Hdd install troubles lost sudo power?

Post#1 by **Guysilvermt** » 19 Dec 2022, 05:41

So had a hard time getting porteus on hdd of 2007 macbook. I thought it would be as easy as running the installer after booting from usb flash, but that didn't work. It either didn't find the bootloader, or boatloader didn't find the mandatory files on the other partition, depending on what i did. I tried it several times and was getting very frustrated. Finally I got it to boot from hdd by copying the boot, porteus and EFI folder from usb to hdd and making sure the bootloader partition is exFat.

But now I have lost sudo power though I am in the necessary groups. I don't seem to be able to login as root, still haven't changed the password? Maybe i should start over one more time from usb and try to get it right this time? How do i get my privileges back?

I need to get the wifi up and running as well but without sudo power thats impossible. I am a newby to linux but familiar with terminal, I tried a couple different distros but i had issue with all of them and think porteus is what I.m looking for small, ast and capale. Can smeone help me out?

Post#2 by **Rava** » 19 Dec 2022, 06:15

Guysilvermt wrote: ↑
19 Dec 2022, 05:41
But now I have lost sudo power though I am in the necessary groups. I don't seem to be able to login as root, still haven't changed the password? Maybe i should start over one more time from usb and try to get it right this time? How do i get my privileges back?

This is quite strange.
You mean to say, you can boot Porteus from your hard drive, it starts up the chosen DE (Desktop Environment, e.g. XFCE or KDE) but you cannot do a

Code: Select all

su -

nor a

Code: Select all

sudo [command]

?
Have you only tried sudo? Or did you also try making a root terminal by using

Code: Select all

su -

The "-" is short for a login shell:

Code: Select all

guest@porteus:/Filme/Harold Lloyd$ su --help |grep "login shell"
  -, -l, --login                make the shell a login shell

Post#3 by **Ed_P** » 19 Dec 2022, 06:32

Guysilvermt wrote: ↑
19 Dec 2022, 05:41
hdd of 2007 macbook

Your machine is a Mac? And it supports EFI! Not a Mac user so this is all new to me.

Post#4 by **Guysilvermt** » 19 Dec 2022, 22:11

yeah I'm lost but ill give those commands a shot when I get back
I was going to start over with a clean install and try again, but now I can't boot from the USB drive anymore not because there is anything wrong with it its the same one I used to install Porteus in the first place.

I broke the screen on my windows laptop, my phone is lost and I'm addicted to moving around and having a computer, so this old mac happened to be an option plus my friend wanted me to fix his newer iMac and so I figured why not give Linux a shot on both. That's why I decided to do an HDD install as I only have one flash drive and 2 computers. lol

I'm not a mac user as well but I found out the only way I could get either mac to boot from USB was a GPT file system and EFI, using Rufus. It worked! I'll leave it at that

I already have messed with this an awful lot more than I intended. I was thinking maybe trying a distro that is not intended to be live. I did try Lubuntu and hated it, Porteus is small, fast, and seems amazing to me, but maybe there is some other Slackware distro that would be better suited to me?

I put Bohdi on the iMac and it's alright, have wifi working so that's good. but I like Porteus for some reason. Though I'm starting to get irritated. I wish I had more info to give about what the prob is I'm gonna give it a shot here in a bit and get back to you guys thanks for trying to help me anyways.

Post#5 by **Guysilvermt** » 20 Dec 2022, 02:03

So I feel like a nitwit, but here goes. I wish i could figure out how to take a screenshot but its a macbook keyboard and I have no idea at this point. After install the appearance of everything changed i lost the background pic and many items/apps lost their icons. files app, power/shutdown/ logout, even palemoon browser back reload buttons are either missing completely or are just one generic icon. Also the boot screen, bootloader not sure what its called, but there was the option to boot porteus on RAM or boot to diferent modules that doesn't show up? I wanted to just try again with new install but i can not boot from the flash drive? there is a apple bootloader if i hold down the option button and the flash drive is a option to pick but no matter what i pick i still end up booting to the hdd.

