On Fri, 27 Dec 2024 14:23:48 +1100
Ralph Ronnquist <rrq@???> wrote:

> On Fri, Dec 27, 2024 at 02:00:07AM +0100, Olivia May wrote:
> > Libreboot has ISOLINUX and grub2 support. Neither work with the Devuan Daedalus ISOs. I did not copy the ISO onto the drive like in a file manager. I properly burned it onto the usb using the `dd` command to the /dev/sdb aka usb device, like I do with linux mint, artix, and devuan chimaera, and I'm able to boot from the usbs with all those distros except devuan daedalus. I don't use ventoy.
> >
> > The burned devuan daedalus ISO is mountable, I can mount the usb and go through the files. I'm not sure why libreboot doesnt find anything.
> >
> > Devuan Chimaera booted from isolinux in libreboot only loads the devuan background image. Booting from grub2 shows the grub menu.
> >
> > Devuan Daedalus does the same thing with isolinux. It doesn't work at all with grub2. So it ends up being unbootable.
> >
> > Linux Mint works with isolinux and grub2. And Arch Linux works with isolinux. I found this libreboot article that says libreboot didnt directly scan for syslinux configs until recently.
> > https://libreboot.org/news/libreboot20240126.html
>
> Ok, I don't know what libreboot tries to do.
>
> There is no grub boot equipment on the Daedalus installer iso. There
> are 3 syslinux boot equipments that offer 4 workable use case:
>
> 1) to boot with UEFI bios with the ISO as CDROM
> 2) to boot with UEFI bios with the ISO as harddisk
> 3) to boot with legacy bios with the ISO as CDROM
> 4) to boot with legacy bios with the ISO as harddisk
>
> In the first two use cases, the boot is achieved via syslinux.efi.
>
> Use case 3 is achieved with a "traditional" isolinux setup.
>
> Use case 4 is achieved with a "traditional" syslinux setup.
>
> There is also a "manual rescue mode" if you are reasonably confident
> on the command line. You enter that by adding "emerg" to the boot
> command line, and the preamble will then enter a busybox-static shell
> (a sub shell actually) before trying to switch root.
>
> At that point you may manually find the ISO and its /boot/initrd.gz,
> and manually unpack that at /target. You should then also leave
> /dev/loop0 for the ISO. Exit the sub shell to let the switch-root
> happen, and that (if it works) will be the installer.
>
> Note: one possibility is that the preamble fails to install the right
> driver module(s) for your drive, which would reault in the preamble
> failing to mount it. If that's the case you will need to load those
> modules manually in the emerg shell before everything else.
>
> Ralph.
>
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Olivia
> >
> >
> > Dec 26, 2024, 15:27 by rrq@???:
> >
> > > On Thu, Dec 26, 2024 at 04:36:03PM +0100, Olivia May wrote:
> > >
> > >> Hello Devuan Devs,
> > >>
> > >> When I burn the installer-isos to a usb and try booting from
> > >> Libreboot, it doesn't work. It loads the devuan background image but
> > >> it won't load the grub menu that lets you install Devuan. I've only
> > >> tested the netinstall and desktop from the installer-iso/ directory.
> > >> Devuan Chimaera netinstall and desktop works. Libreboot doesn't load
> > >> the background but it loads the grub menu.
> > >>
> > >
> > > No, it's a *syslinux* menu. The ISOs boot system is syslinux only. But
> > > that's not a problem.
> > >
> > >> I've tried reformatting the usb, zeroing it out, and Daedalus still
> > >> doesn't work. Chimaera works on the same usb. I'm using a lenovo
> > >> thinkpad x230 with Libreboot with an Intel CPU.
> > >>
> > >> Did I do something wrong for Daedalus? Is there a specific command I
> > >> have to use to burn the ISO? I've been using dd. Is this a problem
> > >> with Libreboot?
> > >>
> > >
> > > At a guess, the problem is that you have copied the ISO as a file into
> > > a filesystem on the USB, rather than copied the ISO onto the USB
> > > device as a whole. Then you use some other boot system (Ventoy?) that
> > > lets you select and chain-load the kernal and initrd from that ISO
> > > file But that boot system *does not then present the ISO file as a
> > > mountable partition*, and therefore the installer doesn't find it.
> > >
> > > That method works only with disyributions that are fully contained in
> > > their initrd. Devuan installer ISOs require access to the ISO as a
> > > mountable partition.
> > >
> > > It's actually the same issue for chimaera ISOs, except that it's
> > > startup is different. So it shows the initial installation dialogs as
> > > if it would work. However especially it's partition utility is then
> > > reduced to use FAT or ext2 only, and it will also have problems to
> > > install the base system (because the software for other filesystems as
> > > well as base system packages need to be loaded from to ISO after
> > > mounting it).
> > >
> > > Ralph.
> > >
> > >> Thank you,
> > >> Olivia
> > >>
Hi,
An alternative would be to pull out the hardisk, put it into another pc with same architecture (amd64?)
install Deadalus there , put it back into the laptop, boot it and fix the configs if necessary.
Hope this helps.
Ciao,
Tito