Grub4DosConfig

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tasmod
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#46 Post by tasmod »

Nooby,

Do a search for win32 installer or some such. I'm sorry my memory is not as good as it was.

I played with this for a while, it will allow you to do what you want.

Basically it converts Puppy or whatever, to an exe file for use by windows boot config. So I had Puppy as an exe that was offered during windows boot as a menu choice. Choosing it booted up Puppy, no MBR changes needed.

The package for creating was on here somewhere. Try hamsamben as a search, I posted one there too.
Rob
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The moment after you press "Post" is the moment you actually see the typso 8)

nooby
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#47 Post by nooby »

You mean this thread
Puppy-Win32-Installer
by seeker he has it on his site for download. But does that work in Vista?
(I sent a PM to him asking if he knows if it is possible to change it so it can do both winXP and older and the newer ones like Vista and Win7? )

My gut feeling get confirmed by this text in the first post.

"Your Puppy will be installable on Windows 98, 2000, and XP.
"
He says this in one entry.

"Sure, I would like to add Vista support. To even begin to do this I would need the active cooperation of someone with a Vista OS.
Any volunteers? "

Sadly little later he has concluded this

"Thanks for the support and input. After spending a good deal of time researching this my inclination is to pass on Vista. Too many hurdles and pitfalls for me. "

One should read here
MikeB give this link
http://grub4dos.sourceforge.net/wiki/in ... ot_manager

http://208.109.22.214/puppy/viewtopic.p ... cfe095148c

that text would work for a pro but not for a newbie.

Even Seeker gave up on it.
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

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tasmod
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#48 Post by tasmod »

OK, just a thought.

Hmm Vista wasn't one of MS's best ideas.
Rob
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The moment after you press "Post" is the moment you actually see the typso 8)

JustGreg
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Location: Connecticut USA

#49 Post by JustGreg »

From the tutorial (I posted about on page 1 of this topic) on:
http://grub4dos.sourceforge.net/wiki/in ... gerBooting GRUB for DOS via the Windows Vista boot manager

Here at the steps:

Use bcdedit to configure the startup menu:
bcdedit /create /d "Start GRUB4DOS" /application bootsector
bcdedit /set {id} device boot
bcdedit /set {id} path \grldr.mbr
bcdedit /displayorder {id} /addlast

Then copy grldr.mbr to C:\, grldr and menu.lst to the root directory of any FAT16/FAT32/NTFS/EXT2 partition.

Based on my limited knowledge of Vista since I have not used it, this should not affect the mbr or the partition. If Vista does not use ntfs file system then there may be a problem. Once again, I do not know much about Vista nor does Microsoft want me to have knowledge. Nooby, if you do not know how to check the file system used by Vista then DO NOT USE THIS!

It uses the Windows Boot Manager of Vista like Windows XP to start Grub4dos (grldr). This process is the equivalent of chainloading under either Grub or Grub4dos. Once Grub4dos is started then it will use the file menu.lst (should be C:\ directory like grldr). The files needed for Puppy 4.3.1 should also be in C:\ directory

Here is my menu.lst that I know works (using a similar process) in Windows XP with Puppy 4.3.1:

# This is a sample menu.lst file. You should make some changes to it.
#color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
color light-gray/blue yellow/light-gray
# timeout 30
# default /default

title Puppy Frugal 4.3.1
find --set-root /pup-431.sfs
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd nosmp
initrd /initrd.gz

title Commandline
#savedefault --wait=2
commandline

title reboot
#savedefault --wait=2
reboot

title halt for manual reboot, Crtl-ATL-Del
#savedefault --wait=2
halt

Not having a Vista system nor at this time do I want one, I can not be sure
this will work perfectly with Vista. I hopes this helps.
Enjoy life, Just Greg
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

nooby
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#50 Post by nooby »

Yes thanks,

I have actually accomplish something now.

I write this from within Linux Mint and I have four modern versions of Puppy going in frugal install using EasyBCD and NeoGrub and I edit the menulist too using gedit or whatever.

Could you tell me what the
#savedefault
that you commentented out means? save default what? Why did you have to comment it out. what does it do?

What I have failed to do is the commands in menu.lst to tell Mint to save changes in frugal. Maybe the iso don't allow it. When I google I found one guy who told that the automatic log in is "live user" is preventing the saving of changes.

so I need to find somebody that can remaster the script or some cheat code that says Don't do the live user thing. Someone suggested one use single as a command. I tested this but corrupted the set up and had to start all over. But it has survived three reboots now and works real fast.

I certainly love puppy but there is something special about mint. :)

Why can not Mint use the Unionfs that puppy make use of doing puppy_save?
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

JustGreg
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#51 Post by JustGreg »

Nooby, #savedefault was in the sample menu.lst in the documentation. The documentation has the information. Please read it. The answer is in the documentation. I can not do it for you. Puppy is a community effort. No one is getting to paid to do this. If you have ideas on how it should be then do the research and try to implement them yourself.

If you like Mint Linux than use it. You need to ask the Mint Linux community why Mint does not use unionfs. No one in the Puppy community would know that answer.

