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Monday, February 20, 2012

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I have an old Sony VAIO which is not in it's best of health and has long been really a companion for my telly, faithfully streaming media from bbc iplayer, youtube, dailymotion and likes. Internet enabled TV arrived in my home long long back :).

Now the thing with this laptop is that it's kinda gimpy - inbuilt keyboard won't work, battery is dead and it hangs on life with constant supply of energy from the AC source on the wall and the one thing that helps me load new OS on this machine - the optical reader - is temperamental and may or may not work and is moody in selecting which CD / DVD it will read and which it won't. It does in particular like CD's authored by Linux Format guys though. Writing is a skill it has forgotten long back and if it reads something, anything I am found celebrating. 

Anyway, I had ubuntu installed on this laptop for quite some time but as this laptop has one more flaw - the nvidia graphic card - and the latest update from ubuntu broke the nvidia drivers which aren't all that well supported anyway, I was being forced to reformat the machine. So I decided to try a new distro named Bodhi Linux which is very cool and uses Enlightenment as desktop which is very very good and way better than Unity and some might argue even Gnome 3.2. However, in order to do so I had to cross the hurdle of burning a CD that my laptop's Optical Drive will find intresting enough to read. 

I have checked and rechecked the BIOS of this laptop and there is no way to make BIOS understand that it can boot from USB. The only options it provides are Hard Drive, Floppy Disk, Optical Reader and Network Boot. None of these were particularly useful for reasons explained above and unfortunately I was hitting the wall. So I started looking for alternative ways to get Bodhi Linux installed. Alternative is what I found in Plop Boot Manager.

Now open source enthusiasts at this point be aware, this nifty piece of software is not open source but it is so useful that this one minor flaw must be completely ignored. It gives you options to boot from USB in several ways - you can burn a CD and fool BIOS to boot from CD onto plop boot manager which in turn allows you to boot from device of your choice aka USB, it can also be put on floppy or the option that I have used - install on hard drive and configured through GRUB.

So presented below without further ado is the guide to how you can install this on your hard drive but before I do so a quick thanks to several boards and posts I referred in the process of making this work:


Steps:

(Please note that these instructions will work for machines that have one of these OS installed: Bodhi Linux and Ubuntu variants. For other linux versions it should be on similar lines)

1. Download the Plop Boot Manager (plpbt-5.0.14.zip file) on the machine where you want to achieve the result from http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/download.html


2. Extract the zip file in folder where it was downloaded. In my case I have my browser setting set to download everything to "Download" folder.


3. Now open the terminal and type following command relevant to your distro:

For UBUNTU:
gksu nautilus  /boot
For Bodhi:
sudo pcmanfm /boot

You will be presented with a dialogue box to enter password. Once you enter the password you will be presented the contents of boot folder as shown below.


 4. Now 
(a) Go to the extracted plpbt-5.0.14 from step 2, click on Linux folder
(b) Then copy the files - "plpbt.bin" and "plpcfgbt" and paste them in the boot folder opened through step 3.

Step 4a

Files to copy in Step 4b
5. Once the files are copied in boot folder, double click on folder named grub and there open the file named "grub.cfg" in texteditor.


Once the file is opened, press "Ctrl+f" and search for string "END /etc/grub.d/10_linux". Now copy the text as highlighted in screen below and paste it in a new text-editor window.




6. In the new text editor after pasting the four lines from above

a) Edit the fourth line so it reads as below:

linux16 /boot/plpbt.bin

b) Complete the block in new editor to read as below, keeping the first three lines intact from what was copied in step 5 from grub.cfg file. In our example it will read as below:

menuentry "Plop Bootmanager" {
insmod ext2
        set root='(hd0,6)'
        search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set cb7a6eb7-b355-4d0f-865e-f7312880f887
        linux16 /boot/plpbt.bin
}

Once again, this is important so remember the final structure will be achieved by following steps below.

Copy Paste this in Line 1:
menuentry "Plop Bootmanager" {


Next three lines remain same as copied from step 5:
insmod ext2
        set root='(hd0,6)'
        search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set cb7a6eb7-b355-4d0f-865e-f7312880f887

Then the fourth line will be edited to look as shown below. You can copy paste this in fourth line.
linux16 /boot/plpbt.bin
Fifth line will be closing bracket.
}

7. Now open another terminal window and type following command relevant to your distro:

For UBUNTU:

gksu nautilus  /etc/grub.d

For Bodhi:

sudo pcmanfm /etc/grub.d

You will be presented with a dialogue box to enter password. Once you enter the password you will be presented the contents of boot folder as shown below.


