Copy-n-paste of rc3 to HD works fine!

Here you can post about your various experiences with PC hardware. You can also post about hardware that is not compatible with the linux kernel or not recommended for use with Porteus.
nanZor
Shogun
Shogun
Posts: 381
Joined: 09 Apr 2019, 03:27
Distribution: Porteus 5.01 x86-64 LXQT

Copy-n-paste of rc3 to HD works fine!

Post#1 by nanZor » 26 Oct 2021, 05:50

On my uefi-only machine, I just did a copy-n-paste rc3 install onto a usb hard drive with actual spinning rust. Couldn't be easier and blew my mind. The thing boots!

I've whipped out Porteus rc3 systems onto usb sticks by the same method in windows - and NOT having to use the windows exe bootloader util - easy peasy. No dd, loop mounts or 3rd party installers. Just copy and paste onto your typical fat32 usb stick but from Windows. Ok.

BUT how about hard drives? So I did a eat-your-own-dogfood test: (spoiler: worked great)

1) From an existing Porteus Openbox rc3, on my cheap little hockey-puck mini-pc which is uefi-only, I attached a usb hard disk that still has spinning platters.

2) I downloaded the Porteus iso into my downloads folder.

3) I used Space-Fm file manager and to my surprise, it will mount an iso.

4) I used gparted to prepare the 320gb hard drive with nothing but fat32. (yeah, not ideal since who wants to really use a max 4gb savefile.dat instead of using a linux filesystem? Laugh.) But it can be done, so I went there.

5) I used copy-n-paste techniques from space-fm to put it onto the new hard drive and crossed fingers.

6) SHUT DOWN nicely just to be on the safe side.

Once rebooted, I freaked out to find it an option in my bios, and let it boot. Wow. It's not supposed to be this easy. Obviously this is a worst-case setup, but proves that you can divvy up a small fat32 partition for boot, and make the rest a linux filesystem if you want - all aided by Porteus' inclusion of gparted to make it smooth.

And this is some cheap hardware. Didn't expect that to work without complaint with what? Simple copy and paste, are you kidding me?

My compliments to the Porteus chefs!
That's a UNIX book - cool. -Garth

nanZor
Shogun
Shogun
Posts: 381
Joined: 09 Apr 2019, 03:27
Distribution: Porteus 5.01 x86-64 LXQT

Copy-n-paste of rc3 to HD works fine!

Post#2 by nanZor » 26 Oct 2021, 06:30

Special uefi note:

If a boot from a copy-n-paste doesn't work, don't immediately assume it is Porteus' fault.

For example, it is not uncommon for higher-end hardware to totally lock out the ability to boot from a physical cd-rom. Or even a stick that has iso9660 format on it looking like one. Some late model computesticks disabled the ability to boot from micro-sd etc etc.

One way to look for lockouts or exceptions, is to use Porteus system-info utility, and look at the bios section. You may get some good hints or clues as to what has been locked out and may want to simply try another port that is not locked out.

P.S. On my machines, I've had NO NEED to use the porteus windows.exe or shell file to make the boot work. You might.

That being said, I'm not an HDD guy but prefer usb stick operations myself. But to each his own, so don't get upset if something doesn't boot with a simple copy-n-paste that has proven to work on uefi stuff. Check the system-info bios area so you don't tear your hair out.

Of course this might mean copying and pasting a stick on another machine first just to get there! Usually no problem.
That's a UNIX book - cool. -Garth

User avatar
M. Eerie
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 620
Joined: 31 Aug 2017, 21:18
Distribution: Nemesis Xfce/MATE x64

Copy-n-paste of rc3 to HD works fine!

Post#3 by M. Eerie » 26 Oct 2021, 07:08

In fact, since you started to dig into Porteus UEFI solid boot, this is what I have been doing lately. Forced somehow by the fact that my Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 USB thumbdrive (with grub/syslinux installed) won't boot on older PC's only backed up by BIOS, but you put me on track.

So easy!

