HDD Live Install ...... Poorman's Install

[Archie]

A bit more info to clarify my previous post with a modification since then.

I have a folder /isolinux with all the contents of the folder /isolinux extracted from the LiveCD on /dev/sda6. On the same partition, I also copied livecd.sqfs.

I added the following stanza on my GRUB menu:

Code: [Select]

title PCLinuxOS 2011 Live
kernel (hd0,5)/isolinux/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS_2010_Live livecd=livecd fromhd root=UUID=a91d1e78-f777-48d5-b339-bfdd4707282e splash=silent quiet vga=788
initrd (hd0,5)/isolinux/initrd.gz
I want to emphasize that this is in no way related to booting a LiveCD or LiveUSB. I have a feeling that I could delete everything and Poor Man's Install's fromhd would be only require /boot, /isolinux and livecd.sqfs. I haven't tried persist or changes as of this writing. I am experimenting on fromiso and bootfrom so far with no apparent success. However, fromhd seems to work better except for the shutdown.

Just19, just a thought. If you want LiveUSB to boot an ISO that is already on the HD, the most likely cheat would be fromiso. I am still trying to figure out how to write the stanza for this particular boot, and hopefully any success I or anyone involved could add to the options thus benefit the Poor Man's Install.

[Old-Polack]

A bit more info to clarify my previous post with a modification since then.

I have a folder /isolinux with all the contents of the folder /isolinux extracted from the LiveCD on /dev/sda6. On the same partition, I also copied livecd.sqfs.

I added the following stanza on my GRUB menu:

Code: [Select]

title PCLinuxOS 2011 Live
kernel (hd0,5)/isolinux/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS_2010_Live livecd=livecd fromhd root=UUID=a91d1e78-f777-48d5-b339-bfdd4707282e splash=silent quiet vga=788
initrd (hd0,5)/isolinux/initrd.gz
I want to emphasize that this is in no way related to booting a LiveCD or LiveUSB. I have a feeling that I could delete everything and Poor Man's Install's fromhd would be only require /boot, /isolinux and livecd.sqfs. I haven't tried persist or changes as of this writing. I am experimenting on fromiso and bootfrom so far with no apparent success. However, fromhd seems to work better except for the shutdown.

Just19, just a thought. If you want LiveUSB to boot an ISO that is already on the HD, the most likely cheat would be fromiso. I am still trying to figure out how to write the stanza for this particular boot, and hopefully any success I or anyone involved could add to the options thus benefit the Poor Man's Install.

PCLinuxOS uses bootfromiso, not fromiso.

[Archie]

A bit more info to clarify my previous post with a modification since then.

I have a folder /isolinux with all the contents of the folder /isolinux extracted from the LiveCD on /dev/sda6. On the same partition, I also copied livecd.sqfs.

I added the following stanza on my GRUB menu:

Code: [Select]

title PCLinuxOS 2011 Live
kernel (hd0,5)/isolinux/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS_2010_Live livecd=livecd fromhd root=UUID=a91d1e78-f777-48d5-b339-bfdd4707282e splash=silent quiet vga=788
initrd (hd0,5)/isolinux/initrd.gz
I want to emphasize that this is in no way related to booting a LiveCD or LiveUSB. I have a feeling that I could delete everything and Poor Man's Install's fromhd would be only require /boot, /isolinux and livecd.sqfs. I haven't tried persist or changes as of this writing. I am experimenting on fromiso and bootfrom so far with no apparent success. However, fromhd seems to work better except for the shutdown.

Just19, just a thought. If you want LiveUSB to boot an ISO that is already on the HD, the most likely cheat would be fromiso. I am still trying to figure out how to write the stanza for this particular boot, and hopefully any success I or anyone involved could add to the options thus benefit the Poor Man's Install.

PCLinuxOS uses bootfromiso, not fromiso.

Thanks for the info, O-P. Could you help me out with the stanza? The ISO is on dev/sda4/home/archie/Downloads/. My understanding is that in order to bootfromiso, the system needs to boot from an existing OS first. Is this true?

