Issue installing Vanilla dpup to usb stick

[darksun]

Hi,

I have had this critical issue since I have started trying vanilla dpup, since version .48.

To be noted that I have not had this issue with other linux distros, among them there are bookwormpup64, fossapup, antix, MX linux and so on.
I successfully make a bootable usb stick of those distros using either Pudd or easydd.

If I attempt to put the vanilla dpup 10.0.*.iso to the usb stick using (1) Pudd, this happens

https://ibb.co/235t7yM

If I attempt to use (2) easydd the above error does not appears, the process ends without errors at screen, but when booting the freshly made usb stick this happens all the time:

https://ibb.co/BfMMmgy

I have to use a windows machine + rufus to make vanilla dpup booting from usb stick.
This is its log, I am posting it because there there might be logged the issue (?)

Code: Select all

Rufus x86 v3.22.2009 (Portable)
Windows version: blablabla
Syslinux versions: 4.07/2013-07-25, 6.04/pre1
Grub versions: 0.4.6a, 2.06
System locale ID: blablabla
Will use default UI locale 0x0410
SetLGP: Successfully set NoDriveTypeAutorun policy to 0x0000009E
Localization set to 'blablabla'
Notice: The ISO download feature has been deactivated because 'Check for updates' is disabled in your settings.
Found USB 2.0 device blablabla
No logical drive found (unpartitioned?)
1 device found
No volume information for drive 0x81
Disk type: Removable, Disk size: 8 GB, Sector size: 512 bytes
Cylinders: 979, Tracks per cylinder: 255, Sectors per track: 63
Partition type: MBR, NB Partitions: 1
Disk ID: blablabla
Drive has an unknown Master Boot Record
Partition 2:
  Type: EFI System Partition (0xef)
  Detected File System: FAT12
  Size: 5.9 MB (6178816 bytes)
  Start Sector: 168, Boot: No
Scanning image...
ISO analysis:
  Image is an ISO9660 image
  Will use '/boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg' for Syslinux
  Detected Syslinux version: 6.04/20200816 (from '/boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin')
Disk image analysis:
  Image has an unknown Master Boot Record
  Image is a bootable disk image
ISO label: 'ISOIMAGE'
  Size: 890.0 MB (Projected)
  Note: File on disk is larger than reported ISO size by 684 KB...
  Uses: Syslinux/Isolinux v6.04
  Uses: EFI
Using image: vanilladpup-10.0.52.iso (891 MB)
Downloading https://rufus.ie/files/syslinux-6.04/20200816/ldlinux.sys
Unable to send request: The server name could not be resolved.
Extended version was not found, trying main version...
Downloading https://rufus.ie/files/syslinux-6.04/ldlinux.sys
Unable to send request: The server name could not be resolved.
Could not download the file - will try to use embedded 6.04 version instead
Downloading https://rufus.ie/files/syslinux-6.04/20200816/ldlinux.bss
Unable to send request: The server name could not be resolved.
Extended version was not found, trying main version...
Downloading https://rufus.ie/files/syslinux-6.04/ldlinux.bss
Unable to send request: The server name could not be resolved.
Could not download the file - will try to use embedded 6.04 version instead

