SliTaz Forum

florastephanie

Hello,

This thread is a follow-up of my other thread,

summary:

- I have LUBUNTU on my laptop, and i want to install SLITAZ next to it OR instead of it.

- my CD reader can not read cds on boot anymore, but it erroneously works now and then

and is even able to read cds within my Lubuntu.

- my floppy drive is something of the past

- my laptop can read usbs, but only within the operating system that calls for it

(there is no USB bios entry on boot)

- It has a working LAN port, but I have been unsuccessful in setting up a PXE server (which needs, as it seems, at least a functional-on-boot floppy-drive, cd-reader, or usb)

So I figured to make slitaz boot from iso within the hardisk through a custom menuentry in GRUB2 that came along with LUbuntu.

And collected little pieces of code from here and there on Internet.

I could be on the right track now, but I'm not a programmer

I placed slitaz-3.0.iso in this Lubuntu directory: /boot/slitaz

and here is my edit of /etc/grub.d/40_custom of my LUbuntu

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

#!/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.

menuentry "slitaz-3.0" {

recordfail

insmod part_msdos

insmod ext2

set root='(hd0,msdos1)'

echo 'Loading slitaz-3.0...'

loopback loop (hd0,msdos1)/boot/slitaz/slitaz-3.0.iso

search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 33dcaca6-662f-4de2-9c83-733298bcb484

linux (loop)/boot/bzImage iso_filename=/boot/slitaz/slitaz-3.0.iso ramdisk_size=100000 rw

root=/dev/ram0 vga=normal autologin

echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'

initrd (loop)/boot/rootfs3.gz

}

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

and here's what it gives me when I load it from the grub list:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Decompressing Linux.......

....................

.....................

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<,

fast windows scrolling one after another, the usual slitaz load i suppose

until it reaches this screen: (Note that I used trailing dots to save time copying word by word from the

laptop screen)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Using IPI No-shortcut mode

input : AT Translated Set2 keyboard as /devices/................/input1

input : PS/2 Mouse as /devices/................../input2

input: AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint as /devices/input3

List of all partitions:

0300 19535040 hda driver: ide-gd

0301 18672640 hda1

0302 1 hda2

0305 860160 hda5

1600 4194302 hdc driver: ide-cdrom

No filesystem could mount root, tried ext3 ext2 vfat iso9660 fuseblk xfs

Kernel Panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(1,0)

Pid:1, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.30.6-slitaz #1

Call Trace:

[<c0419091>] ? printk+0xf/0x11

[<c0418fe5>] panic+0x39/0xd6

[<c0597b42>] mount_block_root+0x1eb/0x1ff

[<...........>] ? sys_mknod+0x13/0x15

[<...........>] mount_root+0x4c/0x54

[<...........>] prepare_namespace+0x140/0x167

[<...........>] kernel_init+0x148/0x157

[<...........>] ? kernel_init+0x0/0x157

[<...........>] kernel_thread_helper+0x7/0x10

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

a thought just crossed my mind now is that maybe the slitaz-3.0.iso doesn't follow the iso9660 since the

latter could not load the former?

"No filesystem could mount root, tried ext3 ext2 vfat iso9660 fuseblk xfs"

but most probably, i think it could be solved with a little tweeking of the menuentry settings

Thanks in advance for your help

Kindest Regards

Stephanie

florastephanie

@mojo has posted the following on the other thread:
This grub2(installed to usbkey MBR) isoboots /boot/slitaz/slitaz-3.0.iso on same usbkey:

menuentry "SliTaz-3.0.iso" {
loopback loop /boot/slitaz/slitaz-3.0.iso
linux16 (loop)/boot/bzImage
initrd16 (loop)/boot/rootfs.gz autologin
}

To which, here was my reply:

@mojo ,Thank you for your reply.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, I understand that your method relies on plugging the usb on boot and allowing grub2 to run from it?
If it's the case, then I don't think it would work:
my laptop dates back to pre-2001 (toshiba Satellite 1800 )
it has no bios entry to boot from USB,
it can only see the usb from within the operating system.

michaelkbischof

@florastephanie

Just for being curious: why do you intend to try to boot slitaz from the USB stick, which is for old laptops a much more difficult taks? It is so small that you could with ease boot it from your harddisk with any proper configuration. And, as I recently learnt here, if you installed new programms with ,,tazusb writefs gzip" you can easily keep your improvements - the next time you just boot from this improved rootfs.gz.

