Apparently my old 300GB hdd doesn't have the MBR space to install grub4dos, nor legacy-grub. GRLDR.MBA not installed. insufficient space.
i'm trying to dual boot win10 and xenialpup64-7.0.8.5 frugal on an HP 250 G4. Doesn't work on win7 either. Is this an hardware problem? Boot flag never recognised by grub.
Uefi dual boot==grub4dos not installing
Hi boof,
You may have been fortunate so far in that your attempts to install grub4dos and grub (legacy? via Puppy) have completely failed. You could have succeeded only to find that you could no longer boot Windows, and --if UEFI was required-- weren't able to boot Puppy either.
It is likely that your hard-drive was 'factory' partitioned to provide (1) a small first ntfs partition and containing only boot files; (2) a large ntfs partition holding Windows; and (3) a 10 +/- Gb partition containing Windows recovery.
This is how I handle such Windows computers. Boot into Windows and use its tools to resize (shrink) the 2nd partition, leaving yourself at least 15% more than Windows currently shows as "used" + some room to add Windows programs should you later want to. Maybe reduce it so you have 40 Gb left over which will then show as "unallocated". A Puppy with the "Out house-sink installed" won't need more than 8 Gbs. Several Puppies, plus SFSes and AppImages, maybe another 20 Gbs, leaving 10 Gbs for data files. [You can always copy data files to your Windows partition],
Boot Puppy from a USB-stick. Use gparted to format the unallocated hard-drive space as Ext3. Create a folder on the newly formatted partition, give it a unique name --something different from that in use on your USB-stick-- and copy your Puppy's boot files --e.g. initrd.gz, vmlinuz, all xxx.sfses and any efi.img file-- into it. Copy any application sfs and any AppImage files into that partition.
Plug a second USB-Key into one of the other USB-Ports. This Key can be as small as 1 Gb. Note what "sd" label Puppy gives to this device. Run Grub4dos having it install to this 2nd USB-Key. Accept the offer to edit menu.lst. Delete any listing for your currently running Puppy --i.e. the one on the USB-Key you booted-- and edit the listing for your Puppy on the hard-drive as follows:
where it reads "kernel ... pmedia=atahd ...
change it to read "kernel ... pmedia=ataflash ,,,
For the reason for the above edit, see this thread: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 326#662326.
If you have not already done so, but optional, re-configure your computer to give booting from a USB-port priority over booting from the Hard-drive. When you want to boot Puppy, plug in the USB-Key you've just installed grub4dos to. When you want to boot Windows, don't plug it in.
Using an SD card rather than a USB-Key may be an alternative.
Your "boot" USB-Key is that, and only that. After Puppy boots, you can unplug it. Of course, you can choose to use a Key larger than 1 Gb, and depending on its size, also use it for storage, transferring files, and providing a swap partition. It may be worth while to keep a backup "boot" USB-Key. But to minimize the chance of having problems, I don't recommend installing any operating system to it. Murphy's Law always applies. If something can go wrong, it will. KISS -- Keep it simple, stupid.
mikesLr
You may have been fortunate so far in that your attempts to install grub4dos and grub (legacy? via Puppy) have completely failed. You could have succeeded only to find that you could no longer boot Windows, and --if UEFI was required-- weren't able to boot Puppy either.
It is likely that your hard-drive was 'factory' partitioned to provide (1) a small first ntfs partition and containing only boot files; (2) a large ntfs partition holding Windows; and (3) a 10 +/- Gb partition containing Windows recovery.
This is how I handle such Windows computers. Boot into Windows and use its tools to resize (shrink) the 2nd partition, leaving yourself at least 15% more than Windows currently shows as "used" + some room to add Windows programs should you later want to. Maybe reduce it so you have 40 Gb left over which will then show as "unallocated". A Puppy with the "Out house-sink installed" won't need more than 8 Gbs. Several Puppies, plus SFSes and AppImages, maybe another 20 Gbs, leaving 10 Gbs for data files. [You can always copy data files to your Windows partition],
Boot Puppy from a USB-stick. Use gparted to format the unallocated hard-drive space as Ext3. Create a folder on the newly formatted partition, give it a unique name --something different from that in use on your USB-stick-- and copy your Puppy's boot files --e.g. initrd.gz, vmlinuz, all xxx.sfses and any efi.img file-- into it. Copy any application sfs and any AppImage files into that partition.
Plug a second USB-Key into one of the other USB-Ports. This Key can be as small as 1 Gb. Note what "sd" label Puppy gives to this device. Run Grub4dos having it install to this 2nd USB-Key. Accept the offer to edit menu.lst. Delete any listing for your currently running Puppy --i.e. the one on the USB-Key you booted-- and edit the listing for your Puppy on the hard-drive as follows:
where it reads "kernel ... pmedia=atahd ...
change it to read "kernel ... pmedia=ataflash ,,,
For the reason for the above edit, see this thread: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 326#662326.
If you have not already done so, but optional, re-configure your computer to give booting from a USB-port priority over booting from the Hard-drive. When you want to boot Puppy, plug in the USB-Key you've just installed grub4dos to. When you want to boot Windows, don't plug it in.
Using an SD card rather than a USB-Key may be an alternative.
Your "boot" USB-Key is that, and only that. After Puppy boots, you can unplug it. Of course, you can choose to use a Key larger than 1 Gb, and depending on its size, also use it for storage, transferring files, and providing a swap partition. It may be worth while to keep a backup "boot" USB-Key. But to minimize the chance of having problems, I don't recommend installing any operating system to it. Murphy's Law always applies. If something can go wrong, it will. KISS -- Keep it simple, stupid.
mikesLr
thanks for the start idea.
need to edit grub.conf (grub2) to look for OS's in other drives/partitions.
Used install uefi to flashdrive (with an SD card). Removed all linux files, left with uefi bootable usb stick running grub2. Just need to edit it but don't know the syntax.
Using grub4dos doesn't produce a uefi-bootable usb stick in this system.
need to edit grub.conf (grub2) to look for OS's in other drives/partitions.
Used install uefi to flashdrive (with an SD card). Removed all linux files, left with uefi bootable usb stick running grub2. Just need to edit it but don't know the syntax.
Using grub4dos doesn't produce a uefi-bootable usb stick in this system.
Solved: I created a bootable uefi usb SD card with the puppy OS, deleted the OS files and moved the grub.cfg file to the hard drive partition with the frugal puppy. It boots fine. No, It doesn't select windows10, but I feel I can make grub.cfg do that. Then if I want windows 10 I will have to select a different grub.cfg file. (on the windows partition?)