Personally, I prefer fromhd which I would strongly recommend. But for testing purposes, and as an alternative option, a good result can only benefit Poor Man's Install and this community. I have search the Fedora forum and others but they are not clear enough. The Nachios forum cannot be related because of GRUB2.

TIA for your assistance, O great and knowledgeable one.

[Old-Polack]

A bit more info to clarify my previous post with a modification since then.

I have a folder /isolinux with all the contents of the folder /isolinux extracted from the LiveCD on /dev/sda6. On the same partition, I also copied livecd.sqfs.

I added the following stanza on my GRUB menu:

Code: [Select]

title PCLinuxOS 2011 Live
kernel (hd0,5)/isolinux/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS_2010_Live livecd=livecd fromhd root=UUID=a91d1e78-f777-48d5-b339-bfdd4707282e splash=silent quiet vga=788
initrd (hd0,5)/isolinux/initrd.gz
I want to emphasize that this is in no way related to booting a LiveCD or LiveUSB. I have a feeling that I could delete everything and Poor Man's Install's fromhd would be only require /boot, /isolinux and livecd.sqfs. I haven't tried persist or changes as of this writing. I am experimenting on fromiso and bootfrom so far with no apparent success. However, fromhd seems to work better except for the shutdown.

Just19, just a thought. If you want LiveUSB to boot an ISO that is already on the HD, the most likely cheat would be fromiso. I am still trying to figure out how to write the stanza for this particular boot, and hopefully any success I or anyone involved could add to the options thus benefit the Poor Man's Install.

PCLinuxOS uses bootfromiso, not fromiso.

Thanks for the info, O-P. Could you help me out with the stanza? The ISO is on dev/sda4/home/archie/Downloads/. My understanding is that in order to bootfromiso, the system needs to boot from an existing OS first. Is this true?

Personally, I prefer fromhd which I would strongly recommend. But for testing purposes, and as an alternative option, a good result can only benefit Poor Man's Install and this community. I have search the Fedora forum and others but they are not clear enough. The Nachios forum cannot be related because of GRUB2.

TIA for your assistance, O great and knowledgeable one.

I used this while Just19 and I were playing with booting from the raw ISO image some time ago. The only problem with this is that one needs to extract the kernel and initrd.gz to a /boot directory on the same partition as the .iso image so grub can find it. From there the rest of the system is loaded from the .iso image. One of the boot stanzas is here;

Code: [Select]

title Phoenix-10 iso
root (hd0,12)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-phoenix ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init livecd=livecd initrd=initrd-phoeinx.gz bootfromiso=/2010-ISO-images/Phoenix-10/pclinuxos-phoenix-xfce-2010.10.iso noprompt noeject lang=en keyb=us xres=1280x1024 splash=verbose vga=791
initrd /boot/initrd-phoenix.gz
Because I had a number of these working at the same time, and they each had different kernels, I had to rename them to add the -phoenix to the appropriate kernel and initrd.gz. I followed this pattern for each of the other tested images to boot the correct kernel for each DE's .iso image.

These do work. On the other hand, grub4dos has other parameters not available in regular grub that supposedly allow entering the .iso image itself to boot the kernel and initrd.gz, without the need to extract them to be outside the image in a /boot directory. I haven't tried that yet, but I believe the .iso image needs to have the isohybrid app run on the image for this to work. This only takes about a second to do and increases the size very slightly, to an even MB size.

With the new test3 image the original size is 697.4 MB while the hybrid image is 698.0 MB.

[Archie]

I used this while Just19 and I were playing with booting from the raw ISO image some time ago. The only problem with this is that one needs to extract the kernel and initrd.gz to a /boot directory on the same partition as the .iso image so grub can find it. From there the rest of the system is loaded from the .iso image. One of the boot stanzas is here;

Code: [Select]

title Phoenix-10 iso
root (hd0,12)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-phoenix ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init livecd=livecd initrd=initrd-phoeinx.gz bootfromiso=/2010-ISO-images/Phoenix-10/pclinuxos-phoenix-xfce-2010.10.iso noprompt noeject lang=en keyb=us xres=1280x1024 splash=verbose vga=791
initrd /boot/initrd-phoenix.gz

Not interested with anything Microsoft.

