ISO boot from FAT/NTFS/USB (GRUB.exe, grldr from boot.ini)

[j.drake]

... Does this have anything to do with the Japanese file? ...

Well, when I posted this yesterday I didn't get the new 3.6 japanese version yet, and as you can tell by the menu.lst I posted, the miniroot_ntfs.gz included in my grub3.zip was for the 3.4 knoppix release, not the 3.6 !
If you want to run 3.6 you should try the new miniroot_ntfs.gz (1'135'675 bytes) from the new japanese version.
You can fin a copy of this file here: http://s94592085.onlinehome.us/grub/miniroot_ntfs.gz
This should work better...
Cheers, Gilles

PS: the updated grub4.zip can be downloades from here: http://s94592085.onlinehome.us/grub/grub4.zip
I will try the 3.6 Boot from NTFS using these files asap ...

I got a number of errors:

1. The same PnP BIOS fault as before
2. RAMDISK: incomplete write(=28 !=3276 4194304
3. Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root FS on ram3

jd

[eco2geek]

2. RAMDISK: incomplete write(=28 !=3276 4194304
3. Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root FS on ram3

I got that error as well, with their Knoppix 3.6 miniroot_ntfs. The Knoppix 3.4 version works fine.

[ruymbeke]

Is the makeflo folder necessary to the installation. If so, where does it go? jd

NO. This is an extra tool running on NT/XP (thanks to the dd.exe of cygwin) to create a bootable floppy with grub on it. This version of grub can then boot from ntfs, network, fat, ... I use it to boot from the network when my net card doesn't support PXE.

2. RAMDISK: incomplete write(=28 !=3276 4194304
3. Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root FS on ram3

I got the same error when I just tried 3.6 with the miniroot_ntfs.gz of the japanese version. My solution: change the kernel line of the grub menu.lst as follow: (basically inspired from the isolinux.cfg default boot)

title Knoppix 3.6 kernel 2.6 from NTFS hda1
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/knoppix.36/linux26 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce quiet knoppix_dir=/boot/knoppix.36 knoppix_name=knoppix
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/knoppix.36/miniroot_ntfs.gz
boot

Cheers, Gilles

[j.drake]

2. RAMDISK: incomplete write(=28 !=3276 4194304
3. Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root FS on ram3

I got the same error when I just tried 3.6 with the miniroot_ntfs.gz of the japanese version. My solution: change the kernel line of the grub menu.lst as follow: (basically inspired from the isolinux.cfg default boot)

title Knoppix 3.6 kernel 2.6 from NTFS hda1
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/knoppix.36/linux26 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce quiet knoppix_dir=/boot/knoppix.36 knoppix_name=knoppix
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/knoppix.36/miniroot_ntfs.gz
boot

Cheers, Gilles

Doing that got rid of the kernel panic, but gave me three insmod errors inserting the modules, '/modules/ntfs.o', '/modules/nls_cp932.0', and 'modules/nls_euc-jp.o'. All three errors indicated "-1 Invalid module format". Then the response "Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry. Dropping you to a (very limited) shell."

By any chance, when you got it to work, were you using the Japanese version of the KNOPPIX 700 MB file? I'm wondering if the miniroot_ntfs.gz is trying to load modules which aren't found natively on the stock KNOPPIX 3.6 file. Do I need to switch to it?

jd

[ruymbeke]

...By any chance, when you got it to work, were you using the Japanese version of the KNOPPIX 700 MB file? ...

