- This topic has 18 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated Oct 26-5:16 am by BobC.
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Anonymous
So finally started testing with live USB…
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Background:Although I use AntiX as main system for everyday use, there are times when I need to use other Linux distros for different purposes; specially, or even specifically, for external works.
Optical media (CDs/DVDs) have been decreasing in usage -and even discouraged-; having one USB stick for each and every Linux distro is impractical, and even feels kind of infamous, even if just a few of them. Solution? Multiboot USB.
Of course there’s a number of tools out there to do this (YUMI, Unetbootin…), but I was wondering if there was by chance a more “native”, or “manual” way, to do this on Linux. Long story short, after searching, I eventually found this tool:
https://github.com/hackerncoder/multibootusb
Which is actually a script implementation of this
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Multiboot_USB_drive
Overall, Grub loopback devices are being used.It has worked pretty well for me. I agree with what the Arch Linux wiki mentions about the advantages and disadvantages; but at least *many* distros seem to work, and it’s only a matter of copying the ISO file(s). Other multiboot tools extract the ISOs contents, and even modify them sometimes. Not necessarily bad, but I’d prefer otherwise if possible…
End of background
————————————————————————————So I tried Antix 19.4 x64 live system with this multiboot USB tool. Given that AntiX is listed in the tool’s mbusb.d directory, “it should be supported” as well. And yes, fortunately it worked, just needed to update some of the boot parameters a bit.
It also uses the fromiso=* boot parameter, which according to the /live/README file present in AntiX live system (an excerpt here), is “deprecated, yet still supported”. Well, this is one good reason to still support it.
Aside the obvious improve in loading speeds, booting from USB seemingly does not have this past issue at all for some reason.
Once booted, unfortunately I noticed very similar issue as this past one; the differences being:
–instead of an optical drive being forcibly mounted to /live/boot-dev, now USB stuff is forcibly mounted to /live/iso-dev (the USB partition), and /live/iso-file (the mounted AntiX ISO itself). I do remember these /live mount points are described at the very end of the /live/README file mentioned earlier.
–unlike the optical drive case, neither iso-file nor iso-dev can be normally unmounted! Thus cannot freaking unplug USB stick!
Unmounting iso-dev from SpaceFM gives same error as if attempting to unmount /live/linux:
udevil: error 68: cannot stat '/live/iso-dev'
Unmounting iso-file:
udevil: error 55: cannot find '/live/iso-file' mounted in mtabHell, I have to use sudo umount from command line, and first unmount iso-file, then iso-dev; otherwise iso-dev complains that “target is busy”.
Some possibly useful additional info:
demo@antix1:~ $ lsblk # booted from CD NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT loop0 7:0 0 643.6M 1 loop /live/linux sda 8:0 0 223.6G 0 disk ├─sda1 8:1 0 529M 0 part ├─sda2 8:2 0 100M 0 part ├─sda3 8:3 0 16M 0 part └─sda4 8:4 0 223G 0 part sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom sr1 11:1 1 678M 0 rom /live/boot-dev demo@antix1:~ $ demo@antix1:~ $ lsblk # booted from USB NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT loop0 7:0 0 678M 1 loop /live/iso-file loop1 7:1 0 643.6M 1 loop /live/linux sda 8:0 0 223.6G 0 disk ├─sda1 8:1 0 529M 0 part ├─sda2 8:2 0 100M 0 part ├─sda3 8:3 0 16M 0 part └─sda4 8:4 0 223G 0 part sdb 8:16 1 14.4G 0 disk ├─sdb1 8:17 1 1M 0 part ├─sdb2 8:18 1 50M 0 part /media/sdb2 └─sdb3 8:19 1 14.4G 0 part /live/iso-dev sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom demo@antix1:~ $Relevant fstab part when booting from CD:
# Added by make-fstab /dev/sr0 /dev/sr0 /media/sr0 auto noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0 # Added by make-fstab /dev/sr1 /dev/sr1 /live/boot-dev auto noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0Relevant fstab part when booting from USB:
# Added by make-fstab /dev/sdb2 UUID=<two 4-digit hex> /media/sdb2 vfat noauto,uid=1000,gid=users,dmask=002,fmask=113,users 0 0 # Added by make-fstab /dev/sdb3 label=MULTIBOOT UUID=<two 4-digit hex> /live/iso-dev vfat noauto,uid=1000,gid=users,dmask=002,fmask=113 0 0 # Added by make-fstab /dev/sr0 /dev/sr0 /media/sr0 auto noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0Ok, sdb2 is actually not a problem at all, and I don’t attempt to unmount /live/linux, but, both /live/iso-file and /live/iso-dev are being used to mount USB drive’s stuff, so in the end I need admin user to simply unplug the drive, even when I’m using boot parameter “toram” to boot AntiX. Is all of this also expected? WTH?
Thanks beforehand.
Xecure
I never use CD or ISO, not even on multiboot USB, so I cannot give any good advice.
When in the live boot menus, if you use the boot option
mount=off
with toram, does anything change in fstab at all? It is supposed to disable any mounting during the booting process, but I don’t know how compatible it is with the toram option.antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.
marcelocripe
Hello ctcx.
… but I was wondering if there was a chance a more “native”, or “manual” way, to do this on Linux.
The closest I could do to the title of your topic was with Ventoy, in the topic “How to Create Bootable Pendrive Using Ventoy“. The topic is in Portuguese language, try to translate to your language with the help of internet translators and check if something might be useful for you.
I have not yet been able to find a program that will allow me to create on bootable DVD media containing multiple antiX ISO images.marcelocripe
(Original text in Brazilian Portuguese language)– – – – –
Olá ctcx.
