(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Posted: **Tue 16 Apr 2013, 07:37**

I found this text on the other easy way to iso boot page.

an ".isomem" extension is recognized
to cause a non-contiguous ISO
to be copied to RAM first.
It will try to write the sdx4 phantom partition
but perhaps it would boot anyway.
Yes!
The new version does work on a read only media!
It does not fail if it can not write the dbx4 partition!

I have only used the Easy2boot once or twice
and did not understand it and ended up with
non contigious error too often due to me on fat 32

So I went over to your isobooter instead that always
create a new contigious fat32 and is even more easy to use.
At least for me.

But I fail to get what they write in that text that I quoted
from here http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 500#698500

Posted: **Sat 20 Apr 2013, 06:38**

always create a new contigious fat32

Not only fat32, ntfs will do almost the same thing.

".isomem" extension is recognized to cause a non-contiguous ISO to be copied to RAM first.

but it takes some time to load and finally booting.

If you get the "dis-contiguous" problem, just reformat the drive and start again.

Maybe ok just for 2 or 3 files only, how about if you have hundreds iso files like mine.

I think you can reduce the contiguous problem with multi partitions methode.
At least I dont need to do defragmentation all the time.

Posted: **Sat 20 Apr 2013, 08:43**

Thanks my questions was not clear enough.
I never heard of the technical term isomem
so I asked more about how does it come up at all
and what cause it and how to avoid it and so on.
Is it GParted that created it or is it the Iso Devs
that chose to include it or is it a kind of error warning or what?

Posted: **Mon 22 Apr 2013, 18:34**

Isomem is a good idea (Steve website for tech detail), but (in my opinion) bad result at the end.
Some you may to know:
How big/fast is your physical ram/computer?
How big is your iso file to be copied to ram memory?
How long is the copy process?
How long is the iso booting until you get your desktop?
You will find out some of copied iso will not boot at all.
You can not run isomem from ntfs.

Direct iso booting is better to go and/or anyway frugal booting is the most reliable.

Posted: **Tue 23 Apr 2013, 10:40**

Thanks for explaining what the term refers to.

I fail to get frugal install of Elive to work on HD
it don't allow me to access the HD even if me root.

Same with Antix both being Debian.

the cute thing is that SickGut made a Debian
that do allow frugal install and still access to HD
so he is clever indeed and none of the others have done that?

Unfortunately I am not good at understanding how to use Pussy Linux.
and when I asked him how to install MakeHuman on Pussy he
seem not sure either how to do it.

But I am derailing our thread here. Apology to rcrsn51

Posted: **Tue 18 Jun 2013, 01:25**

Tried this using isobooter but failed two times in a row.
Started anew each time. The error it gives are that it fail to find
the mbr signature file? so most likely it is Suse that has set up
something unique for them when one boot this iso

2013-06-14 NEW • Development Release: openSUSE 13.1 Milestone 2
http://download.opensuse.org/distributi ... x86_64.iso

Posted: **Tue 18 Jun 2013, 13:51**

Maybe this is a UEFI issue?

Posted: **Tue 18 Jun 2013, 14:28**

So the Suse software expect that everybody provide such file
but would they not include some exception in the boot up script
that realize on boot on old hardware with not UEFI active?

You know these things way above my grasp so I can only share
my surprise that the Devs of Suse would send out an ISO
that fail to boot on old gear? No big deal. Fedora booted
but them had no Adobe Flash so no use for me.
Crunchbang, Linux Mint LXDE, Solyd Linux, Solus Linux and Zorin linux
all of them have Adobe Flash so I have enough rescue usb now that boots

Thanks indeed for your isobooter. So much easier to boot other linuxes this way. Fast set up and boot and works almost like Puppy no need for to be Sudo or root at all. one can do almost anything and it ask nothing or complain

Posted: **Mon 24 Jun 2013, 04:39**

openSUSE-12.3-GNOME-Live/-Edu-life/-Rescue-CD & kiwi-12.08 work ok.

