Lightest Linux distros, easy for noob, with virtual winOS?

[pamojja]

i think if i hit the letter I for Ignore then Enter

Note, I've got a 11.6 inch display only. Letters are almost too small to read in the VM, so individual numbers might be misread.

Model: ATA QEMU HARDDISK (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 7368MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 2048B/512B
Partition Table: mac
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size           File system Name Flags
1          2048B 6143B 4096B                     Apple
2            334kB 2726kB 2392kB                EFI

Error: /dev/sdb: unrecognised disk label
Model: ATA QEMU HARDDISK (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 2147MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: unknown
Disk Flags:

 

[z7vl7abxc]

Disk /dev/sdb: 2147MB

that looks like where the 2.1 GB came from in the installation snapshot that you posted previously. i can't quickly see a way to make the size bigger in the gui so my first thought would be to add a new disk in the Media tab. i believe the format would be qcow2 or at least i think that's what the one aqemu originally created is.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

Disk /dev/sdb: 2147MB

i thought it would take longer to figure out how to resize the disk image or i would have added this to the previous post, but if easy has the command i used

qemu-img resize .aqemu/name_of_file.img +10G

so for yours i would try +18G at least.

 

[pamojja]

Good to know in the future. Though because I thought I just as well could create a new VM, tried this time a Proxmox VM installation, with amble space from the beginning. Failed, since it seems really a command-line installation. So in my case the installation completed in the VM after about half an hour, only to present itself with the same Proxmox graphical interface for installation, and the option to enter command-line there too.

 

[pamojja]

.

I did mention that EasyOS isn't that frugal with RAM, after installation.

gesamt benutzt frei gemns. Puffer/Cache verfügbar
Speicher: 7802 923 4728 868 2150 5909
Swap: 0 0 0

That was with one tab in Firefox open, with lxle live VM up, it's already close to 3 GB used memory.

Though I'm really happy I've got now in EasyOS a first installed and working Linux for regular use. And for being able to take first steps to get acquainted with Aqemu..

That much higher RAM use installed - only 300/700Mb /w. chromium during the live trial - does suggest one of the other light-weight distros could be much different either way, once installed and the audio problems solved. But now with Aqemu much easier to test through installed the next days again.

For which I have to read through all suggestion in this thread again, to see if I've overseen any for making audio work. Or try it with those distros I still didn't go through with it.

 

[pamojja]

An other question about the Limine bootloader, which didn't get any attention since 5 days on the puppy easyos forum, I wanted to ask here too:

Also Limine Bootloader Installer isn't simply not working, as I asumed without any experience. It does however finds OS installations on sd1/Windows partition only. In my case now with 2 efi grub entries of failed installations (Mageia and RoboLinux). Is there a way to find installation also on removeable drives? Or a different way, to find those and make bootable again?

This time I copied/pasted Easyos in the partition with the failin to boot RoboLinux installation. The problem with Robo seems to be, that its installer - despite directing it to the correct partitions on the USB - installed the grub bootloader in the windows partition instead, which now can't find the correct USB.

Would it be as an alternative be possible to just manually edit the limine.cfg, just as I had to do for the EasyOS copy/paste installation, for it to also give the choice to boot the also present RoboLinux?

Because one thing is clear now: If one has to try so many hours to just find 1 Linux working with one's hardware, in hours salary I already could afford dozens of 59,-$ RoboLinuxes. If and when it were true, that it does virtualization out of the box, or otherwise provides support for that payment.

In that respect the comment here gave me hope, for an easy solution to boot again, and test as installation:

yet your title says it's a grub issue. do you expect it could be something else?

for ubuntu or ubuntu-based distros that could use a ppa, you could try boot-info to see if it might help steer you in the right direction: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Info

or there is boot-repair: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

editing to add: forgot this: https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/html_node/Installing-GRUB-using-grub_002dinstall.html

That was the Boot-Repair report - would you dare to implement it? Or would it come with risk for the Windows installation?

boot-info-4ppa125                                              [20230824_0033]

============================== Boot Info Summary ===============================

FUSE exfat 1.2.8
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda.
 => Syslinux MBR (5.00 and higher) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.
 => Windows 2000/XP/2003 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc.
 => Grub2 (v2.00) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdd and looks at sector 1 of
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
    for (,2)/grub. It also embeds following components:
   
