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Can't make Porteus Install on a flash drive...

Posted: 19 May 2011, 08:16
by Mynaardt
Hi!

I'm not having any luck at all trying to install Porteus on a flash drive; an 8 GB Kingston Traveller drive. I'm trying to install it from Linux (Crunchbang 10 on a Toshiba Satellite A100).

I've been trying to follow all the directions, and nothing happens. :wall:

I'm okay putting the /boot and /Porteus folders onto my flash drive. I've tried several formatting this flash drive in more than one format. And One of the following things happens:
  • FAT and ext4; running lin_start_here.sh seems to work, but then the flash drive has no GRUB on it and won't boot.
  • ext2 and ext3; in either case, when I try to run lin_start_here.sh, I get an error message telling me that script file doesn't exist
I also tried that grubinst-0.4.tar.gz package mentioned elsewhere and no such luck with that either.

Can anyone tell me if I'm missing something that should be obvious?

Thanks!

Re: Can't make Porteus Install on a flash drive...

Posted: 19 May 2011, 08:53
by fanthom
@Mynaardt
Welcome on board :)

are you trying to install 64bit version of Porteus or 32bit one?
Porteus does not provide statically compiled installation utils (lilo, syslinux, extlinux placed in /boot/syslinux folder) so if you want to install 32bit version from another linux distro then it also must be 32bit (or 64bit with multilib environment).
if you want to install 64bit version then it must be done from another 64bit linux distro.

you should have no problems with installation of Porteus from Windows (both 32/64 are fine) - try this option when you have a chance.

Re: Can't make Porteus Install on a flash drive...

Posted: 19 May 2011, 09:34
by 82issa
Mynaardt wrote: ext2 and ext3; in either case, when I try to run lin_start_here.sh, I get an error message telling me that script file doesn't exist.
I believe I had this same problem. I am reposting because I think this would be the appropriate place for it, and I had one hell of a time trying to locate it.

Alright I have run into a problem with one of the scripts.

conditions porteus is already installed via having /boot & /porteus on /dev/sda1

I was having trouble with thirdparty bootloader passing append arguments. so I go to /boot while rc1 is my active os. and execute ./linstarthere.sh
I select option 6 install to EXTx partition.
I select the y for mbr backup. after that I get.

Code: Select all

Flushing filesystem buffers, this may take a while...
Setting up MBR on /dev/sda...
./scripts/bootextlinux.sh: line 106: ./boot/syslinux/lilo: No such file or directory
my workarround
at the end of bootextlinux.sh

Code: Select all

# setup MBR if the device is not in superfloppy format
if [ "$MBR" != "$TARGET" ]; then
  echo "Setting up MBR on $MBR..."
#change “./boot/syslinux/lilo” to “/boot/syslinux/lilo”
  ./boot/syslinux/lilo -S /dev/null -M $MBR ext
  echo "Activating partition $TARGET..."
#change “./boot/syslinux/lilo” to “/boot/syslinux/lilo”
  ./boot/syslinux/lilo -S /dev/null -A $MBR $NUM
  echo "Updating MBR on $MBR..."
#change “./boot/syslinux/mbr.bin” to “/boot/syslinux/mbr.bin
  cat ./boot/syslinux/mbr.bin > $MBR
fi

so basically just use the / instead of the ./

After resolving that first error I got this next error.

Code: Select all

Setting up boot record for /dev/sda1...
./scripts/bootextlinux.sh: line 114: ./boot/syslinux/extlinux: No such file or directory
simple workarround

Code: Select all

echo "Setting up boot record for $TARGET..."
#changed “./boot/syslinux/extlinux -i boot/syslinux”
#to            “/boot/syslinux/extlinux -i /boot/syslinux”
./boot/syslinux/extlinux -i boot/syslinux
It worked great after those changes were made. I rebooted and had our wonderful splashscreen with all options.

Edit: I hope this was helpfull to you. I didn't recieve much positive response when I suggested the change, but hope it works out for you.

Posted after 8 minutes 45 seconds:
Another note. If you have the /boot and /porteus directories at the root of any drive. You can configure and install any bootloader you would like. I had done that but I was running into problems with using cheatcodes. Just make sure you are pointing to right kernel, right initrd and right root_drive with that. And getting support on third party bootloader. You mind as well find a volunteer to let you pull some teeth,(assuming your not a dentist).

Re: Can't make Porteus Install on a flash drive...

Posted: 19 May 2011, 12:05
by Ahau
fanthom wrote:@Mynaardt
Welcome on board :)

are you trying to install 64bit version of Porteus or 32bit one?
Porteus does not provide statically compiled installation utils (lilo, syslinux, extlinux placed in /boot/syslinux folder) so if you want to install 32bit version from another linux distro then it also must be 32bit (or 64bit with multilib environment).
if you want to install 64bit version then it must be done from another 64bit linux distro.

you should have no problems with installation of Porteus from Windows (both 32/64 are fine) - try this option when you have a chance.
@fanthom, will this remain the case for V1.0 final? If so, I'll add a note to the install guide to clarify this.

Re: Can't make Porteus Install on a flash drive...

Posted: 19 May 2011, 14:06
by fanthom
@Ahau
"will this remain the case for V1.0 final?"
yes - till someone provide statically compiled extlinux and syslinux. i have succed with lilo (got 700KB static binary) but failed badly with sys/ext linux. Makefile simply ingored "-static" flag.
i will try to ask the community for help so pls hold on for a while with updating of installation.txt