Unable to boot Porteus 5.0 rc3 in Legacy mode

[raja]

jroovy, glad you have a windows pc and a ready usb disk. I miss them both time being.

may be installer.exe creation was a suspect.

copy boot folder from P*-5.0rc3 to this usb disk formatted to FAT32..

Please download this archieve and unpack to boot folder.

you have installer.bat along with syslinux.exe and syslinux64.exe.

double click the 'bat' file. if "Installation finished successfully" message appears, WE will be happy.

Now you should try this usb disk for booting 5.orc3.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/pb6oywr0 ... ar.gz/file

If this test is successful, someone with 32 edition of windows os should check installation and boot..

Thanks for testing.

[beny]

the installer for windows work well, is the vesamenu.c32 that have trouble with gui if you have a slackware version running on, change the vesamenu.c32 of porteus with the slackware and the gui is on, i have done this now with a sd fat32 with porteus 5.0rc3 and all the step are ok.

[ncmprhnsbl]

jroovy, thanks for trying
with some further research, seems it needs to be a "self extracting archive"
..so, using:

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7z a -sfx Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe *

(in the directory of the target folder: "installer") ..hopefully will yield a working .exe ..
p-i-f-w.zip (containing updated sylinux.com and syslinux.exe)
p-i-f-w-2.zip (containing updated installer.bat, sylinux.exe and syslinux64.exe)
obviously, unzip first
if you could try these, that would be great, thanks
it's quite possible that it needs to be created in a windows environment...

[jroovy]

ncmprhnsbl I tried the new versions of the pifw zips, and it "works", well, kind of.

More specifically, only the p-i-f-w-2.zip worked, the other one failed with the "vesamenu.c32: not a COM32R image" error

There are still some problems:

1) The .exe file still failed to run, so I had to extract it with 7-zip
2) Running the installer.bat as administrator caused it to install to C:\Windows, instead of E:\ (my drive's letter is E:\)

So I had to open a command prompt as administrator, navigate to my drive with the command

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cd /d E:\Installer

then run the installer.bat like that to get it to install to E:\

And tada! it works! It now boots on both Legacy and UEFI without having to swap the .c32 files
Thanks!

[ncmprhnsbl]

the other one failed with the "vesamenu.c32: not a COM32R image" error

ah, because i messed up and used the old files :p ...fixed and reuploaded(same link)..
good to hear the new .bat works.
in any case, it seems the self-extracting .exe will need to be created in windows, i think..
and yes, the files(installer.bat, etc) need to be in the boot folder of the target drive and run from there..
EDIT
or not .. tried this: https://blog.cykerway.com/posts/2018/08 ... linux.html
now:

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file Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe 
PE32 executable (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows

reuploaded the files (same links)
see if they work now..

[jroovy]

ncmprhnsbl Yup, both exe works now, thanks!

btw, what I mean by the 2nd problem in my post is that when I right-click the .bat file and select "Run as administrator," the installer switches to C:\Windows, and not the drive the script was in

[raja]

And tada! it works! It now boots on both Legacy and UEFI without having to swap the .c32 files

jroovy.. Congratulations.

If any in your circles, have or have access to windows 32 os, please try there, to confirm 100% acceptability.

ncmp, hope you have done the 'sfx' archive in win32 environment, to take care of both.

Two years ago, I tried same with winrar, in windows,but on double click , winrar opened it, instead of windows execution,

[jroovy]

ncmprhnsbl
Not sure if I should ask you this, but can you also fix the Linux installer as well? I keep getting this error every time I run the script:

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root@porteus:/mnt/sdc1/boot# ./Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com 
Verifying archive integrity...  100%   MD5 checksums are OK. All good.
Uncompressing Porteus Installer  100%   ... Extraction failed.
Terminated
root@porteus:/mnt/sdc1/boot#

[jroovy]

And tada! it works! It now boots on both Legacy and UEFI without having to swap the .c32 files

jroovy.. Congratulations.

If any in your circles, have or have access to windows 32 os, please try there, to confirm 100% acceptability.

ncmp, hope you have done the 'sfx' archive in win32 environment, to take care of both.