    modules
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    offsetio extcmd macho elf file gettext boot bufio verifiers crypto
    terminal normal datetime date mmap drivemap blocklist archelp newc
    vga_text relocator video chain ntldr search_label search_fs_file
    search_fs_uuid search keylayouts at_keyboard pci usb usb_keyboard gcry_md5
    hashsum gcry_crc gzio xzio lzopio lspci fshelp ext2 xfs acpi reboot
    iso9660 gcry_sha1 div udf exfat font diskfilter raid6rec zstd btrfs ventoy
    read halt video_fb vbe linux linux16 test true sleep echo bitmap gfxterm
    bitmap_scale trig video_colors gfxmenu videotest videoinfo functional_test
    videotest_checksum video_cirrus video_bochs vga minicmd help configfile tr
    biosdisk disk ls tar zfs squash4 pbkdf2 gcry_sha512 password_pbkdf2
    all_video png jpeg part_gpt part_msdos fat ntfs loopback
    gfxterm_background procfs gfxterm_menu smbios
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  Windows 8/2012: FAT32
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:
    Boot files:        /efi/Boot/bootx64.efi /efi/Boot/fbx64.efi
                       /efi/Boot/mmx64.efi /efi/grub/grubx64.efi
                       /efi/grub/mmx64.efi /efi/grub/shimx64.efi
                       /efi/mageia/grubx64.efi /efi/debian/grub.cfg
                       /efi/grub/grub.cfg /efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
                       /efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgr.efi
                       /efi/Microsoft/Boot/cbmr_driver.efi
                       /efi/Microsoft/Boot/memtest.efi /bootmgr /boot/bcd

sda2: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:      
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:

sda3: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows 8/2012: NTFS
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  Windows 8 or 10
    Boot files:        /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda4: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows 8/2012: NTFS
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:
    Boot files:      

sdb1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  FAT32
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:
    Boot files:      

sdb2: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:
    Operating System:  Robolinux
    Boot files:        /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /etc/default/grub

sdc1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  Windows XP: FAT32
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:
    Boot files:      

sdd1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       exfat
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:
    Mounting failed:   fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy

sdd2: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       iso9660
    Boot sector type:  Unknown
    Boot sector info:
    Operating System:
    Boot files:        /boot/grub/grub.cfg


================================ 2 OS detected =================================

OS#1:   Robolinux (R12.12) on sdb2
OS#2:   Windows 8 or 10 on sda3

============================ Architecture/Host Info ============================

CPU architecture: 64-bit
Live-session OS is Ubuntu 64-bit (Boot-Repair-Disk 64bit 20200604, bionic, x86_64)


===================================== UEFI =====================================

BIOS is EFI-compatible, and is setup in EFI-mode for this live-session.
SecureBoot disabled.

efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0008
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0001,0004,0007,0008,0009,0002,0005
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager    HD(1,GPT,ee834e9d-ef4c-490d-b5c4-a64670a68dfe,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}....................
Boot0001* mageia    HD(1,GPT,ee834e9d-ef4c-490d-b5c4-a64670a68dfe,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\MAGEIA\GRUBX64.EFI)
Boot0002  Hard Drive    BBS(HD,,0x0)/VenHw(5ce8128b-2cec-40f0-8372-80640e3dc858,0200)..GO..NO..........C.Y.X.-.S.S.D.-.S.1.0.0.0...................\.,[email protected].=.X..........A...........................>..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L.2.2.1.1.0.1.0.0.2.0.1.0.1.S.8.2.2.2.1.2........BO
Boot0004* grub    HD(1,GPT,ee834e9d-ef4c-490d-b5c4-a64670a68dfe,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\GRUB\SHIMX64.EFI)
Boot0005  USB    BBS(USB,,0x0)/VenHw(5ce8128b-2cec-40f0-8372-80640e3dc858,0500)..GO..NO........{.U.S.B. .U.S.B...................\.,[email protected].=.X..........A.............................2..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L.1.2.0.8.2.9.1.2.0.1.0.0.0.7........BO..NO........{.U.S.B. .U.S.B...................\.,[email protected].=.X..........A.............................2..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L.1.2.0.8.3.1.9.1.6.8.0.1.1.7........BO..NO......... .U.S.B. .D.I.S.K. .3...0. .P.M.A.P...................\.,[email protected].=.X..........A.............................6..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L.0.7.0.B.8.7.4.B.0.D.C.0.6.7.6.4........BO
Boot0007* UEFI: USB USB Hard Drive, Partition 1    PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x15,0x0)/USB(4,0)/USB(2,0)/HD(1,MBR,0xc3072e18,0x1000,0xf3000)..BO
Boot0008* UEFI: USB USB Hard Drive, Partition 2    PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x15,0x0)/USB(4,0)/USB(3,0)/HD(2,MBR,0xc0914ea4,0x3b50000,0x10000)..BO
Boot0009* UEFI:  USB DISK 3.0 PMAP, Partition 1    PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x15,0x0)/USB(10,0)/USB(1,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x4e2f0346,0x1f80,0x735a080)..BO

