Some newbie questions

[vinnie]

Hi, I am a newcomer, I wanted to try Porteus and I have several questions.
I try to list here the ones that come to me now, forgive me if I am a bit pedantic, everyone has his own flaws

1. So the first thing I want to ask is that I'm having a problem with "Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com", I tried to follow the instructions in USB_INSTALLATION.txt:

   From any Linux Distribution other than Porteus:
   a) copy the contents of the ISO image to your drive
   b) navigate to the /boot folder and launch the installer
   'bash Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com'
   c) verify you are installing to the correct drive and press 'Enter' to
   complete the installation

   So, I'm on Alpine, I mounted the /media/sda2 partition (formatted in ext4 and flagged as bootable), copied the contents of the mounted iso to sda2 with cp -a from root, cd /media/sda/boot, and ran bash ./Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com (first I had to install bash and sfdisk missing on my alpine).
   The program asks me to confirm the sda2 partition but when I do so it returns this error:

   Code: Select all

   Installation failed with error code '1'.
   Please ask for help on the Porteus forum: www.porteus.org/forum
   and provide the information from /tmp/debug.txt
   Exiting now...
   cat: can't open '/media/sda2/boot/syslinux/lilo.menu': No such file or directory

   I tried searching the forum and found this Problem in boot from usb [SOLVED], but I think this problem is not related, honestly the file claimed by the error is really missing, so I think that file is missing
   /tmp/debug.txt Is empty.
   
   Now this is the second time I would try Porteus, last time I wrote the iso to a flash disk and then used the installer inside the booted live and it worked, so it's not an insurmountable problem, however I wanted to try this procedure which seemed more convenient.
   .
2. I didn't quite understand if porteus loads the whole distro in ram if you don't specify the copy2ram cheatcode or the modules remain mounted from mass storage resulting in less ram consumption but not allowing to unmount the disk.
   Can you precise me?
   .
3. I have ascertained that there are three ways to procure packages (getpkg, pmod, getmod) if I understand correctly the last two create modules for porteus including dependencies, is this correct?
   .
4. I saw that in addition to the normal version of porteus, there are three other versions currently active:
   Kiosk: A version for use in restricted-access computers.
   Nemesis: An artix-based version that I assume can create modules from arch?
   Porteux: Apart from the app store, I didn't understand what differences it has from the regular version.
   If anyone wants to give me more information, that would be interesting.

I'll stop here for now, I can say that the last time I tried porteus I was pleasantly surprised by the performance (and I'm used to distros on ram).
What I want to do is to install a distribution where I can find packages more easily than the one I use (alpine uses musl) but yet retain features of immutability and modularity. Since I have not yet understood precisely how Porteus works I cannot say that I am 100% sure that it will work well, however, I have a positive feeling about it.

Thanks for the patience

[Ed_P]

Hello vinnie. Hopefully I can answer some of your questions. 1st, a question I have, there are many versions of Porteus, what version did you download? And is it an x86-64 or a i586 file?

1. On my Porteus-CINNAMON-v5.01-x86_64.iso, 240521 I have no /boot/syslinux/lilo.menu file. I have a lilo.conf file.

found this Problem in boot from usb [SOLVED],

That posting is from 2014.

Why you are experiencing the problem I don't know.

2. No, not everything is loaded into ram, just the /porteus/base/ files. (If you boot from an ISO it is.)

3. slapt-mod is the new app for creating modules.

4. Kiosk was developed by fanthom while brokenman was developing Porteus. It has recently dropped support on the Porteus forum.
Porteux is a variation build of Porteus's slackware with some tweaks for things. Check the PorteuX website for more precise info. I've run it, it
is good and well supported by porteux.

[vinnie]

what version did you download? And is it an x86-64 or a i586 file?

Porteus-XFCE-v5.01-x86_64.iso

1. On my Porteus-CINNAMON-v5.01-x86_64.iso, 240521 I have no /boot/syslinux/lilo.menu file. I have a lilo.conf file.

The same.
But looking at the file "/boot/docs/install.txt" I don't understand why the installer tries to use lilo since the partition is formatted in ext4, it should use extlinux no? i had even tried to install the syslinux package it in the host distro but it didn't help.

2. No, not everything is loaded into ram, just the /porteus/base/ files. (If you boot from an ISO it is.)

ok, this may come in handy, I have a computer that only has 4 gb of ram, so being able to select what goes into ram and what doesn't may be useful

3. slapt-mod is the new app for creating modules.

ah, a fourth
I hope to find descriptions

4. Kiosk was developed by fanthom while brokenman was developing Porteus. It has recently dropped support on the Porteus forum.
Porteux is a variation build of Porteus's slackware with some tweaks for things. Check the PorteuX website for more precise info. I've run it, it
is good and well supported by porteux.

So if I understand correctly, correct me if I'm wrong, porteus is no longer supported?
However, while I found by searching around that porteus has those commands to generate the modules, I didn't understand whether porteux has as many or not, I had only found in a thread user porteux saying that "getmod" is not there. Slapt-mod was not mentioned.
Which one do you think I should try to install ? because I would like to be able to get packages without too much difficulty.