As far as the sudo priveleges I loggd in as root and created a new user with admin priveleges and deleted the other user so im pretty sure thats fixed i was trying to find the terminal commands for the broadcom wifi in this macbook to make sure but Im thinking i need to start over and get this right first? Would probably be easier than repairing whatever nonsense I managed to make happen? But I don't know how to do that without being able to boot from usb, you guys have any idea what i did, or how i might fix it?

im definately confused by the saving system i put palemoon in the modules folder and thats all i have downloaded at this point not sure if its going to be available after reboot though? Sorry for the lack of real questions or info at this point. Hope someone can point me in the right direction?

Post#6 by **Rava** » 20 Dec 2022, 02:08

Guysilvermt wrote: ↑
20 Dec 2022, 02:03
i put palemoon in the modules folder

What do you mean by "modules folder"?

When you put it into porteus/base/ folder then it will be loaded without the need of additional tweak via the kernel / boot cheatcodes.

Post#7 by **Guysilvermt** » 20 Dec 2022, 02:33

everything downloads to the tmp folder, and im instructed to move it to the modules folder so that it sticks around so thats what I did?

Post#8 by **Guysilvermt** » 20 Dec 2022, 02:43

I am trying to get the wifi up and running but i have limited terminal commands to work with i don't even know how to install a pkg at the moment.

Post#9 by **Guysilvermt** » 20 Dec 2022, 02:45

the modues folder being porteus/porteus/modules at least thats what i assumed. if someone could just help me to boot to the usb and start over i would be very grateful?

Post#10 by **Rava** » 20 Dec 2022, 03:34

Guysilvermt wrote: ↑
20 Dec 2022, 02:43
I am trying to get the wifi up and running but i have limited terminal commands to work with i don't even know how to install a pkg at the moment.

i recomend making a module via txz2xzm
Also to be on the safe side put your modules into porteus/base/ folder

and to be on he safe side² - do not do things like remove users until you know Porteus better.

And have set up a default Porteus setup that works and you not mess with and experiment on another 2nd setup instead.

Post#11 by **Ed_P** » 20 Dec 2022, 04:23

Rava wrote: ↑
20 Dec 2022, 03:34
Also to be on the safe side put your modules into porteus/base/ folder

That's how Porteus is designed. Modules are designed to go into the USB's /porteus/modules folder. The /porteus/base folder is for 00* modules.

Post#12 by **Guysilvermt** » 20 Dec 2022, 06:13

That was good advice not to delete users unless I know what I'm doing. I should have taken it, and maybe taken it a bit further but I got pissed off and instead of tossing the damn thing against the wall I decided Ill just delete all the files off the volume that it, for some damn reason won't allow me not to boot from. And it looks like I may have bricked the piece of garbage. Lol, at least ill stop wasting my time with it. I guess maybe I can remove the hdd and reformat it on my pc. Maybe try again since I feel like I was starting to actually wrap my head around the proper install process. But for now I am just happy to quit, plus my wife is getting pissed off from my spending a whole day on the damn thing. lol

Post#13 by **Ed_P** » 20 Dec 2022, 06:18

With my Windows machine I have found that if the machine doesn't shutdown normally the harddrives can be locked from update access by Porteus. The solution for me was to boot to Windows, run a chkdsk command on each of the drives and reboot to Porteus. It is also possible that simply booting to Windows and simply shutting down normally would work also.

Guysilvermt wrote: ↑
20 Dec 2022, 06:13
I feel like I was starting to actually wrap my head around the proper install process.

The instructions in the ISO's USB_INSTALLATION.txt file work also. Basically, format the USB drive to FAT32, copy all the folders from the ISO to the USB drive, run the appropriate /boot/Porteus-installer file.

Post#14 by **Guysilvermt** » 20 Dec 2022, 07:03

That actually may have been the issue. I tried cheat codes to point it to different volumes and had installs on 3 different drives and it would not boot to anything but the original install and I think I recall having to hold down the power button after that first successful install. Steve Jobs you son of a *&@#$%.!

El captain is a 10 gb iso that I would have had to pirate to get either of these 2 macs working again. Mac recovery mode would not work even with internet. Nobody apparently has a osx install DVD. Porteus is what 300 MB to begin? With my internet 10 gb is 36 hours. Plus neither me or my friend really needed anything more than a browser. Well I needed terminal and remote desktop but other than that we don't require 10 gb of operating system.

Thanks for helping guys!