libera/#devuan-dev/ Sunday, 2020-06-21

onefangBIOS and U/EFI booting on the toshiba?00:00
fsmithredjust uefi00:01
fsmithredI'm afraid to set that one to legacy - that's my build machine00:01
onefangFair enough.  The real test is to burn a DVD and boot it.00:01
fsmithredI can bios boot on another machine00:01
onefangCoz as I mentioned, my DVD burner is broke, so I can't do the DVD test.00:03
onefangOh, you might not be getting the GPT problem, coz you are not creating a GPT partition table, just ISO9660.00:05
fsmithredyeah, gparted showed it as iso9660, parted showed me two partitions00:11
fsmithredthe chainloader works00:11
onefanghttps://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-xorriso/2014-04/msg00015.html  is the author of xorriso saying he fixed that bug in 2014.00:11
fsmithredI got the default beige menu and that took me to the cinnabar menu with all the choices00:12
fsmithredwas slow to boot at first, but that is probably the usb stick that I used00:12
onefangThat's ISOLINUX chaining to the BIOS MBR on the GPT partiiton, which is how a DVD should do things.00:13
fsmithredI'll probably get around to burning a dvd since nobody else is going to do it.00:16
onefangI need to carefully pick which burner I will buy, then probably wait a week for it to get delivered.  It's on my shopping TODO.00:19
onefanghttps://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-cdimage/+bug/1062737 says he fixed the same bug in 2012.  lol00:20
onefangIt does suggest a workaround though, which I am trying now.00:25
onefangWorkaround didn't help.00:36
onefangfsmithred: those extra Refracta directories (doc, accessibility, pkglist_refracta10-beta5_xfce_amd64-20200518_0033), do they have to be in a specific place?  I'm not sure how to test them.  My only tests so far have been "boots to Refracta desktop?).00:41
fsmithredaccessibility needs to stay where it is00:42
fsmithredpkglist doesn't matter and I'm not sure if the docs are linked from the desktop or not00:42
onefangThat makes things hard for Magic Pixie Dust.  All the stuff for any given OS that's in the main FAT32 partition should be separated into their own directory.00:43
onefangIs accessibility at least the same for 32 and 64 bit versions?  So I can include both on the disk that share it.00:44
onefangCoz some other rando OS might also have a docs directory, that it insists is in aspecific place for the same reason Refracta might, and thus choses the same place.00:46
fsmithredaccessibility doesn't work. There's a custom live-config script that looks for that directory00:48
fsmithredbut don't worry about that. I don't need this right now, I just want to know how to do it.00:48
fsmithredwill play with it over some time.00:49
onefang/syslinux/install.sh is the script I use.00:49
fsmithredthat comes with the package?00:49
onefangDon't run it without reading it, if you value whatever is on /dev/sdd.00:49
fsmithredlol, ok00:50
onefangIt's in the ISO file.00:50
fsmithredaccessibility is the same for both arches - it just sets the desktop and icon themes to high-contrast00:50
onefangOn the FAT32 partition.00:50
fsmithredit's a script you wrote?00:51
onefangYep.00:51
fsmithredok00:51
fsmithredthanks00:51
onefangJust a test script, you'll need to pull it apart to see what files it grabs from where.  SID is all of the Debian sid Syslinux packages copied to a SID directory.00:52
onefangIt's short and sweet though, just no docs.00:52
fsmithredok00:52
fsmithredcan't be too bad - I've played with syslinux before00:53
onefangMostly it creates a FAT32 file image, copies files around, runs xorriso, dd's the result to /dev/sdd.00:54
onefangNaturally parted and friends don't complain about the GPT size problem and offer to fix it if I just run them on the .iso file, it HAS to be copied to a USB first!  grumble00:57
onefangSo to make a porper fixed iso file, I have to dd it to USB, fix that, dd it back to a file.00:58
onefangTime for supermarket shopping, and get some brekky while I'm out.01:00
fsmithredok01:00
fsmithredhave fun01:00
fsmithredyou laid this out like a multi-boot usb01:10
onefangYep, coz my goal is to get this working for Magic Pixie Dust, a multi-boot SD micro card in a tiny USB reader.  Hence why I need each OS to be in it's own folder for the things that share the FAT32 partition.02:04
onefangI'm guessing that maybe the Beowulf and Ceres versions of xorriso and friends might have this GPT size bug squashed.  I'm using ASCII.  I'll see if backports offers anything useful.02:05
onefangI'm already using the ceres / sid version of syslinux and friends to avoid other bugs.  If ascii-backports doesn't help, some ceres pinning might.02:07
onefangAfter the FAT32 partition, that is full of ISO files it can boot, are lots and lots of other partitions with other OSes installed in them.  Which is why I used GPT in the first place, msdos partition table can't handle that many partitions.  EFI prefers running from GPT as well, so bonus.02:22
fsmithredI was wondering why you used gpt02:58
fsmithreddo you use the findiso option for live-boot?02:59
onefangApart from being written into the spec that U/EFI wants to be on GPT.  B-)02:59