[Ed_P]

But looking at the file "/boot/docs/install.txt" I don't understand why the installer tries to use lilo since the partition is formatted in ext4, it should use extlinux no?

Try making the boot partition FAT32. That's how USB drives are set up to boot on UEFI systems. To save changes create a Save.dat file or create a 2nd partition formatted as ext2/4.

So if I understand correctly, correct me if I'm wrong, porteus is no longer supported?

Porteus is supported. The admin functions are now done by ncmprhnsbl and support is by many of the members of this forum.

Some links that may be useful to you:

Starting out in Porteus (A Guide)

Porteus-v5.01 updates

[Porteus 5.0's USM replacement] getmod: A wrapper for slapt-get to build modules (Post by Ed_P #96310)

[ncmprhnsbl]

So, I'm on Alpine, I mounted the /media/sda2 partition (formatted in ext4 and flagged as bootable), copied the contents of the mounted iso to sda2 with cp -a from root, cd /media/sda/boot, and ran bash ./Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com (first I had to install bash and sfdisk missing on my alpine).
The program asks me to confirm the sda2 partition but when I do so it returns this error:

presuming that you're using a recent ISO Porteus-v5.01 updates (Post by ncmprhnsbl #99478) , there's been some work done on the *installer.com..
what's your parttition table? MBR or GPT?
also, check out this: Windows and Linux installer revisions, including GPT-BIOS support for >2 TiB drives
and a direct link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PC04Yz ... 0Zku_/view
these revisions are more robust than the existing *installer*.com and can be run from anywhere. (most likely will be adopted)

I didn't quite understand if porteus loads the whole distro in ram if you don't specify the copy2ram cheatcode or the modules remain mounted from mass storage resulting in less ram consumption but not allowing to unmount the disk.
Can you precise me?

yes, "remain mounted from mass storage resulting in less ram consumption" sort of, a dynamic loop mount that loads the bits you use into ram.

I have ascertained that there are three ways to procure packages (getpkg, pmod, getmod) if I understand correctly the last two create modules for porteus including dependencies, is this correct?

they can, but only for salix repositories(slapt-mod/slapt-get is better for this) .. (and maybe sort of partially for some others)

Nemesis: An artix-based version that I assume can create modules from arch?

yes. (an update for this is coming) (there's also APorteus, arch based but with no pacman)

What I want to do is to install a distribution where I can find packages more easily than the one I use

slackware based porteus can be problematic for this due a lack of a full dependency supported package management in slackware
salix repos/package manager overcome this to some degree and there are several good web based package search tools.
certainly, in this respect nemesis with pacman and AUR tools make package management much easier.

[vinnie]

Try making the boot partition FAT32. That's how USB drives are set up to boot on UEFI systems. To save changes create a Save.dat file or create a 2nd partition formatted as ext2/4.

I really do not like to much to use FAT32, I prefer to try some trials with EXT first.

Porteus is supported. The admin functions are now done by ncmprhnsbl and support is by many of the members of this forum.

Some links that may be useful to you:

Starting out in Porteus (A Guide)

Porteus-v5.01 updates

[Porteus 5.0's USM replacement] getmod: A wrapper for slapt-get to build modules (Post by Ed_P #96310)

thank you i will read them carefully
(the version I downloaded is exactly the one you linked in the mirror, I did the md5 test 9ab4d01046300b1698bf71a4928e11ad576ff8182f96b85e3a0a427d7c9c7a05 Porteus-XFCE-v5.01-x86_64.iso)

[vinnie]

presuming that you're using a recent ISO Porteus-v5.01 updates (Post by ncmprhnsbl #99478) , there's been some work done on the *installer.com..
what's your parttition table? MBR or GPT?
also, check out this: Windows and Linux installer revisions, including GPT-BIOS support for >2 TiB drives
and a direct link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PC04Yz ... 0Zku_/view
these revisions are more robust than the existing *installer*.com and can be run from anywhere. (most likely will be adopted)

the partition table is MBR, if I'm not mistaken I also disabled uefi, so it's all legacy.
Okay, I will try the system you recommended, in the meantime I tried the same procedure with porteux but it also failed, in a different way though. First of all, it asked me for more dependencies (bash, zstd, sfdisk, lsblk) and then it ended with another error:

Code: Select all

/media/porteus/boot # bash ./porteux-installer-for-linux.run 
Creating directory /tmp/porteux-installer
Verifying archive integrity...  100%   MD5 checksums are OK. All good.
Uncompressing PorteuX Installer  100%  
Partition filesystem not supported

I will also try the installer you passed on if I can.

yes, "remain mounted from mass storage resulting in less ram consumption" sort of, a dynamic loop mount that loads the bits you use into ram.

Thanks for the clarification

they can, but only for salix repositories(slapt-mod/slapt-get is better for this) .. (and maybe sort of partially for some others)

ok so porteus and porteux create modules from salix repository with slapt-get

yes. (an update for this is coming) (there's also APorteus, arch based but with no pacman)
slackware based porteus can be problematic for this due a lack of a full dependency supported package management in slackware
salix repos/package manager overcome this to some degree and there are several good web based package search tools.
certainly, in this respect nemesis with pacman and AUR tools make package management much easier.

nice, but also from aur? because in this case I would practically have a huge repository... unfortunately i couldn't find much information about nemesis!

