From 8b2219bfa2da36e7809588ef723a10483a6e137f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Francis Rowe Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 20:52:36 -0500 Subject: Documentation: *major* cleanup. Cleanup was long overdue. Old structure was messy and inefficient. --- (limited to 'docs/howtos/grub_boot_installer.html') diff --git a/docs/howtos/grub_boot_installer.html b/docs/howtos/grub_boot_installer.html deleted file mode 100644 index 757b48f..0000000 --- a/docs/howtos/grub_boot_installer.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,142 +0,0 @@ - - - - - - - - - Libreboot documentation: installing GNU/Linux - - - -

Boot a GNU/Linux installer on USB

- -

Prepare the USB drive (in GNU/Linux)

- -

- Connect the USB drive. Check dmesg:
- $ dmesg
- - Check lsblk to confirm which drive it is:
- $ lsblk -

- -

- Check that it wasn't automatically mounted. If it was, unmount it. For example:
- $ sudo umount /dev/sdb*
- # umount /dev/sdb* -

- -

- dmesg told you what device it is. Overwrite the drive, writing your distro ISO to it with dd. For example:
- $ sudo dd if=gnulinux.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=8M; sync
- # dd if=gnulinux.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=8M; sync -

- -

Booting the USB drive (in GRUB)

- -

- Boot it in GRUB using the Parse ISOLINUX config (USB) option (it's in default libreboot grub.cfg, at least). - - A new menu should appear in GRUB, showing the boot options for that distro; this is a GRUB menu, converted from the usual - ISOLINUX menu provided by that distro. -

- -

- If the ISOLINUX parser won't work, then press C to get to GRUB command line.
- grub> ls
- - Get the device from above output, eg (usb0). Example:
- grub> cat (usb0)/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
- - Either this will show the ISOLINUX menuentries for that ISO, or link to other .cfg files, for example /isolinux/foo.cfg.
- - If it did that, then you do:
- grub> cat (usb0)/isolinux/foo.cfg
- - And so on, until you find the correct menuentries for ISOLINUX. -

- -

- Now look at the ISOLINUX menuentry. It'll look like:
- - kernel /path/to/kernel
- append PARAMETERS initrd=/path/to/initrd MAYBE_MORE_PARAMETERS
- - - GRUB works the same way, but in it's own way. Example GRUB commands:
- grub> linux (usb0)/path/to/kernel PARAMETERS MAYBE_MORE_PARAMETERS
- grub> initrd (usb0)/path/to/initrd
- grub> boot
- - Of course this will vary from distro to distro. If you did all that correctly, it should now be booting the ISO - the way you specified. -

- -

Troubleshooting

- -

- Most of these issues occur when using libreboot with coreboot's 'text mode' instead of the coreboot framebuffer. - This mode is useful for booting payloads like memtest86+ which expect text-mode, but for GNU/Linux distributions - it can be problematic when they are trying to switch to a framebuffer because it doesn't exist. -

- -

- In most cases, you should use the vesafb ROM's. Example filename: libreboot_ukdvorak_vesafb.rom. -

- -

parabola won't boot in text-mode

- -

- Use one of the ROM images with vesafb in the filename (uses coreboot framebuffer instead of text-mode). -

- -

debian-installer (trisquel net install) graphical corruption in text-mode

- When using the ROM images that use coreboot's "text mode" instead of the coreboot framebuffer, - booting the Trisquel net installer results in graphical corruption because it is trying to switch to a framebuffer which doesn't - exist. Use that kernel parameter on the 'linux' line when booting it:
- vga=normal fb=false -

- -

- Tested in Trisquel 6 (and 7). This forces debian-installer to start in text-mode, instead of trying to switch to a framebuffer. -

- -

- If selecting text-mode from a GRUB menu created using the ISOLINUX parser, you can press E on the menu entry to add this. - Or, if you are booting manually (from GRUB terminal) then just add the parameters. -

- -

- This workaround was found on the page: https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch05s04.html. - It should also work for gNewSense, Debian and any other apt-get distro that provides debian-installer (text mode) net install method. -

- -

- Copyright © 2014 Francis Rowe <info@gluglug.org.uk>
- This document is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License and all future versions. - A copy of the license can be found at ../license.txt. -

- -

- This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, - but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of - MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See ../license.txt for more information. -

- - - -- cgit v0.9.1