Problems installing v3.2.2 to USB stick

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dinosaur
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Problems installing v3.2.2 to USB stick

Post#1 by dinosaur » 01 Jan 2017, 23:04

Having the need for Porteus after a longish absence, I booted up v3.1 from USB.

After a quick look at the latest announcements, I thought I would get the latest v3.2.2.

As a bonus, it would give me the chance to get a feel for 4 different desktops.

I downloaded the xfce 64 iso (and later the other 3).

I'm trying to install it to a new 8GB USB stick. 8GB is a little over the top for Porteus, so I partitioned it with a FAT32 partition for
data using about half the stick. The rest I pairtioned into 4 x 1GBish ext4 and 1 with the remainder.

Now I want to install the xfce-porteus to P2.

I copy the 4 ISOs to P1 (labelled fatty), mount the xfce ISO and copy its contents to P2.

In the terminal as root, I cd'd to P2 and ran the installer script.

I got something like this

Code: Select all

Installing Porteus to /dev/sdc2
WARNING: Make sure this is the right partition before proceeding.

Type 'ok' to continue or press Ctrl+c to exit.
ok
Flushing filesystem buffers...

Using extlinux bootloader.

Installation failed with error code '3'.
Please ask for help on the Porteus forum: www.porteus.org/forum
and provide the information from /mnt/sdc2/debug.txt

Exiting now...
Just in case, I tried again using a non-GUI Debian from the hard disk. Same result.

Booted into Porteus to post this.

Realised while posting that I hadn't started a nested shell with sh.

Tried again. Same result.

The debug.txt below is from this last try, as is the result above.

Code: Select all

device: /dev/sdc
partition: /dev/sdc2
partition number: 2
partition mount point: /mnt/sdc2
installation path: /mnt/sdc2
subfolder: 
filesystem: ext4
bootloader: extlinux
error code: 3
system: porteus 3.17.4-porteus x86_64
mount details: /dev/sdc2 /mnt/sdc2 ext4 rw,noatime,nodiratime,data=ordered 0 0
full partition scheme:

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1946019d

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048   209717247   104857600    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2       481771520  1953523711   735876096    5  Extended
/dev/sda3       209717248   335546367    62914560    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda5       481773568   563513343    40869888   83  Linux
/dev/sda6       563515392   565612543     1048576   83  Linux
/dev/sda7       569810944   915841023   173015040    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda8      1064448000  1406463999   171008000   83  Linux
/dev/sda9      1406466048  1943037951   268285952   83  Linux
/dev/sda10     1943040000  1953523711     5241856   82  Linux swap

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 8002 MB, 8002732032 bytes
241 heads, 36 sectors/track, 1801 cylinders, total 15630336 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc6ab12ca

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *          32    15630335     7815152   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 8002 MB, 8002732032 bytes
247 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1020 cylinders, total 15630336 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000a14f1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1            2048     6146047     3072000    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sdc2   *     6146048     8243199     1048576   83  Linux
/dev/sdc3         8243200    10340351     1048576   83  Linux
/dev/sdc4        10340352    15630335     2644992    5  Extended
/dev/sdc5        10342400    12439551     1048576   83  Linux
/dev/sdc6        12441600    14538751     1048576   83  Linux
/dev/sdc7        14540800    15630335      544768   83  Linux

Is it that something is getting confused by the unusual partition layout of my hard disk?

My next idea is to try disconnecting the hard disk before re-trying.

Any better ideas?

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Re: Problems installing v3.2.2 to USB stick

Post#2 by Bogomips » 02 Jan 2017, 00:20

Just simply try: http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=5758 for your 3.2.2 ISO file. This creates fat partition (visible to windoze) and ext4 partition. Request 3 GB for fat. When done use: Menu > Partion Editor to make remaining 4/5 partitions. Much less hassle. 8)
Linux porteus 4.4.0-porteus #3 SMP PREEMPT Sat Jan 23 07:01:55 UTC 2016 i686 AMD Sempron(tm) 140 Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
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dinosaur
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Re: Problems installing v3.2.2 to USB stick

Post#3 by dinosaur » 02 Jan 2017, 01:11

Bogomips wrote:Just simply try: http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=5758 for your 3.2.2 ISO file. This creates fat partition (visible to windoze) and ext4 partition. Request 3 GB for fat. When done use: Menu > Partion Editor to make remaining 4/5 partitions. Much less hassle. 8)
f

Yes, simple if it did what I wanted. I want the FAT partition to be first and boot from the second partition to stop Windows wanting to format it.

Another objection is that I wouldn't understand what went wrong.

I was planning to configure PLoP to multi-boot different Porteus desktops. This wouldn't help.

But is PLoP still user in 3.3.3? The reference to Extlinux makes me doubt it.

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brokenman
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Re: Problems installing v3.2.2 to USB stick

Post#4 by brokenman » 02 Jan 2017, 01:54

The tool mentioned formats the stick as you want it (if I understand what you want correctly).

If you prefer to do it manually then you will need to create the first partition as FAT32 and copy the BOOT folder from the iso to the first partition. Then copy the porteus folder to the second partition (ext4). Then from a terminal change into the boot folder on the first partition and run the installer from there.

The last step is to edit the porteus.cfg file on the first partition and add the from=UUID:putTheUuidForTheSecondPartitionHere to the APPEND line.

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APPEND initrd=initrd.xz from=UUID:STrING-0F-ChARACtERS
You can get the UUID from the output of blkid

Nothing has changed with the boot procedure and plop is still in version 3.2.2
How do i become super user?
Wear your underpants on the outside and put on a cape.

dinosaur
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Re: Problems installing v3.2.2 to USB stick

Post#5 by dinosaur » 02 Jan 2017, 11:16

Thanks @brokerman, that worked. Also thanks for showing how to modify the boot menu - I should be able to multi-boot now.

So, the restriction is that the boot stuff has to be on the first partition. I can live with that. Much better than the usual fight for the mbr.

Just got to read up on modules now as I can't find a graphical browser installed.

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brokenman
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Re: Problems installing v3.2.2 to USB stick

Post#6 by brokenman » 02 Jan 2017, 17:01

Your welcome.
I can't find a graphical browser installed.
There isn't one in the default ISO. There are two options. You can open a root console and enter: update-firefox
This will build firefox on your machine. You can also download the module from our mirrors.
Example

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wget http://ftp.vim.org/ftp/os/Linux/distr/porteus/x86_64/Porteus-v3.2.2/modules/firefox-50.1.0-x86_64-1.xzm
There are various update-xxxxxxx scripts.
update-chrome
update-firefox
update-chromium
update-palemoon

The modules should be placed in your 'modules' folder (inside the porteus folder) in which case they will be activated at every boot.
How do i become super user?
Wear your underpants on the outside and put on a cape.

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