I am using my /var/www partition for this experiment ... (This VAIO is almost ready for a reinstall ... YEE HAAA!) and copied pclinuxos-kde-2011.6.iso to a folder /iso on /dev/sda6.

My boot stanza:

Code: [Select]

title PCLinuxOS 2011 ISO
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS_2010_ISO livecd=livecd initrd=initrd.gz bootfromiso=/iso/pclinuxos-kde-2011.6.iso root=UUID=a91d1e78-f777-48d5-b339-bfdd4707282e splash=silent quiet vga=788
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd.gz

So, the only thing I expect from this test is a /boot on  /dev/sda6.

Back to the car crash test ... Rebooting.

***EDIT***
I realized that there were still things wrong with my stanza so I corrected it and after 4 tries ... I still couldn't boot with bootfromiso. I will add all your cheatcodes then remove each one to see which is not needed to make this work.

Code: [Select]

title PCLinuxOS 2011 ISO
root (hd0,5)
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS_2010_ISO livecd=livecd bootfromiso=iso/pclinuxos-kde-2011.6.iso splash=silent quiet vga=788
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd.gz

***EDIT 2***
I misread your post thinking the stanza would extract the kernel and initrd image from the ISO. IMO if files needed to be extracted, fromhd ought to work better but maybe not faster than an already extracted kernel and initrd image.

Not the experiment I wanted to do but I will do it anyway. Operating on livecd.sqfs.... scalpel ... drill ... hammer

[AS]

Glad to see this thread is alive!

I have played lately with mylivecd, and poorman's install, let me add a few note:

fromhd: this option is actually not used from any PCLinuxOS tools (nor mylivecd, nor poorman install, nor liveusb-creator)

from rc.sysinit (source /usr/share/mylivecd/rc.sysinit), in red the actually parsed options:

for x in $(cat /proc/cmdline); do
        case $x in
                debug) DEBUG=y; ;;
                md5sum) domd5=y; ;;
                splash=silent) silent=y; ;;
                initrd) initrd=y; ;;
                nodetect) nodetect=y; ;;
                unionfs=*) UNIONFS="{x#unionfs=}"; ;;
                hostname=*) hostname="{x#hostname=}"; ;;
                changes_dev=*) CHANGES_DEV="${x#changes_dev=}"; ;;
                changes_file=*) CHANGES_FILE="${x#changes_file=}"; ;;
                livecd=*) BASEIMG="${x#livecd=}"; [ -z "$BASEIMG" ] && BASEIMG="livecd"; ;;
        esac
done

linuxrc (source in /usr/share/mylivecd/linuxrc), the following are the parsed options, in red:

        # parameter parsing
        for x in $(cat /proc/cmdline); do
                case $x in
                        debug) DEBUG=y; ;;
                        md5sum) domd5=y; ;;
                        splash=silent) silent=y; ;;
                        unionfs=no) dounionfs=n; ;;
                        copy2ram) toram=y; ;;
                        nocd) nocd=y; ;;
                        nohd) nohd=y; ;;
                        fromusb) usblive=y; ;;
                        livecd=*) BASEIMG="${x#livecd=}"; [ -z "$BASEIMG" ] &&  BASEIMG="livecd"; ;;
                        bootfromiso=*) ISO_PATH="${x#bootfromiso=}"; ;;
                esac
        done

Filesystems as appear to be supported from rc.sysinit:

          BUILTIN_FS="iso9660 vfat ext3 ext4 ext2 msdos reiserfs ntfs"

Filesystems as appear to be supported as CHANGES_DEV:

type=$(mount|grep changes|awk '/ext2|ext3|ext4|reiserfs|xfs/ {print $5}')

further info will follow

AS

[Archie]

fromhd: this option is actually not used from any PCLinuxOS tools (nor mylivecd, nor poorman install, nor liveusb-creator)

as, thanks for the enlightenment ... however, if it is not actually used from any PCLinuxOS tools, is it possible that it is somehow built-in, maybe in GRUB?

