Boot USB - No Network Connection

[kgoerbig]

Xbian Version: XBian v1.0RC2 - Bleeding Edge
Rasp PI Model B

Yesterday, I tried the xbian copier tool to copy system files to a 8GB USB stick. All went well with the copying, and it booted just fine from the usb stick after the copy with all my XBMC layout/apps. However, I noticed I didn't have a network connection at all. I went into the system info > Network section to find everything blank. My Router assigns dhcp to all my devices. All the Ethernet lights were on the PI, so it wasn't a connection issue, and is hardwired to my router.

Before I used the copier, I backed up cmdline.txt as cmdline.txt.bak to have a backup copy of it.

Since I couldn't ssh into the PI without a network connection, I tried to reverse the process by pulling the sdcard and inserted it into a card reader on another linux box I have, and renaming cmdline.txt.bak to cmdline.txt , however it didn't boot from SD anymore it stayed in a boot loop. Luckily, I rsync my data to a separate USB drive, and was able to re-image/recover in about 30min.

Can any provide insight of why Xbian couldn't gain DHCP from booting from a USB stick?