… but I was wondering if there was by chance a more “native”, or “manual” way, to do this on Linux.
O mais próximo que eu consegui fazer do título do seu tópico foi com o Ventoy, no tópico “Como Criar Pendrive Inicializável Usando o Ventoy“. O tópico está em idioma Português, tente traduzir para o seu idioma com o auxílio dos tradutores da internet e verifique se algo possa ser útil para você.
Eu ainda não consegui encontrar um programa que me permita criar em uma mídia de DVD inicializável contendo várias imagens ISOs do antiX.marcelocripe
(Texto original em idioma Português do Brasil)BobC
Use the Forum >> Search >> for multiboot or ventoy.
Be sure to read skidoo’s post on the subject.
I had better luck with ventoy than multiboot USB but your experiences might vary.
I finally resorted to having a large partition on my system that holds many ISO files and just use Live USB Maker from the control panel to write a fresh (likely reused) 3.0 USB flashdrive when I want to test something on a distro.
Thanks everyone for your advise.
I certainly ignored the existence of the Ventoy tool. At just first sight, looks not bad, though perhaps similar to YUMI or Unetbootin as well.
The tool I talked about certainly has the obvious disadvantage of not supporting Windows; though in the end, at least in my case, I thought I could perhaps live with it: one USB for the various Linux distributions, and another one just for Windows. Two USB drives is still not bad.
On the other hand, what I also liked about it is that it uses pure Linux bash commands to create the USB drive, instead of 3rd-party programs. As mentioned, I have been able to test it with several distros already, both for live booting and installation. Also, since there’s a writable partition indeed, it’d be even viable for AntiX persistence stuff in theory, though I still haven’t tested this yet…
@Xecure:
Boot parameter “mount=off”, as well as “automount=off” and “amount=off”, together with “toram”, did nothing at all regarding the USB drive. Same effects, and same fstab. By the way, during booting process it even complained about “amount=off”, saying it was “not valid, perhaps mis-written”…Er, this may sound stupid, but, doing “su” or “sudo” in terminal to enter admin user before or after connecting to a network for first time with Connman, can it make any kind of difference, or harm?
Thanks.
Er, I meant, I also use AntiX live system for external works at times.
With the USB I have to unmount /live/iso-file and /live/iso-dev manually with sudo always after booting.
Could this make any kind of harm to the USB at long term?Thanks.
Xecure
You are unmounting a “virtual” filesystem, that seems to not be needed for the antiX live experience, at least in your experience, so no problems then. Mounting and unmounting devices shouldn’t harm the USB devices, be it with or without sudo.
About the fear of someone/something taking advantage of your sudo privileges, simply stop the sudo time-out session with
sudo -k
and that should again force any program to require your password if they want to escalate their privileges.antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.@Xecure:
Are there substantial differences between using plain “(u)mount” and “udevil (u)mount”?
Thanks.
anticapitalista
@Xecure:
Are there substantial differences between using plain “(u)mount” and “udevil (u)mount”?
Thanks.Not really.
udevil was written by the SpaceFM dev and has a very extensive manual/help file.BTW – we wrote that fromiso is not supported to avoid these kinds of posts.
Why don’t you run antiX off a usb device using our live-usb-maker tool?Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.
antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.
@anticapitalista:
I’m sorry for having bothered you and everyone here.I do understand the point, and I did try the official AntiX USB maker, which works very well (perhaps I should have started up by mentioning this since beginning…).
However I was also very interested in making it work with the multiboot USB tool due to my needs exposed in the OP; but maybe I was worrying slightly too much… Apologies if I ended up offending
Thanks. No more botherings.
anticapitalista
No offense taken.
When 3rd party apps are involved such as (in this case) Multiboot or Ventoy we cannot guarantee anything will work because we have no idea how those apps set up booting ‘fromiso’.
Having said that, if anyone can help, please do.
We will all be the wiser.Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.
antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.
You’re right once again sir.
I wanted to reply sooner, but it took me longer to review what I thought I knew and do some additional searches…
Certainly we don’t know how 3rd-party applications do their stuff, but regarding the multiboot tool I mentioned here, well… most likely I’m ignorant but I’m not sure how much of a “3rd-party” it would be…
Tool uses just Grub2 and Bash stuff to do everything. In fact, it is essentially just a set of Bash and Grub2 scripts.
Script for every supported distro uses commands and parameters proper of each distro precisely.So for the question “how does this app set up booting ‘fromiso’?”, I think the answer would be “just the way distro itself sets it up”. At least as far as I understand it.
I post here in an attempt to help indeed, just as you said.
And again, NOT to minimze AntiX USB maker at all.
However, if it still doesn’t help at all, I won’t be bothering with the same thing neither.Thanks again.
MultibootUSB looks to have been abandoned a couple years ago. The website that had the instructions is down.
rokytnji
Not my cup of tea either but:
https://github.com/adi1090x/uGRUB
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Multiboot_USB_driveUsed to know a fellow linux user online named Tazman that posted instructions also on stuff like this. Then there is Bartpe boot stuff also.
Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
Not all who Wander are Lost.
I'm not outa place. I'm from outer space.Linux Registered User # 475019
How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problemsAs far as booting antix is concerned, when it installs antiX it does have a configuration built in for antiX, but it doesn’t allow for persistence, and no obvious way to customize the settings.
Given the lack of support or documentation for the system, if it doesn’t just work, you either need to try to figure it all out from scratch and source code, or look elsewhere.
Interestingly, it offered persistence settings for DMX 1.0 because it recognized it as Debian, but not for antiX. It’s too bad the documentation was on the website instead of included in the program.
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