[IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

New features which should be implemented in Porteus; suggestions are welcome. All questions or problems with testing releases (alpha, beta, or rc) should go in their relevant thread here, rather than the Bug Reports section.
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Ahau
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#16 by Ahau » 08 Jan 2011, 17:15

Thanks, Jay! I'll look into that, though I wonder if it can do it from within the same partition.... I know grubcan chain to grub4dos, but not sure if it can go the other way around.
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#17 by X-Factor » 09 Jan 2011, 07:22

@ ponce :Bravo: i manage to boot remix (porteus) on my USB stick formatted as ntfs, currently experimenting directly booted from the stick instead of via boot CD.
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#18 by francois » 09 Jan 2011, 14:18

I imagine that you guys are not without good threads on the issue of Grub, here are a few:
http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=15.0
http://jbakshi.50webs.com/Linux_tutoria ... ified.html

Nonetheless, it seems that I have some more bread crusts to eat (a french canadian expression, meaning that there is still a steep learning curve for me this way), before being able to install grub 0.97 as a boot loader with the given instructions to start any linux OS that I know of alone. Here for sure Porteus. How about you?
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#19 by Falcony » 09 Jan 2011, 17:21

today I wrote script for installing grub4dos from Linux

For details see this topic

http://www.porteus.org/forum/viewtopic. ... p=611#p611

If you have time/possibility please kindly test it.

I already test it on several PCs with and without Windows installed at HDD and on USB-flash drives.
Checked also for 32-bit Porteus and 64-bit - works

But I have no possibility to test it on PC with several physical HDD

I have only PCs with one physical HDD wit several partion on each

And one more point bootsplash

I disabled it by default as it very ugly and mix up with color of grub4dos
Now it show only text mode menu.

So if someone create nice bootsplash for grub4dos (14 colour, Inxexed, 640x480) it will be nice
Last edited by Falcony on 09 Jan 2011, 17:37, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#20 by Ahau » 11 Jan 2011, 00:13

@francois- installing grub should not be as difficult as those links would lead you to believe. Once I get it on my usb stick, I'll write a how-to. Grub4dos install was not hard--the hardest part is knowing how to configure the menu.lst. I tried installing grub on friday, but downloaded source files instead of binaries! Once I find the right place to download (I'm thinking a slackware repository might be best) I'll pass that along too.

Posted after 1 day 3 hours 41 minute 16 seconds:
@brokenman,

Easy BCD looks interesting, particularly their Neogrub tool. It's a customized (and I believe, enhanced) version of grub4dos. I can't find a lot of information about it alone, it looks like you have to install EasyBCD in windows and install via a GUI. Not sure if it would be better than grub4dos, or if we could install it via a script rather than the GUI. Also not sure what kind of support it has for bootsplashes (maybe better than grub4dos?).

I've pretty much given up on trying to chainload grub from grub4dos on the same partition. It looks to me like stage1 must be installed to the MBR (or a partition's bootload sector), and you can't get grub4dos to start stage1 or stage2 (they're not valid kernel images). Grub4dos can be chainloaded from grub on the same partition, because grub.exe (installed by grub4dos but not grub) is a valid kernel image.

Realistically, I have no problems continuing with SYSLINUX tools, I was just trying to expand our options :)

ETA: Ok, one more crazy idea. In theory, I believe one could install grub4dos (in windows), with a menu.lst pointing to an .iso image file that contained grub, and boot the rest of the system from there. This would make the grub's menu.lst more difficult to edit...and at some point, one must ask, how complicated am I willing to make this just to get a prettier bootsplash for those installing from windows?

Posted after 3 hours 2 minutes 45 seconds:
ROFL! I've done it! I've successfully gotten grub4dos to chainload to grub (legacy) from within the same partition, without making a grub .iso. I found the settings to do it, and will share tomorrow, assuming anyone besides me is interested.

Next up: moving grldr and menu.lst out of the root directory.
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#21 by brokenman » 11 Jan 2011, 02:25

If you share your secret i could write a small windows application for installing Porteus from within windows ... if that would be of interest.
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#22 by Rava » 11 Jan 2011, 03:20

ponce wrote:poor activity can mean also that's pretty stable :pardon:

Yep... like dosfstools_3.0.1 ... might be some years old, but what should there be done, unless some minor bux fixing....

Okay... kind off topic... :bad:
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#23 by Ahau » 11 Jan 2011, 15:22

@brokenman- that would be most excellent! I'll have it up in about 12 hours--it's just a menu entry in grub4dos, but I'm on my blackberry only until morning.