I am able to successfully boot from extracted /isolinux and livecd.sqfs using the fromhd cheatcode.

Or am I missing something?

*** EDIT ***
No joy from booting with bootfromiso. The latest outputs all the parameters from the stanza then just hangs.

[AS]

fromhd: this option is actually not used from any PCLinuxOS tools (nor mylivecd, nor poorman install, nor liveusb-creator)

as, thanks for the enlightenment ... however, if it is not actually used from any PCLinuxOS tools, is it possible that it is somehow built-in, maybe in GRUB?

can't exclude 100%, but also I'm not able to find any docs about "grub + fromhd" ...

I am able to successfully boot from extracted /isolinux and livecd.sqfs using the fromhd cheatcode.

Or am I missing something?

I think you can boot the same livecd.sqfs without the fromhd options ... may be I'm wrong...

*** EDIT ***
No joy from booting with bootfromiso. The latest outputs all the parameters from the stanza then just hangs.

If I'm not wrong bootfromiso is used when you put multiple ISO files inside a single media (i.e. one DVD containing multiple ISO),
then the linuxrc script try to:
1) mount the cdrom unit;
2) if bootfromiso is defined (i.e. bootfromiso=distro.iso), then the distro.iso will be mounted on a loop device;
3) the file *.sqfs is searched and mounted on another loop device (either, found on cdrom or inside the specified iso)

[Archie]

If I'm not wrong bootfromiso is used when you put multiple ISO files inside a single media (i.e. one DVD containing multiple ISO),
then the linuxrc script try to:
1) mount the cdrom unit;
2) if bootfromiso is defined (i.e. bootfromiso=distro.iso), then the distro.iso will be mounted on a loop device;
3) the file *.sqfs is searched and mounted on another loop device (either, found on cdrom or inside the specified iso)

That makes sense.

I'll exclude the fromhd from the boot line and see if it still boots. I'll tell you tomorrow.

Thanks, as.

[Just17]

If I'm not wrong bootfromiso is used when you put multiple ISO files inside a single media (i.e. one DVD containing multiple ISO),
then the linuxrc script try to:
1) mount the cdrom unit;
2) if bootfromiso is defined (i.e. bootfromiso=distro.iso), then the distro.iso will be mounted on a loop device;
3) the file *.sqfs is searched and mounted on another loop device (either, found on cdrom or inside the specified iso)

That makes sense.

I'll exclude the fromhd from the boot line and see if it still boots. I'll tell you tomorrow.

Thanks, as.

As I said previously, I had never used that boot option prior to testing it for this thread.

I have been booting from Poorman's Installs for many years.

Unless someone can tell me what this boot option actually does, I have my doubts about it.
It certainly appearedd to have no effect when I tried it.

Again I want to warn anyone who is playing with this stuff .........  when the booting OS searched for the loop image, it will use the first one it finds that has the correct name .......  unless you specify the path to that image.

So, if you extract one ISO onto partition 1, and another onto partition 2, and both then contain "livecd.sqfs", you will never succeed in booting the sqfs file of partition 2 unless you specify the path in the name.

Maybe fromhd helps with this problem?  I look forward to hearing about something hapening with or without its use.


regards.

[Just17]

.....

If I'm not wrong bootfromiso is used when you put multiple ISO files inside a single media (i.e. one DVD containing multiple ISO),
then the linuxrc script try to:
1) mount the cdrom unit;
2) if bootfromiso is defined (i.e. bootfromiso=distro.iso), then the distro.iso will be mounted on a loop device;
3) the file *.sqfs is searched and mounted on another loop device (either, found on cdrom or inside the specified iso)

That may be its general use .......  but I would ask .......  can PCLOS use an ISO in this manner?

I know neither I nor old-polack (as mentioned) ever succeeded in booting an ISO without first extracting files.

I am interested to know if you have succeeded.

regards.