Format operation started
Requesting disk access...
No drive letter was assigned...
Will use 'E:' as volume mountpoint
Opened \\.\PhysicalDrive1 for exclusive write access
Analyzing existing boot records...
Drive has an unknown Master Boot Record
Clearing MBR/PBR/GPT structures...
Erasing 128 sectors
Initializing disk...
Partitioning (MBR)...
● Creating Main Data Partition (offset: 1048576, size: 7.5 GB)
Write error Windows error code 0x00000005 (FormatMessage error code 0x00003AFC)
Retrying in 5 seconds...
Waiting for logical drive to reappear...
Formatting to FAT32 (using IFS)
Using cluster size: 4096 bytes
Quick format was selected
Creating file system...
Format completed.
Writing Master Boot Record...
Set bootable USB partition as 0x80
Using Syslinux MBR
Found volume \\?\Volume{a502b1bc-cf05-11e8-ac5b-6470020d060e}\
Installing Syslinux 6.04...
Opened \\?\Volume{a502b1bc-cf05-11e8-ac5b-6470020d060e} for shared write access
Successfully wrote 'ldlinux.sys'
Successfully wrote Syslinux boot record
Successfully remounted \\?\Volume{a502b1bc-cf05-11e8-ac5b-6470020d060e}\ as E:
Extracting files...
Image is an ISO9660 image
This image will be extracted using Joliet extensions (if present)
Extracting: E:\bdrv_vanilladpup_10.0.52.sfs (9.9 MB)
Extracting: E:\boot\boot.catalog (2 KB)
Extracting: E:\boot\efi.img (5.9 MB)
Extracting: E:\boot\grub\font.pf2 (2.3 MB)
Extracting: E:\boot\grub\grldr (310.6 KB)
Extracting: E:\boot\grub\grub.cfg (2 KB)
Extracting: E:\boot\grub\loopback.cfg (1.9 KB)
Extracting: E:\boot\grub\menu.lst (2.1 KB)
Extracting: E:\boot\grub\menu_phelp.lst (3.4 KB)
Extracting: E:\boot\isolinux\chain.c32 (24.5 KB)
Extracting: E:\boot\isolinux\isolinux.bin (38 KB)
Extracting: E:\boot\isolinux\isolinux.cfg (93 bytes)
Extracting: E:\boot\isolinux\ldlinux.c32 (116.7 KB)
Extracting: E:\boot\isolinux\libcom32.c32 (165.6 KB)
Extracting: E:\boot\isolinux\libutil.c32 (23.0 KB)
Extracting: E:\boot\splash.jpg (11.5 KB)
Extracting: E:\boot\splash.png (10.7 KB)
Extracting: E:\docx_vanilladpup_10.0.52.sfs (28.5 MB)
Extracting: E:\EFI\boot\bootx64.efi (926.5 KB)
Extracting: E:\EFI\boot\grubx64.efi (3.7 MB)
Extracting: E:\EFI\boot\mmx64.efi (829.7 KB)
Extracting: E:\fdrv_vanilladpup_10.0.52.sfs (109.7 MB)
Extracting: E:\grub.cfg (2 KB)
Extracting: E:\initrd.gz (2.3 MB)
Extracting: E:\isolinux.bin (38 KB)
Extracting: E:\kbuild-6.1.85.sfs (15 MB)
Extracting: E:\nlsx_vanilladpup_10.0.52.sfs (172.9 MB)
Extracting: E:\puppy_vanilladpup_10.0.52.sfs (442.7 MB)
Extracting: E:\README.txt (13.9 KB)
Extracting: E:\ucode.cpio (11.9 MB)
Extracting: E:\vmlinuz (10.9 MB)
Extracting: E:\Windows_Installer\readme.html (1.7 KB)
Extracting: E:\Windows_Installer\readme.txt (1.3 KB)
Extracting: E:\zdrv_vanilladpup_10.0.52.sfs (71.7 MB)
Created: E:\syslinux.cfg → /boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
Finalizing, please wait...
Created: E:autorun.inf
Created: E:autorun.ico

Found USB 2.0 device 'SanDisk U3 Titanium USB Device' (0781:5408)
Using 'autorun.inf' label for drive E: 'ISOIMAGE'
1 device found
Disk type: Removable, Disk size: 8 GB, Sector size: 512 bytes
Cylinders: 979, Tracks per cylinder: 255, Sectors per track: 63
Partition type: MBR, NB Partitions: 1
Disk ID: 0x000B4874
Drive has a Syslinux Master Boot Record
Partition 1:
  Type: FAT32 LBA (0x0c)
  Detected File System: FAT32
  Size: 7.5 GB (8053587456 bytes)
  Start Sector: 2048, Boot: Yes

It gives an error talking about a "Syslinux" being too old so it downloads it from rufus' repository, from what I can see.

Thank you.

DS

[darksun]

has nobody had this issue too?

like this other user here I am unable, despite been successful on booting a plethora of linux distributions, including several PUPPYs, to get a working usb_stick flashed vanilladpup*.iso , apart from using rufus on a windows machine.

Anyone reproducing this issue and/or got any suggestion?

Thank you.

[mtomy2008]

Can anyone answer this questionmp3 juice? I'tubidym looking for a solution because I have the same problemy2mate. If anyone has one, please tag me. Thanks a lot.

