XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

Java Jive wrote:

I wish to create one USB stick that can act as a rescue system for both
Linux & Windows 7 & 10

I think I would choose a linux rescue type distro of my choice plus a
Hirens such as the PE one so it would cover 10 and put both .iso/s on a
Ventoy stick. There are also a lot of things on the old Hirens 15
(which is XP and a lot of MSDOS & linux) that aren't on the PE that
might be useful for Win related stuff and would cover that angle.

The nice thing about the Ventoy 'idea' is that you could have a wide
selection of linux rescue distro/s and the hirens pe & 15.

You would do your rescue work from a live boot.

Hiren's PE 3G .iso
Hiren's 15.2 0.6G .iso
clonezilla-live-3.1.2-22-i686 0.36G .iso

Also consider such as Rescatux, Sparky Rescue, SystemRescue, etc.

Sparky's is 1.8G.


--
Mike Easter

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

This is a deliberate X-post between Linux & Windows groups because, as
per subject, I wish to create one USB stick that can act as a rescue
system for both Linux & Windows 7 & 10

As a half-way house test-bench, I have partitioned an external HD in a
USB drive-bay as follows:

P1 Ubuntu 22 | P2 Clonezilla | P3 Win 10 Install | P4 Ghost & ISO images

The PCs involved are:
1 Dell Precision M6700 x 2
2 Dell Inspiron 15RSE 7520
3 Dell Precision M6300


PROBLEM #1:

I can boot from the external HD on PC3, & I think PC2 but cannot check
just now as I'm using it to write this, but certainly not on either of
PC1, which both give the message "Invalid Partition Table!". AFAICT,
their BIOS settings are set to support fully legacy booting, which is
what this disk is partitioned as, and they boot happily from their own
internal legacy partitioned disks, but not this external one. They also
boot happily from a number of USB sticks. The most obvious difference
between these two PCs and the others is that they both have two internal
HDs:
Disk 0, /dev/sda, contains just two data partitions.
Disk 1, /dev/sdb, contains four OS partitions:
Win 7
Win 10
Win 7 32-Bit
Ubuntu 22

Can anyone suggest how I can arrange things so that all the PCs can boot
from this external HD?


PROBLEM #2

I can boot into Clonezilla 3.1.2, but not into its syslinux.cfg menu as
happens when I boot from the USB directly; the method I found online
seems designed to boot directly into the first option of the syslinux
menu, not to invoke the menu itself. How can I boot via grub into the
same menu that you get when booting it as a USB?

The method that I found online suggests placing the following grub
fragment in either ...
/boot/grub/grub.cfg
... but that won't survive updates to grub, or to ...
/etc/grub.d/40_custom
... which will:

menuentry "Clonezilla" {
savedefault
set root=(hd0,2)
linux /live/vmlinuz boot=live union=overlay username=user config components quiet noswap nolocales edd=on nomodeset ocs_live_run=\"ocs-live-general\" ocs_live_extra_param=\"\"
keyboard-layouts= ocs_live_batch=\"no\" locales= vga=788 ip=frommedia
nosplash live-media-path=/live bootfrom=/dev/sda2 toram=live,syslinux,EFI
initrd /live/initrd.img
}


PROBLEM #3

I have added to Clonezilla's syslinux.cfg menu an option of my own to
boot into an ISO of an old W98 console for running Dell Diagnostics, a
legacy version of Ghost, etc. When booting from the original USB stick,
I see the new option, and it seems to find the ISO and gets some way
into booting it, but then stalls with the message:
Loading boot sector... booting...

I can't seems to find a way of chaining to IO.SYS. Can anyone suggest
how I might do this? This is what I put in the syslinux.cfg menu:

label EmerDellGhost
# MENU DEFAULT
# MENU HIDE
MENU LABEL Emergency W98 Boot - Legacy Ghost & Dell Diagnostics
# MENU PASSWD
kernel memdisk
append initrd=/live/EmerDellGhost.iso
TEXT HELP
Run Windows 98 boot with legacy Ghost (2003) and
Dell Diagnostics for Latitude D610 & Precision M6300
ENDTEXT


SUCCESSES

In case it's of interest or help to others, I've managed to boot into a
variety of ISOs of Windows installation media. This is how I managed it:

For the unzipped ISO in Partition 3 above, Grub's os-probe finds the PE environment for itself and correctly sets up to boot into it.

