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Old 11-19-2020, 04:14 PM   #1
fredmyra
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Can't boot from debian-live-10.6.0-amd64-xfce full install on multiusb


I am used to making multiusbs to my friends and other people who ask me for help. I haver never used any softwaare, program or app I always install GRub to the MBR, or do a full install on some partition on the usb, then copy the iso files to the usb and then spend a heck of a lot of time re-editing my /etc/grub.d/40_custom.

And I have been happy with it for many years. Some time ago I installed Gentoo on 128 GB usb and then placed several isos on it. It worked after a long struggle with 40_custom, but the full Gentoo was too slow to make sense.
I then decided to replace Gentoo with something lighter and since then i have tried many full installs but have had problem with booting anything at all.

It might have to do with the fact that I moved my installation workplace from a Fujitsu desktop to a HP Laptop. BUt still I have done several installs from this Old ProBook4510s, with 2 GB ram, including multi-usbs.

Right now I am trying to install debian-live-10.6.0-amd64-xfce om the 128GB multi-usb. I have read at a debian page that a minimal install would be ideal for a base install - right now all I wanted from the full install on the multiusb is the ability to manage grub configuration as I add new isos. Everything else will be bonus.

I am using the same method i have used for many years:

I dd the iso to an usb and then proceed from it to full install on another usb.

My first trial, with net-install gave me a "/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod could not be found" message.

Second trial with debian-live-10.6.0-amd64-xfce.iso on ful install with desktop, gave the same message.

Just for the sake of being sure I had a problem, I did a 3rd install from debian-live-10.6.0-amd64-xfce.iso without any desktop and got the same message again.

I have carefully verified the isos everytime.

Then I googed for 2 days without finding anything really interesting.

My ProBook has some Uefi capability but my Bios warns that it is only to be used for research, not for normal usage. I have it disabled.

My uefi Fujitsu laptop gives me a message of "no boot device" when I try to boot from the 128GB multi-usb without enabling CSM and the same "....normal.mod could not be found" when I do it with CSM enabled.

I am attaching a file with the contents of both "/boot" folders (dd-ed respectively full-installed) in hope that someone may help me identify the real problem) with contents of /boot folders in both the dd-ed iso and in the full install on the multi-usb in order

I think it is a silly question but I will risk it: must I found some MBR-specific iso????? I have been assuming that isohybrids have been standard for quite a while.
Attached Files
File Type: pdf listOS.pdf (18.9 KB, 17 views)
 
Old 11-19-2020, 10:57 PM   #2
colorpurple21859
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Location: florida panhandle
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This is one of several ways to do this:
Create a new dos partition table.
Create the first partition on the usb 3GB formated fat32 and set the boot flag on the partition.

Extract the contents of the debian xfce live iso to the partition.
Mount the first partition
As root in a terminal run
Code:
grub-install --target=i386-pc --boot-directory=media/arthur/multiDT3/boot --recheck /dev/sdb
I used your setup mount point and sdb for the usb as an example, change accordingly if different.

If you get a no i386-pc error with the grub-install, run
Code:
apt install grub-pc
as root then rerun the grub-install command, assuming your using a debian based distro to do this.

This will get the debian live iso to boot in both efi and legacy mode.

Create a second partition to store iso's.

Create configfile in the root of second partition with the menu entries to boot your iso's. You can name the grub.cfg to something else to better identify it, maybe isomenu.cfg
add something like this to the end of /boot/grub/grub.cfg on the first partition
Code:
menuentry 'iso configfile'{
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root <uuid of second partition>
configfile /isomenu.cfg
}

Last edited by colorpurple21859; 11-20-2020 at 10:03 PM.
 
Old 11-19-2020, 11:05 PM   #3
sgosnell
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Registered: Jan 2008
Location: Baja Oklahoma
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The easy way to do this is with ventoy. Install it to the USB drive, then just do a normal copy of whatever .iso files you like. Boot the ventoy drive, and it gives a menu choice of all the .iso files on the drive. No need to mess with grub or anything else. Ventoy handles it all without the need to do anything other than install it. I keep a ventoy drive handy with Debian and several other distros, plus gparted live and some other utilities. IMO Ventoy is the best way to handle this by far.
 
Old 11-20-2020, 03:47 PM   #4
colorpurple21859
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With multiple suggestions to use ventoy on LQ, I decided to give ventoy a run on my hp laptop, with two different debian 10 iso's and fedora 33 iso. Worked great in legacy mode, kernel panics in uefi mode. I think I had tried ventoy before, but not sure.
 
Old 11-21-2020, 05:17 PM   #5
sgosnell
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Dunno, ventoy works in UEFI on my systems. Yours is the first issue with it, and I've had none. But Murphy was an optimist.
 
Old 11-30-2020, 02:01 PM   #6
fredmyra
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Thanks colorpurple21859, I am marking this as solved.

Thanks sgosnell I will try ventoy also.
 
  


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