install to a USB stick with MultiSystem

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(for example when using grub4dos).
libtim
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install to a USB stick with MultiSystem

Post#1 by libtim » 11 Jul 2012, 21:52

Hi

MultiSystem will install Porteus to a USB stick

http://liveusb.info/dotclear/

The site is in French but you can boot the live CD in English,

You need to burn a Multisystem CD, or install it to a USB stick, so that's the same as installing Porteus to a USB stick but it works with a lot of, but not all, distros and you can put a lot of distros on one stick!

Only tried with Porteus version 1.1.32 bit though.

Hope I'm not posting something too obvious and that I'm in the right place.

Great distro,

Tim

user1138
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Re: install to a USB stick with MultiSystem

Post#2 by user1138 » 31 Mar 2013, 23:06

Currently installing Proteus v2.0 64bit does not work in Multisystem.

Porteus will show up as a menu item in the window that you see when your installing OS's to the USB stick, but when you try to boot from the stick Proteus will not be listed as a menu entry in grub, nor will the grub.cfg file be updated correctly to reflect that Porteus has been installed.

Note: I get some sort of copy errors when multisystem is copying Porteus to the usb stick, but the window that shows the copy process doesn't stay open long enough to see what the error is. All I have time to see is that it is an rsync error of some kind. I've tried running Multisystem from the command line but it opens the copy process in a separate command screen which still disappears too quickly to see what the error is.

While I'm doing that, can any one else confirm that Multisystem isn't working with Proteus v2.0 64bit?

If all else fails and you are having the same problem, then one option might be to ditch Multisystem all together and try a multiboot USB the old fashion way by placing the correct files from the iso's in the correct directories then pointing Grub4Dos to those directories. If this is your case, then you and I both will have to look up information on exactly how this is done because its been too long and I have long since forgotten the details on how this method is accomplished.

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fanthom
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Re: install to a USB stick with MultiSystem

Post#3 by fanthom » 01 Apr 2013, 05:29

not sure if latest Porteus is working with Multisystem (we have updated 'from=' cheatcode which could break existing compatibility) but all what you need to do is to unpack Porteus ISO to some folder, point bootloader to unpacked vmlinuz, initrd and use 'from=' cheatcode.

example: you have unpacked ISO to /mnt/sda4/porteus-2.0 folder so your grub config must look like:

Code: Select all

set root=(hd0,3)
linux /porteus-2.0/boot/syslinux/vmlinuz from=/porteus-2.0 other_cheatcodes_here
initrd /porteus-2.0/boot/syslinux/initrd.xz
config syntax of other bootloaders will differ but i hope that general idea is clear.
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

user1138
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Re: install to a USB stick with MultiSystem

Post#4 by user1138 » 01 Apr 2013, 16:55

fanthom,

A user can edit the configuration files using Multisystem sure, but because it targets users who prefer the 'point and click' or 'click and drag' method of doing things it might seem a bit beyond the scope or willingness of a Multisystem user to "point (the) bootloader to unpack vmlinuz" which would require the editing of grub files and the like in Multisystem.

Also the bootloader code that Multisystem creates is fairly ugly and difficult to read not to mention the fact that there are multiple files that Multisystem allows you to edit and its unclear which one should be edited. That in combination with the fact that the edits you show look nothing like what is already present in the bootloader files makes it even more confusing.

In short if it doesn't work the way it is supposed to in Mutisystem, where the user just grabs the iso file from a file manager and drags it into Multisystem window, then it just doesn't really work the way its supposed to in Multisystem and as a result might be considered a non-starter for the majority of Multisystem users. Granted this might be a problem with Multisystem and not Porteus, but even determining which one is causing the problem just makes it even more evident that I don't really have time for this.

Hopefully someone with more tenacity and time on there hands will take a look at this problem.

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