[SOLVED] GRUB2 (w/ grub4dos?) to BOOT > vmlinuz + core.gz WITHOUT install ?

[tweed]

Hi !!!

first post! woohoo.

is there a latest vmlinuz compatible GRUB2 menuentry that might work for me?

OBJECTIVE: find out why i am having such a tricky time getting GRUB2 and grub.cfg to work with the menuentry's that I've found on forum and tried. I haven't found much at all relating to new  vmlinuz though. Plus, i don't believe i wish to run in live-iso mode, nor do i think i want to use any installer.  how wrong am i ? hehe

Looking to use TCL in two ways and have enjoyed greatly reading for past 24 hours
though haven't found much about GRUB2 booting with new vmlinuz. 

Looking to use some of the clever methods I've read about for booting core
 and vmlinuz without having to use any installer.

FIRST WAY:  on USB stick which has GRUB2 in mbr and via grub.cfg which has
call to GRUB4DOS menu.lst  i am also able to load some more difficult ISOs and BIN files. 

SECOND WAY: within my existing linux desktop install i would like to be able to add
a menuentry to grug.cfg and instead of booting my usual linux system, boot TCL which is simply
the files residing in a folder ON my desktop linux install's filesystem.

As i believe there's a fair bit of sameness to both ways i was hoping to get some pointers on the following:



-----------
NOTE: the menuentry below starts by saying "error: not an assignment" and eventually boots though ends at prompt "tc@box" which seems like a fail. this test is on the usb stick with the vmlinuz and core.gz in the USB stick folder /boot.

Anyone have a vmlinuz GRUB2 ONLY menuentry for both the stick where ther core and vmlinuz are in the /boot folder AND also i get a total not found with the vmlinuz and core.gz in a folder on my hard drive for the linux system folder attempt. SECOND WAY above.

menuentry "tinycore" {
insmod ext2

set root=(hd0,1)
 linux /boot/vmlinuz
 initrd /boot/core.gz
}
--------------


After i get running I'm hoping to have a bunch of programs that i can load as i like. The new 4.4 beta methods are going to be very very coo.

Keen to learn. guess i need to get bootable before much else.

THANK YOU.

[Lee]

Hi tweed,

With grub4dos on a device at /dev/sdc1 (which contains the tag file /boot/grub/pnyfob0 in a file system which is also labeled pnyfob0), I'm using:

# 2012-03-02          4.3.1
title Core 4.3.1
find --set-root /boot/grub/pnyfob0
kernel /boot/core4.3.1/vmlinuz quiet tce=LABEL=pnyfob0/boot/core4.3.1/tce waitusb=30:LABEL=pnyfob0
initrd /boot/core4.3.1/core.gz

Where the directory layout is:

Code: [Select]

/mnt/sdc1/boot/core4.3.1/
                    vmlinuz
                    core.gz
                    tce/
                        optional/

with extensions in optional/
and onboot.lst and such in tce/ along with optional/

I didn't have to change anything for the change from bzImage to vmlinuz (except the kernel name, of course).  Also, other than the incredible handiness of adding that "find ..." line, I don't remember changing anything in the switch from grub-0.97-splash to grub4dos.

[tweed]

LEE !

nicely stated and laid out. Thanks!

and ah-ha, i think i see where I've not been as clear as I should have.

I don't wish to use grub4dos except when i absolutely can't use GRUB2 effectively.
With GRUB2 I've had the most awesome time and of course lots of trouble too..
OK, so I mention GRUB4DOS and probably should have left that out.
it's been handy in the past for some image files like plop boot manager i recall.

IF I can do what i need with GRUB2. I base everything around GRUB2 though thought i read
somewhere that GRUB2 had some trouble with TCL though that may be old or wrong.

So..... need a menuentry and some folder layout thoughts perhaps for getting grub2 to work.
I'm still at a fail point though am certain all will be well as I've had a lot of fails and they always lead somewhere!

