Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Greets all,

I'm making a USBFLASH drive in G4D that won't boot. I ran G4D before setting the boot bit. Setting it after didn't work.

I then reformatted the disk NTFS -> FAT32. Still not booting.

I boot G4D all the time 32-bit, haven't used it 64 before now. I've always booted 64 Linux with YUMI, 32 either/or. G4D has the advantage of boot partition choice (YUMI is designed to boot all distros from the partition you ran it on, even if it's possible to customize).

Being ran from 64 Xenial, menu.lst looks good with the proper directory structure.

Is there another normal cause for a G4D USBFLASH being skipped at boot?

I've always done it like this using GParted: format > create partition(s) > set boot flag for partition you want to boot from > manual frugal install > run Grub4Dos config

That's exactly what I did.

Notice any difference 32 vs 64?

What version of Grub4dos Boot loader Config could be the problem.
So, what version of Grub4dos Config program?

What exactly happens when you try to boot.
You do what?
You see what?

Is the USB flash drive using the msdos partition table?
Gparted->View->Device Information can tell you.

@bigpup v 1.9.2

I boot Puppy on Windows machines from USBFLASH. What happens is Windows boots from the internal ATAHD.

The USB has a msdos partition table I can see from parted in a terminal window.

There are menu switches I'm not used to seeing, like --ignore-floppies & --ignore-cd, but they don't read like a problem.

I see the drive now as sdc when in the menu.lst title it's sdd, but title seems like just a label.

The puppy directories are one deep. The alternate partitions are assigned a uuid.

Once the boot bit is set menu.lst is read on boot? The root directory only has menus, sdc_mbr.bak (backup boot config), grldr.

Seems pretty straight-forward.

JASpup wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 8:08 pm

@bigpup v 1.9.2

I boot Puppy on Windows machines from USBFLASH. What happens is Windows boots from the internal ATAHD.

The USB has a msdos partition table I can see from parted in a terminal window.

There are menu switches I'm not used to seeing, like --ignore-floppies & --ignore-cd, but they don't read like a problem.

I see the drive now as sdc when in the menu.lst title it's sdd, but title seems like just a label.

The puppy directories are one deep. The alternate partitions are assigned a uuid.

Once the boot bit is set menu.lst is read on boot? The root directory only has menus, sdc_mbr.bak (backup boot config), grldr.

Seems pretty straight-forward.

The root directory of what, the usbflash drive? Presuming you are booting from flash drive: Grub is installed to usbflash partition (which has a boot flag) and obviously you have changed the boot sequence in BIOS to booting from flashdrive? Menu1st - Delete the uuid part line and leave the --ignore-floppies, etc line so that the bootloader can search your system. Make sure pmedia=usbflash. Upload your menu.1st file so we can see what's going on there.

I boot Puppy on Windows machines from USBFLASH. What happens is Windows boots from the internal ATAHD.

What I need to know is this:
You have the Puppy installed USB plugged in.
You start to boot the computer.

You access the computers UEFI/Bios setup and change the boot device order, so the USB is the first one listed.

Or you boot the computer and press the specific key, that brings up the boot device list of drives.
You select the USB Puppy is on.

One of these two ways, tells the computer to boot from the USB drive.

If above drive selection is done correctly.
The Puppy USB drive should boot.
If not.
I need to know in specific steps what is happening.
You do what?
You see what?

This is only way to know at what point, in the boot process, it is not working.

If G4D is noarch v1.9.3 is what I use 32-bit. (newer?)

Bootloader menus lack /dev or /mnt references; every boot entry either does or does not have a partition label (e.g., hd (0,0)), and is referenced from "/".

Considerations:
1. Trying a different USB
2. Trying to run G4D from a different Puppy

(I only use Xenial 64-bit)

Otherwise, booting from USB on this machine works. I use the YUMI tool in Windows.

The reason I want to use G4D now is booting the different partitions it searches. This brings up consideration...

3. Seeing if I can manually enter alternate partitions in a YUMI bootloader.

I assumed this G4D USB was a go but it doesn't even try.