64349b3622c65f495a99dbf6102496e3   sda1/Boot/bootx64.efi
a5e9b71b5ba86166bee504e1b254b7cf   sda1/Boot/fbx64.efi
f75c300397e73f3fc7bfe46d49819bb2   sda1/Boot/mmx64.efi
78dce18613524e5ea5d6059f51b7178f   sda1/grub/grubx64.efi
f75c300397e73f3fc7bfe46d49819bb2   sda1/grub/mmx64.efi
64349b3622c65f495a99dbf6102496e3   sda1/grub/shimx64.efi
577e1b33bbb9891ea1d237f9edd3ac1a   sda1/mageia/grubx64.efi
7683e10e6c4a84b1c9d59791682f572e   sda1/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
53c644d4eaa56f55d29bcf24dadfe166   sda1/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgr.efi
b8796e68099026aabcebb8fcf75b21f6   sda1/Microsoft/Boot/cbmr_driver.efi
0d580db5579f2f28a399fdb906391f50   sda1/limine/BOOTX64.efi
6dc8377fe94a31df3948ac6b792fbe00   sdb1/BOOT/BOOTIA32.efi
0d580db5579f2f28a399fdb906391f50   sdb1/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi


============================= Drive/Partition Info =============================

Disks info: ____________________________________________________________________

sda    : is-GPT,    no-BIOSboot,    has---ESP,     not-usb,    not-mmc, has-os,    2048 sectors * 512 bytes
sdc    : notGPT,    no-BIOSboot,    has-noESP,     usb-disk,    not-mmc, no-os,    2048 sectors * 512 bytes
sdb    : notGPT,    no-BIOSboot,    has---ESP,     liveusb,    not-mmc, has-os,    2048 sectors * 512 bytes

Partitions info (1/3): _________________________________________________________

sda1    : no-os,    32, nopakmgr,    no-docgrub,    nogrub,    nogrubinstall,    no-grubenv,    noupdategrub,    not-far
sda3    : is-os,    32, nopakmgr,    no-docgrub,    nogrub,    nogrubinstall,    no-grubenv,    noupdategrub,    farbios
sda4    : no-os,    32, nopakmgr,    no-docgrub,    nogrub,    nogrubinstall,    no-grubenv,    noupdategrub,    farbios
sdc1    : no-os,    32, nopakmgr,    no-docgrub,    nogrub,    nogrubinstall,    no-grubenv,    noupdategrub,    not-far
sdb1    : no-os,    32, nopakmgr,    no-docgrub,    nogrub,    nogrubinstall,    no-grubenv,    noupdategrub,    not-far
sdb2    : is-os,    64, apt-get,    signed grub-pc grub-efi ,    grub2,    grub-install,    grubenv-ok,    update-grub,    not-far

Partitions info (2/3): _________________________________________________________

sda1    : is---ESP,    part-has-no-fstab,    no-nt,    no-winload,    no-recov-nor-hid,    bootmgr,    is-winboot
sda3    : isnotESP,    part-has-no-fstab,    no-nt,    haswinload,    no-recov-nor-hid,    no-bmgr,    notwinboot
sda4    : isnotESP,    part-has-no-fstab,    no-nt,    no-winload,    recovery-or-hidden,    no-bmgr,    notwinboot
sdc1    : isnotESP,    part-has-no-fstab,    no-nt,    no-winload,    no-recov-nor-hid,    no-bmgr,    notwinboot
sdb1    : is---ESP,    part-has-no-fstab,    no-nt,    no-winload,    no-recov-nor-hid,    no-bmgr,    notwinboot
sdb2    : isnotESP,    fstab-has-goodEFI,    no-nt,    no-winload,    no-recov-nor-hid,    no-bmgr,    notwinboot

Partitions info (3/3): _________________________________________________________

sda1    : not-sepboot,    no-boot,    part-has-no-fstab,    not-sep-usr,    no---usr,    part-has-no-fstab,    std-grub.d,    sda
sda3    : not-sepboot,    no-boot,    part-has-no-fstab,    not-sep-usr,    no---usr,    part-has-no-fstab,    std-grub.d,    sda
sda4    : not-sepboot,    no-boot,    part-has-no-fstab,    not-sep-usr,    no---usr,    part-has-no-fstab,    std-grub.d,    sda
sdc1    : not-sepboot,    no-boot,    part-has-no-fstab,    not-sep-usr,    no---usr,    part-has-no-fstab,    std-grub.d,    sdc
sdb1    : not-sepboot,    no-boot,    part-has-no-fstab,    not-sep-usr,    no---usr,    part-has-no-fstab,    std-grub.d,    sdb
sdb2    : not-sepboot,    with-boot,    fstab-without-boot,    not-sep-usr,    with--usr,    fstab-without-usr,    std-grub.d,    sdb