8. Open the file 40_custom (highlighted in screenshot above) in texteditor - gedit on ubuntu or leafpad on Bodhi and paste the block from step 6(b) in this file and save it.

#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
menuentry "Plop Bootmanager" {
insmod ext2
        set root='(hd0,6)'
        search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set cb7a6eb7-b355-4d0f-865e-f7312880f887
        linux16 /boot/plpbt.bin
}



Very Important - Press "Enter" at-least twice after pasting to ensure there are atleast two new lines below closing bracket.

9. Close all windows and open terminal once again and type following command:

sudo update-grub

10. Now open /boot/grub/grub.conf and you should find the following entry on it:

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
menuentry "Plop Bootmanager" {
insmod ext2
        set root='(hd0,6)'
        search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set cb7a6eb7-b355-4d0f-865e-f7312880f887
        linux16 /boot/plpbt.bin
}
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

11. Now reboot your machine with your Live USB plugged in. If you already dual boot your grub will show on restart and will have an additional option in the end - "Plop Bootmanager".

If however, you just have single OS ubuntu, press shift once the bios logo shows up and keep holding for getting the system to show Grub.

Once Grub is shown it will have the additional "Plop Bootmanager" menu entry on grub.

Select the "Plop Bootmanager" and press enter.

12. Plop Bootmanager will show option to boot from USB. It was third option for me. Select and press enter. If your Live USB is working, you will be able to load OS from it.

This is it. You can check the video below:



Please do let me know in comments if you found this useful. If there are any other ways I will be keen to hear those too.

- Ankit. 

46 comments:

  1. Unfortunately, this didn't work for me. (K)Ubuntu 10.04. Asus A8V MOBO on board USB1.1 fully committed to other things. Trying to boot Ubuntu 11.10 live from 8GB stick in additional USB2 ports via PCI card. Plop opened a window saying searching HOST1 and the system just froze.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Sorry for delay in replying and hope that you have it sorted by now. I vaguely remember having this kind of error or omething on similar lines the first time round I tried but the problem was not with plop boot manager, it was with Live USB created.

      Have you tried to boot from the 8GB USB on some other machine. If it works we know problem is with set-up and if not, it must be the Live USB itself.

      Another thing worth noting is if you have multiple boots on your system, steps in this guide will need tweaking. You will need to refer to the grub lines that refers to the partition where you have the OS installed. This tutorial assumes whole hard drive is dedicated to a single OS.

      HTH.

      -Ankit.

      Delete
  2. Hi Ankit,

    That's a great tutorial, but unfortunately the process is ain't that straight forward/easy as it appears. I too have a SONY laptop with Fedora and WinXP installed. Now i wish to install Ubuntu instead of Fedora ... using the method that you have described here.

    => The USB that i have created is perfect, since i tested the same on another laptop (which has boot from USB option). There i was able to 'Try Ubunut without installing'

    The problem that i am facing is .... when i choose the option of 'Plop Bootmanager' instead of listing the bootable devices, i get the error message 'Error: file not found'.

    I guess that it MIGHT be related with the 'set root='(hd0,6)' line. Can you elaborate a little more on that as to what it does and how to modify that (as 'momist' also seemed to face the same problem).

    To give you a brief, here is the layout of my HDD

    /dev/sda1: Windows (Win XP)
    /dev/sda2: Fedora (/ folder)
    /dev/sda3: /boot
    /dev/sda4: /home
    /dev/sda5: /swap

    USB gets mounted as /dev/sdb1

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your guess is right...

      Essentially, the set root=(hd0,6) is grub's way of knowing where to search for the file we have asked it to search in next line.

      So when you get the error File not found, it is because Grub has been asked to look at a location where plpbt.bin does not exist.

      can you post the contents of grub.conf please..

      Like I said, the tutorial above will work perfectly if there is only one OS installed on the system but if it's a multiboot set-up we need to watch the grub.conf a bit more closely.

      Delete
  3. Hmmm ... that thought occurred to me also, but i was not sure what value to give for the line 'set root='(hd0,6)'. The file plbbt.bin was placed in the bin folder as directed, but the location for my case would be 'set root='(hd0,msdos1)' [2nd partition of first HDD]. That is what i think it shud be.