Two years ago, I tried same with winrar, in windows,but on double click , winrar opened it, instead of windows execution,

The sfx runs in 32-bit mode, so it should work fine on 32 bit Windows

[ncmprhnsbl]

Yup, both exe works now, thanks!

excellent
and runs in the correct drive?

Not sure if I should ask you this, but can you also fix the Linux installer as well? I keep getting this error every time I run the script:

this is a strange one ..maybe something to do with the host system you're installing from?
anyway, try this one:
Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com
it's made with "-nocomp" flag, as was the older version..

[raja]

ncmp, You have created only a self extracting .exe file. The file on 'double click' should in fact run installer.bat inside the folder.
jroove is running installer.bat manually, from the extracted stuff, I guess..

You have to add a config file ,something like this,

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;!@Install@!UTF-8!
Title="Syslinux Bootloader"
BeginPrompt="Do you want to install Syslinux Bootloader?"
RunProgram="\installer\installer.bat"
;!@InstallEnd@!

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/279 ... -installer

or

may be 'RunProgram' command could be included some other way, in the terminal command.

This is still work in progress.

Along with "installer" folder I, added "config.txt" and "7zCon.sfx" and ran your command.

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guest@porteus:~/Documents$ 7z a -sfx Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe *

7-Zip [32] 16.02 : Copyright (c) 1999-2016 Igor Pavlov : 2016-05-21
p7zip Version 16.02 (locale=en_US.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,32 bits,2 CPUs Genuine Intel(R) CPU           T2060  @ 1.60GHz (6EC),ASM)

Scanning the drive:
1 folder, 5 files, 980611 bytes (958 KiB)

Creating archive: Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe

Items to compress: 6

Write SFX: 7zCon.sfx : 486328 bytes (475 KiB)
                                 
Files read from disk: 5
Archive size: 780844 bytes (763 KiB)
Everything is Ok

No idea if the final .exe file works as expected.

[ncmprhnsbl]

ncmp, You have created only a self extracting .exe file.

i don't think so..
more details (from https://blog.cykerway.com/posts/2018/08 ... linux.html)
i got the windows version of 7zip, extracted it, got 7z.sfx (a lib) and placed it in /usr/lib64/p7zip/ .
then the command is:

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7z a -sfx7z.sfx  Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe *

which specifies to use (the windows)7z.sfx, which then outputs a 'windows executable'

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file Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe 
PE32 executable (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows

i'm interpreting this:

ncmprhnsbl Yup, both exe works now, thanks!

as confirmation that they work.. unless i'm wrong..

[Bicephale]

Talking of GruB, SysLinux, file-systems and command batchfiles...

My recent suggestion to consider the approach of Sergei Strelec was premature as i found it it triggered nearly two dozen virus alarms and became useless once cleaned up. So this was regrettable except there still may be some inspiration to gain from it, while the same would be true of rEFind packages i'm sure as i've noticed these particular .EFi files:

gptsync_ia32.efi, gptsync_x64.efi
ext2_ia32.efi, ext2_x64.efi
ext4_ia32.efi, ext4_x64.efi
btrfs_ia32.efi, btrfs_x64.efi

Plus a couple more.

Back to the Strelec Live WinPE CD/USB it collects a lot of configuration file there:

/boot/grub/*.cfg

And more interestingly those *.EFi too:

/efi/boot/
/efi/boot/bootia32.efi
/efi/boot/bootx64.efi
/efi/boot/temp.efi
/efi/boot/temp86.efi
/efi/boot/temp64.efi
/efi/boot/[MICROSOFT_MODE] <-> /efi/boot/[GRUB2_MODE]

Then there's more, pick 1 of 2!

_CRUB2_MODE.BAT
---------------
@echo off
set mode1=MICROSOFT
set mode2=GRUB2
set tail=MODE
cd /d "%~dp0"
if exist temp64.efi (
move /y bootx64.efi sstr64.efi
move /y bootia32.efi sstr86.efi
move /y temp64.efi bootx64.efi
move /y temp86.efi bootia32.efi
move /y temp.efi grubx64.efi
)
cls
echo.
if exist "[%mode1%_%tail%]" (move /y "[%mode1%_%tail%]" "[%mode2%_%tail%]">nul) else (echo.>"[%mode2%_%tail%]")
echo %mode2% BOOT ENABLED!
echo.
pause
exit