fdisk -l (filtered): ___________________________________________________________

Disk sda: 119.2 GiB, 128035676160 bytes, 250069680 sectors
Disk identifier: 9385E2A5-9E5D-4952-A5FA-A3D5A9E592A8
          Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
sda1       2048    206847    204800   100M EFI System
sda2     206848    239615     32768    16M Microsoft reserved
sda3     239616 248430591 248190976 118.4G Microsoft basic data
sda4  248430592 250068991   1638400   800M Windows recovery environment
Disk sdc: 57.7 GiB, 61933092864 bytes, 120963072 sectors
Disk identifier: 0x4e2f0346
      Boot Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
sdc1        8064 120963071 120955008 57.7G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Disk sdb: 29.7 GiB, 31876710400 bytes, 62259200 sectors
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18
      Boot  Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
sdb1  *      4096   999423   995328  486M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
sdb2       999424 62259199 61259776 29.2G 83 Linux
Disk sdd: 29.7 GiB, 31876710400 bytes, 62259200 sectors
Disk identifier: 0xc0914ea4
      Boot    Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
sdd1  *        2048 62193663 62191616 29.7G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
sdd2       62193664 62259199    65536   32M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
Disk dm-0: 880 MiB, 922746880 bytes, 1802240 sectors
Disk identifier: 0x2c534026
       Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
dm-0p1 *        0 1802239 1802240  880M  0 Empty
dm-0p2        964    5891    4928  2.4M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
Disk zram0: 974.7 MiB, 1022013440 bytes, 249515 sectors
Disk zram1: 974.7 MiB, 1022013440 bytes, 249515 sectors
Disk zram2: 974.7 MiB, 1022013440 bytes, 249515 sectors
Disk zram3: 974.7 MiB, 1022013440 bytes, 249515 sectors

parted -lm (filtered): _________________________________________________________

sda:128GB:scsi:512:512:gpt:ATA CYX-SSD-S1000:;
1:1049kB:106MB:105MB:fat32:EFI system partition:boot, esp;
2:106MB:123MB:16.8MB::Microsoft reserved partition:msftres;
3:123MB:127GB:127GB:ntfs:Basic data partition:msftdata;
4:127GB:128GB:839MB:ntfs::hidden, diag;
sdb:31.9GB:scsi:512:512:msdos: :;
1:2097kB:512MB:510MB:fat32::boot, esp;
2:512MB:31.9GB:31.4GB:ext4::;
sdc:61.9GB:scsi:512:512:msdos: USB DISK 3.0:;
1:4129kB:61.9GB:61.9GB:fat32::lba;
sdd:31.9GB:scsi:512:512:msdos: :;
1:1049kB:31.8GB:31.8GB:::boot;
2:31.8GB:31.9GB:33.6MB:fat16::esp;
zram3:1022MB:unknown:4096:4096:loop:Unknown:;
1:0.00B:1022MB:1022MB:linux-swap(v1)::;
zram1:1022MB:unknown:4096:4096:loop:Unknown:;
1:0.00B:1022MB:1022MB:linux-swap(v1)::;
zram2:1022MB:unknown:4096:4096:loop:Unknown:;
1:0.00B:1022MB:1022MB:linux-swap(v1)::;
zram0:1022MB:unknown:4096:4096:loop:Unknown:;
1:0.00B:1022MB:1022MB:linux-swap(v1)::;

blkid (filtered): ______________________________________________________________

NAME   FSTYPE   UUID                                 PARTUUID                             LABEL                  PARTLABEL
sda                                                                                                            
├─sda1 vfat     005C-9903                            ee834e9d-ef4c-490d-b5c4-a64670a68dfe SYSTEM                 EFI system partition
├─sda2                                               316e3762-204c-4241-8a97-05fd93e4710e                        Microsoft reserved partition
├─sda3 ntfs     66BE5D8EBE5D581F                     694d124d-49af-4cb2-a385-3bf26e20d219 Windows                Basic data partition
└─sda4 ntfs     E8D25E26D25DF970                     496b199b-1d7a-4157-bfa9-8974fb7ce7ba Recovery               Basic data partition
sdb                                                                                                            
├─sdb1 vfat     3FD7-404C                            c3072e18-01                          BOOT                  
└─sdb2 ext4     47abe9f7-b0ee-415f-8ba0-221c2d7072bd c3072e18-02                          easy                  
sdc                                                                                                            
└─sdc1 vfat     4E2F-0346                            4e2f0346-01                          ZERO                  
sdd                                                                                                            
├─sdd1 exfat    4E21-0000                            c0914ea4-01                          Ventoy                
└─sdd2 iso9660  2020-06-13-00-42-55-00                                                    Boot-Repair-Disk 64bit
zram0                                                                                                          
zram1                                                                                                          
zram2                                                                                                          
zram3                                                                                                          

df (filtered): _________________________________________________________________

               Avail Use% Mounted on
mapper/ventoy      0 100% /cdrom
sda1           39.5M  59% /mnt/boot-sav/sda1
sda3           36.4G  69% /mnt/boot-sav/sda3
sda4          131.3M  84% /mnt/boot-sav/sda4
sdb1          484.3M   0% /mnt/boot-sav/sdb1
sdb2           14.5G  44% /media/lubuntu/easy
sdc1           57.7G   0% /media/lubuntu/ZERO
sdd2               0 100% /media/lubuntu/Boot-Repair-Disk 64bit