For booting directly from ISOs which have not been unzipped, WimBoot is
needed ...

https://github.com/ipxe/wimboot/releases

... which I placed by itself in a directory WimBoot in Partition 4.
Then as described above and as found online I added the following
fragment to ...
/etc/grub.d/40_custom
... and it and others like it all work:

menuentry "Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Install" --unrestricted --class Windows {
savedefault
set iso_path="(hd0,msdos4)/Windows_7_Home_Premium_64Bit_x17-58997.iso"
loopback loop "$iso_path"
linux16 (hd0,msdos4)/WimBoot/wimboot
initrd16 \
newc:bootmgr:(loop)/bootmgr \
newc:BCD:(loop)/boot/bcd \
newc:boot.sdi:(loop)/boot/boot.sdi \
newc:boot.wim:(loop)/sources/boot.wim
}

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

Mike Easter wrote:

The nice thing about the Ventoy 'idea' is that you could have a wide selection of linux rescue distro/s and the hirens pe & 15.

You would do your rescue work from a live boot.

Also consider such as Rescatux, Sparky Rescue, SystemRescue, etc.

Sparky's is 1.8G.

More on Sparky's

https://wiki.sparkylinux.org/doku.php/sparky_rescue


--
Mike Easter

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

On 22/06/2024 in message <v57c9e$3u03k$[email protected]> Java Jive wrote:

This is a deliberate X-post between Linux & Windows groups because, as per >subject, I wish to create one USB stick that can act as a rescue system
for both Linux & Windows 7 & 10

As a half-way house test-bench, I have partitioned an external HD in a USB >drive-bay as follows:

P1 Ubuntu 22 | P2 Clonezilla | P3 Win 10 Install | P4 Ghost & ISO images

The PCs involved are:
1 Dell Precision M6700 x 2
2 Dell Inspiron 15RSE 7520
3 Dell Precision M6300

PROBLEM #1:

I can boot from the external HD on PC3, & I think PC2 but cannot check
just now as I'm using it to write this, but certainly not on either of
PC1, which both give the message "Invalid Partition Table!". AFAICT,
their BIOS settings are set to support fully legacy booting, which is what >this disk is partitioned as, and they boot happily from their own internal >legacy partitioned disks, but not this external one. They also boot
happily from a number of USB sticks. The most obvious difference between >these two PCs and the others is that they both have two internal HDs:
Disk 0, /dev/sda, contains just two data partitions.
Disk 1, /dev/sdb, contains four OS partitions:
Win 7
Win 10
Win 7 32-Bit
Ubuntu 22

Can anyone suggest how I can arrange things so that all the PCs can boot
from this external HD?

I use Ventoy which allows me to boot an external USB drive to any OS that
has a bootable iso on the Ventoy drive.

A question - are you using whatever key is appropriate to start your
BIOS's boot manager or expecting that whatever is on your Wimboot drive to
give you a choice of what drive to boot?

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
Are you confused about gender?
Try milking a bull, you'll learn real quick.

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

On 22/06/2024 22:12, Mike Easter wrote:

Mike Easter wrote:

The nice thing about the Ventoy 'idea' is that you could have a wide
selection of linux rescue distro/s and the hirens pe & 15.

You would do your rescue work from a live boot.

Also consider such as Rescatux, Sparky Rescue, SystemRescue, etc.

Sparky's is 1.8G.

More on Sparky's

https://wiki.sparkylinux.org/doku.php/sparky_rescue

Thanks to both yourself & Jeff Gaines for your replies, I've downloaded
Ventoy & Sparky and will investigate them. However, in the meantime can
anyone help with the specific problems listed?

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

On 23/06/2024 16:54, Java Jive wrote:

On 22/06/2024 22:12, Mike Easter wrote:

Mike Easter wrote:

The nice thing about the Ventoy 'idea' is that you could have a wide
selection of linux rescue distro/s and the hirens pe & 15.

You would do your rescue work from a live boot.

Also consider such as Rescatux, Sparky Rescue, SystemRescue, etc.

Sparky's is 1.8G.

More on Sparky's

https://wiki.sparkylinux.org/doku.php/sparky_rescue

Thanks to both yourself & Jeff Gaines for your replies, I've downloaded Ventoy & Sparky and will investigate them.  However, in the meantime can anyone help with the specific problems listed?