Some linux lives you suppose to try even not in the top of the list like you mentioned above:
Mozillux
Australis linux
Alinux live
Avlinux
LXLE

Posted: **Mon 24 Jun 2013, 06:47**

You mention
Mozillux
Australis linux
Alinux live
Avlinux
LXLE

Does any of them have Adobe Flash built in from scratch in the "live" iso?
or else no need for me to test them.

Posted: **Wed 21 Aug 2013, 20:38**

I figured it out. Disregard below.

When I type this into the terminal:

Code: Select all

grub-install --force --no-floppy --root-directory=/mnt/sdb1 /dev/sdb

I get this:

Code: Select all

sh-4.1# grub-install --force --no-floppy --root-directory=/mnt/sdb1 /dev/sdb
Unrecognized option `--force'
Usage: grub-install [OPTION] install_device
Install GRUB on your drive.

  -h, --help              print this message and exit
  -v, --version           print the version information and exit
  --root-directory=DIR    install GRUB images under the directory DIR
                          instead of the root directory
  --grub-shell=FILE       use FILE as the grub shell
  --no-floppy             do not probe any floppy drive
  --force-lba             force GRUB to use LBA mode even for a buggy
                          BIOS
  --recheck               probe a device map even if it already exists

INSTALL_DEVICE can be a GRUB device name or a system device filename.

grub-install copies GRUB images into the DIR/boot directory specfied by
--root-directory, and uses the grub shell to install grub into the boot
sector.

Report bugs to <bug-grub@gnu.org>.
sh-4.1#

What should I do? My usb stick is sdb1

Posted: **Wed 21 Aug 2013, 21:11**

I'm obviously doing something wrong here. When I boot from the USB stick, I see the menu with only one of my four iso's listed. I am not able to boot from any of the items that are listed in Grub.

Here is my config file. I have all of the iso files on my usb stick.

Code: Select all

# This grub.cfg file was created by Lance http://www.pendrivelinux.com
# Suggested Entries and the suggestor, if available, will also be noted.

set timeout=10
set default=0

menuentry "lxle" {
 loopback loop /lxle.iso
 linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/lxle.iso noeject noprompt splash --
 initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
 
 menuentry "wattos" {
 loopback loop /wattos.iso
 linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/wattos.iso noeject noprompt splash --
 initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

menuentry "mangeia3" {
 loopback loop /mageia.iso
 linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/mint.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz iso-scan/filename=/mageia.iso noeject noprompt splash --
 initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

menuentry "pclinuxos" {
 loopback loop /pclinuxos.iso
 linux (loop)/DBAN.BZI nuke="dwipe" iso-scan/filename=/pclinuxos.iso silent --
} 

## menuentry "Tinycore ISO" {
 ## loopback loop /tinycore.iso
 ## linux (loop)/boot/bzImage --
 ## initrd (loop)/boot/tinycore.gz
}

menuentry "Memtest 86+" {
 linux16 /memtest86+.bin
}

menuentry "SystemRescueCd" {
 loopback loop /systemrescuecd.iso
 linux (loop)/isolinux/rescuecd isoloop=/systemrescuecd.iso setkmap=us docache dostartx
 initrd (loop)/isolinux/initram.igz
}

Posted: **Sun 08 Sep 2013, 19:17**

rmcellig wrote:

Code: Select all

## menuentry "Tinycore ISO" {
 ## loopback loop /tinycore.iso
 ## linux (loop)/boot/bzImage --
 ## initrd (loop)/boot/tinycore.gz
}

I havent tested but i spotted you forgot to comment out closing curly bracket }
Maybe this F***S up parsing?

Posted: **Sun 08 Sep 2013, 21:57**

Thanks for pointing this out.

