Dear Forum.
I need help getting a boot script for win10 EFI from grub working in syslinux (?).

The Android-X86 project have a rock solid way to usb boot any EFI computer without messing with legacy/uefi in bios but Im not able getting the windows boot script working in the TCL dist live usb. As I was not able solving the issue with the runaway fan in Android-x86 Im now trying TCL. TCL was the dist I favoured after testing mint, lubuntu, porteus and arch. I found the android-X86 and TCL snappy and quick to my liking, the ubuntu had a habbit of freezing and slowing down after 3-4 hours usage.

As TCL only boots in leagacy boot mode it would be great getting the boot script for booting win10 from android-X86 project working in TCL. If I get it working I can have a micro flash disc dual booting any linux with win 10 in same boot menu instead of messing with bios every time I need to boot windows.

Sample text boot scripts :
Sample from Android-x86, grub.cfg :

menuentry 'Windows' {
search --file --no-floppy --set=root /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
chainloader (${root})/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

Sample from TCL boot menu, Isolinux.cfg (where i tried getting the above win10 boot script to work) :

LABEL openbox
MENU LABEL Boot Core Plus with Openbox Window Manager.
TEXT HELP
Boot Core with openbox plus networking, installation and remastering.
All extensions are loaded mount mode. Boot media is not removable.
ENDTEXT
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/boot/core.gz loglevel=3 cde showapps desktop=openbox

I admit Im frustrated Im not able copying the boot scripts for win10/EFI fom android-x86 into the TCL live usb, in my world it should just be copy and paste together with the ubnsoftware pieces from unetbootin. The last thing I tried before giving up and posting here was writing a live usb android-x86 and replacing the android-x86 bits with TCL content, all synced with naming used in grub.cfg and ubnlist.cfg.

Im unsure of naming of the boot method in TCL, at some places it is named grub. And yes, I have tried all versions of syntax and approaches I can think of when looking at grub manual.

Any ideas and recommendations highly appreciated, Im sure I've made the simplest mistake somewhere so please just kick me in the head as Im sort of stuck and out of ideas =0)

Kindly Peter.

What is TCL? I doubt you will be able to boot a UEFI windows install from a Legacy Grub, never had any luck with this and never found any method that would work. It is quite simple to boot a Linux EFI install from a Legacy Grub.

Does your Android grub.cfg entry actually boot windows? I would be surprised if it does as it is not pointing to the EFI partition so would have no idea where the 'bootmgfw.efi' file for windows is. The 2 lines below in multiple Linux grub.cfg files are used in grub.cfg, pointing to the EFI partition. What is the location of the grub.cfg menuentry you posted for windows, the EFI partition or the filesystem /boot directory.

The 1st line points to the first drive, first partition which is the efi partition in this case. The 2nd line using the UUID of the vfat efi partition. Even the minimal grub.cfg on the EFI partition points to the EFI partition with its entry.

I'm not sure what you are doing here. A Live usb is read only so are you loop mounting the iso and then modifying it and re-creating the iso and re-copying it to a usb or are you using squashfs tools to do this?



If you are planning to install other Linux systems, simply install one with Grub2 GPT/EFI and that should solve your problem of booting multiple Linux EFI or Legacy and windows EFI.

Hej.
Lots of questions, Ill try answering in order :
1. TCL = Tiny Core Linux, if Im not mistaking the maindevelopers comes from DSL, it has the same quality and strategy.

2. USB booting win 10 uefi-legacy. Please try the android-x86 (best version is the 6.03 if all aspects considered), I see no point debating here when you have the opportunity learning new. I can see you are in for a surprise =0)

3. "Does your android grub.cfg actually boot windows ?" - Yes, thats why Im pursuing this, I have not seen any other dist with this function but I have only tested a few as ubuntu, pups, slitaz, arch, porteus, ubu-flavors including mint etc.

4. Yes, TCL loop mount apps loaded on boot or when user demanded, quite nifty, at power down everything is killed and reset back to new. User settings is saved in a local backup (TCE) placed wherever the user decides to.

5. All the boot code samples is from usb installs and usb live images externally from computer.

6. The old grub used menu.lst and my samples are from grub.cfg = grub2.

7. If/when I find a reliable linux dist I may consider installing to computer. I liked the ubuntu.7.10 up to 9.04 as they where clean and efficient but when the key chain was implemented the systems rotted from inside and had to be reinstalled every 2-3weeks as all the tinkering of system locked down folders and programs took to much time if not constant logged in as sudo.

My target is to have a alternative main boot loader on a micro usb flash and never bother with the bios uefi/legacy settings, just replacing the linux on the usb at upgrade and try to save me as much time as possible. No private files scattered on computers as everything is on the usb flash drive as long as nothing else mounted.

First of all, grub.cfg is not a script. It's a config file. It just gets read on boot. Any grub can be made to boot Windows with the chainloader option. It is not distro dependent. Grub isn't actually booting Windows, it's just chainloading the Windows boot loader, NTLDR, which then boots Windows.

I think the OP must be using ancient hardware to have the type of problems he is experiencing with recent distro releases. If you want Linux to run faster, you don't want it running from a USB flash drive, because that's about 1/10 the speed of a hard drive!

There are some grave misconceptions evident in the OP's posts. I think you should just slow down and explain what you are doing and why, because you traveled quite a ways down the wrong road.

If you are referring to copying the grub.cfg menuentry you have in your first post to the isolinux.cfg file, that will never work. Different bootloaders require different type entries which you can see by simply looking at grub.cfg and isolinux.cfg.

Install a Linux system using GPT/UEFI and grub2 which will then enable you to boot either Linux or windows without the need to make any change in the BIOS.