Well, I *thought* I'd downloaded Ventoy, but now I see that the download failed. Of the three formats here tried in two browsers ...
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ventoy/files/v1.0.99/
... only the zip seems to download. I get about 175-185 of 196MB of the
live CD iso, and about 10-14 of 20MB of the tar.gz, but never a complete download of either. Due to the sodding Javascript obfuscation, WayBack
doesn't work on these pages.

Anyone able to download all three?

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

On Sat, 22 Jun 2024 14:09:26 -0700
Mike Easter <[email protected]d> wrote:

Java Jive wrote:

I wish to create one USB stick that can act as a rescue system for both Linux & Windows 7 & 10

I think I would choose a linux rescue type distro of my choice plus a
Hirens such as the PE one so it would cover 10 and put both .iso/s on a Ventoy stick. There are also a lot of things on the old Hirens 15
(which is XP and a lot of MSDOS & linux) that aren't on the PE that
might be useful for Win related stuff and would cover that angle.

The nice thing about the Ventoy 'idea' is that you could have a wide selection of linux rescue distro/s and the hirens pe & 15.

You would do your rescue work from a live boot.

Hiren's PE 3G .iso
Hiren's 15.2 0.6G .iso
clonezilla-live-3.1.2-22-i686 0.36G .iso

Also consider such as Rescatux, Sparky Rescue, SystemRescue, etc.

Sparky's is 1.8G.

When I was a boy, a rescue disk was just that, 1.44M max (OK just for
DOS)

--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.

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Kerr-Mudd, John wrote:

When I was a boy, a rescue disk was just that, 1.44M max (OK just for
DOS)

I wasn't a boy at the time, but my first computer ONLY had a floppy for 'storage'; the Atari ST held its OS in an on-board EPROM that it booted
from. If you need to store something on the floppy, like a doc, and it
only held 720 KB.

The Atari 1040ST, released in 1986 with 1 MB of memory, was the first home computer with a cost per kilobyte of RAM under US$1/KB.

All of that worked 'just fine' for what I was doing at the time, logging
onto a commercial BBS by dialup & commiserating w/ other AtariSTers or
using a graphical word processing program to print on a 9 pin dot
matrix. I didn't up to a 4 meg memory and a 20 meg hd, and networked
machines by their cartridge ports for years, and 24 pin dot matrix.
Those were 16/32 bit Motorola 68000s.

I was recently reading a backstory about Steve Jobs working a while at
Atari (the 8 bits) as a step in his dropping out days.

--
Mike Easter

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

Java Jive wrote:

Anyone able to download all three?

sourceforge doesn't allow me to press the "don't accept cookies" button.

firefox+ghostery

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

Java Jive wrote:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ventoy/files/v1.0.99/

The way I use Ventoy on a USB stick is to dl the linux tar.gz and do the browser install as per https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_linux_webui.html

1. run sudo bash VentoyWeb.sh in the terminal
2. open browser and visit http://127.0.0.1:24680

I've never had any problem dl/ing any of the versions of Ventoy I've used.

--
Mike Easter

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

On 23/06/2024 18:08, Andy Burns wrote:

Java Jive wrote:

Well, I *thought* I'd downloaded Ventoy, but now I see that the download
failed. Of the three formats here tried in two browsers ...
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ventoy/files/v1.0.99/
... only the zip seems to download. I get about 175-185 of 196MB of the
live CD iso, and about 10-14 of 20MB of the tar.gz, but never a complete
download of either. Due to the sodding Javascript obfuscation, WayBack
doesn't work on these pages.

Anyone able to download all three?

sourceforge doesn't allow me to press the "don't accept cookies" button.

firefox+ghostery

Yes, it seems to be some sort of silly-buggers protectionism, for FREE
OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE, for chrissake! What I think may have been
happening in my case was that a certain amount of time was allowed for
the size of the download, and because I have moderately slow rurual
mobile connection, the portcullis was coming down just before the
downloads could complete.

However, I've found a way around it ...

<Right-Click> the failed item in your browser's downloads page, and
paste it into a new tab, remove the part after the '?', which from
memory was ?viasf=1. This takes you to a mirror without all the silly
buggers, and it just works, or at least did for me.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

Java Jive <[email protected]d> writes:

PROBLEM #2

I can boot into Clonezilla 3.1.2, but not into its syslinux.cfg menu
as happens when I boot from the USB directly; the method I found
online seems designed to boot directly into the first option of the
syslinux menu, not to invoke the menu itself.

https://serverfault.com/questions/98950/how-do-i-chain-boot-from-grub-to-syslinux
proposes this:

set root='hd1,msdos1'
chainloader +1
boot

Does that work with root= adjusted to your system?

