Porteus 4.0 on multiboot USB does not boot

[Macchiato]

I have Porteus 4.0 MATE on a USB stick as a live boot system, using YUMI.

The system does not boot however. I get the boot menu but it doesn't boot, all that happerns is the countdown starts anew and goes on and on in a loop.

What could be the problem here? I am using YUMI for other multiboot USB sticks (also using Porteus, and other Linux distros) and usually it works just fine.

[fulalas]

By 'in a loop' you mean it reboots?

[Ed_P]

EFI or BIOS system?

Partition structure of the USB drive?

Show the grub menu item.

[Macchiato]

By 'in a loop' you mean it reboots?

No, it doesn't. I do get the YUMI multiboot menu allowing me to choose which OS I want to boot and when I click on Porteus, I then get the expected Porteus options for booting, but when the 10-second countdown is finished, it starts over again, without end. Do you know what a loop is?

[Macchiato]

EFI or BIOS system?

Partition structure of the USB drive?

Show the grub menu item.

BIOS on Samsung netbook.
USB drive has fat 32.
AFAIK YUMI does not use grub but syslinux or isolinux.

[Ed_P]

Contrary to MultiBootISOs which used grub to boot ISO files directly from USB, YUMI uses syslinux to boot extracted distributions stored on the USB device, and reverts to using grub to Boot Multiple ISO files from USB, if necessary.

Are you booting an extracted/installed Porteus system or an ISO?

Any way you can show the source for the YUMI menu?

What version of YUMI are you using?

[Macchiato]

Contrary to MultiBootISOs which used grub to boot ISO files directly from USB, YUMI uses syslinux to boot extracted distributions stored on the USB device, and reverts to using grub to Boot Multiple ISO files from USB, if necessary.

Are you booting an extracted/installed Porteus system or an ISO?

Any way you can show the source for the YUMI menu?

What version of YUMI are you using?

I am talking about live CD's installed on USB, obviously ISO files. I don't even know what an "extracted distribution" is.The quote in your reply is contrived an pretty confusing and I don't know what he means to say - what is "if necessary"? How are we supposed to know if or when "it is necessary"? So in my case does it use grub or syslinux or isolinux?

As for your question, I use YUMI to put one or more ISO files on a USB stick, it's not sorcery. The result is one or more live systems on a USB stick. But IMHO the problem does not lie with YUMI, as I do get the Porteus boot menu. It's just that clicking on the standard (or "fresh") boot option does not result in booting and the countdown just starts anew and repeats endlessly.

[Ed_P]

So you're booting ISOs not installs. I can relate to that.

Without knowing what code YUMI is using to boot Porteus can't say how to fix it.

Can you post the output of an du -h /mnt/sd*1/ command for the USB drive, where * is the linux drive letter for the USB drive or if in Windows a dir *:\ /ad command where * is the windows drive letter for the USB drive.

[ncmprhnsbl]

ok, if you're seeing the porteus boot screen, it might be safe to assume the problem isn't with YUMI(for now)
what exactly happens after that?
what should appear:
1.a message about searching for (and finding porteus files)
2.modules loading
3.auto login to guest
4. init4 (which starts Xorg(and GUI DE))
are you seeing any of that?

[Macchiato]

ok, if you're seeing the porteus boot screen, it might be safe to assume the problem isn't with YUMI(for now)
what exactly happens after that?
what should appear:
1.a message about searching for (and finding porteus files)
2.modules loading
3.auto login to guest
4. init4 (which starts Xorg(and GUI DE))
are you seeing any of that?

Porteus 4.0 on multiboot USB does not boot (Post by Macchiato #66613)

Porteus 4.0 on multiboot USB does not boot (Post by Macchiato #66598)

[Macchiato]

But IMHO the problem does not lie with YUMI, as I do get the Porteus boot menu. It's just that clicking on the standard (or "fresh") boot option does not result in booting and the countdown just starts anew and repeats endlessly.

[Ed_P]

Can you post the output of an du -h /mnt/sd*1/ command for the USB drive, where * is the linux drive letter for the USB drive or if in Windows a dir *:\ /ad command where * is the windows drive letter for the USB drive.

[Ignatius]

I'm getting something similar - on start-up I get the normal, blue Porteus giving me the usual choice of 'graphcs', 'always fresh' &c., but no matter which I try to boot, the 'automatic boot in # seconds' counter will count down from 9, then reset itself to 9 and count down, again, ad infinitum.

I put Porteus-LXDE-v4.0-i586 installed on a multipartition USB stick (/mnt/sdb2), using the installer in the ISO which I downloaded. It replaces an older version of Porteus which occupied the same partition on the same stick, and worked. I have also used the same ISO to write a CD, which will boot normally, on the same computer.

The installation on the USB appeared to complete successful (going by the on-screen output), but it seems odd that a 270 Mb ISO should produce a ~7 Mb installation.

$ du -h /media/alan/Porteus/*
72K /media/alan/Porteus/docs
196K /media/alan/Porteus/Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com
124K /media/alan/Porteus/Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe
6.1M /media/alan/Porteus/syslinux

Suggestions?

[ncmprhnsbl]

hi Ignatius

$ du -h /media/alan/Porteus/*
72K /media/alan/Porteus/docs
196K /media/alan/Porteus/Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com
124K /media/alan/Porteus/Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe
6.1M /media/alan/Porteus/syslinux

you appear to have only what should be the contents of the "boot" folder
the root directory(in your case, named "Porteus") of your usb should contain folders: boot, porteus, EFI, and a file: USB_INSTALLATION.txt
have a look a the CD you made to see what you're missing.. something seems to have gone astray with the installer..
it's possible you may be able to just manually put everything in it's correct place(copy from the CD), and have it work..

[Ignatius]

Hmm... Yes, good spot. Reinstalling seems to have worked. Don't know what happened, as the screen o/p looked identical to the previous attempt, but I now have a sensible, working installation.

Thanks.