New user's USB Porteus install experience

[Ed_P]

Before you give up, and while waiting for better advice, can you try a couple of things?

1. Can you find a Windows machine and run the Porteus-Installer-for-Windows.exe on it.

2. Try running the Porteus-Installer-for-Linux.com on a non-Xubuntu system.

3. Try formating the flash drive as a single partition and running the install following only the steps in the USB-INSTALLATION.txt file.

Just trying to find a way to create a flash drive that boots Porteus.

There is something different about your system, your hardware, your steps, or a combination of the 3 that seem to be causing the situation because no one else has reported having the same problem. If we can find the source of the problem we can fix it so nobody else has to go thru what you're experiencing.

[hockeykong]

3. Try formatting the flash...

That's what my last attempt was: everything on sdd1, nothing on sdd2. AFAIK it's the same setup as having a single 2GB flash drive, fat32 formatted, shown as EFI system partition in gparted. Of course I removed the line in porteus-v4.0-x86_64.cfg pointing to sdd2.

Unfortunately my Windows installation, on a separate drive, is broken.

I'll try to get my hands on a Windows machine.

I'm finishing my setup for my first major backup before upgrading to 18.04 LTS: configuration files, emails, and making images of partitions. I had a lot of cleanup to do. I've been doing various tests of my backup strategy, moving things around. Updates are coming in and installing normally, I'm still installing packages (temporarily), while keeping doing my regular work, emails, and I'm not experiencing any kind of problems or instability issues, error messages, etc. So something is maybe unusual but apparently nothing is broken.

Since 12.04LTS I've tried a few times to make me a live dvd/flash drive, mainly for cloning/imaging partitions or drives, and for diagnostics and backup operations that cannot be done from my current linux installation. I was trying to make it with persistence but never succeeded. I have a Knoppix-8 live dvd that boots, I'll try with that.

[Ed_P]

3. Try formatting the flash...

That's what my last attempt was: everything on sdd1, nothing on sdd2. AFAIK it's the same setup as having a single 2GB flash drive, fat32 formatted, shown as EFI system partition in gparted.

Actually you did more than that.

I retried the same partitioning scheme, but added that "gpt" bit and the "boot" flag for sdd1--

In that the installation file doesn't mention either of those steps

FOR EFI SYSTEMS:
Ensure the first partition is of type FAT32.
a) Copy the EFI, boot and porteus folders onto the FAT32 partition.
You may create a second partition with a linux filesystem for the porteus folder.

Maybe that is contributing to your problem. I'm thinking the boot flag that you added. I don't think the average user would do that and maybe that is what the Porteus Install is struggling with.

Just looking for needles in the hay stack to solve this.

[brokenman]

Ok let's start from the beginning with a factory USB drive and standard Porteus-v4.0 ISO.

No need to run any install scripts. No need to set any boot flags. This is all for older BIOS systems and we want to make an EFI system right?

1) Format the USB drive with:
a) an sdb1 of type EFI (in fdisk this is done with type: ef) and formatted as FAT32
b) an sdb2 of type 'linux' and formatted as ext4

2) Copy the EFI and boot folder onto sdb1
3) Copy the porteus folder onto sdb2
4) Edit the /mnt/sdb1/boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg file and add to the APPEND lines: from=/mnt/sdb2

Reboot into Porteus and be sure to hit the HOTKEY to choose your booting media in order to test correctly.

[hockeykong]

@brokenman,

I didn't mention it at the outset but I had done a complete

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dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdd

before I started.

The iso is: porteus-LXQT-v4.0-x86_64.iso

Yes, it is meant to be a UEFI only flash drive.

You mention fdisk. Should I not use gdisk instead, since it is made specifically for gpt formatted drives?
I thought that it would be simpler to keep everything gpt/efi, for my internal drives and everything else, if possible. Will this flash drive be mbr partitioned instead of gpt ? I'm sorry about this but like I wrote earlier I've had my share of troubles with this (bios/efi) business and I need to know.

I normally use either gdisk (gpt fdisk) or gparted to partition drives. For the present endeavour I used gparted.

Thanks for your help.

[hockeykong]

I will do it with gdisk and get back.

[Ed_P]

If the expert says fdisk I strongly recommend you do as instructed.

[hockeykong]

@Ed

Do you know if it will be mbr or gpt partitioned ?

At this point could I suggest moving this thread somewhere else ? It seems obvious that you were right and my problems are caused by my system's configuration, not Proteus, so it may not be useful to others.

I have partionned, formatted, and copied the folders on the Porteus flash drive.

Right now I'm searching the net for information on this: Thunar, my file manager, is displaying the content of both partitions, normally as if they were mounted, but

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lsblk -o +LABEL,FSTYPE

and

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df -h

both show them as not mounted.

Keep in mind that I'm not only trying to get a working Porteus flash drive, I'm also learning to use the terminal more, and learning about the Linux system in general. This last inquiry is not only for curiosity's sake, it is to maybe get insight on the cause of my problems.


Thank you for your patience.

[hockeykong]

I got my answer: Partition Table: gpt
from

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sudo parted -l

[hockeykong]

Even after a reboot and the usb port empty Thunar shows the content of sdd1 and sdd2 !?!?

[brokenman]

Can we assume that you now have installed successfully and start a new thread for Thunar?

Just follow my instructions to the letter and it will work. I used fdisk to delete the existing partitions and create new ones, then formatted the drives from the terminal using mkfs.vfat and mkfs.ext4

[hockeykong]

No, haven't started another thread. I figured it out. I had somehow managed to create directories in the /mnt/sddx folder. I have absolutely no idea how they got there. Anyway, all is good.

The Porteus drive seems in order. What's next. If you could just point to some documentation, then I can try from there. I don't think I need to be taken by the hand, step by step. I'm saying this just so you don't waste your time.

Thanks again.

[Ed_P]

@Ed

Do you know if it will be mbr or gpt partitioned ?

It doesn't matter, mbr drives boot just fine on EFI systems. My USB drive is mbr and boots on my EFI system.

I have partionned, formatted, and copied the folders on the Porteus flash drive.

And you have a bootable system?

Keep in mind that I'm not only trying to get a working Porteus flash drive, I'm also learning to use the terminal more, and learning about the Linux system in general. This last inquiry is not only for curiosity's sake, it is to maybe get insight on the cause of my problems.

The cause is rather obvious neighbor, your failure to follow directions.

You mention fdisk. Should I not use gdisk instead,
:
:
For the present endeavour I used gparted.

And I have been accused of that too so many times.

The Porteus drive seems in order. What's next. If you could just point to some documentation, then I can try from there. I don't think I need to be taken by the hand, step by step. I'm saying this just so you don't waste your time.

I was a Linux newbie when I started here and have been helped so much by a lot of good people here. You've come to a good place to learn.

As for what's next, saving changes you make, clock and time zone for example.

[hockeykong]

Success! I booted into it.

I'm done here for now.

Thank you very much.