How To Install Burg (boot loader based on Grub)

[battleshooter]

Burg is a brand-new boot loader based on GRUB. It uses a new object format which allows it to be built in a wider range of OS, including Linux/Windows/OSX/Solaris/FreeBSD, etc. It also has a highly configurable menu system which works in both text and graphic mode.

Basically another pretty GRUB.

I just like Burg.

However, as someone said on the internet, it is a ridiculous amount of time to spend on something that will flash across your screen for about 2 seconds.



That said though, the amount of pride and joy that fills me in those 2 seconds makes it worth it.

If you're stupid like me, here's how I stumbled through to this glorious moment.

Disclaimer: If you haven't installed GRUB before, this is probably too hard for you. That said, there's a first time for everything, but whoever you are, you follow in my footsteps at your own risk. The following is my interpretation of a Burg installation. It's mostly for fellow Puppians to improve upon.

Tested only on Frugal installs. All using Carolina. I don't have a full install. I imagine it would be easier and everything would work like it should on a full install because the whole system within a system that is a frugal install confuses Burg.

Burg is not installed inside Puppy. It is installed on a hard drive, Puppy only being the tool you use to install.

Step 0
If using frugal, start new puppy with pfix=ram option. You can't install Burg (or Graphical GRUB for that matter) with a save file I've noticed.

Step 1
Install burg-git.pet

Step 2
Open a terminal and run

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burg-install --root-directory=/location/here /dev/sda

.

This installs Burg to the MBR.

--root-directory is where the Burg files will go. It should be on a physical partion. If you've installed grub before, that would be a good location. The burg folder will be installed to this location inside the folder "boot". If you have grub in a boot folder as well, Burg will not delete the grub folder.

For the second argument, in this case /dev/sda, type in fdisk -l the asterisks will indicate which drive your MBR is on. If it is on /dev/sda2 use /dev/sda, not /dev/sda2.

Burg will now overwrite your MBR. Grub is gone, now Burg will be what greets you. Burg will also now have folder in a folder called "boot" located whereever was specified in --root-directory=/location/here.

Step 3
Extract burg.tar.gz to /where/you/installed/burg/boot/burg

Step 4
Open burg.cnf and look for "### MENU ENTRIES ###". There are 2 example items, one for Puppy, and one for Windows. I have only tested the Puppy and Windows menu entry.

Step 5
Open your current menu.lst and copy over the corresponding information noting the difference in syntax such as "linux" for loading the kernel instead of "kernel".

Here's what it should look like in the end:


Hopefully that helps. I'm not sure why the Windows entry is so different. I just set the Burg windows entry with (hd0,2) because on my computer it is on the first hard drive and on the second partition.

(hd0 is the physical hard drive number, 1 is the partition number. The thing to remember is hd0 starts its numbering at 0 and the partitions start their numbering at 1.)

If you need more Puppy entries feel free to copy the Carolina entry as many times as needed.

Step 6
Might want to check the menu entries again. It's really annoying to get locked out of your computer because of a typo. (Regardless, it's always annoying whatever the cause)

Step 7
That should be it. Reboot your computer and enjoy your 2 seconds of glory. Press 't' to change themes. I included a bunch in the burg.tar.gz. There's no need to save the session Burg was installed in to.

Other Hotkeys:

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e  - edit the current command, ctrl-x, used to finish edit and save the result
c  - open a terminal window
q  - plain burg
F1 - help menu
F5 - mapped to ctrl-x
F9 - shutdown
F10 - reboot
ESC - return from popup window 

Many thanks to russoodle for hosting my files

TROUBLESHOOTING

If anything goes wrong, try not to panic. Your information is safe. If things go wrong with bootloaders like Burg of GRUB, it's like the equivalent of the door to your house vanishing. Everything's still there. Just need to make a new door.

If you end up with the grub rescue screen... that's great news, it means Burg successfully installed on the MBR, but also means there was a stuff up in the burg.cfg.

You can get back into Puppy if you know where your kernel and initrd.gz are.

Eg:

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linux /carolina101/vmlinuz 
initrd /carolina101/initrd.gz
boot

If you don't know where your kernel and initrd.gz are you can try looking for it with

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ls (hdx,y)/

Replace x with the hard drive number you want to search, y with the partition you want to search. Remember hdx starts its numbering at 0 and the partitions (y) start their numbering at 1.

