Grub2config replaces Grub4Dos

LateAdopter · Post by **LateAdopter** » Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:12 am

Hello amethyst
shinobar's tools are important because they get beginners started with Puppy. When I started with Puppy 10 years ago I used grub4dosconfig. Fortunately I spotted the little checkbox for " show partitions" and was able to install grub4dos start properly, the IBM PC way, from the partition boot sector. Once you have a working Puppy, I don't think you need the installer again. It's easier to do it manually.

I think this commit from yaya in 2014 dealt with the issues of GPT and 64-bit ext4, but I haven't used either so I can't confirm that it works.
https://github.com/chenall/grub4dos/com ... 0fac75880d

Note: you would have to start G4D from the PBS for this to work: I don't think weee supports 64-bit

Post by **mikewalsh** » Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:53 am

LateAdopter wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 8:21 am
Hello mikewalsh
When you need to boot from UEFI you can use Grub4DOS-UEFI. It's trivially easy to use and has the same menu.lst entries as Grub4DOS.
But it's not a topic for shinobar's thread.

When people tell you what Grub4DOS can or can't do, they are comparing a current version of Grub2 with a ten year old version of Grub4DOS.

@LateAdopter :-

Hallo, mate.

Y'know, TBH I can't exactly remember what I did when I first got this HP early last year. I knew I wanted to remove Win 10 - best done before you ever fire it up for the first time, 'cos otherwise it puts its sticky paws all over everything (like every copy of Windoze before it!) - and I wanted to get the kennels transferred across and into some kind of working order.

Initially, I fired it up for the first run with a LiveCD of Sailor Enceladus' Slacko 5.7.1 re-spin. The very first order of business was removal of the Redmond abortion, which was performed with extreme prejudice.

I've long had one of these leads with a USB 3.0 connector at one end, and a SATA3 combo data/power connector at t'other. The 500 GB WD 'Blue' came out of the old Compaq before I scrapped it, so I hooked this up and started copying stuff across. Next order of business was to figure out the best way of booting this UEFI rig.

I knew there had been a lot of threads over at the Murga Forum ( which was still 'active' then), so I had a trawl through several of them. I think the method I settled on was outlined in a post by either Bill (rcrsn51) or Fred, in the Debian Live Starter Kit thread. I forget exactly what the instructions were, but I know I've had an EFI directory amongst the other Grub4DOS stuff ever since I set it up. This very short GIF of my 256 MB FAT32 sda1 'boot' partition shows you what I mean:-

As you can see, there's EFI stuff there. This is exactly how it was set up well over 18 months ago, and I've had no reason to change it ever since; because all my Puppies run from sub-directories in one large partition, adding new Pups is a doddle.....all I need to do is to duplicate any boot entry in menu.lst, and simply edit to suit. Bob's yr uncle.....sorted.

Personally, I don't really give a monkey's what I use to boot with. So long as I can boot into the kennels - by whatever means - I'm quite content.

Mike.

amethyst · Post by **amethyst** » Thu Sep 16, 2021 12:00 pm

LateAdopter wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:12 am
Hello amethyst
shinobar's tools are important because they get beginners started with Puppy. When I started with Puppy 10 years ago I used grub4dosconfig. Fortunately I spotted the little checkbox for " show partitions" and was able to install grub4dos start properly, the IBM PC way, from the partition boot sector. Once you have a working Puppy, I don't think you need the installer again. It's easier to do it manually.

I think this commit from yaya in 2014 dealt with the issues of GPT and 64-bit ext4, but I haven't used either so I can't confirm that it works.
https://github.com/chenall/grub4dos/com ... 0fac75880d

Note: you would have to start G4D from the PBS for this to work: I don't think weee supports 64-bit

Yes. Well I don't install grub4dos actually, I just copy the executable to the booting partition and manually configure menu.lst. I was just asking as a matter of interest.

Post by **bigpup** » Fri Sep 17, 2021 1:44 am

mikewalsh,

For your access to the UEFI setup when using Grub2 boot loader.
The basic problem is discussed on the internet in various places.
The basic cause is Grub2 is starting too quick, so the time needed to press a UEFI setup access key is not there.

First thing to make sure of.
In the UEFI setup have fast boot disabled. Could be called something else, but should be similar in name.
Hopefully this will provide a little delay time, before turning over control to Grub2.

Can try to do what they did here and make a Grub2 menu entry to access the UEFI setup
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1 ... art-0.html
Could be as simple as this entry added to the grub.cfg file entries
I would make it the first one.
Change the set default= from 0 to the entry you want to be default.

