How to Boot EasyOS from a hard-drive

[mikeslr]

Although EasyOS, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewforum.php?f=63 has many 'puppy-like' features, it is not a traditional 'Puppy'. BarryK developed it as an operating system, affording high-security features, primarily intended to be booted from a USB-Key. When deployed to a hard-drive, commonly employed boot-loaders such as grub2config can not manage it OOTB.

BarryK has graciously provided instructions for deploying EasyOS to a hard-drive here, https://bkhome.org/news/202206/simple-f ... e-fix.html. Thanks, again Barry.

[BarryK]

Yes, but everything is evolving, hopefully getting simpler.

See this update on frugal install:

https://bkhome.org/news/202206/complete ... asyos.html

As Easy is an experimental distribution, the "goal posts" keep shifting.
Hopefully, though, I will soon get it into a very nice state where can leave those goal posts where they are for a long time.

[rcrsn51]

I looked at Limine for a while. In BIOS mode (limine.sys), it worked great on both internal and USB drives. But on UEFI systems (BOOTX64.EFI), it was so unreliable that I eventually had to scrap it.

By comparison, GRUB-based bootloaders work 100% for me.

[BarryK]

I looked at Limine for a while. In BIOS mode (limine.sys), it worked great on both internal and USB drives. But on UEFI systems (BOOTX64.EFI), it was so unreliable that I eventually had to scrap it.

By comparison, GRUB-based bootloaders work 100% for me.

That's interesting. I have only tested legacy-BIOS booting on four computers and UEFI booting on three computers, all OK.

Easy 4.2 is expected to be released in a day or two, with Limine, so we shall see what the feedback is.

I am using v3.7. The project is very active, commits every few days. I see some commits after v3.7 that look important, latest is v3.7.3, so will update soon.

[rcrsn51]

I resolved one problem with Limine. If you want to make a UEFI-bootable flash drive, it must be formatted as GPT.

Luckily, you can multi-boot the device on BIOS machines just by setting up limine.sys. It can co-exist with GPT.

[BarryK]

The EasyOS image file only has an MBR, that is, an msdos partition table.

[rcrsn51]

I resolved one problem with Limine. If you want to make a UEFI-bootable flash drive, it must be formatted as GPT.

I looked at this again. I can now get UEFI booting working with MBR provided that I do a clean re-format of the drive with a new partition table using a recent Gparted.

Limine seems to be fussy about this.

Legacy booting with limine.sys still works.

[BarryK]

I have a script that does it all with fdisk. Script attached, with false ".gz".

It is fdisk from util-linux 2.35.1

In theory, the script could have done everything with an image file, instead of an actual physical drive.

[rcrsn51]

My only outstanding problem is with an HP Stream "cloudbook" whose UEFI firmware refuses to boot Limine's BOOTX64.EFI. I get a black screen of death that never reaches the menu.

It would be interesting to know if other HP UEFI machines have this problem.

[BarryK]

Fun and games with Limine are starting, getting feedback after releasing EasyOS 4.2 with Limine. Have raised two issues #184 and #185:

https://github.com/limine-bootloader/limine/issues

Part of Limine is written in assembly language, and they are using an opcode that is not in the earliest 64-bit x86 CPUs. That accounts for #184.

[rcrsn51]

I have limine v3.7.3. It works for me on a Core2Duo T7300 and an old single core Atom.

What are the models of your UEFI-compatible computers?

[Edit] I lost interest in limine. There were too many places where it didn't work the way I wanted or didn't work at all. GRUB2 always works for me and the Multi Installer has easy tools for using it.

[BarryK]

I already received a reply about the invalid opcode. They have removed the assembly code in 3.7.1. I am currently using 3.7. So, I just need to update.

[BarryK]

Updated instructions here:

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

This really is the simplest and easiest way to go. If you can find a spare drive, plug it into the computer.
You can then be up and running with EasyOS without having to touch the main drive.