New USB installation will not boot, but there are no error messages.[SOLVED]

[rustydu]

Hello all,

Newbie here.

I was able to complete the installation process as described in the tutorial using the Manjaro distro. When I boot into UEFI mode the USB drive is recognized as "UEFI OS". When I boot from the USB, though, I end up right back in the Manjaro GRUB menu. I do not encounter any error messages, so I don't really know where to begin figuring this out. I am using a 16G USB formatted with FAT32.

I can't find an existing thread about this particular issue. I hope I'm not clogging the channel.

Glad to be here, thanks in advance for any help!

[Ed_P]

Hi rusty, welcome to the forum.

The Porteus instructions in the ISO's /USB_INSTRUCTIONS.txt file do not create GRUB menus so I don't know where your GRUB came from. When I boot my USB drive I press the F12 key at the begining of my Dell's boot process and select the USB drive. No GRUB booting the USB drive.

When I boot to GRUB2 on my Dell and select the USB drive I use this menu:

Code: Select all

menuentry " Porteus 5.0 USB - EFI" --class slackware   --class icon-porteus  {

     set bootmgr=/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi          #grubx64.efi    # bootx64.efi

     set bootdrv=$root
     search -f $bootmgr --set=root
     echo bootmgr: $bootmgr
     sleep -v -i 3
     if [ $root != $bootdrv ]; then
        chainloader $bootmgr
     else
        echo "----------------------------------------"
        echo USB drive NOT found.
        echo
        sleep -v -i 10
     fi
     set root=$bootdrv
     }

[rustydu]

I have Manjaro set up to boot into a grub menu so that I can boot into UEFI mode on my Asus Vivobook 14. The firmware didn't include a way to boot into UEFI with any key press. The issue is that when I select the USB to boot, my main drive boots instead and I end up back in the Manjaro boot menu.

I am installing Porteus from a mounted iso file onto a usb in linux. I retried twice and then once using LILO. I encountered the same problem all three times. Not a single error message.

[Karmi]

I have Manjaro set up to boot into a grub menu so that I can boot into UEFI mode on my Asus Vivobook 14. The firmware didn't include a way to boot into UEFI with any key press. The issue is that when I select the USB to boot, my main drive boots instead and I end up back in the Manjaro boot menu.

I am installing Porteus from a mounted iso file onto a usb in linux. I retried twice and then once using LILO. I encountered the same problem all three times. Not a single error message.

I'm a newbie also - so oldies here can feel free to correct me. Only ways I have installed Porteus (5.0 Cinnamon) is to a fat32 USB - OR - a formatted 350-360 MB fat32 partition wid the remaining space on the USB being formatted to ext4.

1) For fat32 I copy the ISO's boot, EFI, and porteus folders to a USB.
2) For the combo of a fat32 plus ext4 partitioned USB - I copy the ISO's boot & EFI folders to the fat32 partition, and then copy the porteus folder to the ext4 partition. I only use SanDisk or Samsung USB's when dealing wid ext4. USB's are usually from 32 GBs to 120GBs.

If there is another OS on the computer I use the Boot Menu key to select which OS I want to start...I have 5 desktop computers, a Dell laptop, and a converted to Linux former Chromebook. My Boot Menu keys on the desktops are either F8 or F12. Dell lappy is F12. Converted Chromebook is the esc key.

Not sure what Vivobook 14's Boot Menu key is, but have seen esc key for Boot Menu and delete key for BIOS.

[rustydu]

I've tried the first option twice now, but your second option is interesting, I'll definitely give it a shot.

I know multiple partitions aren't supposed to be necessary for Porteus to install but would it work to make a designated UEFI partition on the USB and copy the boot directory and EFI directory to it? Thinking out loud, I'll try that too. If your second method works I don't see why this wouldn't, but I'm clueless.

I'm pretty sure at this point that the USB installation is simply not bootable. The files all seem to be there, but when I choose to boot from the USB in UEFI mode I think the machine immediately skips it because it isn't bootable and then boots the next device in line which is my main drive. If making a boot partition doesn't work I must be missing a critical file or directory.

[nanZor]

Rustydu - sounds like you have only copied the files inside the mounted iso, but didn't follow through with the last step of running the installer after. There is a script for linux you can run from your Manjaro.

Be sure to select the proper drive when running that script. I find it helpful not to be in a rush, and run the installer script from the target usb device you copied the files to - and not from the mounted iso files.

[Karmi]

Vivobook 14's

I saw nanZor make a reply to your question, and it reminded me that I had problems getting Porteus 5.0rc3 on the converted Chromebook. Maybe the Vivobook 14 is having the same problem. See the #4 by nanZor » 11 May 2022, 20:57 in the "Can Porteus be booted from the UEFI Shell option?" thread. Can Porteus be booted from the UEFI Shell option?