Code: Select all

menuentry 'System setup' $menuentry_id_option 'uefi-firmware' {
   fwsetup
}

Clarity · Post by **Clarity** » Fri Sep 17, 2021 2:24 am

@mikewalsh, as "ODD" as this may sound, if you test the USB offered to you, it will prove or disprove a timing issue as well as suggest other ideas I have about your configuration issue.

This is NOT to help me, we are trying to help you ... if you want help via that test. It cannot take more than a few moments to conduct the boot test.

Jafadmin · Post by **Jafadmin** » Fri Sep 17, 2021 4:29 pm

mikewalsh wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:53 am
As you can see, there's EFI stuff there. This is exactly how it was set up well over 18 months ago, and I've had no reason to change it ever since; because all my Puppies run from sub-directories in one large partition, adding new Pups is a doddle.....all I need to do is to duplicate any boot entry in menu.lst, and simply edit to suit. Bob's yr uncle.....sorted.
Mike.

Hi Mike! I'm struggling to understand how uefi would be able to boot with your sda1 configuration. Shouldn't there be a 'grub.cfg' for the 'bootx64.efi' to read that contains at least the 'set root' and 'configfile' parameters?

Code: Select all

# GNU Grub UEFI boot config
#
# 	Transfer to the grub.cfg on partition2
#
set root=(hd0,msdos2)
configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Anyways, that's the way my boot rigs all config ..

Post by **mikewalsh** » Fri Sep 17, 2021 8:16 pm

@Jafadmin :-

TBH, Jafa, I'm pretty certain all my Pups boot 'legacy' anyway. As I said earlier in this thread, I don't remember how I set it up, OR where I got that EFI stuff from (or even why!)

This is my menu.lst:-

Code: Select all

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.9.3
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 20
default 0

# Frugal installed Puppy

title Bionicpup64 8.0 (sda2/Bionicpup64)
  find --set-root uuid () 0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e
  kernel /Bionicpup64/vmlinuz  pdrv=0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e  psubdir=/Bionicpup64 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsckp
  initrd /Bionicpup64/initrd.gz

title Fossapup 64 9.5 (sda2/Fossapup64)
  find --set-root uuid () 0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e
  kernel /Fossapup64/vmlinuz  pdrv=0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e  psubdir=/Fossapup64 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsckp
  initrd /Fossapup64/initrd.gz  
  
title Quirky April 64 'lite' (sda2/Quirky7_64_lite)
  find --set-root uuid () 0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e
  kernel /Quirky7_64_lite/vmlinuz  pdrv=0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e  psubdir=/Quirky7_64_lite pmedia=atahd pfix=fsckp
  initrd /Quirky7_64_lite/initrd.gz

title Xenialpup 64 7.5 (sda2/Xenialpup64)
  find --set-root uuid () 0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e
  kernel /Xenialpup64/vmlinuz  pdrv=0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e  psubdir=/Xenialpup64 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsckp
  initrd /Xenialpup64/initrd.gz

title Slacko 5.7.1 (sda2/Slacko_571)
  find --set-root uuid () 0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e
  kernel /Slacko_571/vmlinuz  pdrv=0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e  psubdir=/Slacko_571 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsckp
  initrd /Slacko_571/initrd.gz

title Xenialpup (sda2/Xenial32)
  find --set-root uuid () 0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e
  kernel /Xenial32/vmlinuz  pdrv=0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e  psubdir=/Xenial32 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsckp
  initrd /Xenial32/initrd.gz
  
# Windows
# this entry searches Windows on the HDD and boot it up
title Windows\nBoot up Windows if installed
  errorcheck off
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd  /bootmgr
  chainloader /bootmgr
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd  /ntldr
  chainloader /ntldr
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd   /io.sys
  chainloader /io.sys
  errorcheck on

# Advanced Menu
title Advanced menu
  configfile /menu-advanced.lst
  commandline

It's a wee bit different to the older 'standard' Puppy boot stanzas; I think I found this in one of the DebianDog threads on the old forum.....along with making the necessary modifications in the UEFI, it just "worked", so I left it alone..!

From what I can see, this is pretty much standard now with more modern Puppies. I could be wrong, though. It HAS been known!!

(*shrug*)

Mike.

Jafadmin · Post by **Jafadmin** » Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:41 pm

@mikewalsh, Yeah, I'm pretty sure you are booting G4D W/legacy BIOS on sda1. G4D works like a charm. Always has. The problems started with folks that have uefi dual boot setups. @shinobar's monster hack addresses all the above issues as far as I can tell.

