EasyOS 32-bit Dunfell-series version 4.3.2

[BarryK]

Updated, now version 4.3.2:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/x86/r ... 022/4.3.2/

Have added SeaMonkey (also have Firefox), bumped Limine to 3.14.1

Updated, now version 4.3.1.1:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/x86/r ... 2/4.3.1.1/

This has bumped Limine from 3.12.1 to 3.14
ROX-Filer now works properly.

Version 4.3.1
Here it is:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/x86/r ... 022/4.3.1/

The version numbering is for the EasyOS infrastructure, not a measure of 32-bit compatibility.
I have only tested on one old 32-bit laptop, works fine, but there could be issues on other old computers.
This is released with "minimal support", as I don't want to be distracted too much from the main thrust, which is for 64-bit computers.

If you don't know how to write an image file to a usb-stick, see here:

https://easyos.org/install/how-to-insta ... w-ssd.html

I did also test it on my modern Lenovo desktop PC, and Xorg defaulted to the 'fbdev' driver. Ran xorgwizard and chose 'intel' driver and that worked.

One issue: ROX-Filer in file text-display mode, shows incorrect file sizes. I vaguely recall seeing that many years ago, but cannot recall the cause.

Blog announcement:

https://bkhome.org/news/202208/easyos-3 ... n-431.html

[BarryK]

There has been some feedback via email.

This 32-bit 4.3.1 was built with Limine 3.12.1, which is not the latest.
That version of Limine doesn't fully support chainloading Windows on BIOS computers.

I will build easy 32-bit 4.3.1.1, with the latest Limine, currently 3.14. Probably tomorrow.

One problem, is if you just click on "update", it does update EasyOS, but it doesn't update Limine in the boot-partition. So if you do the update on a usb-stick, you will still be booting up with the original Limine bootloader.

To update, will have to download the full image file and write it to a usb-stick.

[rudyt]

I've been going waaaay outside the norms these days - I've been running Easy on QEMU virtual machines. While the 64 bit build of Easy 4.3 works perfectly, the 32 bit build of Easy 4.3.2 refuses to boot into X. I also tried with xorgwizard, all options including Vesa, but nothing works.

I'm not expecting a fix for this oddball problem; I just wanted to let people know it's an issue.

[measter]

Ventoy again.

Using my previous v. of Ventoy and Easy 4.3.2 -- Error cannot find easy.sfs. This is not the same as the size problem, but I tried the truncate command anyway. No joy. Repeated for a different stick w/ Ventoy. Same.

There was a newer Ventoy 1.0.79 released Jul 28 so I updated. Same cannot find easy.sfs.

It goes thru' thru' keyboard selection to creating a snapshot. When it can't find easy.sfs it drops into a shell in the initramfs.

[measter]

Error cannot find easy.sfs.

Oops. I just realized that this thread is for the 32bit; I'm talking 64. I'll take this somewhere else.

[Rosika]

@rudyt:

Hi,

I've been running Easy on QEMU virtual machines. While the 64 bit build of Easy 4.3 works perfectly [...]

That sounds promising.
I´ve been struggling for quite a while to achieve that goal but always failed utterly in the end.

I´d be interested to learn how you accomplished the goal.

I have easy-4.3.4-amd64.img available.
My system is Linux/Lubuntu 20.04.5 LTS, 64 bit.
And I have kvm/qemu/virt-manager installed.

I tried it with:

Code: Select all

kvm --cdrom easy-4.3.4-amd64.img -cpu host -m 1024 -boot d

but it wouldn´t start. "No bootable device detected" or something like that was thrown at me.

Distrowatch (https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=easyos ) even lists EasyOS as "live system" but I cannot get it started either as a live system or get it installed.

My aim is to get it working in a virtual machine (qemu/kvm). So I don´t want to put in on a ventoy stick to run it on my physical machine.

Any help is highly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance and many greetings.
Rosika

[williwaw]

Welcome Rosika

I cannot get it started either as a live system or get it installed.
My aim is to get it working in a virtual machine (qemu/kvm).

Hi Rosika
I cant help much with qemu or kvm, but will mention the easiest way to boot easy is write it directly to a usb as an .img

the second easiest way would be if you had a usb with a bootloader and can make a frugal install.

(not sure if cd installs are still supported with the recent implementation of limine bootloader)

should you need assistance with either of these two methods, you would get more views opening a new topic under EASY OS https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=6406

[Rosika]

@williwaw :

Hi, and thanks for the welcome

Thank you for your help.

the easiest way to boot easy is write it directly to a usb as an .img

O.K. I followed that path and did the following:

- I put the img-file on my ventoy stick so I could boot from it directly.
- I added the ventoy stick as a redirect to my virtual machine (virt-manager)
- I booted the ventoy stick and chose EasyOS in order to start it.

Yet the problem remains: I cannot tell why but EasyOS simply won´t start. Here´s what it says:

error: File (hd0,1)/Betriebssysteme/easy-4.3.4-amd64.img is not bootable.
int13_load_mbr -46
No bootable device.

the second easiest way would be if you had a usb with a bootloader and can make a frugal install.

Yes, the ventoy stick has a bootloader and it lets me choose any .iso or .img files I put there. It works well with other OSes like Lubuntu, LinuxMint etc.
It´s just EasyOS that refuses to boot.

Hmm, I really don´t know why that is.

Still, thanks a lot for your help.