Regards,

florastephanie

@michaelkbischof ,

Thank you for your reply

i don't intend to boot from usb [it is mojo's idea].

As i said, i know it wouldn't work for me unless i discover in a miraculous way how to edit my bios!

my idea is, as you said, to boot it from the hard disk,

I thought it clear when i said this:

I placed slitaz-3.0.iso in this Lubuntu directory: /boot/slitaz

and here is the my edit of /etc/grub.d/40_custom of my LUbuntu

Anyway, I haven't quite understood what you mean when you say this:

And, as I recently learnt here, if you installed new programms with ,,tazusb writefs gzip"

is it about booting form usb or hardrive? :$

Kindest Regards

Stephanie

michaelkbischof

Hi,

first I would learn how to boot ,,by hand" from a GRUB command line.

Then: for booting Slitaz all you need to have a directory like ,,boot.slitaz" on tthe Lubuntu partition. You just need in there 2 files:

BzImage and rootfs.gz

Then, with the old GRUB, you would boot it like:

root (hd0,1)

kernel /boot.slitaz/BzImage root=/dev/hda2 rw

intrd /boot.slitaz/rootfs.gz

and then type ,,boot"...

After having done it you may install, for example, firefox and something else. Then you type this comand ,,tazusb writefs gzip" and wait (heavy CPU load, noise!). Then you see in

/

a new file names ,,rootfs.gz". Now you rename the rootfs.gz-file from which you booted to, e.g., ,,rootfs.orig.gz" and then you copy your new rootfs.gz to that ,,boot.slitaz"-dirrectory.

The next time you boot as written above you will have firefox from the very start. But this new rootfs.gz is more than 32 MB, ;-)

Have fun,

Regards

kultex

@florastephanie

I dont recommand you to boot the iso - its better to mount and extract it to hda2 - see here http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-to-mount-iso-image-under-linux.html

and I recommand you to use stable and not cooking - its still buggy

the grub entry in your Lubuntu for SliTaz is then

title slitaz

root (hd0,1)

kernel /boot/bzImage rw root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin

initrd=/boot/rootfs.gz

there is a howto for this, but http://doc.slitaz.org is not available at the moment

After you add home=/dev/sdxx , /dev/hdxx, or UUID to grub kernel line option to tazusb writefs is available to compress/save your filesystem in memory to disk prior to shutdown thereby saving installed programs.

Trixar_za

Try using http://mirror.slitaz.org/doc/ until http://doc.slitaz.org is back

florastephanie

@michaelkbischof , thank you for your reply

Note 1: You said:

Then: for booting Slitaz all you need to have a directory like ,,boot.slitaz" on tthe Lubuntu partition. You just need in there 2 files:

BzImage and rootfs.gz

Do you mean those 2 files that are found in /boot in the iso SLitaz package?

should I extract them manually and put them side by side next to slitaz-3.0.iso (for example in the boot.slitaz directory that you suggested)?

Note 2: Now, I tried using "kernel" instead of "linux" but it would give me an error "you need to load kernel first".

I am on grub2, and I read it somewhere (if my memory doesn't fail me) that "kernel" is replaced with "linux" in the grub2 menuentry. Is it the reason behind the error?

Note 3:Thank you for the notes about the rootfs,

But to be honest with you, i have no intention of keeping slitaz as a custom grub entry,

I need to hit 2 goals with a stone:

My idea is that, by loading slitaz into RAM alone, without having Lubuntu mounted,

1- I can use its integrated Gparted to create a new partition

2- I can use the slitaz installer to install on that newly created partition

@kultex , @Trixar_za

Thank you for your inputs, i have just searched the mirror and found this link:

http://mirror.slitaz.org/doc/en:handbook:installation

I suppose it is the one :)

the problem is that i DON"T have a second partition yet,

this is why i need to boot from iso first!

