How to Make a Bootable Flash Drive using ISObooter

How to do things, solutions, recipes, tutorials
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as77
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue 25 Feb 2014, 09:16

#241 Post by as77 »

> What if additionally there's even no cd/dvd drive? (And slow usb 1.0)

Well, now I found something really useful :
- LICK-discussion http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... &start=435
- and a good collection of Puppy exe-installers https://archive.org/details/Puppy_Linux ... _Installer
_ _ _

So my troubles with the very disabled laptop may be over?
Sadly the Win7 in it stopped working. For this very machine the exe-installers came too late.

Somewhere buried behind the former Windows is a bootloader with choices "Windows" (no more available) and Slacko 5.7 (working ok). The latter brings me to the choices written in /initrd/mnt/dev_save/menu.lst

Now I need a wise decision where to download the ISO not to disturb my Slacko and its save-file. Any suggestions?

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Max Headroom
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#242 Post by Max Headroom »

G'day rcrsn51, Please Help because I've Corrupted Me GumBoot USB ( ie. isobooter ) by intending & Attempting 2 Add a Swap Partition 2 the eNd of the USB :cry:

Now I just get

Cannot overwrite an independent Partition.
partnew (hd0,3) 0x00 (hd0,0)/Angel_Student_Eco.iso

Error 30: invalid argument

Press any key to continue...

Of Course I've Searched on the iNet, like so...

isobooter Cannot overwrite an independent partition Error 30: invalid argument Solved

4 the answer, But there's Nun

of course I've really shot a Hole in Me GumBoot, having 60 isos, Mostly working!

:oops: K

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rcrsn51
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#243 Post by rcrsn51 »

3. If you have a large drive, you may want to make two or three partitions to organize your ISOs. But do NOT make a fourth partition! It is used by the ISObooter system.

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Max Headroom
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#244 Post by Max Headroom »

Thanx rcrsn51 4 Replying, Yes I did Notice that, But didn't do it because I dunno about how it works out w/ the menu.lst file, also will that Fix the Error 30: invalid argument?

Also I should have mentioned previously while I was running the isobooter script it was sumtimes / often ( about 1/2 the time, but random whether I choose Y or N ) returning

isoinfo: Unable to find Joliet SVD

& I did Run WinContig on All the iso files & they're Clean ie. No Fragmentation... aRe these 2 issues Related?

Thanx Mate 4 Your Wisdom!

:)K

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rcrsn51
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#245 Post by rcrsn51 »

?????

So when you made the swap partition, did it become the fourth partition of the drive?
isoinfo: Unable to find Joliet SVD

ISObooter does NOT call the isoinfo tool. I have no idea where that message is coming from.

However ISObooter DOES use filefrag. Maybe it's calling isoinfo.

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fredx181
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#246 Post by fredx181 »

isoinfo: Unable to find Joliet SVD
That comes from isobooter-mod, I made some time ago (for 'Dog' support), probably Max used that.

@Max, please try to avoid confusion by only commenting about isobooter itself in this thread.

Fred

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Max Headroom
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#247 Post by Max Headroom »

Sorry Guys that I've been Barking Up the wRong Tree...

I'll Tele-Transport Myself 2 the Appropriate Tread!

:)K

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mikeslr
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Don't Answer Questions Posted to The HOWTO SubForum

#248 Post by mikeslr »

Hi All,

This is the HOWTO (Solutions). It's purpose is to provide a place for "How to do things, solutions, recipes, tutorials".

Among the objectives of this Forum is to provide help and advice in a manner that anyone seeking it can easily find it. One way of accomplishing that goal is to attempt to maintain some semblance of order so that people know where to look.

There are threads pertaining to each Puppy. There are threads pertaining to most applications. There's a Beginner's Forum for questions regarding how to get started. There are threads dealing with hardware issues. There's the Users SubForum for discussions about most Puppy related issues which may not easily fall into some other thread or SubForum.

This is the HOWTO (Solutions). It's purpose is to provide a place for "How to do things, solutions, recipes, tutorials".

I suggest that no one respond to questions posted here. Perhaps such silence will provide a clue to the poster to read the Title and Subtitle appearing on the Subforums.

mikesLr

belham2
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#249 Post by belham2 »

Hi rcrsn51,

I am a faithful user of Isobooter. Everything I throw at it, it boots with ease.

The only thing I have problems with, is if I try to copy and/or download any ISO (that is over 4GB in size) onto my 64GB Isobooter USB thumbdrive. For example:

---OpenSUSE (size: 4.7GB)
---Windows 10 (size: 4.3GB)
---Debian 9.3 (size: 4.4GB)

I keep getting the error: "Error writing to file: File too large".

Is there a way around this when using Isobooter? Since FAT32 is limited to 4GB file size??

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rcrsn51
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#250 Post by rcrsn51 »

belham2 wrote:Is there a way around this when using Isobooter? Since FAT32 is limited to 4GB file size??
I doubt it. ISObooter is just a front-end for some Grub4Dos techniques.

G4D requires FAT32 to guarantee that the ISO is contiguous.

jafadmin
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Joined: Thu 19 Mar 2009, 15:10

#251 Post by jafadmin »

belham2 wrote: The only thing I have problems with, is if I try to copy and/or download any ISO (that is over 4GB in size) onto my 64GB Isobooter USB thumbdrive.
Maybe not useful in your situation, but I have a thumb that I formatted ext2 and installed grub2 on that I use for booting iso files over 4gig. Grub2 doesn't require the iso to be in a single extant, either.