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Oops ... As hopefully anyone interested would have realised ...

On 23/06/2024 18:24, Java Jive wrote:

Yes, it seems to be some sort of silly-buggers protectionism, for FREE
OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE, for chrissake!  What I think may have been
happening in my case was that a certain amount of time was allowed for
the size of the download, and because I have a moderately slow rural
mobile connection, the portcullis was coming down just before the
downloads could complete.

However, I've found a way around it ...

<Right-Click> the failed item in your browser's downloads page, and
paste it into a new tab, remove the part

... including and ...

after the '?', which from
memory was ?viasf=1.  This takes you to a mirror without all the silly buggers, and it just works, or at least did for me.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

Although the Ventoy CD iso wouldn't boot after being copied to a USB by
Rufus, I was able to use Ventoy2Disk.exe in the zip to create a bootable
USB to try out. It's pretty neat, and both the problem PCs boot from it.

So to summarise the situation now, and include a problem I forgot to
mention before ...

On 22/06/2024 21:30, Java Jive wrote:

This is a deliberate X-post between Linux & Windows groups because, as
per subject, I wish to create one USB stick that can act as a rescue
system for both Linux & Windows 7 & 10

As a half-way house test-bench, I have partitioned an external HD in a
USB drive-bay as follows:

P1 Ubuntu 22 | P2 Clonezilla | P3 Win 10 Install | P4 Ghost & ISO images

The PCs involved are:
    1  Dell Precision M6700 x 2
    2  Dell Inspiron 15RSE 7520
    3  Dell Precision M6300

PROBLEM #1:

I can boot from the external HD on PC3, & I think PC2 but cannot check
just now as I'm using it to write this, but certainly not on either of
PC1, which both give the message "Invalid Partition Table!".  AFAICT,
their BIOS settings are set to support fully legacy booting, which is
what this disk is partitioned as, and they boot happily from their own internal legacy partitioned disks, but not this external one.  They also boot happily from a number of USB sticks.  The most obvious difference between these two PCs and the others is that they both have two internal
HDs:
    Disk 0, /dev/sda, contains just two data partitions.
    Disk 1, /dev/sdb, contains four OS partitions:
        Win 7
        Win 10
        Win 7 32-Bit
        Ubuntu 22

Can anyone suggest how I can arrange things so that all the PCs can boot
from this external HD?

As I could include one or more Live Linux USB *.ISOs, I think that most probably this problem has been solved. However, I'd like to be able to
adapt the ISO to use a UK keyboard layout, see next section.

PROBLEM #2

I can boot into Clonezilla 3.1.2, but not into its syslinux.cfg menu as happens when I boot from the USB directly; the method I found online
seems designed to boot directly into the first option of the syslinux
menu, not to invoke the menu itself.  How can I boot via grub into the
same menu that you get when booting it as a USB?

The method that I found online suggests placing the following grub
fragment in either ...
    /boot/grub/grub.cfg
.... but that won't survive updates to grub, or to ...
    /etc/grub.d/40_custom
.... which will:

menuentry "Clonezilla" {
    savedefault
    set root=(hd0,2)
    linux /live/vmlinuz boot=live union=overlay username=user config components quiet noswap nolocales edd=on nomodeset ocs_live_run=\"ocs-live-general\" ocs_live_extra_param=\"\"
keyboard-layouts= ocs_live_batch=\"no\" locales= vga=788 ip=frommedia nosplash live-media-path=/live bootfrom=/dev/sda2 toram=live,syslinux,EFI
    initrd /live/initrd.img
}

Solved as stated.

However, I forgot to mention before that I want to adapt both it and any
Live Linux ISOs to boot with a UK keyboard layout, as, particularly in Clonezilla, the process of choosing one manually is tedious in the
extreme. Can anyone help with how to do that?

PROBLEM #3

I have added to Clonezilla's syslinux.cfg menu an option of my own to
boot into an ISO of an old W98 console for running Dell Diagnostics, a
legacy version of Ghost, etc.  When booting from the original USB stick,
I see the new option, and it seems to find the ISO and gets some way
into booting it, but then stalls with the message:
    Loading boot sector... booting...