[babam]

I have Asus Vivobook 15, press Esc repeatedly to enter into boot menu.

[Ed_P]

BTW Be sure the machine's EFI Secure Boot option is disabled.

[rustydu]

Rustydu - sounds like you have only copied the files inside the mounted iso, but didn't follow through with the last step of running the installer after. There is a script for linux you can run from your Manjaro.

Be sure to select the proper drive when running that script. I find it helpful not to be in a rush, and run the installer script from the target usb device you copied the files to - and not from the mounted iso files.

I definitely ran the installer from inside the boot directory on the usb. I was presented with the ASCII image of a wave(?) and completed the sort process. The result is a drive that is named UEFI OS in the UEFI boot order. When I select it, however, my machine will not boot it.

I am NOT having trouble getting into UEFI mode. I just do it through a Grub menu instead of a hotkey.

[rustydu]

Vivobook 14's

I saw nanZor make a reply to your question, and it reminded me that I had problems getting Porteus 5.0rc3 on the converted Chromebook. Maybe the Vivobook 14 is having the same problem. See the #4 by nanZor » 11 May 2022, 20:57 in the "Can Porteus be booted from the UEFI Shell option?" thread. Can Porteus be booted from the UEFI Shell option?

Thanks, I'll get on it.

[rustydu]

BTW Be sure the machine's EFI Secure Boot option is disabled.

Always!

[rustydu]

Problem solved. The issue was that the partition needed to be recognized as bootable from the get go. I had assumed that the installation process would give me a bootable drive, but that was silly of me. I used fdisk to label the partition as EFI and after that I had no more issues. No more than one partition necessary. Now I can get to learning the OS.

I guess this is just part of what control and responsibility over your machine looks like.

[Ed_P]

I used fdisk to label the partition as EFI

rustydu for clarify for other new users that will see this thread could you explain what you did in GParted terms? GParted is a GUI part of Porteus / Administration and easier for new to Linux users to use.

BTW My USB2 drive is labeled Porteus50 and boots on my EFI system.

[rustydu]

BTW My USB2 drive is labeled Porteus50 and boots on my EFI system.

I used the wrong term! What I meant was flag.

rustydu for clarify for other new users that will see this thread could you explain what you did in GParted terms? GParted is a GUI part of Porteus / Administration and easier for new to Linux users to use.

Absolutely! This request posed a challenge as I had never used Gparted before tonight and it also turned out that I didn't understand what was actually happening with fdisk, I think I get it now. Anyway, here is the process for prepping a USB pendrive to accept the Porteus installation via Gparted:

1. Wipe the drive.

In Gparted the pendrive can be selected in the drop down menu on the top right. If there aren't any protected files simply delete the partition by selecting it and clicking the trash can. You may need to reboot so that the kernel recognizes the changes.

I had protected linux installation media written to my usb so to be certain I was starting from zero I wiped my drive using:
umount /dev/PENDRIVE
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/PENDRIVE bs=1M

This is probably overkill but in my situation I couldn't find a better way. Replace PENDRIVE with the usb drive's device name.

2. Set the Partition Table

Go to Devices > Create Partition Table

Choose "msdos"
Apply

This is the option for the MBR partition type. Do not choose "GPT". I have not been able to get Porteus to boot using GPT, even with a successful installation. There may be way of getting it to work with multiple partitions, but I have not been able to do it with one or many.

3. Create the Partition

Right click the unallocated partition table and select "New"

Where it says "File System:", select FAT32 (!SEE # 5 BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS!)
Leave the remaining fields as they are and click OK.

Click the check mark to write the changes to the drive.

4. Flag the drive as bootable.

Right click the new partition and select "Manage Flags".
Select 'boot' from the menu and click OK. This will write the change to the USB drive.
Leave Gparted.

5. ENSURE THE THE PARTITION HAS BEEN FORMATTED TO FAT32

Open the terminal and enter:

umount /dev/PENDRIVE_PARTITION
mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/PENDRIVE_PARTITION

This will not change the boot flag.

And that's it. From here continue with the installation guide from the beginning and everything should click.

As for the FAT32 issue... I'm not sure what happens in Gparted, but If I don't manually run this mkfs script the Porteus installation will fail and throw errors. Fdisk indicated that the partition that Gparted made had a vFAT signature. Considering that before this process I knew virtually nothing about file systems and partition tables, I unfortunately can't offer a good explanation as to why this was the case for me.

I hope this is helpful to someone!