there… It was able to do what the other one couldn’t. Thanks.

Now to try to deal with syslinux… Trying to get Parted Magic on there. Not exactly an easy process.

#9

dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M;sync

where image.iso is the name of the .iso
and
sdb is the usb device

change as needed

You can use unetbootin too
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/