I can't seems to find a way of chaining to IO.SYS.  Can anyone suggest
how I might do this?  This is what I put in the syslinux.cfg menu:

label EmerDellGhost
    # MENU DEFAULT
    # MENU HIDE
    MENU LABEL Emergency W98 Boot - Legacy Ghost & Dell Diagnostics
    # MENU PASSWD
    kernel memdisk
    append initrd=/live/EmerDellGhost.iso
    TEXT HELP
    Run Windows 98 boot with legacy Ghost (2003) and
    Dell Diagnostics for Latitude D610 & Precision M6300
    ENDTEXT

Still a problem, I suspect still with the role of the Boot Sector in
chaining to IO.SYS. I've tried to use Ventoy to boot RawWriteWin *.img
files of Emergency W98 boot floppies ...

error: no such partition

Disk I/O error
Replace the disk, and then press any key

... and ISOs made with ImgBurn ...

[goes straight through to the PC's normal grub menu
without any visible message being given]

... but I still can't get a bootable result. Any further help with this
would be welcome.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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On 24/06/2024 10:33, Anssi Saari wrote:

Java Jive <[email protected]d> writes:

PROBLEM #2

I can boot into Clonezilla 3.1.2, but not into its syslinux.cfg menu
as happens when I boot from the USB directly; the method I found
online seems designed to boot directly into the first option of the
syslinux menu, not to invoke the menu itself.

https://serverfault.com/questions/98950/how-do-i-chain-boot-from-grub-to-syslinux
proposes this:

set root='hd1,msdos1'
chainloader +1
boot

Does that work with root= adjusted to your system?

I think I saw and tried that before writing my OP, but at any rate have
just tried it again. Adjusting root would give ...

set root='hd0,msdos2'
... or as Grub writes it ...
set root=(hd0,msdos2)
... then ...
chainloader +1
boot

... but both versions result simply in ...

Boot error

... with no further information supplied. Thanks anyway.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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Java Jive wrote:

Although the Ventoy CD iso wouldn't boot after being copied to a USB by Rufus,

If you go the Rufus route, you need to use its dd function to write the
Ventoy.

See graphic https://www.ventoy.net/static/img/livecd/en_live6.png

Also, current v/s Rufus don't run on W7. I'm a Rufus 'fan' and use the
old on W7.


--
Mike Easter

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Putting the keyboard layout problem aside for now, I'm still open for
help on Problem #3, booting an iso of an MSDOS/W98-Console-Mode
emergency USB, which I have been endeavouring to investigate
systematically, as follows ...

On 24/06/2024 11:01, Java Jive wrote:

PROBLEM #3

I have added to Clonezilla's syslinux.cfg menu an option of my own to
boot into an ISO of an old W98 console for running Dell Diagnostics, a
legacy version of Ghost, etc.  When booting from the original USB
stick, I see the new option, and it seems to find the ISO and gets
some way into booting it, but then stalls with the message:
     Loading boot sector... booting...

I can't seems to find a way of chaining to IO.SYS.  Can anyone suggest
how I might do this?  This is what I put in the syslinux.cfg menu:

label EmerDellGhost
     # MENU DEFAULT
     # MENU HIDE
     MENU LABEL Emergency W98 Boot - Legacy Ghost & Dell Diagnostics
     # MENU PASSWD
     kernel memdisk
     append initrd=/live/EmerDellGhost.iso
     TEXT HELP
     Run Windows 98 boot with legacy Ghost (2003) and
     Dell Diagnostics for Latitude D610 & Precision M6300
     ENDTEXT

Still a problem, I suspect still with the role of the Boot Sector in
chaining to IO.SYS.  I've tried to use Ventoy to boot RawWriteWin *.img files of Emergency W98 boot floppies ...

    error: no such partition

    Disk I/O error
    Replace the disk, and then press any key

.... and ISOs made with ImgBurn ...

    [goes straight through to the PC's normal grub menu
    without any visible message being given]

.... but I still can't get a bootable result.  Any further help with
this would be welcome.

Given sector-by-sector images of ...

W98 console mode emergency boot floppy (RawWriteWin)
W98 console mode emergency boot USB - entire disk (dd if=/dev/sdx)
W98 console mode emergency boot USB - partition (dd if=/dev/sdx1)

... I've now obtained the results of tests in the following table -
which probably need a fixed font to display properly - details notes
are appended ...