Unless someone has a UEFI boot setup, this whole thread can be ignored. The purpose of 'Grub2Config' is to address that next booting evolution.

Clarity · Post by **Clarity** » Sat Sep 18, 2021 2:18 am

Actually, I think @shinobar has been clear, IMHO.

This thread is an attempt to address some/many of the boot issues we have seen over the years. Further, now that GRUB2 has become a worldwide standard with a world of contributers, this thread is timely in its effort to assist WoofCE PUP users, with old and new PUPs-DOGs, as well as Windows, as well as current distros like Ubuntu.

I would expect that this utility be submitted to WoofCE for their evaluation of including this utility in PUP builds.

The prime directive, from my point of view, is ease of use of the subsystems we find in modern PUPs-DOGs. Old PUPs and DOGs distros are already spoken for and continue to work as they have in the past.

It is well thought-thru in his attempt to flatten the playing field to help members. And, it gives many who are willing, a running start to any advances they will choose in their boot selections on their drives.

Thanks @shinobar

Post by **mikewalsh** » Sat Sep 18, 2021 2:31 am

Jafadmin wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:41 pm
@mikewalsh, Yeah, I'm pretty sure you are booting G4D W/legacy BIOS on sda1. G4D works like a charm. Always has. The problems started with folks that have uefi dual boot setups. @shinobar's monster hack addresses all the above issues as far as I can tell.

Unless someone has a UEFI boot setup, this whole thread can be ignored. The purpose of 'Grub2Config' is to address that next booting evolution.

Mm-hm. I can honestly say that in all my years with Puppy, it's the one thing that's been a 'constant'; always dead reliable, never lets me down. Even though this new rig is UEFI-based, I invariably run the kennels in 'legacy' mode. Because it just "works".

If I want to add a UEFI-based 'mainstream' distro into the mix, I prefer to install it to a separate drive, let it install its own bootloader - usually GRUB2 - to that drive's MBR, then "chain-load" to it from the main Grub4DOS boot menu. This way, I get an entry for it in the boot menu, yet I know it'll always boot without issues....because I'm not trying to hack it, and am letting it boot the way it wants to.

@Clarity :- Really, we have two concurrent issues coming to a head simultaneously; that of GRUB2 achieving pretty much overall dominance in the Linux world, AND UEFI becoming more or less universal. Thus, both issues naturally need addressing together.....

Mike.

Clarity · Post by **Clarity** » Sat Sep 18, 2021 2:50 am

@mikewalsh , GRUB2 is about 2 decades old. This is not new. Just that the world have worked together to keep it current with what manufacturers have submitted to keep us rolling on a Linux platform. Still works and world still supports it.

BUT, it will change of course. In fact, except for people like us who are willing to follow Linux, all of this is changing as we go...now!

Look at the world of users and the products provided us, and you can see where we are heading.

Change is forever! Often times as an improvement.

BTW: This offering from @Shinobar is not really supporting a change. Rather, it appears to be a "helper".

Jafadmin · Post by **Jafadmin** » Sat Sep 18, 2021 3:12 pm

mikewalsh wrote: ↑Sat Sep 18, 2021 2:31 am
Mm-hm. I can honestly say that in all my years with Puppy, it's the one thing that's been a 'constant'; always dead reliable, never lets me down. Even though this new rig is UEFI-based, I invariably run the kennels in 'legacy' mode. Because it just "works".

Absolutely. That said, though, there are other uses for puppy linux besides as a personal computer. I have several puppy thumb drives that I use to boot/fix other machines, and quite often those other machines are configured for UEFI. Having a flash drive that can boot in all scenarios is a big advantage.

wizard · Post by **wizard** » Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:52 pm

@shinobar

Interested in trying grub-mount. This quote is from the grub 2.06 manual.

The program grub-mount performs a read-only mount of any file system or file system image that GRUB understands, using GRUB’s file system drivers via FUSE. (It is only available if FUSE development files were present when GRUB was built.)

Have used grub2config to install grub2, but if I try to use the grub-mount command it gives an "error can't find command grub-mount". Does grub2config comply with the FUSE condition?

Thanks
wizard

snoring_cat · Post by **snoring_cat** » Thu Nov 18, 2021 11:29 pm

Hi @shinobar,

Is it possible to boot directly ISO files on hard drive with grub2config? When I tried to use grub2config, manually modifying my menu config entries, I had problems. One problem was that the "map" command wasn't recognized.

