ISO to USB about minimal

[yhaenggi]

There is no need to format your device and dd the iso onto that partition. dd the iso to the device itself. It contains a hybrid (iso9660 and x86 boot sector). Be sure its umounted (not ejected!) before copying the image.

The sparse is just a loop mount. If you only create a 10MB loop device, of course you can only store 10MB there (including FS). Also it dosnt grow because its just like other regular block device. A nice way is to move from sparse file to squashfs + tmpfs, but this is something for the future.

[AwlsomeAlex]

@K1773R Tried that, it just says that no disk was detected or skips the USB Drive.
sudo dd bs=1M if=minimal_linux_live.iso of=/dev/sdb (Tried without Sudo Too.)

[yhaenggi]

do other USB devices work when you start MLL? if not, your USB controller isnt detected due to no driver. if thats the case, you'll have to manually add the controller to .config (not MLL .config)

[ivandavidov]

K1773R is right - the issue is due to missing USB controller drivers. After all, MLL is just a very basic operating system with default kernel options (slightly tweaked but still very close to default) and as consequence the hardware detection works with very limited hardware.

The solution would be to enable the correct USB controller driver in the kernel's configuration file and then recompile the kernel.

Regarding the installation - using dd directly on the USB flash will work fine. Another option is to format the USB flash with ext2/3/4, then copy all the files to the USB and then execute extlinux --install (you need the syslinux dependency installed on your host OS), just as I have implemented it currently in the installer.

[AwlsomeAlex]

@K1773R Okay, ill try that. @ivandavidov The thing is, when I run qemu-system-x86_64 -hda /dev/sdx after dding the usb drive. It results with an Error while trying to read the CD?

[ivandavidov]

"Error while trying to read the CD?" - this could be anything.

@AwlsomeAlex - please have in mind that when you have issues and you request help, you should provide as much information as possible:

• Let us know what you try to achieve as final result.
• Describe what you have done in order to achieve this result.
• Describe the outcome of your efforts.
• Provide screenshots and logs.

[AwlsomeAlex]

Okay. First I did sudo dd bs=1M if=minimal.iso of=/dev/sdx and it ran successfully, then I executed sudo sync and after I ran sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -hda /dev/sdx and this is what showed up:
Booting from Hard Drive... Boot failed: not a bootable disk and
Booting from DVD/CD... Boot Failed: Could not read from CDROM (Code 0003).
Also the terminal gives the error WARNING: Image format was not specified for '/dev/sdd' and probing guessed raw. Automatically detecting the format is dangerous for raw images, write operations on block 0 will be restricted. Specify the 'raw' format explicitly to remove the restrictions.

[ivandavidov]

@AwlsomeAlex - did you try to run qemu with the -cdrom option pointing to your USB flash device? After all, what you did was to dd an ISO image directly on your USB flash device and therefore the data on the USB device should be recognizable as ISO image.

[AwlsomeAlex]

@ivandavidov Okay, I did that and it actually worked, until another problem arose, a kernel panic with it saying: ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

[ivandavidov]

@AwlsomeAlex - did you try to increase the RAM in QEMU? For example, if you use 128M then set it to 256M. This should solve your issue.

[AwlsomeAlex]

@ivandavidov Yep, that works. Thanks. Well now I need to figure out what's wrong with AwlsomeLinux, because it gives that kernel panic regardless. Also it still doesn't boot on physical machines?

EDIT :1 Nevermind Found the Problem. EFI was configured incorrectly and the computer I was testing it on was EFI. Now just a matter of drivers. Which do you suggest I should try to enable to activate the boot?

[ivandavidov]

@AwlsomeAlex - I'm trying to build a rocket. Which parts do you suggest I should use in order to launch the rocket? :)

Perhaps you should take a look at the kernel's configuration file (.config) for your host operating system and enable some or all of the kernel options mentioned there. You should be aware that the kernel by itself is not enough. You also need kernel modules + firmware + way to autodetect how/when to load the modules (e.g. hotplug mechanism via udev or mdev).

I recently committed some changes in the mincs branch where I have enabled the defautl kernel modules and the firmware. This might be useful to you.

MLL also supports the option to build kernel from already existing configuration file. I see you have removed this option from your build scripts but you might want to reconsider adding it again because it will allow you to build and use in MLL the same kernel which you are already using on your host machine.

[AwlsomeAlex]

Okay, I'll experiment with that. I'll enable firmware and modules and see what happens there. If not I'll play around with the config. Thanks again! One last thing, what is pivot_root? And would that be helpful for my case? I read about it but I don't see a use for it, is that only for the Docker Support? Also, when you say udev, do you mean implementing systemd?

[yhaenggi]

http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/pivot_root.2.html for pivot_root. its not docker specific.
the kernel itself can populate the /dev tmpfs just like udev, if you enable that option (not always enabled with defconfig)

[ivandavidov]

@AwlsomeAlex - the last time you said that this stuff looks confusing. Take a look at the comments in issue #45 where I have pointed you to some good documents which you should read before you continue with your experiments.

[ivandavidov]

@AwlsomeAlex - perhaps it will be best to forget about udev for a while and concentrate on mdev since the latter is simpler, easier and it is available as BusyBox applet, so you don't need to compile additional stuff.

But first of all - please read more about chroot, switch_root and pivot_root. This particular knowledge is powerful and once you learn this stuff, you will become powerful man.

[AwlsomeAlex]

Okay, will do. Thanks. After I implement some more things, I will start playing around with mdev.