BOOT HELP! Should be easy right?

Post here if you are a new Porteus member and you're looking for some help.
mccaber
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BOOT HELP! Should be easy right?

Post#1 by mccaber » 01 Oct 2021, 23:56

Hey everyone,
Probably Super Simple.....For everyone other than ME!
I feel that this shouldnt even be an issue but unfortunately for me it is. Quick rundown on the situation, reformatted entire hard drive, deleted all partitions, (except for one which is ext 4, or you can say that i created one partition, regardless....one hard drive, one partition, ext 4 format), ran Porteus from USB and used install feature from the menu to install Porteus to said hard drive/partition (i bet some of you already know where this is going), it worked like a charm.....reboot annnnnnd Porteus does not boot from my hard drive....i should mention that I did check the bootloader option when i went through the install process. Also, tried to do a few searches on the website for a solution, maybe its just the way I am typing it in, maybe its just because I do not understand enough to find the solution, or that there are a bunch of solutions that are being shown to me but do not specifically address my specific issue, mainly im sure this issue is something majority of users already know how to fix and like i said super simple fix for everyone other than me!!!! Please help!!! Thank you so much!!

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ncmprhnsbl
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BOOT HELP! Should be easy right?

Post#2 by ncmprhnsbl » 02 Oct 2021, 02:39

first thing to do is:
boot your usb install and check the hard drive for the porteus files. they should be the same as what you have on your usb (more or less)
  1. if all the files are present, navigate to the <hard_drive>/boot folder and open a terminal there and su to root. (<hard_drive> most likely being /mnt/sda1)
    then

    Code: Select all

    ./Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com
    this, if the command completes sucessfully, should fix any bootloader problems (i'm assuming you're not using EFI, at this point)
  • if the porteus files are not present, simply copy(as root) all the files on your usb to your hard drive. this should just work*
    if not, do the steps in point1.
*note: if you have an existing working install of porteus, you should be able to just clone it to any other USB or HD , without needing to (re)install the bootloader. (to be fair, i haven't tested this with a HD)
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Ed_P
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BOOT HELP! Should be easy right?

Post#3 by Ed_P » 02 Oct 2021, 04:41

mccaber is your computer 64bit? If not I think there is a bug in 5.0rc3's Porteus install apps. Also if your computer is UEFI the EFI partition needs to be FAT32 for the Porteus EFI folder.
Ed

mccaber
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BOOT HELP! Should be easy right?

Post#4 by mccaber » 02 Oct 2021, 14:03

ncmprhnsbl thank you for the help once again. I do have the Porteus files on the hard drive and they are right where you figured they would be. Now I did follow the steps as you instructed and will give a reboot and see if that fixes the issue but for some reason I do not think that it will as I am positive I've already done this. Although it was not in the exact manner as you described, as I just went through the Porteus menu but that is where the problem may have developed??!!?? Also I am in UEFI and am now thinking that there is something else needed to be done to be able to boot Porteus directly from my hard drive? Thank you so much for your help!

mccaber
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BOOT HELP! Should be easy right?

Post#5 by mccaber » 02 Oct 2021, 14:09

Ed_P yes the computer I am currently working with is 64 bit and using UEFI. So all I need to do is put the Porteus EFI folder that's on my hard drive onto a partition that is FAT32? What is your recommendation? Also I do not mind having to wipe the entire hard drive and start from scratch if that makes instruction easier. Thank you also for the help!!

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Post#6 by Ed_P » 02 Oct 2021, 16:55

500 MB should be fine. This may help also.

Code: Select all

## Run GParted to partition & format the USB drive with a msdos Partition table.  ##
##  View > Device Information to check Partition Table type.                      ##
## Use GParted's Device > Create Partition Table if Partition Table shows as GPT. ##
## Or under Windows use:                                                          ##
## > diskpart          * Run Command Prompt with Admin Rights.                    ##
## > list disk                                                                    ##
## >....                                                                          ##
## > select disk 1     * Note: disk nbr is the nbr of the USB disk                ##
## > clean                                                                        ##
## > exit                                                                         ##
Personally I recommend all the Porteus files be installed there but some like them on the Linux format partitions.
Ed

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ncmprhnsbl
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BOOT HELP! Should be easy right?

Post#7 by ncmprhnsbl » 03 Oct 2021, 01:58

much like what Ed says.. myself i would (if i had a EFI only device and wanted to install porteus to it's HD) :
make a small fat32 partition (on the first part of the disk) and just put the EFI and boot folders in it (those two folders are only <10 mb) so at least that big or as big as you like.
then make another EXT4 (rest of the disk if you want) and put the porteus folder(and it's contents) there. (the bootloader/initrd should automatically find it there)
that way, you can have the benefits of POSIX ie. be able use a changes folder, use rootcopy properly, or use magic folders seamlessly..
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mccaber
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BOOT HELP! Should be easy right?