Many greetings from Rosika

P.S.:

curious thing: I even can´t mount the easy-4.3.4-amd64.img in my host:

Code: Select all

env LANG=en_GB:en sudo mount -o loop,ro easy-4.3.4-amd64.img /media/usb
mount: /media/usb: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop0, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.

P.S. 2:

In the meantime I managed to at least mount the img file:

Code: Select all

gnome-disk-image-mounter easy-4.3.4-amd64.img

which gave me the following contents:
an easyos directory and therein:

Code: Select all

.rw-r--r-- 798M root root 15 Aug 12:00 easy.sfs
.rw-r--r-- 4,4M root root 15 Aug 12:00 initrd
.rw-r--r-- 6,3M root root 15 Aug 12:00 vmlinuz

I then copied the easy.sfs to somewhere else so I could try to boot that one.

First I mounted easy.sfs to see what´s in it:

Code: Select all

gnome-disk-image-mounter easy.sfs

and got these contents:

Code: Select all

drwxr-xr-x - root root 21 Nov  2018 audit
drwxr-xr-x - root root 15 Aug 11:54 bin
drwxr-xr-x - root root 15 Aug 11:53 boot
drwxr-xr-x - root root 15 Aug 11:58 dev
drwxr-xr-x - root root 15 Aug 11:58 etc
drwxr-xr-x - root root 11 Dez  2021 files
drwxr-xr-x - root root 15 Aug 11:58 home
drwxr-xr-x - root root 15 Aug 11:58 lib
lrwxrwxrwx 3 root root 15 Aug 11:58 lib64 -> lib
drwxr-xr-x - root root 31 Jan 02:30 mnt
drwxr-xr-x - root root 21 Nov  2018 opt
drwxr-xr-x - root root 21 Nov  2018 proc
drwxr-xr-x - root root 15 Aug 11:58 root
drwxr-xr-x - root root 15 Aug 11:54 sbin
drwxr-xr-x - root root 15 Aug 11:58 sys
drwxrwxrwt - root root 15 Aug 11:58 tmp
drwxr-xr-x - root root 15 Aug 11:58 usr
drwxrwxrwx - root root 15 Aug 11:53 var

which looked more promising.
So I unmounted easy.sfs again and tried booting it:

Code: Select all

kvm --cdrom easy.sfs -cpu host -m 1024 -boot d

... but the result was disappointing again:

"No bootable device" .

[BarryK]

Rosika,
Responding to "PS 1":
That is not how you mount an image file.
Read this page:

https://easyos.org/user/how-to-update-easyos.html

[BarryK]

Rosika,
You cannot boot easy.sfs on its own.
You need to follow one of the install instructions:

https://easyos.org/

[Rosika]

@BarryK :

Hello Barry,

thanks so much for your replies.

...or, just clicking on the file will run 'mount-img'

O.K. I tried that and it worked. Great!
Yet I´ve got the same results as with my command

Code: Select all

gnome-disk-image-mounter easy-4.3.4-amd64.img

... so it seems it´s basically the same. But thanks a lot anyway.

You cannot boot easy.sfs on its own.

I see. Well, I was just giving it a shot.

Thanks for providing the correct links.

I looked at https://easyos.org/install/how-to-write ... drive.html as I want to put EasyOS on my ventoy disk. This one can be started in a vm with virt-manager/qemu/kvm.

I´m convinced it can be done as https://www.ventoy.net/en/distro_iso/easy_os.html indicates 6 successful instances.
I´m still not sure yet how it can be achieved but I´ll keep digging.

Thanks a lot, Barry.

Many greetings from Rosika

[williwaw]

I´m convinced it can be done as https://www.ventoy.net/en/distro_iso/easy_os.html indicates 6 successful instances.

there have been some changes with easy at 4.1 that the dev at ventoy may have not addressed yet.

should you wish to write to a dedicated USB with the dd command,
https://easyos.org/install/how-to-insta ... w-ssd.html
or easydd mentioned at the link you posted, if you do not wish to use the cli

easy has a kernel line parameter to enable finding the working partition that your bootloader needs to pass to the initrd, so your mileage will vary with third party methods of booting

[Rosika]

@williwaw :

Hi, and thanks a lot for your reply.

there have been some changes with easy at 4.1 that the dev at ventoy may have not addressed yet.

I see. That may very well be the case. In fact easy-4.0-amd64.img seems to be the latest version tested...

or easydd mentioned at the link you posted, if you do not wish to use the cli

Right. Thanks. I´m just doing that.
I downloaded easydd from http://bkhome.org/files/easydd.gz , unpacked it and set the correct permissions.
Now I´m doing this:

Code: Select all

sudo ./easydd easy-4.3-4-amd64.img

The script asked about the drive I wanted to write to and I (hopefully ) chose the correct one.
Alas the stick I have available offers just modest write speeds - so it´s likely to take a while.

As soons as it´s completed I´ll try it out.
I´ll keep you posted.

Thanks so much for your help.
Many greetings
Rosika

[Rosika]

UPDATE:

Hi all,
it worked.
Thanks all so much for your help.

So now I´m able to run EasyOS in a vm.

In actual fact Debian10 is installed in a vm (I´m using virt-manager/qemu/kvm for that) but I changed the boot-order in the settings so the stick with EasyOS on it in number one.
EasyOS is then fired up and I can investigate the OS and all that´s installed but alas I´ve run into another problem:

EasyOS doesn´t connect to the internet.
It says "no network devices available".
Hmm, I´m wondering. Debian (which is installed in the vm) automatically connects to the net.
I wonder what to do now...

Thanks and many greetings from Rosika