I would appreciate it though, if you suggest another way :$

Kindest Regards

Stephanie

kultex

so put bzimage and rootfs.gz in /boot from Lubuntu and change the grub entry to

title slitaz

root (hd0,0)

kernel /boot/bzImage rw root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin

initrd=/boot/rootfs.gz

michaelkbischof

@kultex
But she has Lubuntu with GRUB2!
Under Lubuntu one is able to mount the iso-file to /mnt/loop.Then one can copy vmlinuz-2.6.xx-slitaz und rootfs.gz into the boot directory of Lubuntu, yes, and boot from there. She needs only only one boot! As she will use Gparted then and establish more partitions and she wants to install Slitaz to this harddrive using the Slitaz installer. She needs this workaround as
- the cdrom does work
- no floppy drive is available
- and PXE cannot work as nothing is partitioned yet.
But do not ask me for the right GRUB2 commands. This was the reason why I abandoned Ubuntu on another machine.

Regards

kultex

nothing... corrected the earlier post

OldGuy

Hi florastephanie,

I just finished my writeup on howto use Slitaz 3.0 as a PXE-server.

As a special tread one could boot a PXE-client from this and furthermore install Slitas on this client.

If you meet the following requirement, you couls serve as a beta tester (aka guinea pig) for this procedure. :-)

1. second computer with a functional cd/dvd-drive

2. a local network (cable not wireless) preferably with a simple hub/switch

3. your laptop supports PXE netboot (may have to be enabled in the BIOS)

If this is all ok we could use the second computer as a PXE-server, boot your laptop over the network from this server and directly install Slitaz on the laptop.

Cheers

kultex

sorry, did not know, that there is such a big difference between grub and grub 2 the iso should be in /slitaz/ of hda1

So adding an entry like the following to your grub config (/boot/grub/grub.cfg):

menuentry "slitaz from harddisk (ISO = slitaz-3.0.iso)" {
loopback loop (hd0,0)/slitaz/slitaz-3.0.iso
linux (loop)/boot/bzImage isofrom=/dev/hda1/slitaz/slitaz-3.0.iso
initrd (loop)/boot/rootfs.gz
}

should work or just adpting that from mojo

menuentry "SliTaz-3.0.iso" {
loopback loop /dev/hda1/slitaz/slitaz-3.0.iso
linux16 (loop)/boot/bzImage
initrd16 (loop)/boot/rootfs.gz autologin
}

could work to - try it out

florastephanie

@kultex,

Thank you for your reply

I have tried to make your input compatible with grub2,

and replace "root" with "set root=",

and replace "kernel" with "linux"

as mentioned in this helpfile: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2 section "creating the Custom Menu"

so the following has led me to the same error screen that i got in my initial post of this thread

menuentry "SLITAZ" {
set root =(hd0,msdos1)
linux /boot/slitaz/VMLINUZ_.6_S root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin
}

same error shows when adding "iso_filename=/boot/slitaz/slitaz-3.0.iso" on the linux line

@michaelkbischof ,

Thanks for your help, I think you grasped my point. But it's ok, you tried your best!

@OldGuy

Thank you for your post,

I could serve as a guinea pig, as long as

1. it doesn't harm the computer I'm working on now and

2. Lubuntu is the only OS on my laptop now, and I won't forfeit it as long as Slitaz is not fully installed!

So answering your questions:

1. I have 2 other computers: one Ubuntu 10.10, and one (please don't panic!) windows Xp

2. I have a local network through a router, will it do?

3. I think PXE netboot is enabled on my laptop: please check my post here:

Kindest Regards

Stephanie

florastephanie

@kultex, thank you for your reply :)

i just wanted to mention a thing: grub.cfg is a read only, and is generated by a script that reads and compiles the files in /etc/grub.d folder.

so after editing /etc/grub.d/40_custom,

I run sudo update-grub

either way, none of your menuentries worked for me....

Kindest Regards

Stephanie

OldGuy

Ok.
The operating systems of your other computers do not matter and will not be changed/modified as we will boot from a Slitaz LiveCD. :-)
The local network should do, especially if no PXE/DHCP functionality is configured (as described in your other post)

At the end of the procedure you'll have a Slitaz 3.0 running out of the RAM of your laptop.
You're then able to run gparted and/or install Slitaz on a new partition.

