Installing -BASE using -NET (or fixing GRUB)

[Member fizzybrain]

Summary: I would like to install antiX-base to HDD using the antiX-net CD as ethernet is by far the best way to get an OS onto the machine.
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I have an old AMD Athlon 1400MHz/1GB RAM laptop – not fast but has a decent keyboard and screen to use as shed workstation for very simple tasks and connecting to house machines through VNC, RDP, etc. (I have done similar using a Dell mini 9 of similar spec and was impressed with how straightforward and fast eveything was/is)

It has a CD/DVD drive, but it’s pretty flaky (and very slow) and feels like it will shake itself to bits if I have to keep using it.
It has USB 1.1, but I cannot boot from it, even if I try starting to boot from CD and using the “from=USB” option – it doesn’t appear in the list of block devices, which I gather is not unusual for USB 1.1.

I have tried two approaches (on different HDDs)

Method A: I can boot from a antiX-net CD. I have seen people saying that it is possible to install a full or base version using cli-installer from the -net version, but I don’t see any options to do that (the posts which say that are several years old). If I let it run I end up with an installed and booting -net version, from which I am apparently expected to “build up”. This is hugely above my level of expertise (and stamina). Is there some nice script which will then install everything to make it into a -base version, with all the utilities, properly-configured menus, automatically-starting X, etc? Or maybe I am missing something in cli-installer which will make it install a full -base system from the beginning?

Method B: I can boot from the antiX-base CD. I ask to install that distro and it apparently installs OK, but fails at the GRUB stage (*) – when I try to boot, the machine just sits and stares back at me without even getting to anything resembling a bootloader. * – I am invited to use “bootrepair” from control centre, but evidently that is beyond me because then when I reboot I am dropped to a grub console and I have no idea what to do with that. I have tried reinstalling GRUB to the MBR or to the root partition (the latter throws up a warning, though, as apparently ext2 is not suitable for embedding, or something like that), but frankly I might as well be trying to fix a computer using a hammer, which I confess is an approach which I have considered.

It all just worked beautifully with the Dell Mini!

So, can anyone help with:
a) turning/upgrading a minimal “antiX-net” installation into an “antiX-base” system?
or
b) fixing GRUB, or whatever it is that will get my apparently-installed but non-booting “antiX-base” system working?

[Member Xecure]

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For net -> Base, if you are not ready to invest a lot of time, forget it. It is not newbie friendly. cli-installer will only install the system, and maybe you can add bits and pieces with cli-aptiX, but it isn’t as easy to get the same result as base without the know-how. If you want to try this on your free time, check any of the topics that speaks on building from core to base for specific window managers.

On grub issue with base. Boot repair normally fixes things, but you need to reinstall AND repair grub (both), before rebooting. Also, it depends on if you have a legacy BIOS and need MBR, or a UEFI system and need ESP for hosting the efi boot file. Sharing your
inxi -Fxz
may help out if you still have issues with grub repair.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member fizzybrain]

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Yup, that’s it!
Re-install then repair GRUB. I think I tried each of those individually (and maybe even both but in the wrong order!), duh. I am appalled at how much I have forgotten since the last time I tried to love Linux.

I’m surprised that cli-installer can’t install the base version – as it was strongly hinted at in old posts – but it occurs to me that the way it works (by creating a running system in memory and then copying it to HDD, as far as I can see) wouldn’t have helped with my low-RAM system anyway.

Thanks for the help

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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User can use cli-installer to install net, core, base and full versions.
You need to be booting from each one.
eg antiX net iso cannot install any other version except net, same with core, base, full.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member fizzybrain]

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Ah, I see. I had originally assumed cli-installer was akin to a package manager, bundling a collection of packages together. I think I have come across something else like that with a different distro in the past, which made me think it was that.
It’s all good.
Thanks 🙂

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