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johnywhy
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#252 Post by johnywhy »

hello, when i run isobooter-win on vista, nothing gets intalled to the drive.

any ideas?

thx
[b]Now[/b]: X-Tahr 2.0! StretchDog! DevuanDog!
[b]Tops[/b]: TarhNOP Vlina-R2 Racy
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matchpoint
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#253 Post by matchpoint »

You get stuck on which step, "Run as Administrator?"

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johnywhy
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#254 Post by johnywhy »

not sure i'm getting "stuck" anyplace.

i run through the whole process, and should end up with 4 files on the usb: the 3 files i copies over from the iso, plus the 1 file installed by isobooter.

but i only end up with the files i manually copied over-- isobooter doesn't install anything. the drive remains blank after running isobooter.
[b]Now[/b]: X-Tahr 2.0! StretchDog! DevuanDog!
[b]Tops[/b]: TarhNOP Vlina-R2 Racy
[b]Used[/b]: Puppeee Precise Lucid Wary Tahrpup Quirky Slacko MacPup Saluki Puppy Studio LxPupTarh Lina-Lite Lina
[i]i ♥ Puppy[/i]

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rcrsn51
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#255 Post by rcrsn51 »

7. Copy the files grldr, menu.lst and isobooter onto the USB drive.
8. Copy a Linux ISO onto the USB drive.
9. Rename the ISO file as "linux.iso".
10. There should now be four files on the USB drive - grldr, menu.lst, isobooter and linux.iso.
The four files are ALL copied by you.

The grubinst_gui.exe binary makes the flash drive bootable.

You don't run the isobooter script under Windows - it's there for after you get Puppy booted.

hamoudoudou

How-to-install Puppy has yet been solved

#256 Post by hamoudoudou »

ISObooter is really an efficient tool. About mikeslr opinion i fully agree. people should think that the answer to How-to-install Puppy has yet been solved. Just search in the forum in the right place. No need to build new systems which loose newbies in hazardous expermental boot systems.
Don't ignore Grub4Dos, Don't ignore Isobooter Or loose yourself in Grub2... or img2key, or Porteus, or casper..
People don't read how-to, they transfer research to helpers. So well don't ask them to use Linux booter for Ubuntu or Porteus, listen to Puppy Linux tools
Failing to dual-boot puppy and windows 7 is unbelievable.. Just consider that sda1 not to be touched..
Some VIPs still think that a Puppy cannot be boot without having burn a CD... And don't want to admit different ways.
TO be positive This topic has been translated to french by esmourguit Utiliser ISObooter traduction en français
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hamoudoudou

see topic Nilson Morales

#257 Post by hamoudoudou »

see topic Nilson Morales Ayuda al pueblo latino

belham2
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#258 Post by belham2 »

Hi rcrsn51,

I still think ISOBooter is one of the best things you've ever done, and that's saying something since I use so many other of your created things.

Currently, I have ~24 ISOs I use on ISOBooter, from pups to ddogs to many Linux distros, and they all work/boot great (except sometimes Fedora-based ones get picky).

But I have only one question: I know Fat32 has a max file limit size of 4GB (if I recall correctly). Well, I forgot this, and I went and downloaded the latest CentOS-7 64-bit (size 4,7GB) and then tried to transfer it into ISOBooter. Then I remembered the limitations of FAT32. Knowing this, I was wondering, is there any chance in the future that a re-vamped ISOBooter (using different partitioning) could/would work with the bigger ISOs from the mainline Linux distros like the 4.7GB CentOS-7 iso?

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rcrsn51
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#259 Post by rcrsn51 »

But I have only one question: I know Fat32 has a max file limit size of 4GB (if I recall correctly). Well, I forgot this, and I went and downloaded the latest CentOS-7 64-bit (size 4,7GB) and then tried to transfer it into ISOBooter. Then I remembered the limitations of FAT32. Knowing this, I was wondering, is there any chance in the future that a re-vamped ISOBooter (using different partitioning) could/would work with the bigger ISOs from the mainline Linux distros like the 4.7GB CentOS-7 iso?
Not to my knowledge. ISObooter uses a Grub4Dos technique that only works with FAT32.

Although, I don't know anything about exFAT.

[Edit] It looks to me like Grub4Dos does NOT recognize exfat partitions.

You could always "burn" the CentOS ISO onto a flash drive with dd.

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fredx181
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#260 Post by fredx181 »

Hi Belham,
Then I remembered the limitations of FAT32. Knowing this, I was wondering, is there any chance in the future that a re-vamped ISOBooter (using different partitioning) could/would work with the bigger ISOs from the mainline Linux distros like the 4.7GB CentOS-7 iso?
It can be done with GRUB2, but it's a bit complicated "manual way", i.e. install GRUB2 to a partition (not write MBR) e.g. sdb2.
Then add entry in menu.lst that chainloads GRUB2 and have entries in grub.cfg to boot ISO's that are on the second (ext3/4 formatted) partition.
If you are interested, just tell me and I'll try to explain the steps.

The advantage of using GRUB2 for ISO booting is that fragmenting is not a problem (in contrary to using grub4dos (problem can be that the ISO is "not contiguous")).
Disadvantage is that booting ISO "from splash screen" (displaying isolinux screen with the entries) like grub4dos can do) is not possible with GRUB2 AFAIK (but anyone correct me if I'm wrong).

Best Wishes :wink:

EDIT: Tried earlier GRUB2 booting with Debian and Ubuntu ISO's, now tried a Puppy, and it didn't boot to the desktop.
Error is: main .sfs not found. Maybe needs some special parameter that I don't know of.

Fred

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