Post#8 by mccaber » 31 Oct 2021, 18:55

Thank you for your responses!!!! I will follow your instructions and we will see how things go from there. I really appreciate all the help from you guys!!! I have been plugging away at things trying to figure things out but seem to be getting continually hung up periodically but I really like this OS and am determined to stick with it. I am aware that it will take me sometime to get used to things, heck I am still getting familiar with Linux. So any advice/guidance you can offer me would be welcomed and greatly appreciated. It is hard to know where to start, so I am just jumping in like it is the only option and then trying to figure things out as they arise. While I am on that subject, for installing programs, can you get me going in the right direction please. I understand that the modules which are .xzm and if I understand correctly there is a way to convert files such as .tar.gz? I have tried looking for the information and it seems to be out of date or I am missing something. A lot of the information is hard to find (in my opinion) if it wasnt for people such as yourselves this journey would sure be discouraging and end up taking me a lot longer to get things firgured out. If you could guide me as to the most efficient manner of converting files and/or possibly a few websites to download some programs that would be great. I feel bad for having to ask so much and I am sure that everyone is sick of hearing how thankful and appreciative I am for all the help but I dont know what else to say other than thank you so much and how appreciative I am for every bit of help.

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Post#9 by Ed_P » 31 Oct 2021, 22:24

You should consister working with a Porteus 4.0 release. There are many more .xzm programs available for it than the 5.0 system that you can simply download and put in the /modules folder.
Ed

mccaber
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BOOT HELP! Should be easy right?

Post#10 by mccaber » 01 Nov 2021, 04:27

Ed_P thank you for letting me know and that sounds like it would definitely be something I am interested in doing and will probably do so, with that said, where would one go about finding these programs that are already Porteus ready in the .xzm file format. I am not worried so much about having the files already in the .xzm file format, I guess that its more along the lines that I would like to learn/know how to do these things for the current version. I know that I could easily find a distro that I wouldnt have to worry about how to install a program. I will more than likely install the previous version of Porteus for certain situations where I need to get something done pretty quickly/on the fly and I don't happen to have the time to sit there and figure it out if it involves taking too much time but I still want to know how to make it work with the current version so next time I run into a similar situation I might be able to work things out pretty quick and hopefully have a better understanding of things and run into the next little speed bump and repeat the process. Anyways, I apologize for rambling on, not trying to waste your time and appreciate your help. Cheers!!

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Post#11 by Ed_P » 01 Nov 2021, 05:04

If you go to one of the Porteus mirrors, http://porteus.org/porteus-mirrors.html, click on the machine your using, then the Porteus v4.0 link you will see a link to Bundles and one to Modules.

Another advantage of Porteus 4.0 is the USM function which supports downloading tons of apps and creates .xzm modules.
Ed

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BOOT HELP! Should be easy right?

Post#12 by horseonahill » 11 Apr 2022, 21:19

Sounds really close to the issues I'm running into. Files are where they should be, HDD has a FAT32 partition, box checked for bootloader (also tried going into the boot folder on the HDD as root and running the installer there), as per the OP the OS runs so good from memory I'd love to get over this hurdle too! My machine is 64 bit UEFI but I've also tried the 32 bit iso, and running the BIOS in legacy mode. I can only boot the iso off USB stick in legacy mode here.

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Post#13 by Ed_P » 12 Apr 2022, 00:46

horseonahill wrote:
11 Apr 2022, 21:19
My machine is 64 bit UEFI
Good to know. See my response to your other posting here. Trouble installing (Post by Ed_P #87716)
Ed

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Post#14 by Karmi » 13 Apr 2022, 13:58

I've been working wid Porteus 5.0 Cinnamon for a little over two weeks now and it seems that you don't actually have to use the Porteus Installer at all (correct me if that is a wrong assumption). One test was done to a 500GB 3.0 HDD > 350 MB Fat32 partition 'n the rest was ext4. From the ISO I copied both EFI 'n boot folders to the Fat32 partition > then copied the porteus folder to the ext4. Shutdown 'n unplugged everything but the 500GB HDD > then rebooted 'n login=root (I didn't test how it works wid quest) and it did great. Made a savefile.dat (mine was Saved.dat) in the sda2 ext4 partition...so had to manually open sda1's boot > syslinux > to get the actual porteus.cfg file to edit: APPEND changes=/mnt/sda2/Saved.dat

Same method worked wid a 128GB SanDisk USB...that had a 359MB Fat32 partition, a 97GB ext4 'n a 17+GB ntfs partition...hey, I'm just testing it. :D

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Post#15 by Ed_P » 13 Apr 2022, 15:27

Good to hear you finally got it booting on your UEFI system Karmi. :good:

Savefile.dat files are only needed on non-extx partitions, ie FAT32 and NTFS. On ext4 partitions Porteus changes are normally saved to the /porteus/changes folder.
Ed

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