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Which is the best Linux under 8GB with persistence and UEFI support

linux uefi persistence

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#1 hellbraker

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Posted 19 April 2018 - 12:31 AM

Hi, I have a tablet which has UEFI and is Windows 10 (32 bit) pre-installed. Due to Windows eating up space (now only has 10 Gb), I am on the lookout for a flavour of Linux that is light and supports persistence and UEFI booting. Web browsing and media playback is the only intended use. Preferably  thorough Firefox.

The processor is Intel Atom.

I tested my USB stick of 8GB with MemTest as instructed by steve6375 on his website and it booted up after tinkering with the seemingly unbelievably complex BIOS of this tablet. It booted up fine.

 

So which might suit?

Thanks


Edited by hellbraker, 19 April 2018 - 12:32 AM.


#2 usama

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Posted 19 April 2018 - 07:46 AM

For the longest while, Puppy Linux has been seen as little more than a curiosity. Designed to be used on the most austere of hardware, it could comfortably chug away on early Pentium machines without breaking a sweat. But it wasn’t that practical. Many installed it on their antique hardware to see how little ‘oomph’ it needed, and then forgot about it.

But it never went away. Updates and new versions are still regularly released. Sure, it’s still stripped down; it can run on low-end and underpowered hardware. But you can now use it to get stuff done.

There are three different versions of Puppy. One, called Slacko Puppy is based upon SlackWare, which is one of the longest established Linux distributions. People continue to use it as their day-to-day operating system. People understand it. Another is built around Ubuntu 14:04 LTS, called TahrPup.

The third version of Puppy is the mainline project, originally founded by Barry Kauler. The recent versions, have been built with the express goal of running on a USB drive. Although I’d still err on the side of caution and use TahrPup, in order to mitigate any potential hardware compatibility issues.



#3 hellbraker

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Posted 19 April 2018 - 11:20 PM

Hi, thanks for the suggestion.

I tried converting the ISO (tahr-6.0.6-uefi.iso) to .imgPTN via ImDisk and MPI_FAT32.cmd. However, it throws an error at the final stage (Can not read sector). So in short, its not being converted. Any idea where I am goin wrong? Thanks



#4 hellbraker

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Posted 19 April 2018 - 11:34 PM

When I use MPI_NTFS.cmd, I get a warning message "SYSLINUX/ISOLINUX files found-but cannot install boot code using syslinux.exe on an NTFS volume. Press any key to continue."

 

But with this the .imgPTN file is created. Not sure if this is the right way.



#5 hellbraker

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Posted 20 April 2018 - 04:40 AM

.Any idea where I am goin wrong? Thanks

I got it converted when using syslinux version 3.7. Now it seems I need the boot32.efi. On searching I got the file and placed it in a subfolder named "boot" in the EFI main folder.

Now on restart I can see 3 entries in the Boot Manager.
1. Windows 10
2. Windows Recovery
3. EFI USB Device (Generic USB)

On selecting 3 I am taken to a command prompt (GRUB version 2.02~beta2) with the prompt at grub>

Can I enter something to boot Tahrpup now?

#6 steve6375

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Posted 20 April 2018 - 07:36 AM

The tahr ISO you tried is a 64-bit UEFI ISO.

You can drag-and-drop the ISO onto the MPI_FAT32 shortcut to convert it to a .imgPTN file (choose 37 for linux option). - I got no error when I tried it. if you want the Save feature, add 500MB or whatever size you want to the suggested size.

Switch to the .imgPTN file.

Now extract the contents of the \efi.img file to the root of the E2B drive (i.e. the new FAT32 partition should now contain \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI).

Now it will be UEFI-64-bit bootable.

 

To add the 32-bit grub boot file, download http://distro.ibibli...2.00-i686-1.txz

Extract the \grub2-efi32-2.00-i686-1.txz\grub2-efi32-2.00-i686-1.tar\usr\share\grub2-efi\grubia32.efi file using 7Zip

Copy it to the \EFI\BOOT folder and rename it to bootia32.EFI

 

Now you should be able to UEFI 32-bit/64-bit and MBR boot.

 

Blog article here.


Edited by steve6375, 20 April 2018 - 08:24 AM.


#7 hellbraker

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Posted 20 April 2018 - 11:20 AM

Hi steve, Is it really 64 bit? cos from the naming of it "tahr64-6.0.6-uefi.iso" seems to be the 64 bit. My UEFI BIOS is 32 bit, so again, should bootx64.efi be there? and choosing 3.7 or 37 results in a same .imgPTN right? Anyways I have followed your instructions above: 1. Placed bootx64.efi in root 2. Placed extracted and renamed bootai32.efi in the boot folder. Lets see how it goes.

