Is it true that a live MX .iso is incompatible with GRUB?

JASlinux · 02-29-2024, 12:35 AM

I am struggling to boot a USBFLASH .iso (this is GRUB2):

Code:

menuentry 'USB MX Fossa64 XFCE (/ISO/MX-19.4_x64.iso)' {
   set isofile="/ISO/MX-19.4_x64.iso"
   rmmod tpm
   loopback loop (hd0,1)$isofile
   linux (loop)/antiX/vmlinuz boot=boot iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject
   initrd (loop)/antiX/initrd.gz
}

Looking for an example of what I'm missing, I stumbled upon this graphic stating MX does not boot GRUB:

True? I am supposed to give up & put MX on solo media?

yancek · 02-29-2024, 06:47 AM

The image you posted doesn't say anything about MX being incompatible with Grub but rather that it doesn't by default use Grub to boot, most likely uses the Syslinux boot loader. I was trying to boot MX23 a few months ago directly from the iso but was not able to so I simply extracted the iso and copied it to a partition and booted it that way. You can put it on a partition on your hard drive or an external drive, a flash drive if you want. You just need a correct entry in grub.cfg to point to it.

Using your example above where you have a directory names ISO in the root of the sda1 partition, the entry below in the grub.cfg file should work. That is if you are booting from sda drive and you copy the MX linux extracted files to the ISO directory on the same drive.

Quote:

menuentry "MX-23" {
set root='hd0,1'
linux /ISO/antiX/vmlinuz quiet splash --
initrd /ISO/antiX/initrd.gz
}

JASlinux · 02-29-2024, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

I was trying to boot MX23 a few months ago directly from the iso but was not able to so I simply extracted the iso and copied it to a partition and booted it that way.

I see sophisticated file systems require symlinks & permissions not supported on the USB file systems I use (FAT32 & NTFS for Redmond compatibility).

So to really use extracted ISO I need to experiment with new file systems. I'd rather not use an ext4 MX partition because it's a unique demand.

I would of course name an extracted .iso directory something different than ISO (e.g., the base name of the .iso).

The Redmond YUMI tool lets us choose GRUB or syslinux, but in a GRUB tool I might be limited to extraction.

I am looking for a popular XFCE distro with a strong user base. Xubuntu doesn't have the wi-fi driver for my laptop or a default screensaver.

yancek · 03-01-2024, 07:19 AM

You don't need to use an ext4 or any other Linux filesystem for an iso or an extracted iso file as it will be iso9660. You can put an iso directly on a vfat or ntfs partition or the extracted contents on a vfat or ntfs partition and boot it with a correct menuentry form Grub. I've done all this previously and it is not complex. I don't know what you want to 'experiment' with but you are limited by the very nature of the system, being read-only.

JASlinux · 03-12-2024, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

You don't need to use an ext4 or any other Linux filesystem for an iso or an extracted iso file as it will be iso9660.

I'll have to grasp this conceptually.

Files from an .iso file will be sitting on a NTFS partition & when GRUB2 boots them they'll be treated as read-only iso9660, the optical partition format?

It's worth a try if MX is that good.

yancek · 03-12-2024, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Files from an .iso file will be sitting on a NTFS partition & when GRUB2 boots them they'll be treated as read-only iso9660

Correct. Done this booting iso files of various Linux systems from vfat, ext2,3,4 filesystems as well as ntfs and it has to do with booting the iso which is an iso9660 format and has nothing specific to do with MX Linux, any Linux iso should work. At least it always has for me.