Here is a question for you, By any chance, are your questions related to your employment or employer?

nooby
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#52 Post by nooby »

I am a retired TeleCom employee we had nothing to do with computers.
So my questioning is for my own personal instant usage to get my OS going on my new machines.

I learned enough 2008 to use it on winXP machines but unfortunately Vista and Win7 are different.

Yes I am member of Mint forum and do ask there but they are not interested in frugal install. They want very Mint user to do full install.

Puppy community are aware of that many have their puppy in frugal install and are not alien to thought of doing this with other distros.

Puppy users are sometimes also users of other distros.

Mint is third on the DW list and Puppy is at 8 or 9 dependent on whicj week one look. Hopefully Puppy goes up sooner or later.

I have great respect for what you guys want to achieve and I apology if I overload you with my questions.

My eagerness is due to me want to achieve this for Mint that Puppy already have. To be able to save changes in frugal install.

but I would be happy if Puppy could be as good as Linux Mint. then I would not ask for help with that one anymore.
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

JustGreg
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Location: Connecticut USA

#53 Post by JustGreg »

I can not help you with the conversion of Mint Linux. But, here is a starting point. This is Barry's web page that explains Puppy's architecture and workings:
http://www.puppylinux.com/development/h ... works.html

It is well written. It gives a good explaination. If you understand it, then you are the way to doing what you want.
Enjoy life, Just Greg
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

nooby
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#54 Post by nooby »

Thanks Greg, I had very interesting reading for some 90 minutes.

As you know all this is way above my capacity but it was very interesting.
I even love Puppy more knowing how unique Puppy is.
Kudos to Barry for providing it.
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

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sasaqqdan
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chinese grub4dosconfig.mo

#55 Post by sasaqqdan »

:D
Attachments
grub4dosconfig-zh_CN.tar.gz
chinese grub4dosconfig
(2.27 KiB) Downloaded 716 times

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shinobar
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UPDATE: grub4dos-0.4.4.v1.5.3

#56 Post by shinobar »

Update: 2 Nov 2010
grub4dos-0.4.4.v1.5.3.pet available from here.

CHANGES: (from 1.5.2)
  • Bugfix: was improper boot entry for Ubuntu 10(Lucid).
  • Bugfix; was multiple entry for one frugal in some case
  • Add chinese(simple) translation
Downloads for Puppy Linux [url]http://shino.pos.to/linux/downloads.html[/url]

big_bass
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Joined: Mon 13 Aug 2007, 12:21

#57 Post by big_bass »

Hey shinobar

thanks for the grub4dos I am one of those old world lilo users
* since I always have a slackware install)

but I wanted to test your package and you did a great job!
thanks I will repackage it in *.txz format

I thought to post two ways of how it worked on TXZ_pup
as an example for someone to use

what would be nice is to have a list of different versions using grub4dos
examples are great as a reference


the first example grub4 dos auto generated correctly everything *except that I changed the title from puppy450 to TXZ_pup for my own preference only

the second example I manually made a folder TXZ_450
and manually copied the needed files then edited the menu.lst
just to test out if the manual way was detected correctly or not also

both are working fine and your GUI did all the work correctly
very simple to use I recommend it
thanks again I will include it
BTW no problems dual booting XP (in Spanish) also
Joe

Code: Select all


title TXZ pup_450
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies /puppy450/initrd.gz
  kernel /puppy450/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=puppy450
  initrd /puppy450/initrd.gz

title TXZ pup_450 manual installed
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies /txz_450/initrd.gz
  kernel /txz_450/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=txz_450
  initrd /txz_450/initrd.gz

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piratesmack
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#58 Post by piratesmack »

Just a suggestion.

There's a project called 'Wee' that can load Grub4dos grldr from an Ext4 partition (as well as vfat, ntfs, and ext2/3)
http://nufans.net/grub4dos/wee/

It can be used instead of Grub legacy to start Grub4dos from Ext4 (Wee is smaller and starts up faster)

Wee is a little difficult to install, so I wrote a script that makes it easier.
Just run 'wee-install /dev/sdX', replacing /dev/sdX with your drive:

EDIT: There seems to be problems when copy/pasting the script, so I'll just attach it

Also, thank you for your Grub4dosconfig tool. Very nice :)
Attachments
wee-install.sh.gz
Builds MBR for loading Grub4dos from Ext4
(847 Bytes) Downloaded 565 times
Last edited by piratesmack on Sat 06 Nov 2010, 02:55, edited 1 time in total.

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shinobar
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Aplying grub4dos to the Live CD

#59 Post by shinobar »

Thanks big_bass.
I am happy if any Puppy become easy to install.

See also if you are interested in:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=61132
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=61348
Graphical boot menu can be also achieved with other measures, but the grub4dos ca be a rescue of Windows even the MBR/PBR broken.
Downloads for Puppy Linux [url]http://shino.pos.to/linux/downloads.html[/url]

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shinobar
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Wee

#60 Post by shinobar »

piratesmack wrote:There's a project called 'Wee' that can load Grub4dos grldr from an Ext4 partition (as well as vfat, ntfs, and ext2/3)
Great!
I will try to implement the Wee in the next grub4dosconfig.

