How to install Porteus on the same partition with Windows?

[mariusikaEu]

Hi guys. I'm new in this world of Linux, and I need some help. At this moment I have a laptop running Windows 10 and I have just 1 partition and I prefer to keep it like that. My question is how can I install Porteux XFCE on the same partition where Windows 10 is installed. I know on Ubuntu and other flavors like Lubuntu, Xubuntu, etc is a program named Wubi to do this. So any methods for Porteus installation of this kind?

[Bogomips]

Welcome to Porteus. There is no need to 'install' Porteus, because it is a live system, where all the action is in memory{ram). You need to download one of the ISO files from: http://porteus.org/porteus-mirrors.txt. Then next you just need to use the appropriate boot loader.

Ed_P has gone nto this in some detail. I am sure that he will be able to give you a blow by blow account of how you will get yourself good to go on Porteus!

[Ed_P]

Hello mariusikaEu.

What I do on new EFI machines is install Grub2Win, then in the grub.cfg it creates I create a menu to boot the Porteus ISO.

-update-

An example grub2 Porteus menu for you to use.

Code: Select all

# start-grub2win-user-section   ********************************************************
#
menuentry "Porteus Cinnamon ISO" --class slackware   --class icon-porteus  {
     echo Boot disk address is: $root
     echo Prefix is:                  $prefix
     echo The boot mode is:    $grub2win_bootmode

     set linux_folder=porteus3.2
     set iso=/ISOs/Porteus-CINNAMON-v3.2.1-x86_64.iso
     search -f $iso --set=root

     set linux_drv=/mnt/sda5/$linux_folder

     echo ISO root is:          $root
     echo ISO is:                 $iso

     echo Porteus folders:   $linux_drv
     set porteus_parms="changes=EXIT:$linux_drv/changes/porteussave.dat volume=33 reboot=cold extramod=$linux_drv/Modules"

     echo Porteus parms are: $porteus_parms
     echo
     loopback loop $iso
     sleep -v -i 17
     echo "Loading Linux"
     linux (loop)/boot/syslinux/vmlinuz from=$iso $porteus_parms
     echo "Loading initrd"
     initrd (loop)/boot/syslinux/initrd.xz
}

My $linux_drv folders contain my Modules folder for .xzm files to be loaded when Porteus boots and my changes folder which contains my save.dat file used to save system changes, and a couple of other Porteus related folders.

[Bogomips]

^ Looks difficult for Newbie.
@mariusikaEu Do not hesitate to ask if you do not understand anything.

[Ed_P]

^ Looks difficult for Newbie.

Yup. But actually it's not that hard. There are only 4 lines that you need to tweak to fit your scenario.

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     set linux_folder=porteus3.2

This is the name of the folder you will create on your C: drive to hold the various Porteus related subfolders you will use. Such as a folder for the xzm modules that you will want to add to Porteus. Maybe a different browser or an updated flashplayer plugin and etc. I named mine to match the version of Porteus it relates to, you could name your's simply Porteus or Linux or mytests, etc.

Code: Select all

    set iso=/ISOs/Porteus-CINNAMON-v3.2.1-x86_64.iso

This the name of the Porteus ISO file that you downloaded and a folder where you stored it. I have multiple ISO files and store them all in a single folder named ISOs, you may use the same approach or store it in a folder with a different name, like Downloads for example.

Code: Select all

     set linux_drv=/mnt/sda5/$linux_folder

This one is more complicated if you're new to Linux. This one refers to the location of the folder you created to hold the various Porteus related folders. But there are only 2 characters in that whole line that need to be tweaked to fit your scenario and they are the "a5".

The "a" is Linux's way of addressing drives in a machine. "a" for the first drive, "b" for the second drive, "c" for a third and etc. 99% of the time a machine has only 1 drive, the hard drive, and it is the "a" drive. If you had a USB drive also it would be the "b" drive.

Now comes the tough part, the "5". The "5" represents the partition number of the drive you are using for your files. Windows uses letters to represent a drive's partition, C: being the most common, and with modern machine's hard drives it doesn't represent the first or even the third partition now days. Modern machines have hard drives with many hidden partitions, for EFI, for Recovery, for vendor diagnostics, etc. Linux counts the partitions, the visible and the invisible ones, starting with the number 1. On my hard drive my C: drive is number 4 and a partition that I created for my non-system files is number 5. D: in Windows.

How do you know what number to use for your machine? You can take a guess, it will either work or not. Or you can use Windows' Disk Management to see your hard drive's partitions and count them.

Finally the last line to be changed:

Code: Select all

     set porteus_parms="changes=EXIT:$linux_drv/changes/porteussave.dat volume=33 reboot=cold extramod=$linux_drv/Modules"

A LOT of stuff on this one. But when you're starting out you can delete most of it. Start with:

Code: Select all

     set porteus_parms="extramod=$linux_drv/Modules"

A lot easier to discuss than a stupid partition number eh?

Have fun.

[Bogomips]

Thanks, Ed. Now understand this somewhat better. 8)

[mariusikaEu]

Thanks to all

[Ed_P]

^ You're welcome.

BTW Grub2Win doesn't repartition the hard drive or mess with the MBR like many multi-boot options. Rather it simply adds grub2 to the Windows boot manager. When you boot you will see a Windows boot menu with Windows on the top as the default followed by a new option titled Grub2 for Windows. Thus if you get lost with Porteus, or grub2 even, you can simply reboot and select Windows to be back to your normal system.

[Vic]

On my wife's win 7 computer I installed Easy BCD. It adds Porteus to the boot menu.

The Porteus ISO needs to be on the "C" partition. The Porteus folder in the ISO needs to be copied to the "C" partition also.

That is how I started using Porteus.

Vic

[brokenman]

Thanks Vic, and welcome!

I also used it on win7 but I don't think Easy BCD works on windows 10.

[Ed_P]

The EasyBCD webpage indicates it supports Windows 10 and UEFI even. It's come a long ways.

Grub2Win doesn't require the Porteus ISO to be located on the C: drive or files to be extracted from the ISO and stored on the C: drive in order to be booted. I store my ISOs and Porteus support folders/files on my D: drive.

-update-

Porteus support folders/files = Modules, Optional, Downloads, save.dat file