I can set up grub4dos, grub2 and syslinux to boot ISO files, memdisk method or not. Before I keep trying to configure grub2config, I'm curious if there is already a solution or testing with ISOs.

Thanks.

davids45 · Post by **davids45** » Sat Jan 15, 2022 5:09 am

G'day,
I'm hoping to convert an Acer E-51 laptop with Windows10 to a triple booter. Keeping a reduced Windows10, trying Mint, and then a collection of 64-bit Puppies.

1. With the W10 drive wizard, I shrank Drive C from 900GB to 130GB and made 3 new ntfs partitions, for Mint, shared data and Puppies (later convert one partition to ext4).

2. I removed the several BIOS security boot hurdles and inbuilt W10 obstructions, and installed Mint from a USB to one of these new partitions. Turning the computer on, Mint now gives the expected black and white boot screen, Mint as first option followed by a few other lines including Windows. Mint runs well as does the original Windows 10.

3. With more BIOS editing and trials-and-errors, I enabled booting from a USB of BionicPup-80. I installed the Grub2config pet to this USB Pup save-file which now shows in the 'Menu' next to the Grub4Dos old app supplied with BionicPup-8.0.

4. Grub2config running from the USB shows the installed OSs (Mint, W10) plus some manual Puppy 'installs' (screenshot 1).

5. When I click to add the new boot set-up to sda2, I get a failure message (screenshot2).

In case it will help, I took shots of sda2 root (screenshot3), EFI on sda2 (screenshot4 not loading?) and sda2/EFI/boot directories (screenshot5 not loading).

How can I fix the Grub entry to achieve adding Puppies to W10 and Mint?

Is editing Mint's config file (its menu.lst equivalent somewhere on sda2?) an easy alternative?

This is all new to me - I'm used to computers >10 years old so this laptop is a 'new trick', or will be if I can be told what to do.

Thanks.

David S.

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » Sat Jan 15, 2022 5:56 am

davids45 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 15, 2022 5:09 am
G'day,
I'm hoping to convert an Acer E-51 laptop with Windows10 to a triple booter. Keeping a reduced Windows10, trying Mint, and then a collection of 64-bit Puppies.

1. With the W10 drive wizard, I shrank Drive C from 900GB to 130GB and made 3 new ntfs partitions, for Mint, shared data and Puppies (later convert one partition to ext4).

2. I removed the several BIOS security boot hurdles and inbuilt W10 obstructions, and installed Mint from a USB to one of these new partitions. Turning the computer on, Mint now gives the expected black and white boot screen, Mint as first option followed by a few other lines including Windows. Mint runs well as does the original Windows 10.

3. With more BIOS editing and trials-and-errors, I enabled booting from a USB of BionicPup-80. I installed the Grub2config pet to this USB Pup save-file which now shows in the 'Menu' next to the Grub4Dos old app supplied with BionicPup-8.0.

4. Grub2config running from the USB shows the installed OSs (Mint, W10) plus some manual Puppy 'installs' (screenshot 1).

5. When I click to add the new boot set-up to sda2, I get a failure message (screenshot2).

In case it will help, I took shots of sda2 root (screenshot3), EFI on sda2 (screenshot4 not loading?) and sda2/EFI/boot directories (screenshot5 not loading).

How can I fix the Grub entry to achieve adding Puppies to W10 and Mint?

Is editing Mint's config file (its menu.lst equivalent somewhere on sda2?) an easy alternative?

This is all new to me - I'm used to computers >10 years old so this laptop is a 'new trick', or will be if I can be told what to do.

Thanks.

David S.

Think you need a new topic/post rather than posting here!
Also, please attach the file mentioned in the error you screenshotted.
But this can be set manually. You will need the UUID of your partitions via GParted, the boot files (vmlinuz and initrd.gz, and of course your puppies base .sfs files).

Use this template:

Code: Select all

menuentry 'Bionicpup' {
 search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid <UUID>
 linux /vmlinuz pmedia= (usbhd,atahd,ataflash,cd,usbflash, that's all I know) pfix= (fsck,nocopy,nox,rdsh,ram) <insert any other flags recognized by puppy or the kernel>
 initrd /initrd.gz
 }

Note that the filepaths written here can be changed of course, but the UUID is a must. The other flags are not needed, but might be something you want.
pmedia controls PUPMODE which determines the behavior of how it saves/operates. cd for pmedia causes Puppy to act like its a LiveCD even though it may be booting off a usb (and also in the process not allow changing kernels via quickpet). pfix are flags that have some use, such as ram meaning puppy fully running in ram and without a savefile. fsck is fsck. nox means no graphical session, rdsh halts the boot operation midway, such that you are still running off the initrd.gz/ramdisk. nocopy means not to copy base .sfs files into memory.

davids45 · Post by **davids45** » Sat Jan 15, 2022 9:55 pm

G'day Phoenix,

Thanks for the reply.

