Grub Bionic 32

[gilles]

Hello,
I did a Bionic 32 frugal install. I had a message "missing system" (or something like this) To make it working with a old computer, I had to add grub legacy. And, this way, it works.
Then I added several things and I tried to remaster it (menu - setup - Remaster Puppy live CD). To be able to do it, I had to burned a CD (strange to remaster an USB...)
I get a new iso. I did a new frugal install with it. But, again, I have a message "missing system" (or something like this). So, I had, again, to add grub legacy. This way, it works and, in this new USB I have everything I added in the first USB frugal install,

So I should like to know what I must add, when I am remastering, to get grub already in the new iso. Remastering, there are 2 messages telling me I can add anything I want before to go on remastering, but I don't know what to do exactly.

Thank you for your help

[mikeslr]

Remastering primarily has to do with removing, updating and supplementing the applications contained within your Puppy's BASE, puppy_version_number.sfs. In bionicpup32, that's the puppy_upupbb_19.03.sfs. If you look at a decompressed ISO, in addition to that file you'll find it contains several other files which have nothing to do with that Puppy's operating system but are required to provide a boot-loader so that you can boot into that system files.
AFAIK, every remaster application merely copies the files from the ISO --or the directory you unpacked it. Remastering won't change those files. If you need to install legacy grub to boot bionicpup32 on your computer, remastering will produce an ISO where you still will require installing legacy grub on that computer.
Since your objective is to have your Puppy on a USB-Stick for the same computer, may I suggest you try the following:
(1) Use nicOS-Auto-Base-Remaster, viewtopic.php?t=1694 to do the remaster of the Base. When remastering for the same computer it can be used because it is both fast and easy.
(2) On your 'new' USB-Key, format the Key so that it has a small (<200 Mbs) 1st partition, formatted Fat32 and flagged as 'boot'. The rest of the key should be formatted as Linux Ext3.
3) (Optional-recommended) you then create a folder on the 2nd partition named something like 'bionicpup'.
4) Copy the remastered BASE into the new USB-Key's 2nd partition (and the folder of Step 3).
5) Also copy to the same location these files from the original ISO, or the folder of your current bionicpup32: initrd.gz, vmlinuz, fdrv_upupbb_19.03.sfs and zdrv_upupbb_19.03.sfs. Together with the BASE, these are components of Puppy's system.
6) In your currently running bionicpup32, install, then use shinobar's recently published grub2config-2.0.1, viewtopic.php?p=29703#p29703 to write a boot-loader and its "menu" to the new USB-Stick.
(7) Optional: before Step 1 (Remastering), install grub2config-2.0.1 on your current bionicpup32 so that it will be an available application in your new bionicpup32.

grub2config-2.0.1 should work with your computer. Let us know whether or not it does. Shinobar may want to make adjustments. And we may be able to figure out alternatives.

[gilles]

.

[gilles]

Since your objective is to have your Puppy on a USB-Stick for the same computer.

Hello Mike,
My objective is not to have a new frugal install on a USB-stick for the same computer. I know very well how to do a frugal install, with unetbootin, which will work, not only with the same computer.
My objective is to build a new iso, and to send it to a friend, and so, to add within the iso, grub legacy which is not included in the iso.

Please excuse me. I think I should have written in the discussion about Bionic 32.
So I'm going to write this message again, but, this time in the right place.
Thank you for your help, Mike

[rcrsn51]

So, I had, again, to add grub legacy.

Please explain that statement. Did you need to get a legacy grub package from somewhere? Or did you need to run the legacy grub installer program to make the new drive bootable?

To make a drive bootable, some code needs to be written onto its Master Boot Record at the start of the drive. The MBR is not part of the ISO file, so it will NOT be included in a frugal install. A separate operation is required.

