1 Topic by tom.candle

  • tom.candle
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Topic: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

Hi,

I use a ntfs-formated usb-drive with several different iso-files. This usb-drive is bootable with Grub4DOS and it allows me to boot each iso-file without extracting the iso-file to the filesystem. Some people (including me) is calling this a MultiBoot-Stick.

For GParted Live 0.33.0-2 I used this config in Grub4DOS:

title GParted Live 0.33.0-2
find --set-root /GParted-Live-0.33.0-2.iso
map /GParted-Live-0.33.0-2.iso (0xff) || map --mem /GParted-Live-0.33.0-2.iso (0xff)
map --hook
kernel (0xff)/live/vmlinuz findiso=GParted-Live-0.33.0-2.iso edd=off boot=live locales=de_DE.UTF-8 keyboard-layouts=de union=overlay username=user config components noswap ip= net.ifnames=0 nosplash
initrd (0xff)/live/initrd.img

Now I tried to include the current version of GParted Live and failed. Here is the config:

title GParted Live 1.0.0-1
find --set-root /GParted-Live-1.0.0-1.iso
map /GParted-Live-1.0.0-1.iso (0xff) || map --mem /GParted-Live-1.0.0-1.iso (0xff)
map --hook
kernel (0xff)/live/vmlinuz findiso=GParted-Live-1.0.0-1.iso edd=off boot=live locales=de_DE.UTF-8 keyboard-layouts=de gl_batch union=overlay username=user config components noswap ip= net.ifnames=0 nosplash
initrd (0xff)/live/initrd.img

It seems, that the findiso is no longer recognized, since the initrd and kernel loads. After that it searches for some minutes for the iso-file of GParted Live, but can't find it. According to various webpages, findiso should work in Debian Live.

Any advice, what I should to to boot GParted Live with Grub4DOS?

2 Reply by stevenshiau

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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

Please give the latest stable GParted live 1.0.0-2 a try. A related issue about this has been fixed, and I am able to use this config for booting GParted live in grub2:

menuentry "Gparted live" {
    set isofile="/home/isos/gparted-live-1.0.0-2-amd64.iso"

    loopback loop $isofile
    linux (loop)/live/vmlinuz boot=live findiso=$isofile union=overlay username=user config components quiet noswap  ip= net.ifnames=0  nosplash
    initrd (loop)/live/initrd.img
}

Please let us know the results. Thanks.

Steven

3 Reply by tom.candle

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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

stevenshiau wrote:

[...]
Please let us know the results. Thanks.

Did not work with 1.0.0-2. It still seearches for a long time and failes again:

title GParted Live 1.0.0-2
# https://gparted.org/download.php
find --set-root /GParted-Live-1.0.0-2.iso
map /GParted-Live-1.0.0-2.iso (0xff) || map --mem /GParted-Live-1.0.0-2.iso (0xff)
map --hook
kernel (0xff)/live/vmlinuz findiso=GParted-Live-1.0.0-2.iso edd=off boot=live locales=de_DE.UTF-8 keyboard-layouts=de gl_batch union=overlay username=user config components noswap ip= net.ifnames=0 nosplash
initrd (0xff)/live/initrd.img

BTW: I am using gparted-live-1.0.0-2-i686.iso.

4 Reply by stevenshiau

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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

tom.candle wrote:
stevenshiau wrote:

[...]
Please let us know the results. Thanks.

Did not work with 1.0.0-2. It still seearches for a long time and failes again:

title GParted Live 1.0.0-2
# https://gparted.org/download.php
find --set-root /GParted-Live-1.0.0-2.iso
map /GParted-Live-1.0.0-2.iso (0xff) || map --mem /GParted-Live-1.0.0-2.iso (0xff)
map --hook
kernel (0xff)/live/vmlinuz findiso=GParted-Live-1.0.0-2.iso edd=off boot=live locales=de_DE.UTF-8 keyboard-layouts=de gl_batch union=overlay username=user config components noswap ip= net.ifnames=0 nosplash
initrd (0xff)/live/initrd.img

BTW: I am using gparted-live-1.0.0-2-i686.iso.

Here I do not use grub4dos, but what I have tried is on Ubuntu 19.04, and the grub2 config is as in the previous post. It works successfully. Have you tried different versions of grub4dos? Or is it possible you can find a GNU/Linux distribution and try it?

Steven

5 Reply by cvbn

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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

Just for info.

The file gparted-live-1.0.0-2-i686.iso booted from MultiBoot-Stick with grub2 on it used on MSI Z370 GAMING PRO CARBON with i5-8400 works fine.
The file gparted-live-1.0.0-2-amd64.iso booted on the same hardware config works fine as well.

I'm using the grub2 config posted by Steven, just path to the file was changed:

menuentry "Gparted live - 1.0.0-2-i686 20190614" {
    echo Loading gparted-live-1.0.0-2-i686.iso live ...

    set isofile="/boot/iso/gparted-live-1.0.0-2-i686.iso"

    loopback loop $isofile
    linux (loop)/live/vmlinuz boot=live findiso=$isofile union=overlay username=user config components quiet noswap  ip= net.ifnames=0  nosplash
    initrd (loop)/live/initrd.img
}

Regards
cvbn

6 Reply by stevenshiau

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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

@cvbn,
Cool. Thanks for your confirmation.

