topic title: Using plop boot manager to boot antiX from pendrive
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#1
I am trying something new. I made a PLOP boot manager floppy image. It gives alternative boot outside of bios limitations. It works. I just can't get AntiX to find the file system after I select a option from Antix Grub screen.

Inside the floppy is a bin file named plpbt.bin,readme,liesmich.txt,liceance text

Edited due to duplicate file I think
Last edited by rokytnji on 18 Feb 2010, 17:33, edited 1 time in total.
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#2
I should also mention. I have AntiX rc4 installed on a Kingston 2 gig USB 2.0 Pendrive. Used Unetbootin to install AntiX to pendrive. The Pendrive boots up fine on my Asus EEE 900 PC and hooks up wirelessly also in wicd.

On My IBM A22 I am trying this on. No option for usb boot in bios. Plop boots me up to USB and then I get AntiX grub screen. Tried cheatcodes delay=10 rootdelay=10 media=usb .

From there. AntiX acts like it is going to boot up. But after a delay. It drops me down to a root shell prompt with a Message that states, Sorry, AntiX can't find the file system. That is where I am at at the moment.
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#3
Edited Post because file was to big and seemed to serve no purpose.

Ok. This would normally be further down this thread. But since I edited. I figured to use this space for this query.

Anybody have any Ideas on what to edit in /boot/grub/menu.lst on live usb maybe?

Code: Select all

default 0
timeout 20
color cyan/blue white/blue
foreground ffffff
background 003f7d
gfxmenu /boot/grub/message

title  antiX
kernel /boot/vmlinuz quiet nosplash vga=791
initrd /boot/initrd.gz

title  antiX Extra Options
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst.extra

title  antiX-Memtest (test system memory)
kernel /boot/memtest
And for good measure. Maybe I need to edit something in syslinux.cfg for this to work

Code: Select all

default vesamenu.c32
prompt 0
menu title UNetbootin
timeout 100

label unetbootindefault
menu label Default
kernel /ubnkern
append initrd=/ubninit quiet nosplash vga=791

label ubnentry0
menu label antiX
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz quiet nosplash vga=791

label ubnentry1
menu label antiX-Memtest (test system memory)
kernel /boot/memtest
append initrd=/ubninit 

label ubnentry2
menu label antiX-Faster boot
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz vga=normal quiet nosplash drvr=vesa lean Xtralean

label ubnentry3
menu label antiX-Vesa
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz vga=normal quiet nosplash drvr=vesa

label ubnentry4
menu label antiX-nv
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz vga=normal quiet nosplash drvr=nv

label ubnentry5
menu label antiX-intel
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz vga=normal quiet nosplash drvr=intel

label ubnentry6
menu label antiX-Netbook
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz vga=788 quiet nosplash drvr=vesa

label ubnentry7
menu label antiX-noNet
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz vga=normal quiet nosplash drvr=vesa mean

label ubnentry8
menu label antiX-toram
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz vga=normal quiet nosplash drvr=vesa toram

label ubnentry9
menu label antiX-no-X
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz vga=normal quiet nosplash drvr=vesa lean Xtralean 3

label ubnentry10
menu label antiX-Persist (Live only)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz vga=normal quiet nosplash drvr=vesa rootfs=LABEL=X homefs=LABEL=X

label ubnentry11
menu label antiX-60Hz (force monitor to 58-62 Hz)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz vga=791 quiet nosplash vsync=58-62

label ubnentry12
menu label antiX-75Hz (force monitor to 73-77 Hz)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz vga=791 quiet nosplash vsync=73-77

label ubnentry13
menu label antiX-Failsafe
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append initrd=/boot/initrd.gz vga=normal quiet nosplash nosound noapic noscsi nodma noapm nousb nopcmcia nofirewire noagp nomce nodhcp nodbus nocpufreq nobluetooth drvr=vesa res=800x600

label ubnentry14
menu label Main Menu
kernel /ubnkern
append initrd=/ubninit
Still gnawing on this like a dog with a old bone.
Last edited by rokytnji on 19 Feb 2010, 14:40, edited 1 time in total.
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#4

Code: Select all

dd if=plpbtin.img of=/dev/fd0
That command was what I used to make a bootable floppy image which gives you choices when you select boot floppy first in bios.


* CD/DVD boot without BIOS support

* USB boot without BIOS support (UHCI, OHCI and EHCI)

* Floppy boot


I select USB. AntiX grub screen comes up. From there dead end so far. Will Keep trying. (stubborn biker)
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#5
Just posting now like if I was taking notes. Don't mind the Biker behind the curtain __{{emoticon}}__

Ok next test was using my AntiX rc3 persistent install USB drive that I have posted about in 8.5 rc thread. On that usb drive I get

Grub loading stage 1.5
sus
Grub Loading, please wait

Been dead from there for 5 minutes now __{{emoticon}}__ . So I guess I waited long enough. Ths pendrive works on my Asus and Acer Aspire Netbooks. So the pendrive is not the problem.

