List of distros frugal install on NTFS HDD with menu.lst?

[nooby]

puppyluvr one almost need to be a computer program to read that text

I had nimbles on Aopen Barebone computer and it was one of my most loved OS one step behind Puppy that is. But on Acer Nimblex did not work so well. I have even deleted the iso and the subdir and the menu.lst entry I had. Maybe your example there do work on my Acer but I am not optimistic.

I feel unsure of my own entries due to me too lazy to try out what is really needed and what is due to random things related to my BIOS or something.

title Knoppix 6.4.3 Adriane (Poor Man's HD install) ramdisk_size=1000000 init=/etc/init
kernel (hd0,2)/knoppixboot/isolinux/linux knoppix xkeyboard=se apm=power-off screen=1024x768 nomce BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
initrd (hd0,2)/knoppixboot/isolinux/minirt.gz

So it is on the third partition on a 250GB NTFS HDD internal on my Acer D250.

I chose the name knoppixboot due them insisting to ahve a subdir in their iso that is named boot but so are all the other distros I want to test too. Not all but very many has a subdir boot that they want to put in mnt/home on the hdd as teh only boot subdir so I tested to rename it to knoppixboot and that worked.

I don't really know how important the following is apm=power-off nomce Seems my computer needs them. Have no idea what they really do.

This one seems very important BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

that is another subdir in teh iso so it is needed.

What else have I got going. I had got Compact Distro Linux going but then something changed due to me changed something and not it does not work.

title CDL frugal iso boot
kernel (hd0,2)/CDlinux/bzImage CDL_DEV=/dev/sda3 CDL_LOOP=no vga=791 nosmp acpi=off
initrd (hd0,2)/CDlinux/initrd
boot

It was one of the few other than Puppy and Knoppix that I barely got working. It is an Chinese English version of Slax. Basic Slax but with codex and such added where Slax lacks it. So very newbie friendly that way.

Here is a version of TCL that is a remix. RobertS seems not so fond of remixes.

title TinyCore Remix by SvOlli 3.4.1 with ntfs-3g
root (hd0,2)
kernel /tce/release/bzImage tinycore opt=sda3 tce=sda3 home=sda3 noswap syslog kmap=qwerty/fi-latin9
initrd /tce/release/tinycoreplus.gz

Sv Olli has added ability to use NTFS HDD without having to add it through the repository which can be very tricky for a beginner. I failed at it but using the remix I got it for free.

Swift linux is a remix of AntiX not sure how much that have changed. Rokytnji? Sorry never remember the speeling of your name. He may know how different swift is.

title SwiftOS
root (hd0,2)
kernel /swift/vmlinuz vga=791 fromhd=/dev/sda3 fromiso=/swift/swiftlinux-0_0_3.iso lang=se drvr=intel xres=1024x768
initrd /swift/initrd.gz

my computer has a drvr=intel graphic driver so that code there seems to be needed on mine but maybe not our yours.

title Archiso-live
root (hd0,2)
kernel /archiso/boot/vmlinuz from=/dev/sda3/archiso elevator=deadline session=xfce load=overlay
initrd /archiso/boot/initrd.img

title slabix is a version of Slax???
root (hd0,2)
kernel /slabixboot/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=6666 vmalloc=256MB root=/dev/ram0 rw vga=791 splash quiet autoexec=xconf;telinit~4 changes=/slax/
initrd /slabixboot/initrd.lz

They worked on my computer but may not work on yours.

I did get Xpud to work on my older machine but not on the newest.

Here is two different entries. (hd0,0) due to XP was a barbone and not an OEM installation of windows xp. Yes I payed for a regular XP dow in 2004 crazy

title xPUD
root=(hd0,0)
kernel /xpud/boot/bzImage noisapnp lang=se
initrd=/xpud/opt/core /xpud/opt/media



title xPUD 0.9.2 iso-boot
root (hd0,0)
kernel /xpud-0.9.2-image noisapnp quiet lang=se screen=1024x786

I fail to get them booting on my Acer. Not sure why.

So despite me have tested some 75 different Linux distros due to my lack of patience having a strong ADHD tendency I easily give up if it takes more than a day or even a few hours to get them going. I seldom spend days looking for how to get them to boot.,

Linux Developers don't seems to care much about us who want to have a non-tampered with machine dualbooting in a safe way with the original OS. Linux Devs wants the machine to be all Linux on Linux partitions.