#8 steve6375

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Posted 20 April 2018 - 11:27 AM

64-bit UEFI systems will boot from the bootx64.efi - for your purposes you don't need it if you only boot from a 32-bit UEFI system.

I think the actual linux is 32-bit because it MBR-boots fine on my EeePC with a 32-bit Atom CPU.

FatDog may be true 64-bit.

http://puppylinux.or...nuxisbestforyou


Edited by steve6375, 20 April 2018 - 11:34 AM.


#9 hellbraker

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Posted 20 April 2018 - 12:10 PM

OK I tried booting it up. I was presented with the menu to start tahr normally or in Ram without save. In both cases it goes fine till "kernal modules" are done loading after which it appears to be stalled at a blank screen.

I then tested with my laptop and here the MBRCSM menu (Easy2Boot) appeared. I tried booting up with the MBR and syslinux.bin option. Again it stalls at the same blank screen.

Now I don't know if something is happening behind but no error messages or warnings are given. My guess is, this is because of the exact space (262MB) I entered while making the .imgPTN file.

Edited by hellbraker, 20 April 2018 - 12:26 PM.


#10 steve6375

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Posted 20 April 2018 - 12:24 PM

Try the other menu options if in case it is a hardware\graphics incompatibility issue?

Try on a different system.



#11 hellbraker

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Posted 20 April 2018 - 12:34 PM

This might be a coincidence but I noticed both systems have InsydeH2O. But unfortunately I don't have a third system to test.

Now steve can you please instruct me how to format the E2B USB to do all this again? The USB is FAT32 and has another partition named PTN2. Can I just use Easy2Boot again via Make E2B Drive? I had made it contiguous.

Edited by hellbraker, 20 April 2018 - 12:35 PM.


#12 steve6375

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Posted 20 April 2018 - 12:40 PM

Why do you need to remake it? Just run \e2b\Switch_E2B.exe under Windows to restore it back to E2B.



#13 hellbraker

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Posted 21 April 2018 - 02:26 AM

Thanks for that. I didn't know it could be done like that.

 

I tried with 32 bit XenialPup 7.5 and it booted up fine. I used the same bootia32.efi used above. Not sure what was wrong with tahr though.



#14 hellbraker

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Posted 09 May 2018 - 10:13 AM

Why do you need to remake it? Just run \e2b\Switch_E2B.exe under Windows to restore it back to E2B.


Steve, I tested with Mint by converting it to .imgPTN. It initially booted up with errors (need to set root), so I searched and found a solution in XDA by editing grub.config adding set root = (hd0, msdos1).

Now my question is, is there a way to add persistence to this? I switched back, and have made the ext3 volume as per your guide. Made the ISO contiguous using Difraggler (contig couldn't do the job) and now I don't know the next step. Is there a guide for it?

Can I just convert the defragged ISO to .imgPTN, place it along with its corresponding mnu file and try booting?

Thanks

#15 steve6375

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Posted 10 May 2018 - 07:19 AM

Hi

For UEFI booting you create a .imgPTN file and a ext3 or ext4 file using RMPrepUSB (volume name casper-rw).

Then simply have both files in the same folder, e.g. \_ISO\LINUX.

 

e.g.

LinuxMint.imgPTN

LinuxMint                 (no file extension for ext3/4 file)

 

 

Once you switch to the .imgPTN file (using SWITCH_E2B.exe or the Legacy E2B Menu system), you will need to add the keyword 'persistent' into the grub.cfg file (or whatever .cfg file is used).

 

Always check http://www.easy2boot...payload-files/ for 'Mint' and http://www.easy2boot...es/persistence/

also check my blog articles\tutorials at http://rmprepusb.blo...eful-blogs.html

 

Since Mint is Ubuntu based, the article http://rmprepusb.blo...-uefi-with.html and http://rmprepusb.blo...o-e2b-with.html is probably most useful to you.



#16 hellbraker

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Posted 11 May 2018 - 03:41 AM

I tried switching, but it showed me an error saying the files are not in order and asked me if I needed to order. I selected NO and booted up editing the grub.cfg.

I selected the menu entry with persistence. But then it gave me an error regarding some address conflict with EFI. Could not shut down, so had to hard press shut down.

 

On  using E2B to make the prepare drive again, I am getting "WRITE ERROR TO MBR ON DRIVE 1".

 

Seems like MBR is damaged. Any way to bring it back?