Hello,

the usb sticks can be sometimes problematic. I had one with G4D. It booted but sometimes didn't find the main .sfs. I reinstalled extlinux on it and now it boots only vmlinuz and initrd.gz and the rest goes from harddrive.

In your case I would check if the bios is able to recognize the usb device as Bigpup says. The version of the bios can be too old to cooperate with a very new usb device. If so, then the upgrade could theoretically help. But upgrade of the bios?...nothing for me (too risky).

OK.
You are not going to give me any feedback on the info I gave in my last post.

Sorry I cannot help you!

bigpup wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 4:15 am

OK.
You are not going to give me any feedback on the info I gave in my last post.

Sorry I cannot help you!

Yes, unfortunately this is the way he operates. Makes it very frustrating and difficult to help.

Feek wrote: ↑Tue Aug 24, 2021 3:26 pm

In your case I would check if the bios is able to recognize the usb device

I appreciate you trying to wrap your head around this problem.

I'm intermediate enough at booting that I'm making advanced, 'understood' or inferential statements.

YUMI is a USB bootloader tool. Mine is working. That is how I boot Puppy. So there is no issue in the BIOS or UEFI on this newer system.

What I don't understand is the language or formatting of the bootloader, i.e., do YUMI & G4D recognize all the same commands?

Other than boot order or boot bit, what causes a boot partition not to be recognized at all?

bigpup wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 4:15 am

OK.
You are not going to give me any feedback on the info I gave in my last post.

Sorry I cannot help you!

The USB boots Windows as if it's not attached or the boot bit isn't set. The boot order is USB first. I wouldn't waste your time skipping the basics I should know by now.

This is a line from my working 32 G4D bootloader:

kernel /xenialpup-7.5-uefi/vmlinuz psubdir=/xenialpup-7.5-uefi pfix=fsck pmedia=ataflash

psubdir=/xenialpup-7.5-uefi
The highlighted forward slash was missing from the 64 version.

I am going to install Puppy frugally from a live boot to see if this USB boots at all.

If successful I will try G4D on it.

If that doesn't work I'll head back to YUMI, reluctant because it's booting .iso instead of extracted directories.

UPDATE:

I just booted a LIVE session from YUMI and installed Xenial frugally to the G4D USB from Puppy Installer.

Xenial booted. The GRUB 2.0 menu is intact.

From Xenial I ran G4D. It made no difference. Xenial booted again sans G4D startup options.

I'm going to do it again in Fossa.

Wish me luck!

UPDATE, UPDATE: Fossa is the same result. It only boots the frugally installed distro in "/", no G4D bootloader. What else is on my possibilities list? Oh yeah! What does YUMI have to offer!?!

Your flash drive can boot bu YUMI, but never with Grub4Dos, right?
Try Grub2config viewtopic.php?f=155&t=3360

shinobar wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 3:18 pm

Your flash drive can boot bu YUMI, but never with Grub4Dos, right?
Try Grub2config viewtopic.php?f=155&t=3360

2.0.1 installs and runs smoothly but still not booting. Suggestions?

G4D lets you proceed without setting the boot bit with a warning, and I see your version expects you to set it first.

Since it is required that is a nice touch.

I have Grub4dos boot loader booting Fossapup64 9.5 frugal install.
grub4dosconfig-v1.9.3
The frugal install is in a directory named fossapup6495

Here is the grub4dos menu.lst entry

title Puppy fossapup64 9.5 (sdb3/fossapup6495)
find --set-root uuid () 24a14d90-6d75-4276-a6a0-ef026f8d07cf
kernel /fossapup6495/vmlinuz pdrv=24a14d90-6d75-4276-a6a0-ef026f8d07cf psubdir=/fossapup6495 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /fossapup6495/initrd.gz

This is a computer with UEFI and secure boot is disabled and legacy boot enabled.