onefangNo.02:59
fsmithredit's a way to boot the intact iso file03:00
fsmithredfrom a usb or hard drive03:00
onefangI did read about it.03:00
fsmithredI think some of the more popular multi-boot usb writers use that03:01
fsmithredyou put the iso and the kernel and initrd from inside the iso all in a directory together03:02
fsmithredand point the boot menu to that03:02
onefangWhile it makes my life easier to use findiso, I prefer to unpack the live ISOs and merge their menus into the main Syslinux menu.03:03
fsmithredme too03:04
onefangAlso avoids the whole "my syslinux stuff works on rando computer, but the boot system embedded on a bunch of ISOs might not".03:05
onefangSame reasons you want to remove grub from Refracta, less shit to go wrong, less space used, things will run quicker if you are not jumping through a handful of boot loaders.03:11
fsmithredyeah, I don't necessarily want to remove grub03:26
onefangI do.  B-)03:27
fsmithredbut it's been bugging me for a few years that there are some syslinux efi files...03:27
fsmithredand nobody seems to know how to use them03:27
fsmithredI like having grub command line sometimes03:27
onefangFrom what I have been reading, it was only in February 2019 that Syslinux managed to get U/EFI to work well.03:28
fsmithredand possibly the next incarnation of the live installer will give you a choice03:28
onefangI'm sure you'll tell me soon if it works from an actual DVD.03:28
fsmithredyes, I will tell you03:29
fsmithredit should work ok. I've seen a multi-boot iso before.03:30
onefangI want to be sure MINE works OK.  B-)03:30
fsmithredsimilar layout03:30
onefangHave I got a proper working Syslinux, did I properly work around enough EFI quirks, ... etc.03:31
onefangSyslinux has a command line to, rosh, but I dunno if that's the sort of thing you do from grubs command line.03:41
fsmithredgrub command line lets you boot using some of the commands you'd see in grub.cfg03:44
fsmithredwith tab-completion03:44
fsmithredso you can find your way around if something is screwed up03:45
onefangRosh is more of an explore the file system thing, but Syslinux has a boot: prompt you can run Syslinux commands from, might even have tab completion.03:45
fsmithredit doesn't03:46
fsmithredbut you can have different boot entries that you call by name from that boot: prompt03:46
onefangAh OK.  I tend to not use those sorts of things, coz they assume my dvorak keyboard is qwerty, makes it hard to type.  lol03:47
onefangSyslinux has keymap support I'll add.  B-)03:48
onefangNo xorriso in ascii-backports.  B-(04:05
onefangSolved the GPT size error.  You'll get that after dding any image that has a GPT in it to a USB.  "sgdisk /dev/sdd -e" solves it in a script.04:16
onefangNo idea yet if it's a problem for GPT on a DVD.04:16
onefangThe basic problem is that the secondary GPT partition table has to be at the END of the USB stick, and I have no idea how big a stick you'll be DDing it to.04:30
onefanghttps://sledjhamr.org/test/onefangs_test_refracta5_3.iso is a little bigger, coz it has a mitigation in place for BIOses that think only Microsoft exists.10:32
onefangMore importantly, the install.sh script is tightened up, and documented.10:33
onefangI've gone off the idea of buying a new disk burner.  My existing one hasn't seen any use in years, and died.  I bought a blu-ray player a yew years ago, haven't used it in two years.  I only need one now to test if my ISO building script works for actual disks, so it'll get a few days of use, then collect dust for years.  I expect most of my old disks have rotted.20:04
fsmithredonefang, which one should I test? 5_2 or the newer one?20:23
onefang https://sledjhamr.org/test/onefangs_test_refracta5_3.iso20:23
fsmithreddoes not boot uefi20:32
fsmithredhave to reboot to test bios boot. brb20:33
fsmithredno boot bios, either. I got the first boot screen, it didn't make it to the second one. Could not read primary gpt header.20:37
onefangGuess I'll have to by a cheap burner then.  sigh20:38
onefangThough it sounds like dumping more of the Syslinux stuff into the ISO9660 partition, as well as having it in the GPT partition, might do the trick.20:40
fsmithredfdisk -l *.iso20:46
fsmithredwell, do them one at a time20:46
fsmithredyour has a big efi partition and small Microsoft basic data20:47
fsmithredmine has small efi partition and big Empty partition20:47
fsmithredI think you should avoid putting the system in a subdirectory. That shouldn't be needed in an iso.20:48
fsmithredWhen you add it to the sdcard, you pull that apart anyway20:49
fsmithredrefracta2usb might work for you20:50
onefangOfficeworks, which is nearby, is useless, they don't have cheap burners that I can find on their web site.21:05
onefangI can order one from Umart, which might be ready later today or tomorrow, it's a bit of a hike though, but I could use the exercise.21:06
onefangOh wait, lets see what Jaycar has.  They are nearby as well.21:06
onefangUmart it is then.  lol21:08
onefangOrdered and paid for, now to wait for them to tell me I can pick it up.23:10

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