Next experiment is to burn a cd and see if plop will boot it up.
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#6
Tried using PLOP to boot from CD. All I got was a grub prompt. No grub screen. I cheated and rebooted and used my bios to boot cdrom. I am posting now from rc4 live cd wirelessly. It picked up my PCMCIA card during bootup. That is a good thing.

Code: Select all

demo@mepis1:~$ lspci -knn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge [8086:7190] (rev 03)
    Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge [8086:7191] (rev 03)
00:02.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCI1450 [104c:ac1b] (rev 03)
    Subsystem: IBM ThinkPad A21m/T20/T22 [1014:0130]
    Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
00:02.1 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCI1450 [104c:ac1b] (rev 03)
    Subsystem: IBM ThinkPad A21m/T20/T22 [1014:0130]
    Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
00:03.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: 3Com Corporation 3c556B CardBus [Tornado] [10b7:6056] (rev 20)
    Subsystem: 3Com Corporation Device [10b7:6356]
    Kernel driver in use: 3c59x
00:03.1 Communication controller [0780]: 3Com Corporation Mini PCI 56k Winmodem [10b7:1007] (rev 20)
    Subsystem: 3Com Corporation Device [10b7:6159]
00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24/30 [CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator] [1013:6003] (rev 01)
    Subsystem: IBM ThinkPad A20m [1014:0153]
    Kernel driver in use: Sound Fusion CS46xx
00:07.0 Bridge [0680]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA [8086:7110] (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE [8086:7111] (rev 01)
    Kernel driver in use: PIIX_IDE
00:07.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB [8086:7112] (rev 01)
    Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:07.3 Bridge [0680]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI [8086:7113] (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x [1002:4c4d] (rev 64)
    Subsystem: IBM ThinkPad A20m/A21m [1014:0154]
06:00.0 Network controller [0280]: RaLink RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI [1814:0301]
    Subsystem: Belkin Device [1799:701e]
    Kernel driver in use: rt61pci
I might be beating a dead horse. Trying to boot up a live USB using a PLOP floppy disk. Maybe I am misunderstanding what Plop can do when dealing with a live usb/'cd?
Posts: 1,228
secipolla
Joined: 15 Jun 2008
#7
I booted PLoP from my grub2. That was a very nice tip of yours, roky.
Then it booted my antiX-8.5 persistent usb flashdrive but after the hardware detection part, when it starts to look for the .iso file, i got the error that it was dropping me to a very limited shell 'cos it didn't find the Mepis filesystem.
It's a verified working usb install, BTW.
I suspected it could be the menu.lst boot line so I removed the rootfs=xxxx.. entry and changed the fromhd=UUID=... to fromhd=/dev/sdb1 but, no way, the error was the same.

As an observation, I got this same error when trying to boot fromiso (from hd) with grub2. And now that I'm writing this it seems somewhat obvious that I should get the same error. *Edit-wrong. There's nothing obvious here, the flashdrive uses Grub and that has nothing to do with hd's Grub 2.

As for you, maybe you could try to boot PLoP from inside GRUB. It's very easy: copy plpbt.bin to /boot and add

Code: Select all

title PLoP Boot Manager
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/plpbt.bin
to menu.lst (corrected with the proper partition number).
Last edited by secipolla on 19 Feb 2010, 23:11, edited 1 time in total.
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#8
As for you, maybe you could try to boot PLoP from inside GRUB
I would. But my mission or snafu idea was to come up with a way to install AntiX 8.5 into a Older Notebook (which had enough specs to meet system requirements of course) which had no CDROM drive. But has a Floppy Drive and a USB 1.1 port, I thought it would be cool to have a tutorial in the wiki for this. I don't think this has been accomplished with a Linux Distro. It would be a first I think.


On a side note. I just installed AntiX 8.5 rc4 on this IBM A22 (using live cd in DVDROM) with a Belkin F5D 7010 ver.6 PCMCIA wireless G cardbus. Wireless is working. Worked during live run. Works after install. I will post about it in AntiX 8.5 thread of Antis. It did not pick up My Puppy Dingo install though when grub was loaded to MBR. I gotta look for Puppys grub /boot/grub/menu.lst and copy a entry into AntiX /boot/grub/menu.lst. No big problem for me though. Used to dealing with Legacy Grub. Afeared of Grub 2 if I ever have to use it. Learn something. Then I gotta relearn stuff all over again. __{{emoticon}}__
Last edited by rokytnji on 19 Feb 2010, 15:49, edited 1 time in total.
Posts: 1,228
secipolla
Joined: 15 Jun 2008
#9
You'll definitely have to relearn... __{{emoticon}}__
Grub2 is better in the sense that it catches almost every other system (not only Windows like Grub legacy). Of course a frugal Puppy you have to add by hand (but only once because you leave its file there and it's caught everytime you update-grub).
But I couldn't make antiX boot fromiso with Grub2. That's an advantage of the legacy one.