Steven

7 Reply by tom.candle (edited by tom.candle 2019-06-17 23:27:04)

  • tom.candle
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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

Hi,

Debian Live 9.9 also works (you asked for testing other linux systems):

title debian-live-9.9.0-i386-lxde.iso
find --set-root /debian-live-9.9.0-i386-lxde.iso
map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /debian-live-9.9.0-i386-lxde.iso (0xff) || map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 --mem /debian-live-9.9.0-i386-lxde.iso (0xff)
map --hook
kernel (0xff)/live/vmlinuz-4.9.0-9-686 findiso=debian-live-9.9.0-i386-lxde.iso edd=off boot=live components locales=de_DE.UTF-8 quiet splash
initrd (0xff)/live/initrd.img-4.9.0-9-686

As mentioned my usb-stick is formated with ntfs, since I want to use them under Windows too. Can this be the problem for GParted Live? Is there any debug-setting, which I can enable such that I see a more helpful message?

Edit: Adding "debug" to the kernel-line gave me the boot.log:
https://privatebin.net/?efcf8661e079896 … i1hQowwlo=

I was able to mount my ntfs-stick (sdb1) from the initrd-console and copy the boot.log to my stick.

8 Reply by tom.candle

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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

Hi,

the issue is still not solved. It may work with a linux-filesystem and grub2, but it does not work with ntfs and grub4dos.

I checked my boot.log and found some strange things:

There is only one mount-line in the logfile: 

mount -t vfat -o ro,noatime /dev/sda1 /run/live/medium

All other partitions were never mounted. This would explain, why the iso-file is not found. Because the iso-file is on a not mounted partition, it is on a ntfs-partition.

According to the boot.log, it looks here for the kernel-module for ntfs:

+ kmodule=/root/lib/modules/4.19.0-5-686/ntfs/ntfs.ko
+ '[' -e /root/lib/modules/4.19.0-5-686/ntfs/ntfs.ko ]
+ return 1

I searched for kernel-modules for ntfs and fat and found this:

./usr/lib/modules/4.19.0-5-686/kernel/fs/fat/vfat.ko
./usr/lib/modules/4.19.0-5-686/kernel/fs/fat/fat.ko

Kernel-modules for fat are available, but none for ntfs. There is also a working mount.ntfs available. By using this I was able to mount by stick from the initrd and save logs there.

So please add the missing ntfs-kernel-module. Thanks.

Tom

9 Reply by stevenshiau

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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

Great. Thanks for your feedback.
Actually ntfs-3g is used to mount the NTFS file system instead of using the kernel module ntfs.ko. I will try to find why ntfs-3g does not work for this scenario.

Steven

10 Reply by tom.candle

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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

Hi Steven,

any progress for fixing my issue? I wonder if I should create an issue here:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gparted/issues

11 Reply by stevenshiau

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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

The ntfs-3g is not really used in the live-boot-initramfs-tools. It still requires ntfs.ko. I tried to set DISABLE_NTFS=false in /etc/live/boot.conf when creating the GParted live. However, apparently linux kernel 4.19 from Debian has dropped the support of ntfs.ko:
https://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/ … _changelog
<snipped>
"* ntfs: Disable NTFS_FS due to lack of upstream security support
    (CVE-2018-12929, CVE-2018-12930, CVE-2018-12931)"

Therefore, the live-boot has to be improved by implementing the method to use ntfs-3g for this. I will try.

Steven

12 Reply by stevenshiau

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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

BTW, of course you are welcome to open a ticket at:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gparted/issues

Steven

13 Reply by stevenshiau

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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

I have patched live-boot so that ntfs-3g will be used to mount the NTFS partition instead of using Linux kernel module ntfs.ko.
Please give GParted live 1.0.0-3 a try:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gparte … g/1.0.0-3/
Let us know the results.
Thanks.

Steven

14 Reply by tom.candle

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Re: Boot parameter findiso is no longer recognized

Thanks Steven. It works!

I tested the gparted-live-1.0.0-3-i686.iso with this grub-config:

title GParted Live 1.0.0-3
# https://gparted.org/download.php
find --set-root /GParted-Live-1.0.0-3.iso
map /GParted-Live-1.0.0-3.iso (0xff) || map --mem /GParted-Live-1.0.0-3.iso (0xff)
map --hook
kernel (0xff)/live/vmlinuz findiso=/GParted-Live-1.0.0-3.iso edd=off boot=live locales=de_DE.UTF-8 keyboard-layouts=de gl_batch union=overlay username=user config components noswap ip= net.ifnames=0 nosplash
initrd (0xff)/live/initrd.img

Keyboard-layout, language, GParted... everything works. Many thanks.

Tom