[vinnie]

Just for completeness I also tried the Nemesis installer but it gave exactly the same error as the Porteus vanilla one.
Among other things, the installation instruction are more complete, although it nonetheless refers to names that are actually unchanged from Porteus-vanilla such as the directory "/nemesis" instead of "porteus" or the installer "Nemesis-installer-for-Linux.com" which is still called "Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com".

Now I will focus to trying the revisions that ncmprhnsbl suggested to me.
P.s. I'm saying something stupid, but aren't those installers compiled and not just scripts?
Because in that case it may be that they do not work on a non glibc based distro

[vinnie]

Update:
I have tried both distributions (appimage and MakeSelf) but both give exactly the same error and the same debug.txt

Code: Select all

Installation failed with error code '16': extlinux command failed
Please ask for help on the Porteus forum: www.porteus.org/forum
and provide the information from '/media/sda2/boot/debug.txt'

Exiting now...
Installer exited with error 16

I tried installing extlinux from my distro (it is in the syslinux package) but the error remains unchanged.
I'm starting to thinks that it's really a problem with the lack of glibc.
Is extlinux built into the installer?

UPDATE 2
Yes the problem is this!
I installed the glibc compatibility package "gcompat" on alpine (which is generally useless), and the installer worked instead:

Code: Select all

Installation finished successfully.
You may reboot your PC now and start using Porteus.

Press Enter to exit.

now I want to try rebooting and see if it will work (I'm not sure, but let's see--the disk was just formatted but nothing was installed on it).
P.s. I suppose it is now likely that the iso-integrated installers will also work.


UPDATE 3
Works!
I've already done something stupid, I tried to download the Firefox module, then the dialog box told me to put it in the modules dir, I said"ok"and I made the entire /sdb/porteus directory writable and accessible by everyone. Have I already done damage?
However, first impressions: very fast, 40-50 seconds to boot, little RAM occupied, lots of software installed by default (but I understand, it's a ready-to-use distro).
By the way, how do you understand which module a given program you are using is in?
P.s. appimage seems to work without any other configuration!

[Ed_P]

Wow!!

Welcome to the forum vinnie. Love your determination and debug skills.

[vinnie]

Thanks for your help, now I'm going to play a bit with Porteus, I'm sure I'll like it.

[ncmprhnsbl]

I installed the glibc compatibility package "gcompat" on alpine (which is generally useless), and the installer worked instead:

yeah, i didn't think of that.. we need to learn how to compile extlinux statically if that's possible..

I've already done something stupid, I tried to download the Firefox module, then the dialog box told me to put it in the modules dir, I said"ok"and I made the entire /sdb/porteus directory writable and accessible by everyone. Have I already done damage?

not sure how that would happen .. a chmod should fix it?

By the way, how do you understand which module a given program you are using is in?

there's a little script called pkginfo with various options, one of which: pkginfo -w (or --where) <packagename> which should determine which loaded module the package is in (or not if, for example, it's been installed live)

[vinnie]

yeah, i didn't think of that.. we need to learn how to compile extlinux statically if that's possible..

I think it's possible to somehow include everything needed for glibc dependencies, but in the end it's quite rare for a situation like mine to happen

not sure how that would happen .. a chmod should fix it?

It happened that I am badly accustomed, using distros like alpine and tinycore I do things without thinking
Anyway everything works without problem, in the end I only need to boot once in "always fresh" mode to reset everything, right?

there's a little script called pkginfo with various options, one of which: pkginfo -w (or --where) <packagename> which should determine which loaded module the package is in (or not if, for example, it's been installed live)

Magic

[ncmprhnsbl]

in the end I only need to boot once in "always fresh" mode to reset everything, right?

not exactly it boot you into a "fresh"(unpolluted) porteus but it doesn't automatically clean up any mess you might have made.
"mess you might have made" could be a bad or corrupted module or some calamity that's present in the changes folder or container or rootcopy..
for more understanding of the boot options see: <media>/boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg > the APPEND lines and <media>/boot/docs/cheatcodes.txt

[rych]

I also disabled uefi

If you ever decide to enable it though, for UEFI booting I don't ever need to run any Porteus/X installer. I only copy its boot folder into the 1st partition (FAT32, EFI folder) and the porteus/x folder with the modules, changes subfodler -- into a different partitions, normally ext4. For a USB installations both partitions are on that USB. But they could be on different disks, e.g. on your hard-disk too, see for example my most recent setup described in [HOWTO] Multiboot Windows and frugal Porteus/X

Of course, one makes sure that
1) UEFI finds our (syslinux or grub) bootloader in the 1st FAT32 partition of the 1st bootable disk chosen in BIOS
2) the bootloader finds the /porteus or /porteux folder on one of the connected disks (using FROM: cheatcode inside porteus.cfg or grub.cfg)