Here's the error log text I think you asked for:

/usr/sbin/grub2config
version 2.0.1
Sun 16 Jan 08:40:04 AEDT 2022
splash start Searching.
sda|931.5GiB_ATA_ST1000LM024_HN-M
sdb|7.2GiB_Imation_Classic(Removable)
2
splash end Searching.
Choosed:sda
Checking sda...
The backup GPT table is corrupt, but the primary appears OK, so that will be used.
The backup GPT table is corrupt, but the primary appears OK, so that will be used.
Boot Partition:sda2(vfat)
sda:true
sdb:false
SEARCHPARTS
/dev/sda1|ntfs|614400
/dev/sda2|vfat|307200
/dev/sda4|ntfs|133120000
/dev/sda5|ntfs|209028909
/dev/sda6|ntfs|114238636
/dev/sda7|ntfs|17026048
/dev/sda8|ext4|197166080
/dev/sda9|ext4|200570880
/dev/sda10|ext4|104556544
PUPPY_DEPTH=2
splash progress Searching.
PUPDIRS on sda1:
PUPDIRS on sda2:
PUPDIRS on sda4:
PUPDIRS on sda5:
PUPDIRS on sda6:
PUPDIRS on sda7:
PUPDIRS on sda8:
PUPDIRS on sda9:/mnt/sda9/imppup961 /mnt/sda9/bionicpup80 /mnt/sda9/fossa95 /mnt/sda9/SLC202012
PUPDIRS on sda10:/mnt/sda10/boot
Other Linux:/boot/grub/grub.cfg, SUBDIR:/boot, PUPSFS:
MYPUPPY=sdb1/puppy_bionicpup64_8.0.sfs
PUPPIES:sda9/bionicpup80/puppy_bionicpup64_8.0.sfs,initrd.gz|bionicpup64_8.0
sda9/imppup961/puppy_imppup64_9.6.1.sfs,initrd.gz|imppup64_9.6.1
sda9/SLC202012/puppy_slc_64_2020.12.sfs,initrd.gz|slc_64_2020.12
FULLINSTS:sda10/boot/grub/grub.cfg|Linux_Mint_20.3_Una
WININSTS:
BOOTMGRS:
WINEFIS:
sda2/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
sda2/EFI/OEM/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
LINEFIS:
sda2/EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi
TOPEFIS:
sda2/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi
COMPAT_MENU=2
splash end Searching.
Checking sda...
The backup GPT table is corrupt, but the primary appears OK, so that will be used.
The backup GPT table is corrupt, but the primary appears OK, so that will be used.
splash start Installing. Please wait...
Old menu '/mnt/sda2/grub.cfg' is backuped as 'grub-prev.cfg'.
Writing... /mnt/sda2/grub.cfg
sda9/bionicpup80/puppy_bionicpup64_8.0.sfs,initrd.gz|bionicpup64_8.0
sda9/imppup961/puppy_imppup64_9.6.1.sfs,initrd.gz|imppup64_9.6.1
sda9/SLC202012/puppy_slc_64_2020.12.sfs,initrd.gz|slc_64_2020.12
sda10/boot/grub/grub.cfg
sda2/EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi
TODRIVE:sda
Writing menu completed.
Checking sda...
The backup GPT table is corrupt, but the primary appears OK, so that will be used.
The backup GPT table is corrupt, but the primary appears OK, so that will be used.
TOPDIR:/mnt/sda2
Extracting /usr/lib/grub2config/grub2pup-efi.tar.xz...
Installing UEFI bootloader on /dev/sda, /mnt/sda2 ...
./
./EFI/
./EFI/Puppy/
./EFI/Puppy/grubx64.efi
./EFI/Puppy/mmx64.efi
./EFI/Puppy/grub.cfg
./EFI/Puppy/bootx64.efi
./puppy.cer
'/mnt/sda2/EFI/Puppy/grubx64.efi' -> '/mnt/sda2/EFI/boot/Puppy/grubx64.efi'
'/mnt/sda2/EFI/Puppy/mmx64.efi' -> '/mnt/sda2/EFI/boot/Puppy/mmx64.efi'
'/mnt/sda2/EFI/Puppy/grub.cfg' -> '/mnt/sda2/EFI/boot/Puppy/grub.cfg'
'/mnt/sda2/EFI/Puppy/bootx64.efi' -> '/mnt/sda2/EFI/boot/Puppy/bootx64.efi'
EFI variables are not supported on this system.
Failed to register Puppy boot loader.
splash end

Thanks for any guidance.