Floppy Disk Partition
Ubuntu 22 mount: Y N Y (USB reversed compared to rest)
Ubuntu 22 qemu: Y Y N
Ventoy: N N N
Clonezilla: Y Y N
Grub2 - loop: N N N
Grub2 - memdisk: Y N* N

* This was particularly disappointing, because this, or the partition equivalent, is what I'd most like to achieve as the alternatives that do
work are more convoluted, and given the previous patterns of results,
once the floppy image worked in this arrangement, I expected the hard
disk image to work as well, but sadly it didn't :-(

If anyone can suggest a way of getting either the disk or partition
image to boot directly with Grub2, I'd be very grateful.


Notes
=====

Ubuntu 22: mount -o loop <filename> /mnt/temp

Floppy.img - Succeeds

USB-Disk.img - Fails
mount: /mnt/temp: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock
on /dev/loop8, missing codepage or helper program, or other
error.

USB-Part.img - Succeeds

So I can mount as a loop device a sector-by-sector image of a W98 boot
floppy, and a sector-by-sector image of the W98 fat32 partition
(partition not disk) which is the only partition on a bootable emergency
USB stick, but I can NOT mount a sector-by-sector image of the entire
emergency USB stick.

However, mostly things are the other way about. For example, when I run
qemu ...

qemu-system-i386 -fda Floppy.img

Boots!

qemu-system-i386 -hda USB-Disk.img

Boots!

qemu-system-i386 -hda USB-Part.img

Fails with ...

SeaBIOS (version 1.15.0-1~)

iPXE (https://ipxe.org) 00:03.0 CA00 PCI2.10 PnP
PMM+07BF8B590+07ECB590 CA00 (all on one line)

Booting from Hard Disk ...

Disk I/O error
Replace the disk, then press any key

So, as far as the USB images are concerned, qemu behaves opposite to
mount. Next we come to a Ventoy USB with the same images on board.
Trying to boot from all of them failed ...

Floppy.img
error: no such partition.

Disk I/O error
Replace the disk, and then press any key

USB-Disk.img
[messages are incomplete and too fast to read except by video]
disk

Disk I/O error
Replace the disk, and then press any key
sk I/O error
Replace the disk, and then press any key

USB-Part.img
error: File (hd0,1)/USB-Part.img is not bootable
chain empty failed
press Enter to continue ......

Next, CloneZilla USB stick, with SysLinux.cfg entries as follows:

Floppy.img

label EmergencyW98
# MENU DEFAULT
# MENU HIDE
MENU LABEL Emergency W98 Boot Disk (Floppy)
# MENU PASSWD
kernel memdisk
append initrd=/live/Floppy.img
TEXT HELP
Boot Windows '98 emergency console
ENDTEXT

Boots!


USB-Disk.img

label EmerDellGhostImg
# MENU DEFAULT
# MENU HIDE
MENU LABEL Emergency W98 Boot - Dell Diags & Legacy Ghost (disk)
# MENU PASSWD
kernel memdisk
append initrd=/live/USB-Disk.img
TEXT HELP
Boot Windows '98 console with Dell Diagnostics
for Latitude D610 & Precision M6300 & Ghost (2003)
ENDTEXT

Boots!


USB-Part.img

label EmerDellGhostIso
# MENU DEFAULT
# MENU HIDE
MENU LABEL Emergency W98 Boot - Dell Diags & Legacy Ghost (part)
# MENU PASSWD
kernel memdisk
append initrd=/live/USB-Part.img
TEXT HELP
Boot Windows '98 console with Dell Diagnostics
for Latitude D610 & Precision M6300 & Ghost (2003)
ENDTEXT

Fails with endless messages scrolling too fast to read and too many to
be worth trying to video, but seem to be hex dumping sectors from the
partition interspersed with other messages.

Finally Grub2 with the following grub.cfg menu entries ...

Floppy.img

menuentry "Windows 98 Emergency Console" --unrestricted --class
Windows {
savedefault
set iso_path="(hd0,msdos4)/Floppy.img"
loopback loop "$iso_path"
set root=(loop)
chainloader +1
boot
}

... fails with ...

Disk I/O error
Replace the disk, and then press any key

... but [memdisk borrowed from Clonezilla USB] ...

menuentry "Windows 98 Emergency Console" --unrestricted --class
Windows {
savedefault
linux16 (hd0,msdos4)/WimBoot/memdisk
initrd16 (hd0,msdos4)/Floppy.img
}

... boots!