No. I am using the regular KNOPPIX (725'253'780 bytes long) loop back 3.6 file, the regular linux26 kernel and the japanese miniroot_ntfs.gz ramdisk.
PS: Do you have anywhere on one of your partirion of one of your disks, a /knoppix/KNOPPIX file ? As far as I know, the linuxrc script within the miniroot ramdisk is looking for the knoppix loopback file on every possible media available before looking for the location you have specified in the kernel parameters line. This means that if you still have a 3.4 knoppix file somewhere, the 3.6 boot is still going to load your old 3.4 loop back file... This is the reason why I have renamed the knoppix directory to knoppix.36 and have no knoppix directory anywhere...
Hope this will help, Gilles

[j.drake]

Hmm, I DO have another 3.6 file elsewhere. When I was looking to copy the KNOPPIX file to my C: drive, I did a "tohd" temporarily on my hdb3 to copy it. Then it dawned on me that I could just copy from the CD, so i did that instead. (D'oh!! ). Anyway, I didn't erase that old image. I'll try that.

Also, I have an ISO image that I stored after downloading, in order to make CDs. Couldn't be that, could it? It's the same version.

jd

[ruymbeke]

... Also, I have an ISO image that I stored after downloading, in order to make CDs. Couldn't be that, could it? It's the same version ...

An ISO should be fine as long you do not have a bootfrom=*.iso. If the KNOPPIX file is the same image that the one in C:\, it should't matter, but you will not need/use the one from the NTFS... Are you sure you use the 26 kernel ? ntfs japanese boot only works with the new 2.6 kernel. Gilles

[j.drake]

I nuked out two "tohd" images, one in hdb3 and one in hdb5. The only KNOPPIX file image should be in C:\BOOT\Knoppix.36. Same problem.

Here is my menu.lst:

# GvR Sept 17th 2004 modified by jd 091904
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
timeout=15
default=0

title Default Boot on HD 0
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
boot

# Knoppix 3.6 Boot from a single NTFS partition hda1:
# All the files within the directory "Root_Of_NTFS" of the grub4.zip
# have to be copied into the root of the NTFS hda1 partition c:\
# but the boot.ini file (which is just here as an example)
# and the 700MB loopback file knoppix has to be extracted from the ISO
# and copied into c:\boot\knoppix.36\knoppix
title Knoppix 3.6 kernel 2.6 from NTFS hda1
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/knoppix.36/linux26 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce quiet knoppix_dir=/boot/knoppix.36 knoppix_name=knoppix home=/dev/hdb1 config=scan noprompt
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/knoppix.36/miniroot_ntfs.gz
boot

title Memory test
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/knoppix.36/memtest

##################################

The 2.6 kernel is all I've ever used, ever since Knoppix 3.4 first made it available in May 2004. So, yes, I'm very sure that I've been using 3.6 with the 2.6 kernel. Remember - I was able to boot this way before - I just didn't have access to the modules. As for the kernel, all files came from your latest Grub5.zip. I just copied the KNOPPIX file over to the BOOT/Knoppix.36 directory, straight from the 3.6 CD.

jd

[ruymbeke]

I nuked out two "tohd" images, one in hdb3 and one in hdb5. The only KNOPPIX file image should be in C:\BOOT\Knoppix.36. Same problem... I just copied the KNOPPIX file over to the BOOT/Knoppix.36 directory, straight from the 3.6 CD...

Everything looks righ... And it works on my IBM T41 laptop...
Just as a check, please find here the md5 of the files within the grub5.zip: http://s94592085.onlinehome.us/grub/grub5.md5 (but the zip already includes a crc)
I will try again with a cut and paste of your setup asap. Gilles

[j.drake]

Well, I changed everything to exactly the way you have it - nuked my own cheatcodes, etc. No change.

Can you explain what's going on when the error says that insmod had an error inserting the modules: '/modules/ntfs.o', '/modules/nls_cp932.0', and 'modules/nls_euc-jp.o'? I don't know much about inserting modules, but it sounds almost as if 3.6/2.6 doesn't have these modules that GRUB is trying to use, but the KNOPPIX file from my 3.6 disk won't accept them. That's why I keep coming back to the idea that maybe I need the Japanese version of the KNOPPIX file, or that I need to hope that the next version of Knoppix incorporates these modules. Maybe I'm jsut not understanding the nature of this error.

jd