As the netbox utility on your LiveCD will most likely not work yet (I already did send a patch) you will have to use the manual way for that step (1.2)

Here we go....

Setup of an usable PXE Server
With a few steps you can turn your Slitaz Host into a functional PXE-server to boot Thin-Client or to install Slitaz onto a PC which supports booting from a PXE-server. (e.g. BIOS netboot functionality)

Requirements
DHCP-server
This servers will provide the following information to the PXE client
- ip address, netmask, broadcast address, net address
- TFTP-server address
- bootfile name
- optional: default gateway address
- optional: dns server address

TFTP-server
This server will provide the files over the network, which the PXE-clients require to boot.
- pxelinux.0
- pxelinux.cfg/default
- bzImage
- rootfs.gz

Note: The rootfs.gz file can also be replaced by other flavors.
        Memory requirements:
        rootfs.gz       144 MB
        rootfs-justx.gz 96 MB
        rootfs-loram.gz 80 MB
        rootfs-base.gz   48 MB
        rootfs-tiny.gz   24 MB
        rootfs.gpxe.gz   <- to boot via GPXE

Setting up the PXE-server
In this example we will use a Slitaz host (Slitaz 3.0 installed or host booted from Slitaz 3.0 live cd)
(Make sure no other DHCP-server is running in this network. If you're not sure what your network environment looks like, ask the admin or setup a separate network with a small hub/switch or a cross-over cable)

Boot the 'server to be' into Slitaz 3.0 or, if a different OS is installed, use a Slitaz 3.0 LiveCD to boot the system and log in.

1. Configure the network interface (usually eth0) to operate with a static IP
   1.1 Start the Netbox Manager from the menu (de: System Tools/Configure networking)
       Select the 'Static IP' tab and configure your interface as required.
       If your all by yourself on the network the following should be a working setup:
       Interface : eth0
       IP        : 192.168.0.1
       Netmask   : 255.255.255.0
       Gateway   : 192.168.0.1
       DNS server: 192.168.0.1
       Klick on 'Start' button to initialize the network interface.
       Leave the Netbox Manager with the 'Quit' button.
   1.2 Optionally you can start a terminal, become root (enter 'su -' on a command line (e.g. xterm)), edit the /etc/network.conf file with an editor of your likings and restart the network with '/etc/init.d/network.sh restart'.
       The following settings would be a working example:
       INTERFACE="eth0"
       DHCP="no"
       STATIC=yes"
       IP="192.168.0.1"
       NETMASK=255.255.255.0"
       GATEWAY="192.168.0.1"
       DNS_SERVER="192.168.0.1"

OldGuy

2. Configure the TFTP-server
   2.1 Start the Server Manager from the menu (de: System Tools/Manage servers)
       Select the 'Inetd' tab of the Server Manager and click on the edit button next to the 'Configuration' field.
       Verify that the line regarding tftp has no '#' at the begining. Delete it if there is one.
       Also note the directory (/boot) at the end of the line. The TFTP-server will start there to look for the files required by TFTP-clients!
       Save the file, quit the editor and restart the Inet daemon by clicking on the 'Start' button.
       Don't quit the Server Manager yet as we still have to take care of the DHCP part.
   2.2 The advanced reader might become root, take an editor of her/his choice and verify/modify the /etc/inet.conf file. Thereafter restart the Inet daemon with the command '/etc/init.d/inet restart'

3. Configure the DHCP to your requirements
   3.1 Select the 'PXE' tab and click on the edit button next to the empty 'Configuration' field.
       Close the empty editor.
       This will have added a few entries to your /etc/udhcpd.conf file (magical, isn't it :-) )
       Select the 'DHCP' tab and click in the edit button next to the 'Configuration' field.
       Now you can edit the DHCP-server to your requirements.
       Have a look especially at the following parameters:
         start      192.168.0.20 <- default
         stop       192.168.0.40 <- reduced from the default of 254.
         interface eth0          <- Interface on which the DHCP-server should provide information.
         opt tftp   192.168.0.1   <- IP-address of your TFTP-server. In this example use the IP-address of eth0!
       Optional:
         router     <- enter the IP address of an existing router/gateway.
         dns        <- enter the IP address of an existing dns server.
         mtu        <- reduce the mtu to 1492 if you are connected to the Internet via PPPoE.
       To provide the boot file information to the PXE-clients, you should NOT use 'opt bootfile'!!
       Instead please mofify the 'boot_file' option which was added to the end of the udhcpd.conf file to read:
       boot_file pxe/pxelinux.0

note: PXE preferes 'opt bootfile' over 'boot_file' but the TFTP-server will not find the file due to the fact that there is a 0xff appended to the filename.