_MS_MODE.BAT
------------
@echo off
set mode1=MICROSOFT
set mode2=GRUB2
set tail=MODE
cd /d "%~dp0"
if exist sstr64.efi (
move /y bootx64.efi temp64.efi
move /y bootia32.efi temp86.efi
move /y sstr64.efi bootx64.efi
move /y sstr86.efi bootia32.efi
move /y grubx64.efi temp.efi
)
cls
echo.
if exist "[%mode2%_%tail%]" (move /y "[%mode2%_%tail%]" "[%mode1%_%tail%]">nul) else (echo.>"[%mode1%_%tail%]")
echo %mode1% BOOT ENABLED!
echo.
pause
exit

Of course the flag-files '/efi/boot/[MICROSOFT_MODE]' and '/efi/boot/[GRUB2_MODE]' NEVER exist simultaneoulsy, what's done here is to rename files in order to switch between two boot-loader systems, so why no consider adding a 3rd?...

Just me passing by! In any case play sage and avoid russian viruses.

[Ed_P]

anyway, try this one:
Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com
it's made with "-nocomp" flag, as was the older version..

In Windows 10 64bit UEFI
Problem 1.

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Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com 
Couldn't download - Couldn't download

Problem 2.

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Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com was blocked because could harm your device

Problem 3. File saved as: Unconfirmed 826616.crdownload
I renamed to Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com.
Problem 4.Copied to USB drive and replaced the /boot file that was there.

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1 Interrupted Action
Are you sure you want to copy this file without it's properties?
The file Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com has properties that can't be copied
to the new location.

Problem 5.

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This app can't be run on your PC
To find a version for your PC, check with the software publisher

Added in 8 minutes 59 seconds:
Just reread what I did.

I'll restart the process.

[Bicephale]

Talking of GruB, SysLinux, file-systems and command batchfiles...

And also of the 'extlinux' bootloader...

Last night i gave it another few hours again, this time i noticed an offer by Rufus (Win10) to write it as some hybrid twin-partitions flash drive: 1 FAT32 and the other ext4 (for Linux) i thought.

Well, although it initially offered a choice between GPT UEFi .ISO vs "ESP", when tested only the UEFi booting method prevailed. It turns out MBR BiOS went useless both on my laptop and table machines somehow. By chance UEFi boot did succeed on the i3 PC, so i could try the GUi "Porteus Installer" again and now i can say that worked too, as if by luck... So, since Rufus decided the Porteus .ISO was tiny enough to fit its "EFi System Partition", leaving my SD Flash-drive half-empty with plenty of space for 1 ext4 partition that i could select as an installation target.

The thumbdrive now has 2 bootable partitions that still don't boot where Porteus could have been most useful.

There are good sides nonetheless, like to discover some AppImages packaging system, which was an occasion to check a version of VLC which felt like a Windows "Portable" application. But no joy looking for the gnome disks utility featured with an .iMG-extracting button, nor QEMU and much les AQEMU which is aging already. I did notice the 'VBox builder' but this went bad after a 1st ('05-devel.xzm') file transfer - that's when i thought of trying 'Virtual Machine Manager', PlayOnLinux, Wine/QWine... Then HardInfo, hoping i could conveniently have a look at my external analog/legacy video hardware. I later found SlackEX v15, no more luck.

Porteus itself looks good on the bootloader menu, too bad screen resolution may need an adjustment at random past that! Although my i3 ain't where Porteus could serve best it ran switftly, practically inviting me to search around and explore a bit further. All in a stranger alien tongue for most of my neighbours and relatives, with no easy-to-find language options, so it's picky on machines and people; not exactly the prelude to a life-long love affair... Too many barriers obscure all the good things that were contributed, forcing brave adventurers to pet a system rather than attend to those tasks that were dreamt of initially, like to benefit from open-source GNU FREE software nonetheless maintained/updated in many place around the world. Ah, and i just read the Porteus.Org certificate ended?...

There's potential, just not hapening. Probably a result of all the frustrations. If at least failure to boot boiled down to the GrUB2 CLi, but no! Even specialized .ISOs as SuperGruB of the literally-viral Sergei Strelec one have shortcuts, why not focus on that and fill the void, like to revalorize legacy hardware with no Linux drivers!

S'cuse the rant. Conclusion: no tablet boot.