[dimkr]

The included Bootflash (under the Setup menu) should work reliably, and Balena Etcher should be able to write the ISO directly to a flash drive.

I don't know what the other installers do, but I know that some of them are broken.

[darksun]

thank you @dimkr for your answer.

I do not like using Balena Etcher, so huge piece of software for a simple task.

I tried bootflash and, despite it not launching GRUB in the usb stick it did boot vanilladpup straight away (but it did not pick up the save dir during the boot process, a feature that my other usb stick flashed with rufus is doing normally all the times and with both of my two PCs where I have vanilladpup savedir).

My points are:

- you are suggesting using bootflash, an utility we can find build-in vanilladpup, but I/we are unable to create a vanilladpup bootable usb stick in the first place;

- If I am able to successfully flash a bootable usb stick using a number of software (Pudd,easydd,Ventoy, and so on) and a number of linux distros (including but not limited to a number of PUPPYs , also bookwormpup without problems) but vanilladpup gives issues (especially if using the main two generic ones Pudd and @BarryK 's easydd) , maybe there is an issue with the vanilladpup ISO? just asking/wondering

[esos]

maybe there is an issue with the vanilladpup ISO?

I have never used any tools mentioned above, bcz it is not universal to be use on all puppys.
Important is install boot manager grub2 or G4D. Edit the grub.cfg or menu.lst.
Nothing wrong with Vanilladpup.iso

[JimE]

I have the same problem. I used dd to write the Vanilla Dpup 10.0.55 iso file to a USB flash drive. When I tried to boot either of my computers (2018 LG laptop, 2021 HP desktop) from it, I was left hanging at the GRUB prompt. I repeated the whole process beginning with a fresh download and got the same result. BookwormPup64 10.0.6 booted perfectly (on both machines) using the same process. I'm pretty new to this and I have no idea what this means.

As a workaround, I made a bootable USB flash drive from the Vanilla Dpup iso file by using StickPup. I used FossaPup64, but one of the installers from BookwormPup should work just as well (Menu->Setup->FrugalPup Installers). This works fine on my computers, but I followed up by using Vanilla Dpup's built-in installer to create a bootable USB flash drive the intended way. The process was simple and the result satisfactory (it even booted on a mid-2009 MacBook Pro).

[williwaw]

I have the same problem. I used dd to write the Vanilla Dpup 10.0.55 iso file to a USB flash drive. When I tried to boot either of my computers (2018 LG laptop, 2021 HP desktop) from it, I was left hanging at the GRUB prompt. I repeated the whole process beginning with a fresh download and got the same result. I'm pretty new to this and I have no idea what this means.

if you used dd to write an iso to the stick and you want to boot with a grub2 installed on a different disk....
viewtopic.php?p=94590#p94590

.......... I followed up by using Vanilla Dpup's built-in installer..........

you used bootflash and it was satifactory even on a mac?

[Clarity]

Hello @dimkr .

Are the v10 + v11 wayland Vanillas designed to use SAVESPEC when present? (the facility designed to identify the location of saved sessions built-into WoofCE by @gyrog)

Curious in behavior

[dimkr]

@Clarity I don't see how this is related to Wayland in any way, but 11.0.x won't support SAVESPEC and AUTOSAVE

[Clarity]

Thx

[JimE]

I have the same problem. I used dd to write the Vanilla Dpup 10.0.55 iso file to a USB flash drive. When I tried to boot either of my computers (2018 LG laptop, 2021 HP desktop) from it, I was left hanging at the GRUB prompt. I repeated the whole process beginning with a fresh download and got the same result. I'm pretty new to this and I have no idea what this means.

if you used dd to write an iso to the stick and you want to boot with a grub2 installed on a different disk....
viewtopic.php?p=94590#p94590

.......... I followed up by using Vanilla Dpup's built-in installer..........

you used bootflash and it was satifactory even on a mac?

Thank you for the isobooter3 reference.

Yes, the USB flash drive I created using Vanilla Dpup BootFlash booted on a 15 year old MacBook Pro with no tinkering required. I did have to install a driver for the wireless interface.

[darksun]

I have been troubleshooting the issue today and probably have found the culprit.

