SOLVED: Making MultibootUSB work with MX-Linux

[davemx]

SOLVED: SEE POST #8

When I search for MultibootUsb here there are more than 50 matches.

I remember finding one, but I can't find it now. It involved editing some files once I made the MultibootUSB pen drive, which enabled MXLinux to boot from it. And I remember it worked. As I can't find it now, I can't get MXLinux to boot from a MultibootUSB drive. Any pointers?

[jackdanielsesq]

http://multibootusb.org

https://github.com/mbusb/multibootusb

Jack

When I search for MultibootUsb here there are more than 50 matches.

I remember finding one, but I can't find it now. It involved editing some files once I made the MultibootUSB pen drive, which enabled MXLinux to boot from it. And I remember it worked. As I can't find it now, I can't get MXLinux to boot from a MultibootUSB drive. Any pointers?

[davemx]

Yes I've been to both those pages. What I was after was a page here about making some alterations to a file on the USB stick after I install the MX-Linux ISO on it. For some reason the boot-up program can't find antiX/linuxfs, and this applies equally to whether i use a UEFI boot or an old-style boot.

[fehlix]

Any pointers?

Might be this with some pointers:
viewtopic.php?p=480664#p480664

[davemx]

Might be this with some pointers:
viewtopic.php?p=480664#p480664

Yes, fehlix, you're a hero! The link above led me to
viewtopic.php?p=459424#p459424
which was the one I was looking for.

I tried the solution pretty directly, only changing the names of the menu entries to match, but I found that when the computer boots, the command "probe" is no longer understood. So what I did was to go to GParted and use the "Properties" of the booting partition on the disk to get the UUID directly. Each entry in the "grub.cfg" will look something like this, with small variations for each menu entry:

Code: Select all

menuentry "MX-18.3 x64 (May 26, 2019)" {
    set antix="/multibootusb/MX-18.3_x64/antiX"
    linux $antix/vmlinuz quiet buuid="★Your UUID★" bdir=$antix pdir=$antix  kbd=★Your Keyboard★ lang=★Your Language★ tz=★Your Timezone★
    initrd $antix/initrd.gz

As an example, mine looks like this:

Code: Select all

menuentry "MX-18.3 x64 (May 26, 2019)" {
    set antix="/multibootusb/MX-18.3_x64/antiX"
    linux $antix/vmlinuz quiet buuid="0EE7-7517" bdir=$antix pdir=$antix  kbd=gb lang=en tz=Europe/London
    initrd $antix/initrd.gz

And it all boots perfectly.

[fehlix]

The link above led me to
viewtopic.php?p=459424#p459424

... but I found that when the computer boots, the command "probe" is no longer understood.

So I guess a "insmod probe" to load the missing module might fix it:
Your example with insmod:

Code: Select all

menuentry "MX-18.3 x64 (May 26, 2019)" {
    set antix="/multibootusb/MX-18.3_x64/antiX"
    insmod probe
    probe -u $root --set=buuid
    linux $antix/vmlinuz quiet buuid="$buuid" bdir=$antix pdir=$antix  kbd=gb lang=en tz=Europe/London
    initrd $antix/initrd.gz
}

[davemx]

I'll try that. <<< It works.

What I'll do now, is to delete MX-Linux from my USB-pendrive, and re-install it, and then make the changes from scratch and write it up.

[davemx]

OK — This is how it's done.

1. You need to set up the program MultibootUSB in the normal way. And install the latest version of MX-Linux on it. In my case this is MX-18.3_x64.

2. Use the file manager to view the contents of the USB drive. Navigate to .../multibootusb/MX-18.3_x64/boot/grub/ and open the file grub.cfg using Featherpad.

3. Locate these lines and delete everything between them but not the lines themselves:

# search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid %UUID%
....
menuentry " Power Off" --hotkey=P {

4. Paste this in, in place of what you deleted:

Code: Select all

set default=0

menuentry " MX-18.3 x64 (May 26, 2019)" {
    set antiX="/multibootusb/MX-18.3_x64/antiX"
    insmod probe
    probe -u $root --set=buuid
    linux $antiX/vmlinuz quiet buuid=$buuid nosplash bdir=$antiX pdir=$antiX
    initrd $antiX/initrd.gz
}

menuentry "persist MX-18.3 x64 (May 26, 2019)" {
    set antiX="/multibootusb/MX-18.3_x64/antiX"
    insmod probe
    probe -u $root --set=buuid
    linux $antiX/vmlinuz quiet persist_static buuid=$buuid bdir=$antiX pdir=$antiX 
    initrd $antiX/initrd.gz
}

menuentry " MX-18.3 x64 Customize Boot (text menus)" {
    set antiX="/multibootusb/MX-18.3_x64/antiX"
    insmod probe
    probe -u $root --set=buuid
    linux $antiX/vmlinuz quiet buuid=$buuid menus nosplash bdir=$antiX pdir=$antiX
    initrd $antiX/initrd.gz
}

#--custom  menuentry " Custom" {
#--custom  linux /antiX/vmlinuz quiet
#--custom  initrd /antiX/initrd.gz
#--custom  }

submenu ">>> Advanced Options for MX-18.3 x64 <<<" {

menu_color_normal=white/black
menu_color_highlight=yellow/light-gray

menuentry " MX-18.3 x64 Failsafe" {
    set antiX="/multibootusb/MX-18.3_x64/antiX"
    insmod probe
    probe -u $root --set=buuid
    linux $antiX/vmlinuz quiet buuid=$buuid nomodeset failsafe nosplash bdir=$antiX pdir=$antiX
    initrd $antiX/initrd.gz
}

menuentry " MX-18.3 x64 (1024x768)" {
    set antiX="/multibootusb/MX-18.3_x64/antiX"
    insmod probe
    probe -u $root --set=buuid
    linux $antiX/vmlinuz quiet buuid=$buuid nosplash bdir=$antiX pdir=$antiX
    initrd $antiX/initrd.gz
}

If you are using a different version of MX-Linux then correct the folder name in every line that starts set antiX. Also change the text of the Menu Entries.

In the lines starting linux you can add switches kbd= lang= tz= (keyboard, language, timezone) to specify a language other than English. Or you can customise boot and do it there.

And that's it!

[tosim]

Tried using the fix above with MX-19beta-1_386. Here is the screenshot of closest I could come:
http://i.imgur.com/ZTyQ8gn.png

Thank you for the assist.

[fehlix]

Tried using the fix above with MX-19beta-1_386. Here is the screenshot of closest I could come:

Perhaps, describe what you have tried, so somebody could spot what might be done differently.