Mount options: __________________________________________________________________

mapper/ventoy ro,noatime,nojoliet,check=s,map=n,blocksize=2048
sda1          rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro
sda3          rw,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other,blksize=4096
sda4          rw,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other,blksize=4096
sdb1          rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro
sdb2          rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime
sdc1          rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=999,gid=999,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,showexec,utf8,flush,errors=remount-ro
sdd2          ro,nosuid,nodev,relatime,nojoliet,check=s,map=n,blocksize=2048

===================== sda1/efi/debian/grub.cfg (filtered) ======================

Q4OS Desktop
Windows Boot Manager (on sda1)   osprober-efi-005C-9903
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
UEFI Firmware Settings   uefi-firmware
### END /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware ###

====================== sda1/efi/grub/grub.cfg (filtered) =======================

search.fs_uuid 47abe9f7-b0ee-415f-8ba0-221c2d7072bd root hd3,msdos2
set prefix=($root)'/boot/grub'
configfile $prefix/grub.cfg

====================== sdb2/boot/grub/grub.cfg (filtered) ======================

GNU/Linux   47abe9f7-b0ee-415f-8ba0-221c2d7072bd
GNU/Linux, with Linux 5.15.0-78-generic   47abe9f7-b0ee-415f-8ba0-221c2d7072bd
Windows Boot Manager (on sda1)   osprober-efi-005C-9903
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
UEFI Firmware Settings   uefi-firmware
### END /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware ###

========================== sdb2/etc/fstab (filtered) ===========================

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sdd2 during installation
UUID=47abe9f7-b0ee-415f-8ba0-221c2d7072bd /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=005C-9903  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
/swapfile                                 none            swap    sw              0       0

======================= sdb2/etc/default/grub (filtered) =======================

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

==================== sdb2: Location of files loaded by Grub ====================

           GiB - GB             File                                 Fragment(s)
   4.190647125 = 4.499673088    boot/grub/grub.cfg                             2
   4.354450226 = 4.675555328    boot/vmlinuz                                   2
   4.354450226 = 4.675555328    boot/vmlinuz-5.15.0-78-generic                 2
  14.331741333 = 15.388590080   boot/initrd.img                                2
  14.331741333 = 15.388590080   boot/initrd.img-5.15.0-78-generic              2
  14.331741333 = 15.388590080   boot/initrd.img.old                            2

===================== sdb2: ls -l /etc/grub.d/ (filtered) ======================

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 18224 Jan 11  2022 10_linux
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 42359 Oct  1  2020 10_linux_zfs
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 13101 Dec 18  2022 20_linux_xen
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12059 Jul 31  2020 30_os-prober
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  1424 Jul 31  2020 30_uefi-firmware
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   700 Feb 21  2022 35_fwupd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   214 Jul 31  2020 40_custom
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   216 Jul 31  2020 41_custom

=========================== sdb2/etc/grub.d/35_fwupd ===========================

#! /bin/sh
# SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+
set -e
[ -d ${pkgdatadir:?} ]
# shellcheck source=/dev/null
. "$pkgdatadir/grub-mkconfig_lib"
if [ -f /var/lib/fwupd/uefi_capsule.conf ] &&
   ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/fwupd-*-0abba7dc-e516-4167-bbf5-4d9d1c739416 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then
      . /var/lib/fwupd/uefi_capsule.conf
      if [ "${EFI_PATH}" != "" ] && [ "${ESP}" != "" ]; then
      echo "Adding Linux Firmware Updater entry" >&2
cat << EOF
menuentry 'Linux Firmware Updater' \$menuentry_id_option 'fwupd' {
EOF
      ${grub_probe:?}
      prepare_grub_to_access_device '`${grub_probe} --target=device \${ESP}` | sed -e "s/^/\t/"'
cat << EOF
    chainloader ${EFI_PATH}
}
EOF
      fi
fi

====================== sdd2/boot/grub/grub.cfg (filtered) ======================


==================== sdd2: Location of files loaded by Grub ====================

           GiB - GB             File                                 Fragment(s)
            ?? = ??             boot/grub/grub.cfg                             1


