booting 2.0 using 1.2 bootloader fails

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Rava
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booting 2.0 using 1.2 bootloader fails

Post#1 by Rava » 20 Feb 2013, 19:05

I have on my mini laptop Samsung q40 Porteus 1.2 installed,
and want to startup Porteus 2.0 (rc2) with the same working porteus.cfg;

But so far it not works.

My disks:

Code: Select all

root@porteus:~# fdisk -l|tail -n 7|cut -b 1-10,51-87
   Device   Id  System
/dev/sda1    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2   82  Linux swap
/dev/sda3   83  Linux
/dev/sda4    5  Extended
/dev/sda5   83  Linux
/dev/sda6    b  W95 FAT32
and the lines in porteus.cfg. The working 1.2 is at sda3, and the testing 2.0rc2 is on sda5.

Code: Select all

LABEL 2.0rc2
MENU LABEL Rava mode Porteus 2.0rc2
root   (hd0,4)
KERNEL /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.xz xfce
TEXT HELP
    2.0rc2
ENDTEXT
When I try to run this entry, nothings happens, I stay at the boot menu of 1.2...

Any ideas? My entry in porteus.cfg seems okay to me...
Cheers!
Yours Rava

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Ahau
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Re: booting 2.0 using 1.2 bootloader fails

Post#2 by Ahau » 20 Feb 2013, 19:56

I'm booting 2.0 with the 1.2 bootloader on one of my flash drives without an issue, so it's not a problem with the extlinux version or anything. Only thing I can see with your config is the location of initrd.xz. you have:

initrd=initrd.xz

try with:

initrd=/boot/syslinux/initrd.xz

and see if that helps.
Please take a look at our online documentation, here. Suggestions are welcome!

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Hamza
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Re: booting 2.0 using 1.2 bootloader fails

Post#3 by Hamza » 20 Feb 2013, 20:25

I would says initrd=/syslinux/initrd.xz as current directory when that file is loaded is already /boot.
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Ahau
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Re: booting 2.0 using 1.2 bootloader fails

Post#4 by Ahau » 20 Feb 2013, 23:05

@hamza according to the syslinux documentation:
All filenames inside the config file are assumed to be relative to the directory SYSLINUX.CFG is in, unless preceded with a slash or backslash.
If we have a leading slash, it should be an absolute path

@rava

As I look at this again, I see you have "root (hd0,4)" in your syslinux config file -- have you used this with syslinux in the past with success? I don't see this method of booting from another partition mentioned in the syslinux documentation, but maybe I'm missing it. This looks like a grub command. The information I've been reading makes it look like you would need to install syslinux to both partitions, then chainload from one partition to the next. In my opinion, it would be easier to put the 2.0 kernel/initrd on sda3 (where you have syslinux installed, presumably) and use a cheatcode to pull the rest of your porteus data from sda5, e.g. :

Code: Select all

LABEL PORT2.0
MENU LABEL Porteus 2.0
KERNEL /P20/boot/syslinux/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/P20/boot/syslinux/initrd.xz login=root from=/dev/sda5 xfce 
TEXT HELP
    Run Porteus the best way we can.
    Try to autoconfigure graphics
    card and use the maximum
    allowed resolution
ENDTEXT
so sda3 would have /boot and /porteus for your old installation as well as /P20 which would have the /boot folder from 2.0 inside it. Another option would be to use grub (that's what I do for my hard disk installs).

I hope some portion of this is helpful :)
Please take a look at our online documentation, here. Suggestions are welcome!

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