USB-Disk.img

menuentry "Windows 98 Emergency Console With Dell Diagnostics &
Ghost 2003 (disk)" --unrestricted --class Windows {
savedefault
set iso_path="(hd0,msdos4)/USB-Disk.img"
loopback loop "$iso_path"
set root=(loop)
chainloader +1
boot
}

... fails with ...

Missing operating system

... and unfortunately ...

menuentry "Windows 98 Emergency Console With Dell Diagnostics &
Ghost 2003 (disk)" --unrestricted --class Windows {
savedefault
linux16 (hd0,msdos4)/WimBoot/memdisk
initrd16 (hd0,msdos4)/USB-Disk.img
}

... fails with ...

MEMDISK 6.03 20171018 Copyright 2001-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al
MEMDISK: No ramdisk image specified!

... which is a particular bummer as described above.


USB-Part.img

menuentry "Windows 98 Emergency Console With Dell Diagnostics &
Ghost 2003 (part)" --unrestricted --class Windows {
savedefault
set iso_path="(hd0,msdos4)/USB-Part.img"
loopback loop "$iso_path"
set root=(loop)
chainloader +1
boot
}

... fails with a flashing underline cursor top left of screen but no
messages, and ...

menuentry "Windows 98 Emergency Console With Dell Diagnostics &
Ghost 2003 (part)" --unrestricted --class Windows {
savedefault
linux16 (hd0,msdos4)/WimBoot/memdisk
initrd16 (hd0,msdos4)/USB-Disk.iso
}

... also fails with ...

MEMDISK 6.03 20171018 Copyright 2001-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al
MEMDISK: No ramdisk image specified!

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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On 01/07/2024 19:54, Java Jive wrote:

On 24/06/2024 11:01, Java Jive wrote:

However, I forgot to mention before that I want to adapt both it and
any Live Linux ISOs to boot with a UK keyboard layout, as,
particularly in Clonezilla, the process of choosing one manually is
tedious in the extreme.  Can anyone help with how to do that?

I've solved this for Clonezilla by editing /syslinux/syslinux.cfg,
globally finding & replacing as follows:
    locales=           =>  locales=en_GB.UTF-8
    keyboard-layouts=  =>  keyboard-layouts=gb

Hopefully something similar will work for the Linux Live ISOs, but I
have yet to investigate those.

Perhaps should have mentioned that the allowable values for other parts
of the world can be found in any Debian-based distro as follows ...
Locales: /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED
Keyboard: /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

On 24/06/2024 11:01, Java Jive wrote:

However, I forgot to mention before that I want to adapt both it and any
Live Linux ISOs to boot with a UK keyboard layout, as, particularly in Clonezilla, the process of choosing one manually is tedious in the
extreme.  Can anyone help with how to do that?

I've solved this for Clonezilla by editing /syslinux/syslinux.cfg,
globally finding & replacing as follows:
locales= => locales=en_GB.UTF-8
keyboard-layouts= => keyboard-layouts=gb

Hopefully something similar will work for the Linux Live ISOs, but I
have yet to investigate those.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

On 01/07/2024 20:04, Java Jive wrote:

On 01/07/2024 19:54, Java Jive wrote:

On 24/06/2024 11:01, Java Jive wrote:

However, I forgot to mention before that I want to adapt both it and
any Live Linux ISOs to boot with a UK keyboard layout, as,
particularly in Clonezilla, the process of choosing one manually is
tedious in the extreme.  Can anyone help with how to do that?

I've solved this for Clonezilla by editing /syslinux/syslinux.cfg,
globally finding & replacing as follows:
     locales=           =>  locales=en_GB.UTF-8
     keyboard-layouts=  =>  keyboard-layouts=gb

Hopefully something similar will work for the Linux Live ISOs, but I
have yet to investigate those.

Perhaps should have mentioned that the allowable values for other parts
of the world can be found in any Debian-based distro as follows ...
    Locales:   /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED
    Keyboard:  /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst

The hazards of trying to post while doing something else (cooking) ...