    Unfortunately i cannot share the grub now, as i found an easier way (using Plop only) to boot from USB and managed to install Ubunutu over Fedora.
    What i did was as follows:-

    1. Downloaded the desired Ubuntu iso file
    2. Prepare a bootable USB disk using the downloaded iso image. This i made from 'Startup Disk Creater' utility that is there in Linux (or Unetbootin can also be used from windows)
    3. Tested for the validity of the bootable USB on another system which had the option of booting from USB (though this is a redundant step)
    4. Burnt the plpbt.iso file on a CD (luckily few CD's still get recognized on my machine). The iso file is present inside the zipped download
    5. Reboot the system and choose the option of booting from CDROM.
    6. As soon as the CDROM runs i am presented with the list of items, asking me to choose the boot device.
    7. I choose the USB and from there the Ubuntu installer takes over.

    All this info i got from the following website:-

    http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16822/boot-from-a-usb-drive-even-if-your-bios-wont-let-you/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, it is an option like I mentioned initially in my post. It's just that my laptops Optical Reader displays selective amnesia when it comes to reading CDs.

      Delete
    2. Having said that though, it just occured to me that if your optical reader is not problem why would you bother going through such long process? Why would you not create the Live CD and use that instead.

      Live CD is as a matter of fact more reliable way of installing compared to Live USB.

      Delete
  4. But i still am interested in knowing how to do it from Linux .. so here is the grub file that is there on my Ubuntu now (The partition info is same as i had at the time when Fedora was installed)

    ==================================================================================
    #
    # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
    #
    # It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
    # from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
    #

    ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
    if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
    set have_grubenv=true
    load_env
    fi
    set default="0"
    if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
    set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
    save_env saved_entry
    set prev_saved_entry=
    save_env prev_saved_entry
    set boot_once=true
    fi

    function savedefault {
    if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
    saved_entry="${chosen}"
    save_env saved_entry
    fi
    }

    function recordfail {
    set recordfail=1
    if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
    }

    function load_video {
    insmod vbe
    insmod vga
    insmod video_bochs
    insmod video_cirrus
    }

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks but doesn't look like whole content got copied here....do you want to use pastebin instead...like mine is now viewable here:

      http://pastebin.com/7CZ3WNbU

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  5. insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,msdos7)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root f14cf836-9c7b-42a2-961f-8d84cdd86d5c
    if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
    set gfxmode=auto
    load_video
    insmod gfxterm
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 25568be7-dfd1-4f88-9d9d-8b45a26edaa2
    set locale_dir=($root)/grub/locale
    set lang=en_IN
    insmod gettext
    fi
    terminal_output gfxterm
    if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then
    set timeout=-1
    else
    set timeout=10
    fi
    ### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

    ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
    set menu_color_normal=white/black
    set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
    if background_color 44,0,30; then
    clear
    fi
    ### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

    ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
    if [ ${recordfail} != 1 ]; then
    if [ -e ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt ]; then
    if hwmatch ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt 3; then
    if [ ${match} = 0 ]; then
    set linux_gfx_mode=keep
    else
    set linux_gfx_mode=text
    fi
    else
    set linux_gfx_mode=text
    fi
    else
    set linux_gfx_mode=keep
    fi
    else
    set linux_gfx_mode=text
    fi
    export linux_gfx_mode
    if [ "$linux_gfx_mode" != "text" ]; then load_video; fi
    menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.0.0-12-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
    insmod gzio
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 25568be7-dfd1-4f88-9d9d-8b45a26edaa2
    linux /vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic root=UUID=f14cf836-9c7b-42a2-961f-8d84cdd86d5c ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
    initrd /initrd.img-3.0.0-12-generic
    }
    menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.0.0-12-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    insmod gzio
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 25568be7-dfd1-4f88-9d9d-8b45a26edaa2
    echo 'Loading Linux 3.0.0-12-generic ...'
    linux /vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic root=UUID=f14cf836-9c7b-42a2-961f-8d84cdd86d5c ro recovery nomodeset
    echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
    initrd /initrd.img-3.0.0-12-generic
    }
    ### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

    ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
    ### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

    ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
    menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 25568be7-dfd1-4f88-9d9d-8b45a26edaa2
    linux16 /memtest86+.bin
    }
    menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 25568be7-dfd1-4f88-9d9d-8b45a26edaa2
    linux16 /memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
    }
    ### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

    ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
    menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)" --class windows --class os {
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod fat
    set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root b0b5-764b
    drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
    chainloader +1
    }
    ### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

    ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
    # This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
    # menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
    # the 'exec tail' line above.
    ### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

    ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
    if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
    source $prefix/custom.cfg;
    fi
    ### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, strangely enough I did get your complete grub through email...having looked at it, it's quite straight forward. You have an XP partition like you said and now ubuntu instead of fedora.