David S.

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » Sun Jan 16, 2022 12:08 am

@davids45 It seems like you don't have UEFI or that it can't find the EFI variables for modification. However the files required for booting are present and will still boot. Select the MBR option and it should work then. Or as I posted earlier, set it up manually. (If you actually have UEFI then you'll need to disable Secure boot in order to boot Puppy if you don't want to go to the effort of adding in entries to allow booting of Puppies.)

davids45 · Post by **davids45** » Sun Jan 16, 2022 5:17 am

G'day Phoenix,

The BIOS and Windows10 show the Aspire's boot system is UEFI not Legacy. Early on, I had tried the Legacy boot but W10 would not run (Puppy did) and I'd like this laptop to be my Windows computer for the future (for quite a few years, I have used XP on a 2003 Medion desktop that still runs well (just one program involved) but I'm trying to 'be prepared').

Here is the text of the Puppy-created UEFI config that did not load. It shows UUIDs for the sda9 partition (and Mint and W10):

# grub.cfg produced by grub2config 2.0.1
set default=0
set timeout=10
set menu_color_normal=white/blue
set menu_color_highlight=black/yellow

loadfont $prefix/fonts/DejaVuSansMono18.pf2
set gfxmode=auto
insmod all_video
insmod gfxterm
terminal_output gfxterm

# Puppy Linux

menuentry 'Bionicpup64 8.0 (sda9/bionicpup80)'{
search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid 1c5f1a44-0b9c-409c-81fb-649398b09172
linux /bionicpup80/vmlinuz psubdir=/bionicpup80 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /bionicpup80/initrd.gz
}

menuentry 'Bionicpup64 8.0 (sda9/bionicpup80) RAM mode'{
search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid 1c5f1a44-0b9c-409c-81fb-649398b09172
linux /bionicpup80/vmlinuz psubdir=/bionicpup80 pfix=ram
initrd /bionicpup80/initrd.gz
}

menuentry 'Imppup64 9.6.1 (sda9/imppup961)'{
search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid 1c5f1a44-0b9c-409c-81fb-649398b09172
linux /imppup961/vmlinuz psubdir=/imppup961 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /imppup961/initrd.gz
}

menuentry 'Slc 64 2020.12 (sda9/SLC202012)'{
search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid 1c5f1a44-0b9c-409c-81fb-649398b09172
linux /SLC202012/vmlinuz psubdir=/SLC202012 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /SLC202012/initrd.gz
}

# Other Linux

menuentry 'Linux Mint 20.3 Una (sda10/boot)'{
search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid f7674a55-4ddf-40fd-8aa5-03727678a390
configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg
}

menuentry 'Windows uefi boot'{
search --no-floppy --set=root --file /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

menuentry 'ubuntu uefi boot'{
search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid A6D3-4608
chainloader /EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi
}

if [ $grub_platform = "efi" ] ; then
menuentry 'UEFI Firmware Settings'{
fwsetup
}
fi

# custom menu
if [ -f /custom.cfg ] ;then source /custom.cfg ;fi

menuentry 'Previous menu'{
configfile /grub-prev.cfg
}

This would contain copy-able text for booting the Pups that I could copy into the Mint equivalent config presently in charge on sda2? I would like Puppy at the top of the menu.lst as another preference should we manage to get things booting.

Thanks for your patience,

David S.

superchook · Post by **superchook** » Sun Jan 16, 2022 8:04 am

Hi David,
Here is how I created my triple boot computer.