       This is all for the udhcpd.conf file. Save the file, quit the editor and restart the DHCP server by clicking on the 'Start' button.
       Close the Server Manager by clicking on the 'Quit' button.
   3.2 Optionally you can start a terminal, become root, edit the /etc/udhcpf.conf file with the editor of your choice and restart the DHCP-server with 'killall -q udhcpd && /usr/sbin/udhcpd'.

OldGuy

4. Directories and Files
   Finaly we create the directory structure and gather the required files to enable a PXE-client to boot.
   4.1 From the menu start a xterm session and become root. (enter 'su -') The standard passwort is 'root'.
       Create the directory structure by entering the command 'mkdir -p /boot/pxe/pxelinux.cfg'.
       Be aware that 'pxelinux.cfg' is the name of a directory and NOT a file!!
   4.2 Copy the bzImage and rootfs.gz files from a Slitaz 3.0 live cd to the /boot/pxe/ directory or download them from a Slitaz mirror (e.g. download.tuxfamily.org/slitaz/boot/3.0/)
       If you want to use alternativ rootfs files, pls. download them also into the /boot/pxe/ directory.
   4.3 Create a file named 'default' in the /boot/pxe/pxelinux.cfg/ directory.
       The content of the file should read something like this:

       --------------------------------------------------------------------------
       PROMPT 1

       LABEL core
         KERNEL bzImage
         APPEND initrd=rootfs.gz rw root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin

       LABEL justx
         KERNEL bzImage
         APPEND initrd=rootfs-justx.gz rw root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin

       LABEL gpxe
         KERNEL gpxe
         APPEND url=http://boot.kernel.org/bko/pxelinux.0
       --------------------------------------------------------------------------

       Obviously, you also would need to copy the files rootfs-justx.gz and gpxe to /boot/pxe/ to make the second and third menu entry work.
       Also, to boot via gpxe you also need to set the router and dns options in the /etc/udhcpd.conf file.

5. Final preperations
   All file under /boot/pxe should have the rights set to '-rw-r--r--'. to do so execute the command 'chmod -r 644 /boot/pxe/*' as root within a xterm session.

Finaly, boot your PXE-client and enjoy!!

Let me know how it's going.

kultex

so how do you start Lubuntu ?

sudo leafpad /boot/grub/grub.cfg

or

sudo nano /boot/grub/grub.cfg

does not work? what is the default editor of Lubuntu

kultex

and what you mean with - my floppy drive is something of the past

Slitaz has a nice grub4dos floppy, but boot.slitaz.org is also down - I found the floppy here -

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UZRN1H0C

edit the menu.lst

title Slitaz
root (hd0,0)
kernel /slitaz/bzimage rw root=/dev/null autologin vga=normal
initrd /slitaz/rootfs.gz

save default

bzimage and rootfs.gz must be in the /slitaz directory of hda1

Trixar_za

http://mirror.slitaz.org/boot/

Most of the sites are mirrored on there - you can also find the main website @ http://mirror.slitaz.org/www/

kultex

yes I found this: http://mirror.slitaz.org/floppies/

you can download the floppy images, but not the grub4dos floppy - this is not mirrored

betology

hello, this work for me on debian squeeze:
addendum to file /etc/grub.d/40_custom
#---------------------------------------------------
menuentry "slitaz test" {
loopback loop (hd0,7)/slitaz/slitaz-aircrack-ng-20091124.iso
linux (loop)/boot/bzImage isofrom=/dev/sda7/slitaz/slitaz-aircrack-ng-20091124.iso boot=live quiet vga=791 noeject noprompt
initrd (loop)/boot/rootfs.gz
}
#---------------------------------------------------
then just update-grub2
my slitaz-aircrack-ng-20091124.iso file is in partition 7, directory stilaz

--
saludos

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