Svd.Avoid Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com on MS filesystems?

[TomasXu]

Hi,

The Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com script does not seem to work very well using Fedora (18 or 19) :-(
probably because of not supporting MS (or M$) filesystems (I remember that chgrp reported an error message). The script finally returned error code 4.
(Unfortunately I accidentally deleted the debug file ... I am not sure if I can recover it)

Worst of all, my flash (fat32 formatted) stick became unrecognizable to Windows (But still can be used in Fedora). The Windows then marked my flash stick as "Unknown filesystem".

Does the script work on other Linux distributions besides Porteus? Should it be avoided to execute the script on MS filesystems?

[wread]

@TomasXu
Porteus-installer-for-Linux should work on all file systems.
Maybe you tried to run it on a Windows operating system because of the suffix .com and the poor machine got confused
I think the name of that file is really confusing; it should have no suffix at all...

Regards!

[donald]

@TomasXu

I would suggest you to immediately backup Important files from your usb-stick to prevent data loss
After doing so, you're on the safe side....than reformat your usb-stick and see
if it will be recognized again by Windows

[TomasXu]

Maybe you tried to run it on a Windows operating system because of the suffix .com and the poor machine got confused

I ran it on Fedora 19. In order to avoid trouble, I even used the command:

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su
bash Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com 

[fanthom]

@TomasXu
error code 4 means that MBR was copied but extlinux never was installed on your stick - not sure why.
as suggested by wread - please make a backup and try installation again. if it fails then please paste a debug file here.

thanks

[ncmprhnsbl]

I find that if the usb drive isn't mounted in /mnt this problem occurs, irrespective of target filesystem. (please correct me if i'm wrong)
my guess is fedora mounts stuff in run/'user'/media or something like that.. arch and some porteus do too
i just unmount it and manually mount it in /mnt ...
Refer to instructions in /boot/docs/install.txt

[TomasXu]

my guess is fedora mounts stuff in run/'user'/media or something like that.. arch and some porteus do too

You are exactly correct. Fedora does mount non-system devices in /run/media/$USER. Maybe that is what caused the problem?

But I also found something wrong with the script itself - Kwrite reported that the script contained invalid charactors
and there're lots of strange strings ( not human-readable) starting from line 1473 to the end in the script.

Does it has something to do with the "invalid charactors" ?

[fanthom]

I find that if the usb drive isn't mounted in /mnt this problem occurs, irrespective of target filesystem. (please correct me if i'm wrong)
my guess is fedora mounts stuff in run/'user'/media or something like that.. arch and some porteus do too

can't recreate here.
wiped my flash stick (also with 'dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=1') then booted to XFCE (which uses udisk2 and mounts in /run/some_odd_path) then used Porteus Installer and got bootable stick at the end.
would be really handy to get a debug file for cases when installation fails or produces unbootable stick.
reminder:
- debug file is generated automatically when installation fails
- if installation passes then user still can generate debug file with passing '-d' argument to the installer:

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sh Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com  -- -d

Kwrite reported that the script contained invalid charactors
and there're lots of strange strings ( not human-readable) starting from line 1473 to the end in the script.

because installer is not a script. it's an archive containing script + required tools. you can unpack the installer with:

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sh Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com  --tar xf

but better know what you are doing as i wont accept bug reports for issues caused by the user modifications to the installer.

[ncmprhnsbl]

@ fanthom, thanks for clearing that up, could be something else is happening in my arch setup which could be funky

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[root@hostname boot]# sh Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing Porteus Installer......
Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com: line 393: .porteus_installer/installer.com: Permission denied

which left the installer.com half extracted in boot?
then i ran it in kde2.1rc2 /media/.. and not a problem.

[fanthom]

hi ncmprhnsbl,

we are reaching final so would be good to sort this problem out. could you test updated installer from here:
http://ponce.cc/porteus/x86_64/testing/ ... -Linux.com
and let me know if that worked on arch.

thanks a lot.