Thanks :)
> Does not compute_ 🖖

https://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?p=94310#p94310
https://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?p=84002#p84002
https://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?p=77174#p77174
https://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=8584

nanZor
Shogun
Shogun
Posts: 381
Joined: 09 Apr 2019, 03:27
Distribution: Porteus 5.01 x86-64 LXQT

Copy-n-paste of rc3 to HD works fine!

Post#4 by nanZor » 26 Oct 2021, 09:22

Hi M. Eerie! I'm flabbargasted at how easy that was. But I wanted to do it right so I used 2 partitions:

1) Starting over, I just used gparted to erase my first hdd test.

2) Created a fat32 partition of about 33mb, since that was as small as the gparted slider would go. Turned on the ESP flag for it.

3) Created an additional ext4 partition with the remaining space. No special flags.

4) Dropped into a terminal, and had to chown the the new partition to guest, rather than root. In my case:

Code: Select all

sudo chown guest /mnt/sda2
5) Use spacefm file manager to open/mount the porteus iso. Copied the boot and EFI folders into my 1st partition.

6) Copy and pasted the porteus folder into the 2nd partition.


Kept an eye on how many places you visit in spacefm file manager. Easy to get lost if you have 10 tabs of stuff open. :)

7). Powered down, rebooted, and set my boot drive in bios.

Tada! Porteus recognized it all without any problems, and now I have a monster 320gb Porteus portable usb drive in ext4 for data.


So cool - I don't need any specialized installer for either my sticks or hdd's should I want to use them.

Once you do it a few times, the pattern becomes kinda' natural!
That's a UNIX book - cool. -Garth

Jack
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 1857
Joined: 09 Aug 2013, 14:25
Distribution: Porteus and Nemesis
Location: USA

Copy-n-paste of rc3 to HD works fine!

Post#5 by Jack » 26 Oct 2021, 11:43

@nanZor,

That how I been using Porteus for years. I just order 2 Sandisk USB3.1 and I going to upgrade from 32gb to 64gb. One will have Porteus MATE and the other will have Nemesis MATE on them. I gave up on Microsoft Windows 3 years now but I still have it just in case I do need it and it version 7.

I forgot to say I did get a Acer Laptop so that why I order the 2 new Sandisk USB3.1.

Thank for your info

Jack
I just like Slackware because I think it teach you about Linux to build packages where Ubuntu is like Windows you just install programs you want.

nanZor
Shogun
Shogun
Posts: 381
Joined: 09 Apr 2019, 03:27
Distribution: Porteus 5.01 x86-64 LXQT

Copy-n-paste of rc3 to HD works fine!

Post#6 by nanZor » 27 Oct 2021, 01:58

I prefer to run usb solely for both boot and data myself, but hey it was easy enough to turn a spare 320gb usb hard drive into a massive Porteus system.

But don't get rid of Windows entirely. There are some really good tools that we can use even if you don't use your windows machine for a daily driver. I use "StopUpdates10" from Greatis software often on mini-pc's or others where I'm not concerned about updates and just want that nightmare to stop so I can use the box for less security-related utilities.

Such as: Rufus. (3.17 or greater please). Even though Rufus is NOT needed for Porteus installation, one can easily slack their way into an ext2 or ext3 robust filesystem for your dedicated data stick to hold the porteussave.dat or whatever. No need to guide somone over the phone about mkfs or using gparted for the first time:

With your data drive inserted, at the "Boot selection" drop down, choose "Non bootable". Below, in the "File system" drop down, you can choose to format with ext2 or ext3 (among others). Using a data drive for Porteus with ext is preferred rather than a fat32 drive. Windows will no longer recognize it, but Porteus will! All the details about that of course in the forum here.

SD-Card Format:
If you are using sd or micro-sd cards to put Porteus on like I am, I *always* use the formatter from these guys at least once initially for one major reason: they wrote the spec that manufacturers are supposed to follow, and is the only formatter that will write the proper code into the on-board controllers! Just zeroing out data isn't enough. Most consumer sd cards have code coming from the manufacturers optimized for windows/mac or may be corrupted. This free formatter will rewrite the controller code properly. So much deeper than just partitioning or formatting.

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

Anyway, just some helpful stuff.
That's a UNIX book - cool. -Garth

Post Reply