To recap, the scenario is:

- creating a bootable usb stick of many OSes (including various flavors of Puppys) using different tools (dd, easydd, unetbootin, and so on) , keeping the (BIOS) configuration untouched, gives no issues;

- replicating the same steps but using vanilla dpup .ISO gives the common GRUB error, leaving us at the GRUB prompt.

Today I have compared the output of "burning" both vanilla dpup and bookworm pup and noticed that only (never noticed this output) when I create the bootable usb stick using vanilla dpup it creates 3 "device" (sda sda1 sda2) instead of 2 (sda sda1)

below I paste screenshots

vdpup.png (242.97 KiB) Viewed 1452 times

bw.png (229.61 KiB) Viewed 1452 times

With vanilla dpup 10.x I have a third usb partition, sda2, vfat, 5M in size, no clue why and what it does or contains.

Code: Select all

~$ mkdir k
~$ mount /dev/sda2 k/
mount-FULL: /root/k: /dev/sda2 already mounted or mount point busy.
       dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.
~$ dmesg | tail
[ 3302.553220] ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
[ 3525.209296] UDF-fs: warning (device sda): udf_load_vrs: No VRS found
[ 3525.209303] UDF-fs: Scanning with blocksize 512 failed
[ 3525.211902] UDF-fs: warning (device sda): udf_load_vrs: No VRS found
[ 3525.211908] UDF-fs: Scanning with blocksize 1024 failed
[ 3525.214144] UDF-fs: warning (device sda): udf_load_vrs: No VRS found
[ 3525.214149] UDF-fs: Scanning with blocksize 2048 failed
[ 3525.215705] UDF-fs: warning (device sda): udf_load_vrs: No VRS found
[ 3525.215711] UDF-fs: Scanning with blocksize 4096 failed
[ 3525.236446] ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
~$ 

Adjusting the boot options into the BIOS sorted the issue out, on my main PC. I am now happy that I have understood the nature of the issue and able to use dd to create bootable usb sticks instead of relying on rufus under windows.

My old laptop refuses to "see" the usb partition (the fist one) that contains the Os & GRUB and I am stuck again in the GRUB prompt , this time in the GRUB4DOS prompt.

@dimkr I know you are busy with your life and vanilla dpup 11.x development, are you able to suggest a solution for this issue that apparently is rather common (I have seen many users unable to boot vanilla dpup and stuck at grub prompt, where every other linux ISOs works fine instead).

[dimkr]

@darksun I'll try to research this issue, but I can't promise I can and want to fix it because (as you know) I'm not a fan of ISO images and all the problems and complications they create. Plus, it's very tense here with threats of multi-front war, so I'm not super productive

EDIT: I wonder if the problem is leftover partition tables in the drive you dded the ISO to, because the fdisk -l on /dev/sda should be the same as the output on the ISO, if you wrote the ISO to /dev/sda:

Code: Select all

root@puppypc:~# fdisk -l ~/Downloads/vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso 
Disk /root/Downloads/vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso: 893 MiB, 936378368 bytes, 1828864 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x7b8ae808

Device                                   Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/root/Downloads/vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso1 *        0 1828863 1828864  893M  0 Empty
/root/Downloads/vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso2        168   12235   12068  5.9M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)

[darksun]

@darksun I'll try to research this issue, but I can't promise I can and want to fix it because (as you know) I'm not a fan of ISO images and all the problems and complications they create. Plus, it's very tense here with threats of multi-front war, so I'm not super productive

I am really sorry to hear that, I do not know where you are based. Feeling sorry for you. You have friends here in this forum, just ask, for whatever we could help you with...

[dimkr]

I also see that booting the ISO as if it were a hard drive (= equivalent to writing the ISO to a hard drive) also works - QEMU with UEFI boots just fine:

Code: Select all

qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -m 2048 -drive format=raw,file=/root/Downloads/vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso -bios /usr/share/qemu/OVMF.fd

This makes it even more likely that the problem is leftovers from previous partition tables. Maybe try to dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=20M count=1, or something like that to clear the beginning of the drive, before you write the ISO to it?

EDIT: aha, it's only UEFI boot that works like this, it reaches the grub4dos prompt when booting in BIOS mode

[darksun]

I also see that booting the ISO as if it were a hard drive (= equivalent to writing the ISO to a hard drive) also works - QEMU with UEFI boots just fine:

Code: Select all

qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -m 2048 -drive format=raw,file=/root/Downloads/vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso -bios /usr/share/qemu/OVMF.fd

This makes it even more likely that the problem is leftovers from previous partition tables. Maybe try to dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=20M count=1, or something like that to clear the beginning of the drive, before you write the ISO to it?