Hi @JASpup
This process that I share with you is the one that I do with my installations in usb (32b and 64b), although I have only done it with normal boot, not UEFI
maybe this will help you clarify any doubts you have

Create USB with Grub4dos

Cheers!

bigpup wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 1:47 am

I have Grub4dos boot loader booting Fossapup64 9.5 frugal install.
grub4dosconfig-v1.9.3

Are you multibooting G4D 64?

My entry from Grub2config grub.cfg:

menuentry 'USB LIVE Fossa64 JWM (sdc1/fossapup64-9.5)'{
  search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid 8C80-91AC
  linux /fossapup64-9.5/vmlinuz   pmedia=usbflash psubdir=/fossapup64-9.5 pfix=fsck
  initrd /fossapup64-9.5/initrd.gz
}

The previous G4D entry was similar. It didn't have a UUID as the boot partition (alternate partitions did). Either way I'm typing to you now from a YUMI boot (GRUB 2).

My current Grub2config menu.lst (entire file):

timeout 0
default 0

title grub2
  kernel /boot.pup/grub/i386-pc/core.img

Secure and legacy are generally important, but if they were the problem I wouldn't be able to boot a lone frugal install from the Puppy Installer or multiboot YUMI.

This is a simple YUMI menu entry in linux.cfg:

#START LINUX DISTROS 
#start fossapup64-9.5
menuentry "fossapup64-9.5" {
set gfxpayload=keep
configfile /multiboot/fossapup64-9.5/grub.cfg
}

The configfile is the regular boot page like a solo install.

YUMI calls linux.cfg from grub.cfg (another file with the same name).

After several insmod commands the focus area in grub.cfg:

#set root='hd0,msdos1'
set root --label MULTIBOOT --hint hd0,msdos1

I know the root/hd specifications are how multiboot partitions are set.

If I knew how to manually specify other partitions, I could probably give YUMI the same functionality as G4D.

This is more about solving the multiboot problem than getting G4D to work. My only knock against YUMI is it runs on Windows, but it is an excellent tool for converts.

JASpup wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 6:24 pm

2.0.1 installs and runs smoothly but still not booting. Suggestions?

Press [DEL],[F2] or the specific key which brings the PC to the BIOS settings. See the BIOS is recognizing the USB flash device or not.

shinobar wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 10:11 am

Press [DEL],[F2] or the specific key which brings the PC to the BIOS settings. See the BIOS is recognizing the USB flash device or not.

YUMI works (Windows multiboot tool). I can also frugal install a single puppy from Puppy Installer. It boots, just not Grub4Dos or Grub2config.

https://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-mult ... b-creator/

ALMOST THERE!

@shinobar I started Grub2config over from a freshly formatted USB and it worked save one problem:

If you make folders of same name, even they are on different disk drives or partitions, it must confuse the loader and fails the bootup as the result. Change names of the folders if the error noted. Then restart Grub4DosConfig

.
from file:///usr/share/doc/help/C/grub4dosconfig.html#duplicate

When I renamed folders on alternate partitions, Grub2config did not recognize them. It only recognized frugal installs on the partition it was ran on. Before alt-partitions were recognized, but they wouldn't boot.

If I can manually insert (hd_,_) commands for those installations, this might be solved!

Hell comes around...

I have found a solution:

G4D finds multiple partitions but doesn't boot anything.

Grub2config boots, but only finds os on the partition it is ran on.

I ran G4D and copied the UUIDs from the alternate partitions.

Then I ran Grub2config, copied two entries to use as templates, and filled in the correct information for alternate partitions, including the UUIDs from G4D.

If somehow Grub2config can find alternate partitions, it is a non-hack solution.

(I am typing from my first 64-bit Puppy booted from an internal partition.)

PipzDex wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 6:27 am

Hi @JASpup
This process that I share with you is the one that I do with my installations in usb (32b and 64b), although I have only done it with normal boot, not UEFI
maybe this will help you clarify any doubts you have

Create USB with Grub4dos

Ok, I'll check that out. Did you ever figure out a way to remove desktop partitions in your Xenial PCmanFM?

For future reference:

cat /usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin > /dev/sd?

I hope this helps brightens someone's day and causes elan to radiate throughout the cosmos ..