Posted after 11 hours 22 minutes 4 seconds:
Here's the menu.lst I would propose for grub4dos:

Code: Select all

color blue/green yellow/red white/magenta white/magenta
timeout 1
default /default

chainload to grub
chainloader --force --load-segment=0 --load-offset=0x8000 --boot-cs=0 --boot-ip=0x8200 (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2

title reboot
reboot

title halt
halt
grub4dos needs to be installed to the mbr through windows, with this menu.lst and grldr in the root directory of the device. /boot/grub would need to be created as a directory and populated with (at the very least) the stage2 file and another menu.lst. That menu.lst would contain the entry for Porteus, and is what would need to be edited by a user who wishes to add menu entries.

This creates a problem, because there remains another menu.lst in the root directory. It looks to me like that can be moved into a subdirectory, but I haven't quite figured it out yet (someone suggested hex editing grldr, with which I had no luck). My concern is that a noob who wanted to increase their boot options would configure /menu.lst when they should be editing /boot/grub/menu.lst, and then they would be confused as to why their changes didn't show up in the grub menu.

Even if we can get grub4dos' menu.lst into /boot/grub4dos, we'd still have grldr in the root directory, where someone might easily delete it, not knowing its relevance. If we can't find a way to move grldr into /boot/grub4dos, then I would suggest putting a copy of grldr in /boot/grub4dos, so that it could be copied back to / if it gets deleted.

Still, this is a more convoluted approach, and I'd hate to add more room for user problems. Nonetheless, it would be nice to have everyone using the same loader (grub), with the same menu.
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#24 by X-Factor » 11 Jan 2011, 18:11

if i'm not wrong grldr need to be at the root of the booted os n it will hunt/search the first available menu.lst ( its in the read.me G4D ) but i'm not qiute sure it combine with legacy grub though
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#25 by Ahau » 11 Jan 2011, 19:30

I've worked out a method for keeping the menu.lst for grub4dos in a subdirectory. The file grldr contains an embedded menu that tells it where to find menu.lst. Here is what that menu looks like:

Code: Select all

default 0 
timeout 1 

title find /menu.lst, /boot/grub/menu.lst, /grub/menu.lst 
errorcheck off 
configfile /menu.lst 
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst 
configfile /grub/menu.lst 
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /menu.lst && configfile /menu.lst 
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /boot/grub/menu.lst && configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst 
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /grub/menu.lst && configfile /grub/menu.lst 
errorcheck on 
commandline 

title commandline 
commandline 

title reboot 
reboot 

title halt 
halt 
This menu can be edited with a hexeditor. I went in and modified it to remove the search in /grub and /boot/grub, just to make sure it won't find the menu.lst for grub (legacy), and replaced all references to /menu.lst with /boot/grub4dos/menu.lst

I would also suggest changing the timeout to 0 after testing it, because otherwise it flashes the submenu briefly before moving into the regular grub4dos menu.

I would imagine this could be done by editing the source and recompiling, but that is beyond my skill level. However, it might also be possible to move the location of grldr by editing the source (it is not possible as far as I can tell, with hexediting), so maybe it would be a worthwhile venture if we wish to pursue this route for our bootloader.
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#26 by Rava » 12 Jan 2011, 01:53

Speaking about the boot loader... should I post an article of how to install Porteus on a Win7 PC (you know, the Windoze system using a hidden from windoze boot partition at the very beginning...) using NeoGrub, since that means you have to solve some minor issues, and the menu.lst looks different as well:

Code: Select all

title Slax remix V08 Copy2Ram, Always Fresh, Text Mode
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=6666 max_loop=256 root=/dev/ram0 rw sgnfile=slax-remix-v08_intHDD1_5.sgn toram autoexec=telinit~3
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.lz
boot
This is what you need to use when you use NeoGrub...


If yes, where should I post it?
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#27 by X-Factor » 12 Jan 2011, 02:03

you could pm the site admin, but my guess is installation method :)
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#28 by Ahau » 12 Jan 2011, 03:14

Yes, put it in Installation Methods. My post on grub was moved there.

I'd love to see your method!

Thanks!
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#29 by brokenman » 12 Jan 2011, 03:47

I am using Neo on my dual win/porteus machine. You should replace:

sgnfile=slax-remix-v08_intHDD1_5.sgn

with

from_dev=/dev/sdx1 from_dir=/os/porteusv09
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Re: [IMPORTANT] Boot loader for next release.

Post#30 by fanthom » 12 Jan 2011, 07:25

@Rava
please write your HOWTO about Porteus and not slax-remix (especially v08) as many things are changed. For example 'ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw' are not needed anymore (hardcoded in kernel), 'toram' is no longer valid (use 'copy2ram' instead), from= was separated to from_dev=, from_dir=, from_iso=

Please read the changelog for v09 release and /porteus/cheatcodes.txt to catch up rest of changes.

BTW - switching to Porteus-v09 is obligatory as slax-remix is unsupported now - officially :)
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

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