[ncmprhnsbl]

steps:
1. format usb to ext4 ,label usb (set boot flag -- unnecessary?) with gparted
2. copy porteus & boot folders from another usb install(kde2.1rc2) using spacefm >rightclick>Edit>Root>Copy To (gksudo)
3. replace Porte//er.com using ^^
4.from /run/media/normaluser/usb/boot ; open >spacefm>File>Root Terminal
5.# sh Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com

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                             _.====.._
                           ,:._       ~-_
                               '\        ~-_
                                 \        \.
                               ,/           ~-_
                      -..__..-''   PORTEUS   ~~--..__

==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--

Installing Porteus to /dev/sdb1
Make sure this is the right partition before proceeding.

Press Enter to continue or Ctrl+c to exit.


Flushing filesystem buffers...   (a little while)


Using extlinux bootloader.

Installation failed with error code '1'.
Please ask for help on the Porteus forum: www.porteus.org/forum
and provide the information from /run/media/normaluser/usb/boot/debug.txt

Exiting now...

debug text:

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device: /dev/sdb
partition: /dev/sdb1
partition number: 1
partition mount point: /run/media/normaluser/usb/
installation path: /run/media/normaluser/usb/boot
subfolder: 
filesystem: ext4
bootloader: extlinux
error code: 1
system: hostname 3.10.3-1-ARCH x86_64

same from /run/media/root/usb/boot
Now test earlier theory/method:::
unmount(spacefm)

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[root@hostname]# mkdir /mnt/sdb1
mkdir: cannot create directory ''

: File exists ??
delete /mnt/sdb1(spacefm)

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[root@hostname]# mkdir /mnt/sdb1
[root@hostname]# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1
[root@hostname]# cd /mnt/sdb1/boot 
[root@hostname boot]# ./Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com
bash: ./Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com: Permission denied
[root@hostname boot]# sh Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com                  
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing Porteus Installer......

                             _.====.._
                           ,:._       ~-_
                               '\        ~-_
                                 \        \.
                               ,/           ~-_
                      -..__..-''   PORTEUS   ~~--..__

==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--

Installing Porteus to /dev/sdb1
Make sure this is the right partition before proceeding.

Press Enter to continue or Ctrl+c to exit.

Flushing filesystem buffers...

Using extlinux bootloader.

Installation finished successfully.
You may reboot your PC now and start using Porteus.
Please check the /boot/docs folder for additional information about
the installation process, Porteus requirements and booting parameters.
In case of making tweaks to the bootloader config,
please edit: /mnt/sdb1/boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg file.

Press Enter to exit.

test boot sucess.
factors that might relevent: 14 month old archbang installation, thats changed to systemd, had several filesytem changes, migrated from pcmanfm to spacefm,
and configured by me, a simple user

[fanthom]

looks like udisks2 is playing a role but i can't find a way to remount the stick without udisks(2) flags. will leave it as is for 2.1 and come back to it later.

thanks a lot.

[brokenman]

I've also had this before when target was mounted under alternative path to /mnt/sdxY. I also think udisks is the culprit. I also remember having it work fine after nuking a USB and starting again. Keep me informed so I can look at the installer GUI (hopefully with UEFI support) for next version.

[hooliganshark]

Just joined and enjoying this excellent distro thanks. My main machine runs Wheezy 64 bit. Apologies if I am posting in the wrong place or not following house rules but wanted to share.

Successfully installed to one USB for my own use, and wanted to create another for visitors. To save the settings etc I used ext4 for my own USB, but tried to use FAT32 for the other - so that settings would not be saved.

Installation failed each time when trying FAT32 showing error code 1. Retried after reformatting the drive to ext4 and install went perfectly... would like to solve this though so that there is no risk of settings being saved on the drive.

[francois]

Keep the ext4 settings, there might be a bug with the other type of installation. Use 1) guest mode for your guests and 2) what is called always fresh mode. There are two cheatcodes to set them that have to be inserted in the commands of your bootloader. I imagine that you are working with isolinux or syslinux, isn't?

First, lets make a test for your guest install. When the system boots therepick graphic mode (I imagine that this was already your choice), and push the tab button. Then add or modify in the append line the cheatcodes save= and login:

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APPEND initrd=/boot/syslinux/initrd.xz  changes= login=guest

In guest mode after rebooting, you should always have the same environment.

If this works then in the /boot/porteus/porteus.cfg find the append line and modify it accordingly to have these changes be permanent.