Should also have mentioned, further information here: https://clonezilla.org//fine-print-live-doc.php?path=./clonezilla-live/doc/99_Misc/00_live-boot-parameters.doc#00_live-boot-parameters.doc
https://live-team.pages.debian.net/live-manual/html/live-manual/customizing-run-time-behaviours.en.html#530



--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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XPost: alt.os.linux, alt.windows7.general

Java Jive wrote:

However, I forgot to mention before that I want to adapt both it and any
Live Linux ISOs to boot with a UK keyboard layout, as, particularly in Clonezilla, the process of choosing one manually is tedious in the extreme.

I don't understand yet.

If I were going to /try/ to boot live w/ a locale, I think I would do it
w/ a boot parameter rather than changing the .iso, but the part I
haven't figured out yet is why it should be tedious in the extreme to
change the locale in the live /after/ the boot and then just log out and
back in, but then I haven't actually tested doing that.

--
Mike Easter

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On 01/07/2024 21:36, Mike Easter wrote:

Java Jive wrote:

However, I forgot to mention before that I want to adapt both it and
any Live Linux ISOs to boot with a UK keyboard layout, as,
particularly in Clonezilla, the process of choosing one manually is
tedious in the extreme.

I don't understand yet.

If I were going to /try/ to boot live w/ a locale, I think I would do it
w/ a boot parameter rather than changing the .iso, but the part I
haven't figured out yet is why it should be tedious in the extreme to
change the locale in the live /after/ the boot and then just log out and
back in, but then I haven't actually tested doing that.

It's because to change the keyboard layout there's a nested series of
menus which, believe me, are tedious to negotiate.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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Java Jive wrote:

Mike Easter wrote:

Java Jive wrote:

However, I forgot to mention before that I want to adapt both it and
any Live Linux ISOs to boot with a UK keyboard layout, as,
particularly in Clonezilla, the process of choosing one manually is
tedious in the extreme.

I don't understand yet.

If I were going to /try/ to boot live w/ a locale, I think I would do
it w/ a boot parameter rather than changing the .iso, but the part I
haven't figured out yet is why it should be tedious in the extreme to
change the locale in the live /after/ the boot and then just log out
and back in, but then I haven't actually tested doing that.

It's because to change the keyboard layout there's a nested series of
menus which, believe me, are tedious to negotiate.

Does this Deb page help?

https://live-team.pages.debian.net/live-manual/html/live-manual/customizing-run-time-behaviours.en.html#530

10.2 Customizing locale and language

When the live system boots, language is involved in two steps:

--
Mike Easter

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Mike Easter wrote:

Java Jive wrote:

However, I forgot to mention before that I want to adapt both it and
any Live Linux ISOs to boot with a UK keyboard layout, as,
particularly in Clonezilla, the process of choosing one manually is
tedious in the extreme.

The other strategy which I don't employ w/ Ventoy, is to rig it w/
persistence.

https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_persistence.html

As the page shows, this includes Clonezilla, see note.


--
Mike Easter

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On 01/07/2024 23:24, Mike Easter wrote:

Mike Easter wrote:

Java Jive wrote:

However, I forgot to mention before that I want to adapt both it and
any Live Linux ISOs to boot with a UK keyboard layout, as,
particularly in Clonezilla, the process of choosing one manually is
tedious in the extreme.

The other strategy which I don't employ w/ Ventoy, is to rig it w/ persistence.

https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_persistence.html

As the page shows, this includes Clonezilla, see note.

Mike, please read my posts, and stop wasting your own and everyone
else's time, including supplying a link that I supplied for myself a few minutes before you did. As I began this subthread, I've SOLVED this
already!

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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Mike Easter wrote:

More on Sparky's

https://wiki.sparkylinux.org/doku.php/sparky_rescue

Now I've used Ventoy w/ Clonezilla, SystemRescue, & Sparky Rescue.

I don't like the clonezilla boot, too much TUI; I like the tools in
Sparky's but I want a more graphical UI than OB WM so I can do things
like change the tz or use stickykeys w/o using commandline. I also like Sparky's tools a LOT better than SystResc.

Sparky's UI is OpenBox w/ a lot of rescue stuff. I rigged it w/ xfce by
using

sudo apt install task-xfce-desktop

and then after it was installed logged out and back in choosing xfce.

JJ - if you don't like what I post, ignore it or filter me; I don't
follow your wishes for what I say; and' I don't like x-posting to all of
these disparate groups like you started this thread. It has pretty much
become a aol thread for me now, so I'll change my f/ups.

--
Mike Easter

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nice

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