      I am very sure that if you use the following in Step 7, it should work:

      menuentry "Plop Bootmanager" {
      insmod ext2
      set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
      search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 25568be7-dfd1-4f88-9d9d-8b45a26edaa2
      linux16 /boot/plpbt.bin
      }


      The reason I believe it will work is because the partition represented by '(hd0,msdos5)' is where it has ubuntu installed so as long as you have plpbt.bin copied in root of boot directory under ubuntu it should be able to find the file. As that is where it is finding vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic as well as memtest86+.bin and as you are able to boot into ubuntu it is proof enough that it is able to search and find files from '(hd0,msdos5)'.

      Please can you try and let me know.

      -Ankit.

      Delete
  6. Thanks for the reply, i will try this option and let you know.

    The reason i had to use USB was that my laptop too has 'selective amnesia when it comes to reading CD/DVD's' so few CD/DVD'sit will read while for the other it simply does nothing (i think that the reason for this might be due to the model of the reader. -R seems to do fine while +R are not readable. My model is SONY VAIO VGN-FJ270, got it back in 2005)

    The reason why i could not reply back in a single post was that the text box here in which we type our reply does not permit writing of more than 4099 characters at a time.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Could not have been more simple than this.
    Thought it would be a pain to install the plop boot manager, I am glad i stumbled upon your tutorial on the very first page. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fantastic...thanks for letting me know that it worked and apologies for not being able to publish this comment any earlier. Have just moved home and have no internet just yet. :)

      -Ankit.

      Delete
  8. Great tutorial! Worked for me at first try...

    I have a question: I want to reinstall using my usb, but I want to wipe out my whole / (root), would I be able to do this? My /boot is in there and therefore plpbt is in there, would I be able to reinstall using this method?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Golfindriel, Once you are booted through USB, you can wipe out whole hard drive and install fresh OS. However once you have done that, you will need to follow steps above to make sure you get the option to boot from USB back into GRUB.

    I did that when I installed Bodhi Linux and it works just fine. :)

    Regards,
    Ankit.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi,

    I also had the file not found error.

    Turns out the the problem was /boot was a separate partition.

    The fix was to remove the /boot from the command

    i.e.

    linux16 /boot/plpbt.bin

    becomes

    linux16 /plpbt.bin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Anonymous,

      Thanks. I had the same problem and couldn't figure it out until I've read your comment.

      And, of course, thanks Ankit for the whole post.

      Cheers.

      Delete
    2. Happy it helped. I must admit I am unable to follow through how removing boot is letting system find the file if it is infact in that directory.

      -Ankit.

      Delete
    3. I Have this problem (file not found) in Fedora but could not fix it changing the line to /plpbt.bin.

      Should I do something else? or it is just that? Any help???

      Mauricio.-

      Delete
    4. Hi Mauricio,

      Hope you found some answer by now. If so please share what worked but if not can you try:

      linux /boot/plpbt.bin

      It's really about getting to that folder where plpbt.bin is located so if you try a few combinations something should work.

      Regards,
      Ankit.

      Delete
  11. Thank you so much. I had been trying to make this work for 2 days. It took 1/2 hour after reading this.

    ReplyDelete
  12. very nice tips...
    I would just like to say thanks, for your instructions worked first time.

    ReplyDelete
  13. really nice post.
    Once I met this situation, I'd like to take a try.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This is an excellent tutorial, for which you have my everlasting thanks. I was a bit daunted by the prospect of getting it all to work, but your instructions and responses to other queries enabled me to get the desired result. I'm sure that you will accrue much deserved karma. Many many thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for taking the time to leave a feedback. Much appreciated !!!

      Regards,
      Ankit.