Posted: **Fri 20 Sep 2013, 04:43**

I want to tell to you about my experiments. By unetbootin I created a usb stick persistent of lubuntu 13.04. Unetbootin uses a file as casper-rw. I found that my install was too slow running from usb stick so I wanted to transfer the install to hd using grub2 to boot the iso. I had not success to make recognized the casper-rw file of the usb-stick copied to hd. If someone has success in this I beg him to tell to me how. But I achieved another result. I copied by pudd the original casper-rw file to a usb-stick partition. Then labeled the usb stick partition as casper-rw. Now booting the lubuntu's iso by grub2 from hd it recognize the original persistent install casper-rw in the usb-stick. Now my lubuntu is fast enough.

Posted: **Fri 20 Sep 2013, 13:52**

@watchdog: My only experience with casper-rw is with a partition, not a file. But the file may have specific ownership/permissions that changed when you copied it to your hard drive. That might cause it to fail.

Posted: **Sat 21 Sep 2013, 05:25**

These are my findings. It's not a permissions' problem. I think it's a bug (seeemingly already reported) of ubuntu. Ubuntu does not like a casper-rw file in hd. My hd is ext4 formatted. According to:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD/Persistence

a loopback file as casper-rw can be created but I have found you have to copy it on a usb-stick as an alternative of saving in partition. The casper-rw file created by unetbootin is ext2 formatted inside and can be mounted by:

Code: Select all

mkdir /mnt/casper-rw
mount -o loop /path-to/casper-rw /mnt/casper-rw

You can copy as you want the casper-rw file of your install but you have to put it in a usb-stick to get recognized. I used a fat32 formatted usb-stick.

Posted: **Wed 15 Jan 2014, 03:35**

ISObooter is an easy way to run Puppy and other Linuxes from USB. But if you only have a Windows machine and no optical drive to make a Puppy boot disc, how do you get started?

This little package lets you make an ISObooter flash drive from Windows. It only boots one Linux. But if you want to multi-boot, you can use the regular ISObooter once you have Puppy running. Some notes before you start:

a. You need a clean FAT32 formatted flash drive.
b. You need WinXP or newer.
c. Your BIOS must be able to boot off USB devices.

1. Copy the zip file isobooter-win.zip to a temporary location and unpack it.
2a. In XP, double-click on grubinst_gui.exe.
2b. In Win7, right-click and choose Run as Administator.
3. Click on Disk > Refresh
4. Select your USB drive from the drop-down list. You can probably identify it by its size. If you are not sure, STOP NOW.
5. Select Part List > Refresh > Whole disk (MBR)
6. Click Install
7. Copy the files grldr, menu.lst and isobooter onto the USB drive.
8. Copy a Linux ISO onto the USB drive.
9. Rename the ISO file as "linux.iso".
10. There should now be four files on the USB drive - grldr, menu.lst, isobooter and linux.iso.
11. Unmount the USB drive and reboot.

Posted: **Sun 02 Feb 2014, 06:39**

Hi, Roc.

You may not remember me, but I was on this thread last March trying to use isobooter to install Puppeee 4.4 on a pendrive, unsuccessfully. I gave up, but eventually did get Puppeee 4.4 installed another way.

I'd still like to make isobooter work for me so I could try out other versions of Puppy, and in case some day I need to re-install Puppeee 4.4. I see that both the Windows and Linux versions of isobooter have been updated since March. Do you think they've changed enough so they might work for me now?

Sorry if this sounds like a silly question, but I don't have much time for experimenting, due to my medical issues.

Thanks once again for all your help.

Cheers!

Mike7

Posted: **Mon 03 Feb 2014, 16:30**

Hi @Rcrsn51 and everyone.

This is a very good product as it makes simple a boot process that merely requires adding an ISO to a USB and booting. It started as a Linux-USB solution and NOW, has been expanded to be a Windows-USB solution for initial setup and use. But, I have a question of ISObooter.

Question

Can this process be done using a DVD which embraces the ISO booting process?

Seems that with DVDs/Blu-Ray disc provides both the storage and options to offer an ISO boot process which initiates from these disc as well. But, I must assume that there is some known restrictions in doing so and am wondering what they are.;

Thanks in advance

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

How to Make a Bootable Flash Drive using ISObooter

Can Blu-Ray or DVD be used in the ISObooter framework?