======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =========================


/dev/sda1: unknown GPT attributes
8000000000000000

/dev/sda2: unknown GPT attributes
8000000000000000

/dev/sda4: unknown GPT attributes
8000000000000001
Unknown BootLoader on sdd2

00000000  33 ed 90 90 90 90 90 90  90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90  |3...............|
00000010  90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90  90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90  |................|
00000020  33 ed fa 8e d5 bc 00 7c  fb fc 66 31 db 66 31 c9  |3......|..f1.f1.|
00000030  66 53 66 51 06 57 8e dd  8e c5 52 be 00 7c bf 00  |fSfQ.W....R..|..|
00000040  06 b9 00 01 f3 a5 ea 4b  06 00 00 52 b4 41 bb aa  |.......K...R.A..|
00000050  55 31 c9 30 f6 f9 cd 13  72 16 81 fb 55 aa 75 10  |U1.0....r...U.u.|
00000060  83 e1 01 74 0b 66 c7 06  f3 06 b4 42 eb 15 eb 02  |...t.f.....B....|
00000070  31 c9 5a 51 b4 08 cd 13  5b 0f b6 c6 40 50 83 e1  |1.ZQ....[...@P..|
00000080  3f 51 f7 e1 53 52 50 bb  00 7c b9 04 00 66 a1 b0  |?Q..SRP..|...f..|
00000090  07 e8 44 00 0f 82 80 00  66 40 80 c7 02 e2 f2 66  |[email protected]|
000000a0  81 3e 40 7c fb c0 78 70  75 09 fa bc ec 7b ea 44  |.>@|..xpu....{.D|
000000b0  7c 00 00 e8 83 00 69 73  6f 6c 69 6e 75 78 2e 62  ||.....isolinux.b|
000000c0  69 6e 20 6d 69 73 73 69  6e 67 20 6f 72 20 63 6f  |in missing or co|
000000d0  72 72 75 70 74 2e 0d 0a  66 60 66 31 d2 66 03 06  |rrupt...f`f1.f..|
000000e0  f8 7b 66 13 16 fc 7b 66  52 66 50 06 53 6a 01 6a  |.{f...{fRfP.Sj.j|
000000f0  10 89 e6 66 f7 36 e8 7b  c0 e4 06 88 e1 88 c5 92  |...f.6.{........|
00000100  f6 36 ee 7b 88 c6 08 e1  41 b8 01 02 8a 16 f2 7b  |.6.{....A......{|
00000110  cd 13 8d 64 10 66 61 c3  e8 1e 00 4f 70 65 72 61  |...d.fa....Opera|
00000120  74 69 6e 67 20 73 79 73  74 65 6d 20 6c 6f 61 64  |ting system load|
00000130  20 65 72 72 6f 72 2e 0d  0a 5e ac b4 0e 8a 3e 62  | error...^....>b|
00000140  04 b3 07 cd 10 3c 0a 75  f1 cd 18 f4 eb fd 00 00  |.....<.u........|
00000150  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000001b0  04 17 00 00 00 00 00 00  26 40 53 2c 00 00 80 00  |........&@S,....|
000001c0  01 00 00 3f e0 6f 00 00  00 00 00 80 1b 00 00 fe  |...?.o..........|
000001d0  ff ff ef fe ff ff c4 03  00 00 40 13 00 00 00 00  |..........@.....|
000001e0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|
00000200


=============================== StdErr Messages ================================

sed: can't read /media/lubuntu/Boot-Repair-Disk: No such file or directory
sed: can't read 64bit/boot/grub/grub.cfg: No such file or directory
File descriptor 63 (pipe:[51579]) leaked on lvs invocation. Parent PID 18080: /bin/bash

Suggested repair: ______________________________________________________________

The default repair of the Boot-Repair utility would reinstall the grub-efi-amd64-signed of
sdb2,
using the following options:        sdb1/boot/efi,
Additional repair would be performed: unhide-bootmenu-10s win-legacy-basic-fix use-standard-efi-file  

Final advice in case of suggested repair: ______________________________________


Please do not forget to make your UEFI firmware boot on the Robolinux (R12.12) entry (sdb1/efi/****/shim****.efi (**** will be updated in the final message) file) !
If your computer reboots directly into Windows, try to change the boot order in your UEFI firmware.

If your UEFI firmware does not allow to change the boot order, change the default boot entry of the Windows bootloader.
For example you can boot into Windows, then type the following command in an admin command prompt:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\****\shim****.efi (**** will be updated in the final message)
paste.ubuntu.com ko ()
paste.debian.net ko ()

 

[z7vl7abxc]

That was the Boot-Repair report - would you dare to implement it? Or would it come with risk for the Windows installation?

