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jdev

Member

Registered: 2020-06-09

Posts: 22  

How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

I can't boot the minimal-live from USB.

I dd-ed it on a USB stick:

Device     Boot Start    End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdd1  *       64 940031  939968  459M 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS

But the stick isn't bootable with my UEFI-BIOS.

No problems with the desktop-live, on the other hand:

Device Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdd1   *       64 2366367 2366304  1.1G  0 Empty
/dev/sdd2          588    3467    2880  1.4M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)

It can be booted, but seems to have a different structure.

How do I get a bootable minimal-live?

HevyDevy

Member

Registered: 2019-09-06

Posts: 358  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

How do you clear the usb stick before you dd the iso?

Try below and see if works.

sudo wipefs --all /dev/sdX

sudo gdisk /dev/sdX

choose option X for expert menu then Z to Zap

Zap (destroy) the GPT data structures and exit. Use this option if you want to repartition a GPT disk using  fdisk  or
              some  other GPT-unaware program.  You'll be given the choice of preserving the existing MBR, in case it's a hybrid MBR
              with salvageable partitions or if you've already created new MBR partitions and want to erase the remnants of your GPT
              partitions.  If  you've  already  created  new MBR partitions, it's conceivable that this option will damage the first
              and/or last MBR partitions! Such an event is unlikely, but could occur if your new MBR partitions overlap the old  GPT
              data structures.

Last edited by HevyDevy (2020-06-25 15:17:29)

jdev

Member

Registered: 2020-06-09

Posts: 22  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

How do you clear the usb stick before you dd the iso?

Not at all, dd overwrites all contents.

jdev

Member

Registered: 2020-06-09

Posts: 22  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

I can boot on an old PC with non-UEFI BIOS, so it seems minimal-live isn't prepared for UEFI-BIOS?

HevyDevy

Member

Registered: 2019-09-06

Posts: 358  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

The usb you are using might have an invalid signature.

What is the output of sudo wipefs /dev/sdX

sdX being your usb drive etc

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,486  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

The minimal-live is not set up to boot uefi. If you have another linux set up on the machine, you can boot the minimal-live on usb from grub command-line. It's also possible to install it as is and use the first linux to boot this one.

If you want this to be the main or only linux, you would need to install grub-efi-amd64 before you run refractainstaller.

If you don't have another linux to boot this, it might be possible to do it with two usb sticks - one with desktop-live to get to a grub command line and one with the minimal live. I didn't try that.

Press c at grub boot menu to get to command prompt and enter the following commands.

set root=(hd0)     # Your motherboard might call it hd1. Tab-complete will help you.
linux /live/vmlinuz boot=live username=devuan
initrd /live/initrd.img
boot

jdev

Member

Registered: 2020-06-09

Posts: 22  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

The minimal-live is not set up to boot uefi.

That's what I figured by now.

If you have another linux set up on the machine, you can boot the minimal-live on usb from grub command-line.

Thanks for the hint, but this is a pain in the ass.

Is there a script or documentation on how to create an iso image? I can mount iso9660 on a different machine and could take the boot and efi directory of the desktop-live and the live directory of the minimal-live to create a minimal-live that boots with uefi.

I have to edit boot/grub/grub.cfg, of course. (And I don't know about efiboot.img.)

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,486  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

Look at the xorriso command around line 1078 - https://gitea.devuan.dev/devuan/refract … tasnapshot

Mount the iso, rsync copy it to a different directory, add the efi files, run xorriso. I don't think it's less pain in the ass to do it that way. Quite the opposite.

Also easier than explaining how to make an iso is to make one, which I am doing right now. I'll let you know if it boots and where you can download it.

jdev

Member

Registered: 2020-06-09

Posts: 22  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

Well, I seem to have almost made it. My new iso image boots ... but instead of the grub menu I immediately end up in a grub command line.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,486  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

This one boots uefi:
https://get.refracta.org/files/experime … l-live.iso

sha256sum:

8655c89c68a454458e3d9ea1c2e0b266315f72a2f81f6e043309a4d334d0a893  devuan_beowulf_3.0.0_amd64_uefi_minimal-live.iso

Edit: I didn't modify the grub menu, so it does not have the same choices as the normal minimal-live. The first choice is the same.

Sounds like you didn't make a grub.cfg.

jdev

Member

Registered: 2020-06-09

Posts: 22  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

This one boots uefi:

It does. Thank you very much.

Sounds like you didn't make a grub.cfg.

I actually did.

For test purposes, I just changed the grub.cfg of your image, xorriso-ed it and this new iso image still boots, so it seems that creating the iso wasn't my problem.

I thought that the isolinux directory is only for non-UEFI legacy booting, but when deleting it, grub ends up in its command line. There is one reference to isolinux in grub's boot loader (/isolinux/isolinux.cfg).

jdev

Member

Registered: 2020-06-09

Posts: 22  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

Indeed!

You can delete everything in /isolinux but isolinux.cfg (and even everything in isolinux.cfg) in order to get grub's menu.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,486  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

Indeed!

You can delete everything in /isolinux but isolinux.cfg (and even everything in isolinux.cfg) in order to get grub's menu.

Yeah, grub looks for isolinux.cfg just to find the right location. It doesn't care what's inside it. I forgot about that.

auanta

Member

Registered: 2022-08-03

Posts: 45  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

Writing to confirm for anyone else out there that in 2022 the minimal-live still does not boot on eufi, as I tried on different machines. It will show the boot menu but you can't actually do anything, hitting enter on any of the options results in errors such as "you need to load a kernel first".

Last edited by auanta (2022-08-05 03:24:42)

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Devuan GNU/Linux, the sysadmin secret sauce
> "I use Hyperbola btw" my favorite BSD

Disclaimer: If I give you any technical advice, always double check it, because even though I used GNU/Linux many years, I'm still learning, just like you. I try to help, but I could be wrong! Empower yourself!

golinux

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 3,316  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

It might boot UEFI though. 

couldn't resist . . .

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auanta

Member

Registered: 2022-08-03

Posts: 45  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

It might boot UEFI though. 

couldn't resist . . .

I don't get it, but now having also tried the desktop live I have the same problem so I'll have to open a new thread, possibly I have an unrelated issue

---

Devuan GNU/Linux, the sysadmin secret sauce
> "I use Hyperbola btw" my favorite BSD

Disclaimer: If I give you any technical advice, always double check it, because even though I used GNU/Linux many years, I'm still learning, just like you. I try to help, but I could be wrong! Empower yourself!

etech

Member

From: France - South West

Registered: 2022-03-13

Posts: 23  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

On my machines, I always disable 'Secure Boot' before installing a Linux Distro. Is it the reason why it failed for you?

auanta

Member

Registered: 2022-08-03

Posts: 45  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

On my machines, I always disable 'Secure Boot' before installing a Linux Distro. Is it the reason why it failed for you?

No, I don't have secure boot (actually one of them has coreboot) and I had installed other Linux distros on them previously without any problems.

---

Devuan GNU/Linux, the sysadmin secret sauce
> "I use Hyperbola btw" my favorite BSD

Disclaimer: If I give you any technical advice, always double check it, because even though I used GNU/Linux many years, I'm still learning, just like you. I try to help, but I could be wrong! Empower yourself!

golinux

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 3,316  

Re: How to boot the minimal-live from USB?

It might boot UEFI though. 

couldn't resist . . .

I don't get it . . .

I was poking at your typo.

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