      Delete
  15. I have a similar situation old Sony VIAO notebook on which I'd like to install Bodhi from USB stick. BIOS does not offer option to boot from USB. I have used PLOP to modify the master boot record of my notebook computer. Now, when I reboot, PLOP gives me the option to boot from USB. However, when I select that option all function ends, similar to your commenter momist (3-1-12), requiring me to hard boot.

    The PLOP documentation offers this warning Linux users: Install LILO or GRUB to the boot sector of your Linux instead of the Master Boot Record (MBR). The Plop Boot Manager is not a Linux loader and cannot start Linux without LILO, GRUB, Syslinux and similar!

    I don't know if that means install LILO or GRUB to the boot sector of the notebook (which is currently running XP) or install LILO or GRUB to the boot sector of the USB stick. Nor do I know how to install either to either place, but I think I might be able to figure that out from your post if I had a better idea of where I was trying to end up.

    The Bodhi USB stick does work on other computers that are already capable of booting from USB.

    Thanks,
    Dark Corner

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. After much muddling, I finally managed to install Bodhi from USB onto the notebook computer that was not capable of booting from USB. Unfortunately, it is not crystal clear how I was able to do that, since I changed two variables at once. I'll just post what I changed and leave it for someone wiser to point out whether the first change was necessary.

      First, after reading the PLOP documentation and Ankit's instructions, above, I decided to try adding GRUB to the USB stick. Since I have no knowledge of how GRUB works or even whether it runs in the background or is invoked by the user, all I did was copy the entire GRUB directory from a desktop machine already running Bodhi to a location on the USB stick that I named /boot/grub. I did not make any changes to any of the files in the GRUB directory.

      Then, I put the USB stick in the notebook computer and powered up. PLOP came up and I selected USB. Everything came to a grinding halt as before, so I hard booted. This time, when PLOP came up, I sifted through the various menu options looking for ideas. On a whim, I decided to select Force USB 1.1 and then chose Mode 1 (hey, my madness is not completely without method). I pressed [Enter] and TaDah! Bodhi splash screen. I briefly considered going back and removing the GRUB directory from the USB stick to find out if changing to Force USB 1.1 Mode 1 was all that was required, but in the end I decided not to tempt the Buddha of Hard Knocks. Now I have a little notebook that boots up in 55 seconds instead of the 4.5 minutes that was required to boot up Windows XP. What a pleasure!

      -Dark

      Delete
    2. "I don't know if that means install LILO or GRUB to the boot sector of the notebook (which is currently running XP) or install LILO or GRUB to the boot sector of the USB stick."

      It means installing on notebook. I am not sure how GRUB will be installed with just WinXP. I had it because I had got rid of Windows long long ago.

      Having said that, if you just have Windows on your laptop, Plop Boot Manager should work as this warning does not apply to you.

      As I understand, the warning there is for existing linux users i.e. users who have Linux already on their system and the scenario in particular is where system is dual boot with windows and Linux installed side by side. In that case system will have both MBR and Grub.

      I will ask one thing though - When Plop Boot Manager presents option to boot from USB, you select it, then what happens - a blank screen? If so, it can be same thing that happened to me - now I dont remember exactly but it was to do with some particular file in Live USB not being named correctly. Unfortunately this is where my memory fails me as I can't recollect what I changed in the file but once I cahnged that file on USB it started booting.

      At the time, it was something I remember finding on Bodhi Linux forums. I will try to find it if I can post back but meanwhile you may want to search on google as you may find it before I do. It will be a while before I am home. :)

      Delete
    3. I am glad you finally managed to do this and thanks for leaving the final update as I am sure others who stumble across this blog but are stuck with this kind of problem will find it helpful indeed :).

      Wonder if it had something to do with USB version then but I am not the wise one who can decipher the mysterious working of Plop so we will wait and see if someone else can come up with the explanation.

      Delete
    4. further update...I started installing 2.1 last night but something went wrong and I had to wipe th slate clean install an older version of ubuntu from one of the linux format dvd and then put plop set_up as above. All went well except I had the same issue as this one.

      I was sure it will not resolve by copying grub so I tried your formula of USB1.1 but even that did not work.

      I then changes the USB port to the first one from monitor end and lo behold I was in Live Bodhi.

