Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Billtoo · Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Posts: 3721 Location: Ontario Canada

I installed Manjaro 19.2 xfce4 to my HP mini desktop pc:

Computer
Processor Intel(R) Celeron(R) 2957U @ 1.40GHz
Memory 1885MB (465MB used)
Machine Type Desktop
Operating System Manjaro Linux
Date/Time Mon 30 Mar 2020 04:30:10 PM

Display
Resolution 3843x1080 pixels
OpenGL Renderer Mesa DRI Intel(R) Haswell Mobile
Session Display Server The X.Org Foundation 1.20.7

Version
Kernel Linux 5.4.28-1-MANJARO (x86_64)
Version #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Mar 25 12:45:29 UTC 2020
C Library GNU C Library / (GNU libc) 2.31
Distribution Manjaro Linux

Using 2 27" monitors (HP + ASUS) + a pair of entry level BOSE
external speakers plugged into the headphone jack.

It makes good use of the swap file but runs well on this fanless so
silent pc.

EDIT:

I updated this install last night,
Version
Kernel Linux 5.6.12-1-MANJARO (x86_64)
Version #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun May 10 14:36:43 UTC 2020
C Library GNU C Library / (GNU libc) 2.31
Distribution Manjaro Linux

Still works well.

vtpup · Posted: Tue 31 Mar 2020, 12:35 Post subject: Need menu.lst entry to start Mint

I've installed Linux Mint to a free ext4 partition just to temporarily test out a later version of Openshot (2.x).

I opted not to do the Mint auto-install re. grub, as I didn't want it installing Grub2 or (whatever else it does), having had past bad experiencesother distros messing up my frugal puppies on our usual legacy Grub.

But I need to add a menu.lst stanza manually to start Mint. Can anyone help with that?

Thanks

info:
Mint is on sda8 (hd0,7).

In its top level folder it has two applicable links:
initrd.img and vmlinuz. Both point to files in sda8/boot/ (screenshot of contents attached).

mikeslr · Posted: Tue 31 Mar 2020, 14:22 Post subject:

Hi vtpup,

I have Linux Mint 19.2 Tina on sda4, booting into it using grub4dos. I'm not familiar with Grub-legacy beyond that the arguments it uses are almost identical to those of grub4dos. The only difference, AFAIK, is that the 'kernel' line under grub4dos starts with the word 'kernel' while that under other versions of grub start with the word 'linux'. Actually, although you used the phrase 'usual legacy Grub', your later reference to menu.lst suggest that you are using grub4dos

My listing for tina under grub4dos reads:

title Linux Mint 19.2 Tina (sda4)
uuid cf92c7e0-2f62-4a22-9490-8d6e07cb0100
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda4 ro
initrd /initrd.img

Although there are other ways to specify which partition to boot from, you can open a terminal and type "blkid" --without the quotes-- to obtain a list of every partition's uuid.

I would think the stanza you would need would be something like this:

title Linux Mint (sda8)
uuid sda8's UUID # from blkid's printout
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda8 ro
initrd /initrd.img

NOTE HOWEVER, THE FOLLOWING:

At the top level of my sda4 are two symbolic links. One has the name vmlinuz and links to the specified vmlinuz in /boot. In your case, it would be vmlinuz-4.19.0-8-etc.. The other has the name initrd.img and links to the specified initrd.img in /boot. In your case that would be initrd.img-4.19.0-8-etc. So, what I think grub4dos is doing is reading menu.lst to look for vmlinuz and initrd.img files at the top level and as those files are symbolic links follows them to the actual files in /boot. Ask if you need assistance creating symbolic links. I'm not sure if grub4dos is 'smart-enough' to use the actual files directly and without having removed their version designations.

vtpup · Posted: Wed 01 Apr 2020, 15:22 Post subject:

Thanks so much Mikeslr!