[gilles]

Hello rcrsn51,

OK, I explain better, as well as I can with my bad english.
There are older puppy linux iso with which it is possible to build a frugal (or a full) install booting without doing anything else. For instance xenial 32 bits (and many others) boots without adding grub legacy after the install. So it has something in the iso which bionic 32 doesn't have...
But with the bionic 32 it is not possible to boot before to add grub legacy I suppose because it is a uefi iso.
Sure, I can do it, because I have already others puppy linux. But it is a problem for a newcomer to puppy linux.
So, what I am looking for is to make the bionic 32 bits iso booting with olds computers without doing anything else after the install, just like with older puppy iso. Or, may be I can say it another way : I should like to add grub legacy to the iso before to do an install, and not after. I can do it after for myself, but I cannot do it after for someone else (a newcomer to linux) who isn't there.
Thank you for your help

[rcrsn51]

For instance xenial 32 bits (and many others) boots without adding grub legacy after the install.

Please describe exactly how you would do that. Assume that you are starting with an empty hard drive and list the steps.

[mikeslr]

Thanks, rcrsn51, for responding. I had an idea which I thought wouldn't work, but I couldn't remember the name of the 'ingredient' and procedure it was missing: mbr (Master-boot-Record).
The idea was --essentially-- to use the files on the USB-Key of his remastered Bionicpup32, including those he had to install to get it to boot as the source for a new ISO perhaps using ISObooter to create an ISO from the source. But I don't think that copying files from the USB-Key would capture the mbr for inclusion as a component of the source.
Giles, you have a rather unique problem, complicated by a number of unknowns.

For an application to be fully functional, it must fully interface with the operating system it runs under; and that operating system must fully communicate with the hardware required to perform its functions of and on the computer it is being run on; Other than for UEFI computers, I'm unaware of any instance in which legacy-grub could create a boot-able system when grub4dos couldn't. One unknown is why that happened on your computer*,
Are you sure the problem will materialize on your friend's computer?
Other unknowns are what operating system your friend will be using to create the Bionicpup32 on a USB-Stick? What programs or applications for creating that a 'USb-Puppy' does that operating system support? Does his/her computer even support the 'out-of-the-box' Bionicpup32?
What a remaster does is modify the 'Base' --core components-- of a Puppy operating system: removing some User applications, adding some, updating some. By 'User' applications I mean the applications a User knowingly interacts with: The Window-manager, the File-Manager and the applications a User opens to accomplish tasks such as browsing the web or writing a document. Remastering does not change the kernel or the drivers and firmware used by the kernel. Nor does it change those files provided in the original ISO to create a boot-loader and its configuration files.

Giles, Bionicpup's application to create a boot-loader includes alternates: components for UEFI computers and those not using that system. Run on the later, the UEFI components are ignored. They should not have interfered with booting on your system.

Perhaps there is some easier means by which your friend can obtain a functioning version of the remastered base you built?
-=-=-=-=-
* A problem which arose a couple of time is that prior formatting of a USB-Key or partition interfered with grub4dos' writing the mbr.

[gilles]

For instance xenial 32 bits (and many others) boots without adding grub legacy after the install.

Please describe exactly how you would do that. Assume that you are starting with an empty hard drive and list the steps.

????
Speaking about Xenial 32 bits, I do the frugal install with unetbootin and the new usb boots without doing something else. I do not speak about a hard drive...
But, if I do the same thing with Bionic 32, the new USB doesn't boot. I must, with another running puppy, install grub legacy to the new usb.

[rcrsn51]

My mistake. The term "frugal install" usually means a "hard drive install", not making a bootable USB drive.

[gilles]

Hello mikeslr,

I did a bionic32 frugal install which works perfectly with the tiny computer I use only when I am travelling : an Asus EeePC 701 SD (for nearly nothing, I upgraded the RAM to 2 Go).
And, of course, to remaster the bionic 32 iso, I used one of my others computers because the remastering tool needs a CD (EeePC do not have one).
My friend, living very far away, has the same tiny computer, but, unlike me, he doesn't have another computer. He has the original system installed. And, of course, he has to install a new system. He has a friend having a windows computer but this friend is a bit reluctant to help.
When I explain to him to add grub legacy it is just like I speak an unknow language.
By the way, of course, I could give the EeePC iso in this forum. It could help people. But, before, I must have an iso booting with these tiny computers.
Thank you for your help.