As for PLoP it has a bunch of options to be booted. In the situation you visualized it could be booted (besides from floppy) from the Windows boot manager or installed as the main boot manager. What I don't know is if it would make any difference in booting antiX.

TBH, maybe PLoP doesn't even have anything to do with it. When I changed the fromhd= option (and when I deleted this option) I got an

Code: Select all

Error 18: Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS
so this subject could only be deepened with the PLoP people or with some people more knowledgeable than us.
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#10
more knowledgeable than us.
You betcha. I am gonna draw back from this and let my brain rest for a bit, Hopefully somebody on the net will see this thread and chime in with some useful info. I will be joining the plop forum later in the weekend and point them to this thread. Maybe some good will come out of it. Won't hurt to try.
Thanks for joining me in this. Much appreciated secipolla. This is why I love AntiX so much and Mepis. Bunch of stand up fellas running this distro. Just trying to pay it forward is all. Happy Trails, Rok.
Posts: 4
kkoceski
Joined: 19 Feb 2010
#11
Hi - first post - I have a Dell GX100 566MHz with 512MB RAM. I have successfully used the"Plop" floppy and"unetbootin" to boot RC2. In addition, I've installed with this to the HD with no issues. I'm using the USB2 PCI card that I added. I never use the Motherboard's USB1.1, but I can try if that helps you out. (Kingston 4GB flash drive).
Thanks - Kurt
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#12
Thanks Kurt amd Howdy and Welcome. Can you please elaborate a bit on how you
I'm using the USB2 PCI card that I added.
used plop and how you got usb 2.0 working on a 1.1 motherboard. Is it like a 4 port USB 2.0 Desktop PCI card that plugs into the back end of tower? I have one of those cards and all I could get out of it was USB 1.1 since the motherboard is 1.1.
I never use the Motherboard's USB1.1, but I can try if that helps you out. (Kingston 4GB flash drive).
Yes please do. We just need a live boot. Also what version of Plop/ I downloaded and used 5.0.8 plop version to make my floppy.




I just got this reply to my thread in Plop Forum. This is from the guy Elmar (from Germany I think) who actually wrote and developed plop. He was very gracious Man who helped on testing this out.
hi,
i tried now antiX 8.2 and antiX 8.5beta1. both are booting without problems over usb with plop. but i have to say i did not use unetbootin. i simply copied the content of the iso to the usb drive and installed grub.

it must be a problem with the unetbootin configuration. i never tried unetbootin and i don't know what configuration steps it does.

regards
elmar


I will delve into this later/ Looks Like it is unetbootins fault. Things are looking up/good for this.
Posts: 1,228
secipolla
Joined: 15 Jun 2008
#13
Hi, roky.
Do you mind asking him to post his menu.lst entry?
Would it be like
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://antix.mepis.org/index.php/Installation_Tips"
linktext was:"http://antix.mepis.org/index.php/Installation_Tips"
====================================
" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false ?

I tried it and it gave the same result. Since the flashdrive booted in another pc (which isn't here anymore) and since it detects the drive fine I'm thinking it must be some kind of reading failure.

Maybe I'll install rc4 (rc3) again and see if it works.
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#14
Hi, roky.
Do you mind asking him to post his menu.lst entry?
Would it be like
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://antix.mepis.org/index.php/Installation_Tips"
linktext was:"http://antix.mepis.org/index.php/Installation_Tips"
====================================
" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false ?
I asked and posted question and link. Awaiting reply.
Posts: 4
kkoceski
Joined: 19 Feb 2010
#15
Hi, I am just using a PCI-2-USB2 card that I bought. I don't remember what brand, but I'm sure it was a pretty cheap one. It also has FireWire. Other than that, it's a stock Dell GX100 (SFF - Small Form Factor).

I didn't do anything special - just used unetbootin and chose the .iso option. I haven't had a chance to try USB1.1 yet (sorry).

rawwritewin_0.7.exe to put plpbt.img onto floppy
plpbt.img came from plpbt-5.0.8.zip
unetbootin-windows-408.exe to put antiX-M8.5-rc2.iso on my Flash Drive.

I had other stuff on my Kingstion 4GB drive that I backed up before using unetbootin, but unetbootin did NOT wipe all that stuff away (but, of course, I wouldn't count on that)

Did you make sure your Flash Drive was formatted to FAT32 ??? I bet that's it.

Kurt