Suggested repair: ______________________________________________________________
The default repair of the Boot-Repair utility would reinstall the grub-efi-amd64-signed of sdb2, using the following options: sdb1/boot/efi,
Additional repair would be performed: unhide-bootmenu-10s win-legacy-basic-fix use-standard-efi-file

i installed boot-repair in my robolinux vm to try to see what win-legacy-basic-fix would do, but didn't understand the code. it does look like it will probably attempt to make some kind of changes to a windows boot file or files.

that option seems to be linked to two check boxes in the boot-repair gui. if i open boot-repair and click on "Advanced options" in the "Main options" tab there is a box for "Backup and rename Windows EFI files..." and in the "Other options" tab there is a box for "Repair Windows boot files". presumably if you ran the repair without those boxes checked, that option would not be used.

i have read a suggestion before that you could always backup any files in the esp before making any changes to it.

i realize that's a longwinded way of saying that i do believe there is some risk to your windows installation if you accept that suggestion.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

Please do not forget to make your UEFI firmware boot on the Robolinux (R12.12) entry (sdb1/efi//shim.efi (**** will be updated in the final message) file) ! If your computer reboots directly into Windows, try to change the boot order in your UEFI firmware.

in case you do go ahead with the repair, since that part left off some details i thought i would add these from the robolinux vm. this is just the last part which is the entry showing what is missing in the ***'s:

efibootmgr -v
...
Boot0004* ubuntu	HD(1,GPT,414fc630-c45b-4ad8-9231-1d6c2ee66b65,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)

 

[z7vl7abxc]

I did mention that EasyOS isn't that frugal with RAM, after installation.

gesamt benutzt frei gemns. Puffer/Cache verfügbar
Speicher: 7802 923 4728 868 2150 5909
Swap: 0 0 0

in case you are still working on this, i wanted to mention that most distros tend to set up some swap with either a dedicated partition or (more recently) a file. i thought that might be helpful when you get to trying to create the windows vm since they can consume so much RAM. i am temporarily working with a windows system and thought it was interesting that just after boot with only the task manger open, it was already using 3.1 GB of RAM.

with the previously created lxle vm, at one point i suggested setting the HDA Interface to "ide". however, after doing some more reading and seeing what virt-manager vm's use think "virtio" may be a better choice.

 

[pamojja]

I did set up 7 VMs of the lighter Linuxes from my live results. Just no time these days to go ahead with further thorough testing. Thanks for informing me of a better way than 'ide', since now I made all of them identical, the way you have shown me before. Will change to 'virtio' again.

I didn't understand the relationship of a swap file/partition to the inordinate use of RAM in windows VMs. Does that mean some of the RAM use would be out-poured to the swap?

Then there might be a problem with the EasyOs - as far as I understand it writes nothing on the drive - so presumable also not to a swap on the drive, as long as one doesn't click 'save session'. Where my 8GB of RAM might indeed no longer suffice. Guess the only way around would be to disable that temporarily, and do set it to read/write to the drive during those time with Windows VM running.

i thought i would add these from the robolinux vm.

Interesting, a quick try with Robo in a VM didn't succeed for me yet.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

you are welcome. i found this page earlier and it was part of what prompted me to share the info about changing to virtio: https://access.redhat.com/documenta...m_para_virtualized_virtio_drivers#doc-wrapper

Paravirtualized drivers enhance the performance of guests, decreasing guest I/O latency and increasing throughput almost to bare-metal levels. It is recommended to use the paravirtualized drivers for fully virtualized guests running I/O-heavy tasks and applications.

I didn't understand the relationship of a swap file/partition to the inordinate use of RAM in windows VMs. Does that mean some of the RAM use would be out-poured to the swap?

i realize that easyos does some things differently, but just wanted to add the info about swap in case it might be helpful.

for example, my main system has 16 GB of RAM. i rarely have enough programs open to use more than 3 or 4 GB. when i create vm's, i give them just about 8 GB. even though there should be at least 4 or 5 unused, i often find swap is in use at least a little. i believe at least part of that has to do with the "buff/cache" column (2nd from right) in free -m output:

free -m
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           15875        2161       10760         350        2952       13021
Swap:           4095           0        4095

Interesting, a quick try with Robo in a VM didn't succeed for me yet.

well, to clarify, that is a robo vm on my main system using virt-manager and not aqemu. i've not figured a way to create aqemu vm's with uefi to be able to get that kind of info.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

There is actually a detailed instruction how to get a VM Linux running in EasyOS on top of the Puppy EasyOS forum.

i just wanted to say another quick thank you for sharing that link. i did finally get around to installing the windows 10 virtio drivers and it made a world of difference in my vm. the windows basic driver seemed to be limited to 800x600 resolution which was usable, but not great to say the least.

in addition to the drivers mentioned in your link there was also a virtio-win-guest-tools executable that i needed to run for the vm to take advantage of the new driver. in addition to that it added the ability to copy and paste to and from the vm.

to clarify, this is a win10 vm i created with virt-manager instead of aqemu. however, it does also just seem to run a qemu command like the aqemu-created vm's according to ps aux | grep qemu. they are more complicated, but similar.