That was what I hated about Ms Windows them wanting to own the machine I bought. I want linux distros that accept to be one of many OS distos in cooperation on my NTFS HDD

[tikbalang]

here is my MENU.LST using grub4dos:

Code: Select all

color light-gray/blue red/light-gray
# timeout 30
# default /default

title PLoP Bootmanager
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /bootimg/plpbt.bin
kernel /bootimg/plpbt.bin

title Austrumi
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /austrumi/bzImage
kernel /austrumi/bzImage dousb nocache lang_en acpi=force
initrd /austrumi/initrd.gz

title CDlinux
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /CDlinux/bzImage
kernel /CDlinux/bzImage CDL_LANG=en_US.UTF-8 acpi=force
initrd /CDlinux/initrd

title GeeXbox
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /geexbox/boot/vmlinuz
kernel /geexbox/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 rw rdinit=linuxrc boot=UUID=AC21-E17E lang=en remote=atiusb receiver=atiusb keymap=qwerty vga=789 video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr
initrd /geexbox/boot/initrd.gz

title Pupcade
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /pupcade/vmlinuz
kernel /pupcade/vmlinuz psubdir=pupcade acpi=force
initrd /pupcade/initrd.gz

title Lupu
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /lupu/vmlinuz
kernel /lupu/vmlinuz psubdir=lupu pkeys=us acpi=force
initrd /lupu/initrd.gz

title Quirky
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /quirky/vmlinuz
kernel /quirky/vmlinuz psubdir=quirky pkeys=us acpi=force
initrd /quirky/initrd.gz

title Slax
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /slax/boot/vmlinuz
kernel /slax/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 init=linuxrc load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=6666 rw nopcmcia vga=791
initrd /slax/boot/initrd.gz

title Slitaz
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /boot/bzimage
kernel /boot/bzimage rw root=/dev/null home=AC21-E17E autologin lang=en_US kmap=us vga=789 screen=1024x768x24
initrd /boot/rootfs.gz

title TinyCore
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /tce/boot/bzimage
kernel /tce/boot/bzimage vga=792
initrd /tce/boot/tinycore.gz

title xPUD
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /xpud/boot/xpud
kernel /xpud/boot/xpud noisapnp lang=en kmap=us
initrd /xpud/opt/media

title MemTest86
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /bootimg/mt86v35a.bin
kernel /bootimg/mt86v35a.bin

title MemTest86+
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /bootimg/mt86p420.bin
kernel /bootimg/mt86p420.bin

title commandline
commandline

title floppy (fd0)
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)

title back to dos
quit

title reboot
reboot

title halt
halt

note:

1. all distros are current stable as of this date.
2. use your own UUID!

[nooby]

tikbalang are these installed on NTFS or have you reformatted the hdd to something else than NTFS formatting?

I have to test your CDLinux code to see if it works on mine which now fail.
and your xpud code cool if it works.

Edit, nope I failed to get CDLinux going despite me did a new install of it too. I have no idea why it worked some months ago and now it refuses.

I guess my Acer are haunted by Windows

[tikbalang]

tikbalang are these installed on NTFS or have you reformatted the hdd to something else than NTFS formatting?

i have all/some of them installed to all my usbdisks with fat32. fat32 is the intersecting filesystem between linux and windows. it is also non-journaling, which is important for flashdisks (less writes). updating is as simple as ripping the ISO contents into its own folder. transferring to other disks is simply by copying the distro folder, then installing grub4dos to the mbr of the disk.

note that grub4dos has the "FIND" command which other variants may not have. you may need to specify where "root" is, depending on your bootloader.

if it still fails, then maybe the kernel or initrd does not have the corresponding filesystem module needed to access the partition.

[d4p]

boot from iso:

title SliTaz 3.0
find --set-root /slitaz-3.0.iso
map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /slitaz-3.0.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)

title TinyCore 35
find --set-root /tinycore.iso
map /tinycore.iso (0xff) || map --mem /tinycore.iso (0xff)
map --hook
chainloader (0xff)

title Ubuntu 10.10 (GNOME Desktop)
find --set-root /ubuntu-10.10-desktop.iso
map /ubuntu-10.10-desktop.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper persistent iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu-10.10-desktop.iso splash
initrd /casper/initrd.lz

title Peppermint Linux
find --set-root /Peppermint.iso
map /Peppermint.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/mint.seed boot=casper persistent iso-scan/filename=/Peppermint.iso splash
initrd /casper/initrd.lz

[nooby]

I may be wrong but does map --hook work on NTFS formatted internal HDD?

Such is important to mention. Save people a lot of frustration and many hours of google and writing to forums and waiting for answers why it worked for that guy and not for me