Thanks again greatly for your time and I will find your reply handy as I've forgotten a lot of grub4dos usage. cool!

[Lee]

Hmmm... in as much as there is a grub2.tcz extension in the repo, I suppose it can be made to work but I have never tried it so I'll have to defer to the community.  Have already used the forum search for "grub2"?

[tweed]

I believe i have read literally every post and have searched and read all with: "grub2" "vmlinuz" "menuentry" both seperately and together PLUS a whole lot more.  There's 22 posts with menuentry. "vmlinuz" came in around Nov 2011.

I already have GRUB2 in my stick's mbr and use it in my linux desktop system.
i need to have my  (multiboot) usb stick boot tinycore with just grub2.

and, i need to have my desktop system boot tiny core from a folder on the drive
after adding the menuentry to my alreaddy existing and nicely functioning grub.cfg.

i believe it is possible to boot with ONLY two files initially. vmlinuz and core.gz USING grub2.

???


I have found nothing definitive.

need this info.

thank you!

[Lee]

Booting with two files only, in the current version of Core works fine.  It doesn't boot to a GUI though.  To boot to a GUI you need the following extensions in tce/optional/ (and they need to be listed in tce/onboot.lst):

Xlibs.tcz
Xprogs.tcz
fltk-1.10.tcz
wbar.tcx
jwm.tcz

You can substitute whatever wm instead of jwm, but if you use one that has dependencies, you need those, too.
You don't technically -need- Xprogs or wbar, but they're real handy.

I still know little or nothing about grub2. 

[tweed]

Very cool that you've stayed on this one Lee... nice!

So, YES ... I almost had the energy to boot up and go online again and write to mention that I AM able to get to:

tc@box $

EDIT: deleted a long ramble

I will now be able to add to the grub2 menuentry [searched: menuentry] or use other techniques to add packages at boot time and hopefully learn about persistence and the method best to use for me.


I will use DWM as WM and will need to build as i normally do on my desktop system, or just copy it over for starters.

[Lee]

Glad you got it to boot.  From here on the upgrade/install procedure is pretty easy.

Did you have to do anything special with the menu.lst for grub2?  Just curious, as I don't see me switching from grub4dos to grub2, but others might find such info useful.

I will use DWM as WM and will need to build as i normally do on my desktop system, or just copy it over for starters.

I'm not familiar with DWM but I see there's no dwm.tcz in the repo.  When you get it working, maybe consider packaging it up as an extension.

EDIT: deleted a long ramble

I find myself doing that all the time.    Sometimes even before I post.

[tweed]

ERATTA: below i mention that all the iso files need to be put in: /tinycore/tce.  well i now have them in there AND in the /tinycore/tce/optional folder. i will figure it out though for now I'm thinking (due to my grub2 menuentry and my minimal understanding) that the onboot.list is in /tinycore/tce folder and the files in the /tinycore/tce/optional  OR everything in both is where I'm gonna leave it tonight. it works that way. though i guess the onboot.lst only needs to be in the /tinycore/tce folder as it was running that way earlier. due to my quick folder sync to figure out what it stopped working, everything's in both for now.  uhhh... :---]]]]

AN AFTER-MENTION: my stick was initially fat32 though thru the learn and try i formatted it to ext2. at some point I'll wonder and try fat32 again. i figure core won't like it though. posting this at bottom as well as it was a point for me.

------- FIRST STUFF WRITTEN BELOW -------


LEE !!!


I've come back to write you to say how helpful PLUS you've been.
it was the onboot.lst that i needed to understand and after much
reading figured out enough to boot desktop.

I used four grub2 menuentry's to start with. I had read that perhaps
using hdx was needed, though what was need was that i got the folder order right enough.

These are folders on a stick or a drive loose, no install, just copying, and having GRUB2 in the mbr.
being careful installing grub2 to mbr was needed as it's possible to really have issues.

for anyone, here's the 4 menuentry for grub2

the 2nd and the 4th work and quite differently.
the 4th one has the 'not a problem though not sure what yet" opt=

the 1st and 2nd ones only get to tc@box $ though i figure
it's the hdx bit that actually isn't the way to go these days.