The computer is a Dell Precision Tower 3420 with
Intel i7-6700 CPU @ 3.4GHz
16GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro K620 GPU
and a nominally 1TB NVMe SSD
The computer was a refurbished 2nd hand box with an OEM Windows 10 Pro OS
(This was recently "upgraded"? to Windows 11)

The first step in adding the other OS's was to shrink the "C:" drive 50% using Windows own tools.
Second step boot the computer from a Linux Mint DVD and install it in the partition created in step one.
(accepting the option to reformat the partition) The file was formatted as ext4. (Your idea of creating a separate partition for the Pups might be better)
After this I had a normal dual boot system which relied on the grub 2 boot loader provided by Mint.
The third step was to boot into Fatdog64-812 with no save file. (I do not remember whether this was from a DVD or USB stick.)
Fourth step mount the drive holding the Fatdog installation and copy some files from the DVD or USB to the top level of the Mint partition.
First copying fatdog.png and after creating a new directory fatdog64-812 I copied the files vmlinuz and initrd from fatdog into it.
Shutdown Fatdog without creating a save file or folder.
Step five. Booted into Mint and edited /etc/grub.d/40_Custom (this requires admin privileges)
The edit file looked like this:
#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
insmod png
background_image /fatdog.png
set timeout=10

menuentry "Start Fatdog64-812" {
echo Loading ...
linux /fatdog64-812/vmlinuz rootfstype=ramfs
initrd /fatdog64-812/initrd
echo Booting ...
}

Ran update-grub (also with admin privileges)
At this point I had a triple boot system with Fatdog64-812 as the last option in the boot menu.
I have since come to think that not running Fatdog from its own partition is a bit dangerous as you could easily damage the Mint installation from Fatdog.
Next time I will use a separate partition.
cheers,
Ken

mikeslr · Post by **mikeslr** » Sun Jan 16, 2022 3:32 pm

ditto what superchook wrote. Customizing Linux Mint's boot-loader is likely the easiest way. Just let me add this tip. Make a copy of Puppy's stanza and put it in your Linux Mint's documents folder (or wherever you'll remember you put it). There's a good chance that when Linux Mint updates it will re-write grub.cfg, and the updated version won't have a Puppy listing: you'll have to add it again.

davids45 · Post by **davids45** » Sun Jan 16, 2022 11:49 pm

G'day,
Thanks all for your inputs.

I see from superchook's helpful example, I should use the particular Mint /etc/ grub config file (the '40' one) for my extra OSs and edit this to point to my several Pups on sda9.

I hope my usual tendency to syntax errors and poor assumptions will not stop Mint or W10 booting until I work out precisely how to get this right. The first one should be the hardest.

If I get lucky, as mikeslr suggested, I'll copy the relevant /etc/grub section from Mint as a recovery means if Mint updates itself and I'm back to "square 1". And before I start tinkering as well.

I need to remember to turn off automatic updates on Mint and W10 unless I unexpectedly need to install something new on either W10 or Mint that warrants an update. Just wasted a hour yesterday while W10 took forever to shut down ('Preparing to shut down' for tens of minutes) and just before I pushed the power button in in annoyance, it showed a new message it was now updating and 'Don't turn off' the computer.

I'm really spoiled by Puppy.

David S.

davids45 · Post by **davids45** » Mon Jan 17, 2022 2:26 am

G'day,

Well that went well .

Just a pause to find how to become 'root' in Mint ('sudo su' then remember my password ) to update grub in Mint, after adding shinobar's Grub2config boot file details into the Mint /etc/grub 40-custom file.

Re-boot and my Puppies showed up at list bottom, Mint and Windows there as before .

Confirmed Mint still ran (good) then booted the first Puppy on the list which did all the right things.

After a bit of early tweaking (network connected, drive icons more readable (.pet worked), background more bland), the attached shows it's working as hoped. Data partition sda8 now to be stocked up. Then to add the extra Pups on sda9. And finally resize everything to maximise data space.

As this is a 'How To' thread, in a follow-up post I should upload the scripts/files that enabled this to happen as a guide for any other strugglers with Mint and W10.

Thanks everyone again for all your help,

David S.

mikeslr · Post by **mikeslr** » Mon Jan 17, 2022 2:33 am

Edit: The following was written before your last post was published.
"You can add a custom menu to /etc/grub.d/40_custom, it will be added to /boot/grub/grub.cfg file after update-grub.
explained here : Configuring GRUB v2: https://wiki.debian.org/Grub#Configuring_GRUB_v2
The configuration file is /boot/grub/grub.cfg, but you shouldn't edit it directly. This file is generated by grub v2's update-grub(8), based on:
The script snippets in /etc/grub.d/
The configuration file /etc/default/grub
To configure grub "v2", you should edit /etc/default/grub, then run update-grub. Advanced configuration are achieved by modifying the snippets in /etc/grub.d/."
https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... nd-save-it"

I wouldn't turn off LinuxMint's updates. They usually have a good reason for it. Hence, my advice to copy the stanza so it can easily be re-included after an update.