Alternatives

If you don't want Burg but still want a pretty startup screen I suggest looking at the fantastic work Catdude has done.

How to have a graphical GRUB

Message files for the GRUB gfxmenu

My favorite's always been the metal dog. It just seems Puppyish.

[mikeb]

I fully understand...I have a nice tarty grub piccie followed by the same image and a progress bar during booting.
I want my old machines to look new, not new machines to look like they from the eighties

Just a quick note on your query...that map crap is as you remarked... a, pointless...windows will establish its own home ..chainload alone works just fine b, can mess up the partition table mbr since it can actually change its contents...been looked out by it in the past....so best avoided anyway.

Now you will get a flood of posts telling you how wrong it is of you to do such tarty things and whats wrong with the 'standard' ways of doing things

mike

[starhawk]

Now *that* looks nice. grub4dos works brilliantly because it's simple as sticks -- but it looks like total crap and that's always bothered me.

Can anyone tell me how to use burg with a full install of Upup Raring 3992...?

[mikeb]

That looks crap? Perhaps you need to try out some grub4dos boot splashes starhawk...
mike

[starhawk]

THAT'S GRUB4DOS?!?!?!




How the HECK did you DO THAT?? (...and how can I do it, too? But probably with a different theme...) I've never been able to get it to do anything other than the default black/cyan/white crap, that looks like I've got an "everything new is old again" CGA screen on my netbook (or any other Puppified system).

Would be even more awesomer if I could roll my own theme -- I know the PERFECT backdrop / background / whatever they call it. (...and I'm an artist...) is there a HowTo on this, somewhere? or a kit I can order? or whatever...?

Sorry for going OMGSUPERFANBOYEXCITEMENTLEVELOVER9000 here, but that looks AWESOME and grub4dos just normally looks so "dumpy 80s", ya know?

"It's the simple things in life that you treasure..." ~"Tech Sgt. Chen", Galaxy Quest

[rg66]

How the HECK did you DO THAT?? (...and how can I do it, too? But probably with a different theme...) I've never been able to get it to do anything other than the default black/cyan/white crap, that looks like I've got an "everything new is old again" CGA screen on my netbook (or any other Puppified system).

Would be even more awesomer if I could roll my own theme -- I know the PERFECT backdrop / background / whatever they call it. (...and I'm an artist...) is there a HowTo on this, somewhere? or a kit I can order? or whatever...?

Sorry for going OMGSUPERFANBOYEXCITEMENTLEVELOVER9000 here, but that looks AWESOME and grub4dos just normally looks so "dumpy 80s", ya know?

"It's the simple things in life that you treasure..." ~"Tech Sgt. Chen", Galaxy Quest

Try GFxmenu http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/gfxmenu.htm

[mikeb]

Thee puppy source of info..
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 90&t=27471

and some premade splashes
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 90&t=50108

By the way this works for grub4dos or grub 1

Its basically one line in menu.lst and the spash file.

Making youir own is not to hard after you done it the first time...

Sorry no thread hijack intended.... I need to test out this burg..it looks fun

mike

[nilsonmorales]

I successfully installed burg in my usb with this 2 commands
assuming my usb is sdb1

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[Badass][$] mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt

then

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[Badass][$] burg-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sdb
Installation finished. No error reported.

Burg runs a little bit slow than grub4dos but runs in my usb
But the options dont, i dont know how edit the set root= ?? in burg.cfg. I dont understand about device mapping, can you help me please? this is part of my config

#Puppy Linux Example#
menuentry 'Slacko 5.6' --class puppy --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --group group_main {
set root='(hd1,1)'
linux /slacko/vmlinuz psubdir=/slacko
initrd /slacko/initrd.gz
}

#Puppy Linux Example#
menuentry 'Badass' --class puppy --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --group group_main {
set root='(hd1,1)'
linux /test2/vmlinuz psubdir=/test2
initrd /test2/initrd.gz
}

Tnx in advance.

[battleshooter]

Interesting nilsonmorales , I hadn't thought about USB installs. But shouldn't be too different. It is a hard drive after all.