Here's what I had already tried in menu.lst, including the good working entries for Tahrpup and Bionicpup, and the non-working stanza for Mint (looks very much like your suggestion except for the disks UUID line vs. the (hdo,7) older style. Note that the tahr and bionic work well:

vtpup · Posted: Wed 01 Apr 2020, 15:59 Post subject:

Tried (found uuid from blkid):

mikeslr · Posted: Wed 01 Apr 2020, 16:11 Post subject:

When in doubt, cheat. Laughing

Rather than trying to figure out how to manually edit menu.lst, as you already have Bionicpup64 on the hard-drive --assuming you can boot into it-- do so, then run menu>setup>grub4dos and re-install grub4dos to the hard-drive. Let grub4dos figure out how to write its menu.lst. That's how I originally got the listing for Linux Mint.

If that doesn't work, then we'll have to figure out what not playing well.

Keef · Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 1001 Location: Staffordshire

Couple of thoughts...
Either alter the path in menu.lst eg:

vtpup · Posted: Wed 01 Apr 2020, 16:20 Post subject:

Thanks Mike. Before I saw your latest message I tried a few things.....same result. I'm wondering now whether the fact that it is an ext4 partition is the problem. Maybe my (old?) Grub can't handle ext4.

in /boot/grub there look to be drivers with the suffix ....stage1_5 I bet I don't have a driver for ext4.

I guess I'll try you grub4dos in Bionicpup idea. First I'll make a backup of my boot folder, just in case -- prior bad experiences!

vtpup · Posted: Wed 01 Apr 2020, 16:22 Post subject:

Thanks Keef, just saw your note -- same idea.... had tried the links in same (boot directory) no joy..........well here we go.....new grub4dos

vtpup · Posted: Wed 01 Apr 2020, 17:16 Post subject:

Yipes!

Base Win7 did not like Grub4Dos at all -- went into something called "Acer RecoveryConsole" with three choices: 1.) restore machine to factory defaults (and lose user data), 2.)restore with user data moved to C:\Backup, or 3.) Exit.

I chose 3 because who knows what "user data" means to Acer, or Winn7: docs, programs, settings, or what? Also, who knows if it will try to re-format the rest of the drive.....uh no thanks. Been there done that. Not a fan of automatic "fixers" like that.

So, luckily I had done a screenshot of the last screen of Grub4Dos, giving the command for restoring the old MBR. Went back into Bionicpup64 and ran that command in terminal, and we're back to normal start-up and Windows again. Phew!

I did sneak a peek at the Mint stanza before I restored the system. Grub4Dos had it as:

vtpup · Posted: Wed 01 Apr 2020, 18:21 Post subject:

Yup, it was the ext4 partition that was the issue.

I copied the Mint files on that partition to a new ext2 partition, adjusted the menu.lst entry to point there and the Mint system went on to boot. Or try to boot -- got about a minute into it when it hung up. Obviously just copying files isn't an ideal way to install an OS like this (permissions and ownerships might change), etc.

But it was a quick and dirty test, and it did prove that my legacy grub system is missing the driver for ext4 filesystems.

Here is the content of my boot/grub/ folder......notice the entries with "stage1_5" pretty certain guess that they are file-system drivers and I need an updated one or one explicitly for ext4.

Now where would I find something like that?

vtpup · Posted: Wed 01 Apr 2020, 18:31 Post subject:

Sorry about the monologue here, but maybe someone else sometime will find this useful.

Found this on a CentOS website:

ras · Joined: 30 Oct 2019 Posts: 100

vtpup · Posted: Wed 01 Apr 2020, 22:52 Post subject:

Uh messing with Windows at that level is not a real fun idea for me. I'd rather let sleeping hogs lie. I use Win7 for very few things, maybe a few times a year.

Incidentally Grub4Dos uses legacy Grub, not Grub2, gleaned from my recent readings, and it's no longer maintained. Which explains why menu.lst is in both, and not in Grub2. Not sure why Grub4Dos can access ext4 file system (if it can) while my legacy Grub can't. But at this point I'm giving up.