      Happy to report all went well this time round...mystery continues. :)

      Delete
  16. Yessss, I managed :-), thx to the information here, but also to the information at the plop pages (http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/mbrinstall.html), as I did not have grub2 but grub (was running edubuntu 7.04, wanted to upgrade, but no DVD available). In Grub you have to change menu.lst as there's no grub.cfg

    I thought this might be helpfull to any helpseeker as wel..

    Thx!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ahhh!!! Thats a good one ....Grub 2 is indeed different from Grub. Thanks for leaving this post. Hope some people will find it useful.

      Delete
  17. Hello Ankit,

    I have a Compaq Presrio F700 laptop which currently has Windows XP in it. I want to install Bodhi linux in it. But recently the DVD drive stopped working. So I tried to install through Bootable USB Stick(2GB)created using Unetbootin and Pendrivelinux. During bios screen even after select USB Drive as primary boot device it does not boot from it. The same thing happens with my desktops too which have Asus A8V motherboards in them. Can you help me with this problem? will plop solve this problem?

    Thanks
    Shankar

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi Shankar.

    It looks like your USB drive is missing boot sector and that's why none of the machines are booting from it. As you are on XP right now, I would recommend using LiLi (http://www.linuxliveusb.com/). It works fine and does necessary checks.

    Let me know how it goes.

    Regards,
    Ankit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Ankit,
      Thank you for the reply. You are correct the problem was with the USB drive's formatting. I used a formatting tool provided by the manufacturer(transcend) to format it into FAT32 and then created a bootable ubuntu using pendrivelinux. And I was able to boot on the Laptop (Compaq Presario F 700).
      But When I tried the same with my desktop(Asus A8v-MX) I was not able to. In the boot device priority the USB drive is detected as "removable drive", but it does not boot from the USB drive. I am not sure but I guess my BIOS does not support USB booting maybe.

      Now I have Windows XP and Bodhi Linux 2.2 already installed in the Desktop. So by adding plop to the grub2's boot menu with the method that you have described above, will I be able to boot using USB drive? Or since I am running 2 OS's already is there any change to the above method? If so pls help me cos I am not that much of a command line person.

      By the way your above description is very detailed and as a newbie I did not have any trouble following you step by step guide.

      Also thanks for recommending http://www.linuxliveusb.com. It looks way better than Pendrivelinux or Unetbootin.

      Delete
    2. Hello Shankar,

      My pleasure. Dual boot should not be an issue and above method should still work.

      Regards,
      Ankit.

      Delete
  19. I got the entry to show up on the boot menu, but when I try to boot into Plop Boot Manager it says "zImage doesn't support 32-bit boot (try with linux16)". How can I fix this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What is the entry you have in custom_41? Is it similar to below?

      menuentry "Plop Bootmanager" {
      insmod ext2
      set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
      search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 25568be7-dfd1-4f88-9d9d-8b45a26edaa2
      linux16 /boot/plpbt.bin
      }

      some people found putting " /boot/plpbt.bin" worked and for some it works with linux16....

      I have not encountered the issue so I may not be able to help much.

      Regards,
      Ankit.

      Delete
    2. You mean in 40_custom? It's similar, but seems to have an if function for some reason.

      menuentry 'Plop Bootmanager'{
      insmod ext2
      set root='hd0,msdos1'
      if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
      search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos1 677433f0-4a63-4126-8b22-616f1146990b
      else
      search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 677433f0-4a63-4126-8b22-616f1146990b
      fi
      linux /boot/plpbt.bin
      }


      I don't really know what linux16 is though. Thanks for the quick response.

      Delete
    3. aha....change the line before } as below

      linux16 /boot/plpbt.bin

      so your final entry will look like this:

      menuentry 'Plop Bootmanager'{
      insmod ext2
      set root='hd0,msdos1'
      if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
      search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos1 677433f0-4a63-4126-8b22-616f1146990b
      else
      search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 677433f0-4a63-4126-8b22-616f1146990b
      fi
      linux16 /boot/plpbt.bin
      }

      That should do it. :)

      -Ankit

      Delete
  20. Yup, looks like that did the trick. For some reason it didn't change it when I edited it in Ubuntu, I had to edit it directly from grub for it to take effect. But no matter, thanks again for the help, greatly appreciate it. Fantastic article!

    ReplyDelete
  21. ya, this is right. this site is really enjoyed. This is such a Great resource that you are providing and it’s really helpful for me. It gives in depth information. Thanks for this wonderful information. thanks

    ReplyDelete

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