[AS]

.....

If I'm not wrong bootfromiso is used when you put multiple ISO files inside a single media (i.e. one DVD containing multiple ISO),
then the linuxrc script try to:
1) mount the cdrom unit;
2) if bootfromiso is defined (i.e. bootfromiso=distro.iso), then the distro.iso will be mounted on a loop device;
3) the file *.sqfs is searched and mounted on another loop device (either, found on cdrom or inside the specified iso)

That may be its general use .......  but I would ask .......  can PCLOS use an ISO in this manner?

I know neither I nor old-polack (as mentioned) ever succeeded in booting an ISO without first extracting files.

I am interested to know if you have succeeded.

regards.

I have extrapolated the above reading from the source code .... unless something is not working as expected...
have not tried until now, but will do a test as soon as possible and will report back about.

AS

[Archie]

Hey guys,

I feel a bit foolish in assuming fromhd was solely responsible for booting into a live environment from extracted LiveCD files on the HD. I had removed fromhd from the boot line and I can still boot to a live environment.

So, fromhd has a different function and might or might not be important to a PMI.

The idea to add the option in the first place was based on the LiveUSB's option fromusb.

Well, at least on this foolishness I learned something new.

[AS]

.....

If I'm not wrong bootfromiso is used when you put multiple ISO files inside a single media (i.e. one DVD containing multiple ISO),
then the linuxrc script try to:
1) mount the cdrom unit;
2) if bootfromiso is defined (i.e. bootfromiso=distro.iso), then the distro.iso will be mounted on a loop device;
3) the file *.sqfs is searched and mounted on another loop device (either, found on cdrom or inside the specified iso)

That may be its general use .......  but I would ask .......  can PCLOS use an ISO in this manner?

I know neither I nor old-polack (as mentioned) ever succeeded in booting an ISO without first extracting files.

I am interested to know if you have succeeded.

regards.

I have extrapolated the above reading from the source code .... unless something is not working as expected...
have not tried until now, but will do a test as soon as possible and will report back about.

AS

I can confirm that bootfromiso is working, had prepared a new test-livecd.iso:

Code: [Select]

mylivecd --gzip --nodir ^/ISOs --isoextrafiles /ISOs test-livecd.isothe /ISOs directory contains the iso file(s) i.e. bonsai.iso
when booting from test-livecd.iso add the following parameter: bootfromiso=/bonsai.iso

see mylivecd help about --isoextrafiles option

AS

[Just17]

.....

If I'm not wrong bootfromiso is used when you put multiple ISO files inside a single media (i.e. one DVD containing multiple ISO),
then the linuxrc script try to:
1) mount the cdrom unit;
2) if bootfromiso is defined (i.e. bootfromiso=distro.iso), then the distro.iso will be mounted on a loop device;
3) the file *.sqfs is searched and mounted on another loop device (either, found on cdrom or inside the specified iso)

That may be its general use .......  but I would ask .......  can PCLOS use an ISO in this manner?

I know neither I nor old-polack (as mentioned) ever succeeded in booting an ISO without first extracting files.

I am interested to know if you have succeeded.

regards.

I have extrapolated the above reading from the source code .... unless something is not working as expected...
have not tried until now, but will do a test as soon as possible and will report back about.

AS

I can confirm that bootfromiso is working, had prepared a new test-livecd.iso:

Code: [Select]

mylivecd --gzip --nodir ^/ISOs --isoextrafiles /ISOs test-livecd.isothe /ISOs directory contains the iso file(s) i.e. bonsai.iso
when booting from test-livecd.iso add the following parameter: bootfromiso=/bonsai.iso

see mylivecd help about --isoextrafiles option

AS

So I do not jump to any conclusions ........  I read that as saying that if an ISO is specifically prepared by using the 'extractfiles' mylivecd option, that 'bootfromiso' will then work.

Do I understand you correctly?

.....  also, as the standard PCLOS ISOs do not use the 'extractfiles' when being created, the 'bootfromiso' will not work on them?

Thanks for the explanation. 

regards.