For the ext4 for now, it requires grub legacy with the ext4 patch.
The grub4dosconfig arranges the chain grub --> grub4dos.
The Wee may through out this complex way.

Thanks for the information and the lecture.
Downloads for Puppy Linux [url]http://shino.pos.to/linux/downloads.html[/url]

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shinobar
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number of bytes

#61 Post by shinobar »

piratesmack wrote:Wee is a little difficult to install, so I wrote a script that makes it easier.
Great thanks. And have some question.

Code: Select all

# Read disk signature and partition table from MBR_DEV
# and write it to wee63.mbr:
dd if=$MBR_DEV bs=1 skip=439 count=72 2>/dev/null | \
	dd of=/tmp/wee63.mbr bs=1 seek=439 conv=notrunc 2>/dev/null

# Back up the sectors about to be overwritten, just in case:
dd if=$MBR_DEV of=/root/$(basename $MBR_DEV).63s bs=512 count=63 2>/dev/null

# Write wee MBR to $MBR_DEV
dd if=/tmp/wee63.mbr of=$MBR_DEV 2>/dev/null
  1. Why we need to copy the disk signature and partition table?
    Doesn't the next work?

    Code: Select all

    dd if=/tmp/wee63.mbr of=$MBR_DEV bs=446 count=1
  2. What does the number 439(or 440 bytes) mean? Why not 446?
  3. Why the backup size is 512x63 bytes?
Downloads for Puppy Linux [url]http://shino.pos.to/linux/downloads.html[/url]

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piratesmack
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Re: number of bytes

#62 Post by piratesmack »

Hi, thank you for your interest
shinobar wrote: Why we need to copy the disk signature and partition table?
Doesn't the next work?

Code: Select all

dd if=/tmp/wee63.mbr of=$MBR_DEV bs=446 count=1
wee63.mbr is 63 sectors large (Actually a little less, but it can be a maximum of 63 sectors without overwriting data on the first partition). For comparison, the normal grub4dos boot code is only 18 sectors large, which isn't enough for Ext4 code.

You have to copy your disk signature and partition table to wee63.mbr, because you would lose them if you didn't (wee63.mbr would overwrite them).
What does the number 439(or 440 bytes) mean? Why not 446?
Wee's README.txt says:
First, read the Windows disk signature and partition information bytes
(72 bytes in total, from offset 0x01b8 to 0x01ff of the MBR sector), and
put them on the same range from offset 0x01b8 to 0x01ff of the beginning
sector of wee63.mbr.
If you convert 0x01b8 to decimal, you get 440
If you convert 0x01ff to decimal, you get 512

So the disk signature and partition table are located within bytes 440-512 (72 bytes total)
Why the backup size is 512x63 bytes?
I did that because wee63.mbr can be up to 63 sectors large.
1 sector = 512 bytes, so I backed up 512*63 bytes

I guess it would be better to check the exact size of wee63.mbr, and only back up that much.
Something like:

Code: Select all

# Back up the sectors about to be overwritten, just in case: 
BSIZE=$(stat -c "%s" /tmp/wee63.mbr)
dd if=$MBR_DEV of=/root/$(basename $MBR_DEV).63s bs=$BSIZE count=1

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shinobar
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Re: number of bytes

#63 Post by shinobar »

Hi, piratesmack.
I can release the next update of grub4dosconfig using your code soon.
Thanks for the nice lecture so quick!
Downloads for Puppy Linux [url]http://shino.pos.to/linux/downloads.html[/url]

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shinobar
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grub4dos-0.4.4.v1.6.0

#64 Post by shinobar »

THIS IS THE KILLER!
We need not grub legacy anymore :P

The new version with features:
  • ext4 full support (Thanks to piratesmack)
    Supports ntfs, vfat, ext2, ext3, ext4 by standalone. Need not grub legacy anymore.
  • UUID for locating full installs
    Free from the drive order using the partition UUID for full installs.
  • Grub2 chain load
    Can chain to the coexisting grub2.
Try grub4dos-0.4.4.v1.6.0.pet, Download from here

Make a rescue FD/USB for the 1st try:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=61348
Last edited by shinobar on Mon 08 Nov 2010, 13:32, edited 1 time in total.
Downloads for Puppy Linux [url]http://shino.pos.to/linux/downloads.html[/url]

nooby
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#65 Post by nooby »

Shinobar,

that sure is great.

But being as clumsy persistent or even relentless newbie as I am


What will happen to my boot if I do that pet?

I bought an Acer Aspire one with win 7 starter on it. D250 the model.

I used Jolicloud version of Ubuntu 9.04? to make the changes to the boot up.

So the script of Wubi for Jolicloud rewrote what was need to get that thing going.

then I manually added puppy and other linux to the menu.lst deep down in Jolicound Directory.

So if I do the Pet you talk enthusiastically then that one ask me questions that I will have no way of knowing how to answer?


Sure I can start all over and add everything again from what that Pet do.

But that took me a year to accomplish and very very many questions on this board. To start all over will get a lot of members upset.

Hey Nooby we told you how to do that one year ago use the search.

But I can not use the search because me fail to know what search word to use. I know this from personal experience.
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

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