I wouldn't touch Window's 10 with a 10-foot pole. Hopefully Windows 11 will be better. But my son --an IT Tech-- advised my wife --a Windows addict-- to turn off Window 10 updates and not switch to Windows 11, yet. His advice, however, may have less to do with Windows and more to do with avoiding having to solve, from 6,000 miles away, the problems my wife can get into.

davids45 · Post by **davids45** » Wed Jan 19, 2022 12:37 am

G'day,

Thanks mikeslr for pointing me to where I could find out how to boot by default to one of my Puppies at the bottom of the grub list rather than Mint at the top of the grub list displayed on booting.

I edited in Puppy (no sudo-ing needed ) Mint's /etc/default/grub file to highlight boot-list entry 4 instead of 0.... but still had to 'update-grub' within Mint to reset the boot pecking order .

I wonder if shinobar's Grub2config package (what this thread's all about) makes it easy to change to boot order where there are many OS options?

David S.

Post by **bigpup** » Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:34 pm

Trying to use Grub2config to setup a boot loader to boot Fossapup64 9.5 and Mint OS.

Got this error message:

: screenshot.png (20.65 KiB) Viewed 9169 times

This is the topic about trying to install Fossapup64 9.5, with Mint OS already installed, and dual boot.
viewtopic.php?t=5161
.
.
Mint OS install, does have the partition layout and format setup, in kind of strange way.

shinobar · Post by **shinobar** » Wed Mar 23, 2022 7:15 am

bigpup wrote: ↑Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:34 pm
Trying to use Grub2config to setup a boot loader to boot Fossapup64 9.5 and Mint OS.

Got this error message...

See the top post in this topic:

Only one case the Grub2config does not support:
When you clean install Ubuntu Linux and/or derivatives on a legacy BIOS PC, the partition sda1 is ext4 formatted.

See also the topic Install Puppy on Ubuntu Linux.

vtpup · Post by **vtpup** » Tue Aug 16, 2022 3:33 pm

I'm having a problem getting grub2config to work with my wife's 2014 Win7 laptop. It's an Acer E1-532-4629.
It seems to be depositing the right files in the Win boot directory but never displays the grub startup screen. It just immediately starts Win7
The drive is GPT and Legacy boot is enabled in BIOS. Here is the Partition layout:

Here is the grub.cfg that grub2config generated:

Code: Select all

# grub.cfg produced by grub2config 2.0.1
set default=0
set timeout=10
set menu_color_normal=white/blue
set menu_color_highlight=black/yellow

loadfont $prefix/fonts/DejaVuSansMono18.pf2
set gfxmode=auto
insmod all_video
insmod gfxterm
terminal_output gfxterm

# Puppy Linux

menuentry 'Tahr 6.0 (sda5/tahrpup)'{
  search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid 7f794d83-f54e-42d4-8f9c-515c36bc9e20
  linux /tahrpup/vmlinuz    psubdir=/tahrpup pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
  initrd /tahrpup/initrd.gz
}

menuentry 'Tahr 6.0 (sda5/tahrpup) RAM mode'{
  search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid 7f794d83-f54e-42d4-8f9c-515c36bc9e20
  linux /tahrpup/vmlinuz    psubdir=/tahrpup pfix=ram
  initrd /tahrpup/initrd.gz
}

menuentry 'Windows uefi boot'{
	search --no-floppy --set=root --file   /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
	chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

if [ $grub_platform = "efi" ] ; then
menuentry 'UEFI Firmware Settings'{
	fwsetup
}
fi

	# custom menu
	if [ -f /custom.cfg ] ;then source /custom.cfg ;fi

menuentry 'Previous  menu'{
	configfile /grub-prev.cfg
}

Here is the /sda1 folder structure. (Red arrows point to the contents of each folder in the tree).

Thank you for any help.

shinobar · Post by **shinobar** » Sat Aug 20, 2022 2:00 pm

vtpup wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 3:33 pm
The drive is GPT and Legacy boot is enabled in BIOS.

Your PC may boot up if the UEFI (not Legacy) Boot enabled.

The Grub2Config does not support Legacy Boot under GPT.
The document says:
MBR boot loader
Install boot loader so that legacy MBR bootable.
Disabled if the partition table is 'GPT'

vtpup · Post by **vtpup** » Sat Aug 20, 2022 3:47 pm

Thank you shinobar for your help. I will try UEFI boot.

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