Porteus

M. Eerie wrote: ↑

01 Jul 2021, 20:56

The real challenge is getting a USB drive that boots in all scenarios.

I think BIOS and EFI covers 90% of new users which the 4 steps noted above do.

M. Eerie wrote: ↑

01 Jul 2021, 20:56

As for saving changes, there's no need to create a separate partition. In Porteus you can store your changes by creating a container file

I agree, and have been doing that for years. A problem for some is the container file can not be bigger than 4 GB on a FAT32 drive.

beny, Thank you: the TAB displays a textual line menu with the same options: Graphical, fresh etc. And it boots! Making this indeed a dual UEFI-Legacy bootable Porteus! -- no need to carry 2 USB sticks.

raja, I can also confirm that making an additional partition (ext4), moving the porteus folder onto it, and just adding the from=LABEL:Porteus cheatcode in (one of the) menus of portesu.cfg works including changes folder that is automagically placed on that partition too.

M. Eerie, since exFAT might not be an easy option, I'll stay with FAT32 for now -- a small partition of 350MB in my case that is only used for booting.

Thanks everyone, I'm quite happy now. On to the next problem: the network adapter on my newest DELL machine doesn't seem to be recognised, No network devices available

Hello!

Thanks for staying around trying to make a difference. One recent suggestion to copy reFind's (v0.13.2) 'bootia32.efi' to 'EFI/BOOT/' in 'APorteus-v21.06.27-x86_64.iso' didn't enable hybrid 32/64 booting on my CherryTrail transformer tablet but this sure proved interesting as some alternate boot menu actually capable of finding & loading Fedora's own boot menu - present on my "HS200" MMC NCard (via an 'EFI\fedora\grubia32.efi' menu item). Most unfortunately previous installation of Linuxium on removable "SDR104" SDHC media only worked until reboot, apparently because this uSD drive just doesn't seem accessible yet (chicken & egg paradox)... So, in principle 64-bits OS setup on that portable's main storage unit proved this budget machine is OKay with it, while a remedy would be to split the booting process, staring from where Win10 used to stand before (then once all media is made functional control would be passed to one of a multitude of OSes as its uSD maximum capacity is 128 GB instead of only 32, which may imply that Win11 setup would eventually fail kind of early anyway.

Well i suppose feedback is welcome even if preliminary, mentions of late Linux v5.x kernels made me hopeful: it's a simple matter of time IMO!

Even the install for the UEFI-ONLY machines is the utmost in simplicity - you can skip the "installer".

It's in the usb install readme, but I've seen some guys so used to using burners that they just dont know you don't need to dd, rufus, etcher or whatever.

From a windows download perspective:

Download porteus iso. Double click it to mount and extract it. Copy contents to your usb-drive. Eject it nicely. (important). Reboot and make it first in your boot list in your bios if necessary.

No need (at least for the majority of my machines) to even have to use the porteus windows exe installer at all. Blows their minds!

It has been some years since I built a usb porteus bootable key.

My usb key will not boot. I proceeded as in this thread:
SOLVED: linux usb key recognized in window 10

I want a linux only usb with porteus as OS. Here is what I have done:

A. Formatted the with 3 partitions
1) 1 gig fat32
2) 5.32 gig ext2
3) 1 gig linux-swap

B. From my hdd porteus install, I just installed porteus to the the key:


Where do I pick the UEFI folder. It seems to be missing on my installation.

Thanks.

Check the USB_INSTALLATION.txt file in the Porteus ISO you installed to your harddrive. Although nanZor's instructions are good, try them.

Nanzor is when you use a save.dat container. He works with a single partition fat32 formatted.

I want my save changes folder to be linux ext2.

From the info I gave my porteus installation is on the second partition. I have fat32 on the first partition to fool windows.

When I go in the setup of my Asus FX502-VM the verbatim usb key is seen, but it chooses the first partition of my usb key. There is no way to change that in the setup.

Maybe, I should instruct porteus installer to boot or install on first partition (sdc1) instead of second partition (sdc2).

francois wrote: ↑

10 Oct 2023, 09:22

Maybe, I should instruct porteus installer to boot or install on first partition (sdc1) instead of second partition (sdc2).

Yes.

Just copy all the ISO files to the 1st partition, then copy the porteus folder to your second partition. Boot the drive then config your system to use the 3rd partition.

I never saw the UEFI folder or files. Where are they?

francois wrote: ↑

11 Oct 2023, 01:53

I never saw the UEFI folder or files. Where are they?

on the ISO, it's the folder named EFI.
containing:

@ncmprhnsbl
Thanks for the info and thumbs up for the good work.

Finally, that was it. All I had to do to have porteus installer target the first partition for porteus installation. Curiously, without a save.dat file it is keeping the changes (am I dreaming?). On the second partition, I have made a modules folder in which I store my additionnal modules.

I might come up with a small howto install porteus on usb key without save.dat container which I hate so much.

francois wrote: ↑

13 Oct 2023, 22:21

I might come up with a small howto install porteus on usb key without save.dat container

Ed_P wrote: ↑

10 Oct 2023, 16:45

Just copy all the ISO files to the 1st partition, then copy the porteus folder to your second partition.

If you format the second partition as ext2, no save.dat file needed. And I should note, when I said "copy the porteus folder" I meant "move it".

@Ed
I understand what you meant. But for this usb install, I was not there yet. I just wanted an operational porteus usb install without a save.dat folder. The different installations porteus directly or thru an iso, on sdc1 or sdc2, with or without changes folder, then could be declined.

hi francois if you use the fat32 system only for the EFI boot and the other partition is ext2 or another one the save.dat you don't need it if you want to use changes directory make one and append the path on porteus.cfg,or do nothing.

I kind of realized that.

Thanks beny.