 

[pamojja]

I appreciate. Looking forward to testing VMs myself again, at the moment my time is too little for.

 

[pamojja]

Did quickly check the VMs of antix, bodhi, fatdog, lite, lxle, wattos and Robo with the 'virtio' setting under the HDA-interface. The latest does start up with this change now too.

Only antiX terminates its boot-up with this screen, and therefore doesn't work as a VM for me:

Though, the same ISO did boot in live mode with ventoy.

All others, except fatdog, don't seem to cognize a sound card, as here in the example with bodhi:

Though under 'Playback' and 'Output Devices' does show oscillating bars with audio playing, for example with youtube.

Fatdog comes with many settings for sound, but all tried with GUI didn't bring to play.

Install seemed to proceed really fast with wattOS, just 6 minutes with far advanced progress bar. However, short before completing - the Aqemu VM window with wattos just closed - and on restart the live version started again only.

Still much digging to do, to get at the root of these difficulties.

Since 2 of the installed EasyOSs were functioning, but failing in a few days of trials again, I fear it is simply not stable enough, and therefore continue to search for another alternative.

Also EasyOS Puppy subforum, for all practical purposes, is a very inactive forum. Though I did get 2 very quick and helpful answers. Most questions asked there rarely receive answers since I joined a month ago.

Received much more help for EasyOS here.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

Only antiX terminates its boot up in this screenshot, and therefore doesn't works as VM for me:

i have the antiX full iso version and this is on my mint system, but the vm runs. for the CD-ROM's Advanced properties, i have the check mark in front of File and the field points to the path of the iso. i have a check mark in the Media box. this time i chose CD-ROM. for the disk (HDA) i have a check mark in front of File and that points to the .img file. this time i only also put a check mark in front of Interface and chose virtio. i don't know if that may make a difference.

All others, except fatdog, don't seem to cognize a sound card, as here in the example with bodhi:

you could try checking

lspci -knn | grep -iA3 audio

to see if the device is listed.

i got to thinking that since qemu only simulates about a handful of audio devices, the vm's themselves may never give you true info about how well your audio will or won't work when run live. i don't know if that is a big part of your tests, but wanted to add it just in case.

 

[pamojja]

qemu only simulates about a handful of audio devices, the vm's themselves may never give you true info about how well your audio will or won't work when run live.

My experience of Mageia live - where everything works, then installed and updated it didn't - showed me, there are unpredictable outcomes from too many unknowns possible. Proceeding from live to install. And it may too be from VM to drive.

Call it magical thinking, but in this case the opposite could also be true (due to unknown factors). Since installation on USB can be breathtaking slow, it could be faster as VM: as a quicker preview of one form of installation.

Still, until now I only had the time to try wattOS, but didn't install in a VM.

i have a check mark in the Media box. this time i chose CD-ROM.

You are a god-sent. How do you know such things?

Only had to set to CD-ROM here, everything else was already as yours. And it worked perfectly now.

Intuition?

 

[z7vl7abxc]

Since installation on USB can be breathtaking slow, it could be faster as VM: as a quicker preview of one form of installation.

i very much agree that the outcomes can be unpredictable no matter where you (or any of us) start. installing wattOS in an aqemu vm was a good example for me. when i let the installer decide, it wanted to use 8 GB of the total 20 GB disk space for swap. while on a regular system that much swap might make some sense, it seemed like wasted space in a vm.

How do you know such things?

i think most of those settings were a bit of trial and error. i would push the start button and try to figure out from errors what to adjust before trying again. i am glad you were able to get yours working.

 

[pamojja]

you could try checking

lspci -knn | grep -iA3 audio

In antiX this command gives no reply, only returns:

demo@antixl: ~
$

Just as when it opens.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

you could try just

lspci -knn

but it can be a lot of text to try and sift through.

is there a volume icon at the bottom right of the screen? if so, if you click on it, do you have an option to Open Mixer? otherwise in the antiX Control Centre in the Hardware tab there is a Sound Card Chooser option.

in case none of those seem to work, there is the VM tab in aqemu where you could try using a different Audio setting. mine shows a card with AC97 (Intel 82802AA), but you could try others.

 

[pamojja]

Thanks, meanwhile tried to install antix as VM, sadly every froze at 34% of copying files, and much too long, could only power off.

There wasn't a volume icon.

Tried the sound card chooser under hardware options, but no sound card available. Try further tomorrow.