EDIT: aha, it's only UEFI boot that works like this, it reaches the grub4dos prompt when booting in BIOS mode

I have tried with that but the behavior is still the same.
Yes my old laptop has a (latest available version of) 2009 BIOS and does not support UEFI.

When I "burn" vanilla dpup using rufus under windows it only creates one partition (sda or sda1, I do not remember now).

[darksun]

@darksun I'll try to research this issue, but I can't promise I can and want to fix it because (as you know) I'm not a fan of ISO images and all the problems and complications they create. Plus, it's very tense here with threats of multi-front war, so I'm not super productive

EDIT: I wonder if the problem is leftover partition tables in the drive you dded the ISO to, because the fdisk -l on /dev/sda should be the same as the output on the ISO, if you wrote the ISO to /dev/sda:

Code: Select all

root@puppypc:~# fdisk -l ~/Downloads/vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso 
Disk /root/Downloads/vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso: 893 MiB, 936378368 bytes, 1828864 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x7b8ae808

Device                                   Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/root/Downloads/vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso1 *        0 1828863 1828864  893M  0 Empty
/root/Downloads/vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso2        168   12235   12068  5.9M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)

mine is different from yours, the actual fdisk of my iso and my usb stick match, BUT are different from your fdisk

Code: Select all

/mnt/home/archived$ fdisk -l vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso
Disk vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso: 893 MB, 936378368 bytes, 1828864 sectors
113 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device                 Boot StartCHS    EndCHS        StartLBA     EndLBA    Sectors  Size Id Type
vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso1 *  0,0,1       892,63,32            0    1828863    1828864  893M  0 Empty
Partition 1 has different physical/logical end:
     phys=(892,63,32) logical=(113,214,37)
vanilladpup-10.0.57.iso2    1023,254,63 1023,254,63        168      12235      12068 6034K ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical start (non-Linux?):
     phys=(1023,254,63) logical=(0,2,43)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical end:
     phys=(1023,254,63) logical=(0,194,14)

Code: Select all

/mnt/home/archived$ fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 7681 MB, 8054636032 bytes, 15731711 sectors
979 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device  Boot StartCHS    EndCHS        StartLBA     EndLBA    Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 *  0,0,1       892,63,32            0    1828863    1828864  893M  0 Empty
Partition 1 has different physical/logical end:
     phys=(892,63,32) logical=(113,214,37)
/dev/sda2    1023,254,63 1023,254,63        168      12235      12068 6034K ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical start (non-Linux?):
     phys=(1023,254,63) logical=(0,2,43)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical end:
     phys=(1023,254,63) logical=(0,194,14)

[dimkr]

It looks like the grub4dos copy inside woof-CE came from:

https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... 9375daa156
https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... 7011412a37

However, it looks like all current builds except those that don't use .pet packages at all (guess which ones ) include https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... v1.9.4.pet, which replaces wee.mbr and grldr with something else. I looked at ancient grub4dos .pet packages and couldn't find the one wdlkmpx extracted these files from

[darksun]

sorry but I am not an expert and can not understand your last post, in the specific if you have troubleshooted the issue (but yes I know which builds do not use pet packages eheh) .

Are you saying that the grub4dos issue it happens to my old laptop is caused by that ancient grub4dos? If I "burn" the iso with rufus under windows and boot that usb stick on my old laptop everything works fine (and it appears to quickly appears on the screen a grub4dos screen for a split of a second at the boot process too), for your information.

Is it significant the mismatch of my fdisk -l vanilladpup.iso with yours? Maybe github building process corrupts something? I am really a noob at this, my IT interests are at something else.

[dimkr]

Is it significant the mismatch of my fdisk -l vanilladpup.iso with yours?

Probably not, it's probably because you're using busybox fdisk while I don't.

Maybe github building process corrupts something?

It's unlikely but there's no way to tell how BookwormPup64 was built: we don't have the woof-CE tree used to build it, the machine it was built on or any kind of build logs. There's nothing I can compare to.