Can I see the output of

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fdisk -l

Good one mikeb. I love Catdude's work, in fact all the computers in the house are running his graphical grub setup. I just tried Burg because I felt like something different. Good to know about the Windows entry as well, but I'll probably leave it as is because that's the default menu.lst Puppy install spits out.


starhawk If you're still interested in Burg for Upup, I can give it a go in a virtual machine and let you know how it goes. But I understand if you're overwhelmed but the awesomeness of graphical grub for now.

[nilsonmorales]

[Bs] thank you for your fast reply

[puppypc7119][$] fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb371b371

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 83888127 41943040 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 83888128 312580095 114345984 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 * 83890176 136318975 26214400 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 136321024 188749823 26214400 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 188751872 241180671 26214400 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 241182720 312580095 35698688 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 4051 MB, 4051697664 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 492 cylinders, total 7913472 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x014a9340

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 7913471 3955712 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

[starhawk]

@rg66 -- gfxmenu is exactly what I was looking for! Just one question. Per the instructions I extracted from the gfxboot-3.3-custom.zip archive the file message_en. But I extracted ONLY message_en. Should I have extracted the whole archive and just copied message_en (and modified it)...? or did I do it right?

[rg66]

@rg66 -- gfxmenu is exactly what I was looking for! Just one question. Per the instructions I extracted from the gfxboot-3.3-custom.zip archive the file message_en. But I extracted ONLY message_en. Should I have extracted the whole archive and just copied message_en (and modified it)...? or did I do it right?

It's been quite a while since I've done this and it was in Windows. For linux I think you just need message_en, back.jpg and gfxboot.cfg.

Edit: I just made a spalsh in Carolina and you just need message_en. When extracted, all the necessary files are there. I just did the quicky version with the included back.jpg and unmodified gfxboot.cfg and it worked without issues.

[battleshooter]

nilsonmorales ,

I'd say because your USB is where the MBR is installed, it would view itself as the first hard drive. I think your entry should look like this, assuming both Puppies are installed to the USB:

#Puppy Linux Example#
menuentry 'Slacko 5.6' --class puppy --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --group group_main {
set root='(hd0,1)'
linux /slacko/vmlinuz psubdir=/slacko
initrd /slacko/initrd.gz
}

#Puppy Linux Example#
menuentry 'Badass' --class puppy --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --group group_main {
set root='(hd0,1)'
linux /test2/vmlinuz psubdir=/test2
initrd /test2/initrd.gz
}

I highlighted the change I made in red. I saw from fdisk you only have 1 partition, so you are correct in setting the partition to 1.

[nilsonmorales]

Ok, burg now is working in my usb thanks to [Bs]
burg runs slowly in usb i dont know why, anyway the important is that works
1-4 sec. to boot main burg window
1-3 sec. to change themes
1-9 sec. to boot any OS
looks very nice, and would like make a new theme for Puppy in my own way.
My purpose was only test, Thank you again.
End of report.

[battleshooter]

Very nice nilsonmorales. Thanks for testing. It's always good to know someone else got it working on their system.

[nilsonmorales]

Ok i made it!!
post my theme, no picture, is something like this

http://ubuntuone.com/0q3I4oDptQJHehmEqh5nR5
Md5sum 9fdb17f6607e63e939aa1b475d96bb7c 2.1mb

[nilsonmorales]

I wondering how install burg in a custom iso instead vesamenu or another iso bootloader. just think.

[battleshooter]

Nice job nilsonmorales. Here's a screenie of your theme taken courtesy of VirtualBox.



I might also take the time to mention how to add themes.

[battleshooter]

How To Add Themes

Step 1.

Extract themes to /boot/burg/themes

Step 2.

If you want the new theme to appear in the themes menu you have to edit burg.cnf. Navigate to the ### THEMES SECTION ###, copy an entry and fill in the name of the folder your new theme is in.



So if I copied the "winter" theme line for nilsonmorales's new theme it would look like this:

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load_string '+theme_menu { -themepuppy { command="set theme_name=themepuppy" }}'

[edoc]

Here's what it should look like in the end:

How might this look different if one is booting from a sd card?

Note: The Acer Iconia w500p reportedly ties the sd card in through usb so it can be addressed by the BIOS as a boot device.

How might one write the boot code for Android?

For simplicity sake should I use Burg, Grub (legacy), Grub2, or grub4dos in my effort to triple-boot Android, Linux, & MS windows?