 

Thanks



#17 hellbraker

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Posted 11 May 2018 - 08:43 AM

Using "View Drive information" in RMPrepUSB to find the partitions shows this:

 

Disk Signature bytes (1B8h-1BBh) = 4D 90 FD 7E

Partition 1   SIZE=7538.282MiB   Type: 0C FAT32LBA (2047GB max)  *ACTIVE*
START POS   = CYL:0 HD:1 SEC:1       END POS = CYL:960 HD:254 SEC:63
START (LBA) = 2,048 (00000800) SIZE (LBA) = 15,438,402 (00EB9242) [End=15,440,449]

Partition 2   SIZE=1MiB   Type: 21 Hidden(rsvd)       
START POS   = CYL:961 HD:0 SEC:1       END POS = CYL:961 HD:32 SEC:32
START (LBA) = 15,440,450 (00EB9A42) SIZE (LBA) = 2,048 (00000800) [End=15,442,497]

Partition 3   SIZE=0MiB   Type: 00        
START POS   = CYL:0 HD:0 SEC:0       END POS = CYL:0 HD:0 SEC:0
START (LBA) = 0 (00000000) SIZE (LBA) = 0 (00000000)

Partition 4   SIZE=0MiB   Type: 00        
START POS   = CYL:0 HD:0 SEC:0       END POS = CYL:0 HD:0 SEC:0
START (LBA) = 0 (00000000) SIZE (LBA) = 0 (00000000)

P1   Start=2,048 (1,048,576 bytes) End=15,440,449 (7,905,509,888 bytes)
P2   Start=15,440,450 (7,905,510,400 bytes) End=15,442,497 (7,906,558,464 bytes)

Drive 1    
Reported size 7,927,234,560 bytes (7.3828GiB)  Last LBA 15,482,879
RMPrepUSB Max 7,912,719,360 bytes (7.3692GiB)  Last LBA 15,454,529

 

 

Seems like there are 4 partitions, but Explorer reveals only two (E2B with 7.34 GB and PTN2 with 11.5KB)
 



#18 steve6375

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Posted 11 May 2018 - 10:27 AM

After switching to .imgptn file you should see ptn 1 and ptn 3 which is ext ptn.
You can only UEFI boot after switching in the two image files.

#19 hellbraker

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Posted 11 May 2018 - 10:51 AM

I followed your instruction on restoring USB using WinPE command prompt and now I am making E2B Drive again. So, now Easy2Boot is copying files in \_ISO.

 

I will try again all the previous steps. But my doubt remains in the switching process where it asks to re-order the files (linuxmint-18_2-cinnamon-64bit AND linuxmint-18_2-cinnamon-64bit.imgPTN).



#20 steve6375

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Posted 11 May 2018 - 02:06 PM

Some UEFI BIOSes will not boot from the FAT32 partition unless the partitions are in the correct order.

So if you do not re-order, some BIOSes will just not UEFI-boot.



#21 911CD.net

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Posted 12 May 2018 - 09:25 PM

Try Porteus hellbraker.  It'll run on 8GB, BIOS and EFI, 32 bit and 64 bit machines.  Plus 8 different desktops to choose from.

 

I use Grub2Win's grub2 to boot the ISOs but it can be installed also.



#22 hellbraker

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Posted 30 July 2018 - 05:52 AM

After trying Tahr, Pup, Porteus and Mint, I have to say only POP OS booted up with a working Network Adapter ( Realtek RTL8723BS). It looks good, but I am having issues with the display and the mousepad. Both of these seems to be inverted.
Now I know a solution could not be suggested outright, but my question is will editing grub.cfg at least provide a temporary solution? If so does anyone know the edits? My current setting is:
 
 

if loadfont /boot/grub/themes/pop/font.pf2
then
    set gfxmode=auto
    export gfxmode

    insmod video_bochs
    insmod video_cirrus

    if test "${grub_platform}" == "efi"
    then
        insmod efi_gop
        insmod efi_uga
    fi

    if test "${grub_platform}" == "pc"
    then
        insmod ieee1275_fb
        insmod vbe
        insmod vga
    fi

    insmod gfxterm
    terminal_output gfxterm

    insmod gfxmenu
    insmod png

    set theme=/boot/grub/themes/pop/theme.txt
    export theme
fi

set color_normal=white/black
set color_highlight=black/white
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/white
set timeout=10
set timeout_style=menu

menuentry "Try or Install Pop_OS" --class pop-os {
    set gfxpayload=keep
    linux /casper/vmlinuz.efi boot=casper hostname=pop-os username=pop-os noprompt ---
    initrd /casper/initrd.gz
}

 

 



#23 hellbraker

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Posted 30 July 2018 - 11:12 AM

The display and the mouse pad is working fine after setting "nomodeset" in the grub config file. However, even though WLAN networks are being discovered, I can't connect even after entering the passkey. Strangely, after few minutes no networks are shown at all.





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