I believe the (hd0,1) isn't needed after linux and initrd lines.
i saw it somewhere so used it.

[sorry i can't figure out how to wrap code in a box. figured it would be obvious
with all the icons though nope.

anyways, on my stick (any i imagine it would be the same on my drive)
i have the boot folder which has grub folder inside.
THEN, also at the root level i have a folder called tinycore and
inside that there's boot folder with just vmlinux and core.gz

also inside tinycore folder there's another folder called tce and inside that
a folder called optional (all this can be seen in the 4 menuentry(s) below.

So, i took a full tinycore iso Coreplus-current, opene4d it up and copied
everything in the /cde/optional folder to /tinycore/tce NOTE: not the optional folder on your stick/drive.

THEN the onload.lst is one level above that on that ISO in /cde.
I put that IN with all the files now at /tinycore/tce on my stick.


YOU REALLY helped with that... HUGE thanks.

AND, i think i may just stick with the default WM as everything works great and DWM
would make all the app mod stuff perhaps fiddly to get to. dunno yet.
plus, interesting that on the SIO the folder's called 'cde'  dunno why yet.




menuentry 'TinyCore hda NOT WORKING' {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux (hd0,1)/tinycore/boot/vmlinuz waitusb=10 root=/dev/sda1 tce=hda1/tinycore/tce quiet
initrd (hd0,1)/tinycore/boot/core.gz
}

menuentry 'TinyCore sda' {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux (hd0,1)/tinycore/boot/vmlinuz waitusb=10 root=/dev/sda1 tce=sda1/tinycore/tce quiet
initrd (hd0,1)/tinycore/boot/core.gz
}


menuentry 'TinyCore opt hda NOT WORKING' {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux (hd0,1)/tinycore/boot/vmlinuz waitusb=10 root=/dev/sda1 tce=hda1/tinycore/tce opt=hda1/tinycore/tce/optional quiet
initrd (hd0,1)/tinycore/boot/core.gz
}

menuentry 'TinyCore opt sda' {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux (hd0,1)/tinycore/boot/vmlinuz waitusb=10 root=/dev/sda1 tce=sda1/tinycore/tce opt=sda1/tinycore/tce/optional quiet
initrd (hd0,1)/tinycore/boot/core.gz
}


all very very cool.
relentless i say!
bet you know the one.
relentless and with awesome help.

And hey, i've got this instict that tinycore's not gonna mess me around like, well, like that other popular system did many times to the point i said, never again.

best wishes to all.


EXTRA NOTE: I had quietquiet in the 4th menuentry. it's a typo and i guess that's why it funtions differently that the 2nd also working one. So, it would be i get verbose output which is what the diference was.
I will not REMOVE the typo though it looked like this in my grub.cfg and here until i edited it. here's the error below which is now fixed above.


linux (hd0,1)/tinycore/boot/vmlinuz waitusb=10 root=/dev/sda1 tce=sda1/tinycore/tce opt=sda1/tinycore/tce/optional quietquiet



AN AFTER-MENTION: my stick was initially fat32 though thru the learn and try i formatted it to ext2. at some point I'll wonder and try fat32 again. i figure core won't like it though. this posted at top here as well as it was a point for me.

[coreplayer2]

I still use Grub4dos on some machines, it's slower to boot than syslinux but I can have a choice of boot screen picture

[tweed]

yes, grub4dos is up there in 'wow glad that exists' - land. 
i believe i stiill will need to use grub4dos (booted BY grub2, with grub2 in mbr)
to start some .bin and image files and there's some other reasons i can't quite recall right now.

grub2 has so much dev and the new bios methods has me thinking grub2
will be rightest for me to keep learning for multibooting.

lovin' that tinycore exists. it actually seems like it's gonna be very useful and understandable.