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

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pamojja said:
Never had wired Ethernet connection. I just downloaded the ISOs and copied on a Ventoy USB-stick. Made quick test in live mode, if everything works.

Installed from the live medium until now only Mageia 8, since it's the only Linux distro of many working out of the box in live mode with my setup.

However, twice installed, taking in total 12 hours, it failed twice as installs. Making me weary of any further installations trials. Unless for a good reason I can't see yet.
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If you have a place with a working wired Ethernet connection you would have a better chance of getting a Linux distro installed and working.
Some of the needed system drivers come down from the Linux repository at the time of installation as not all needed drivers may be on the ISO.
The next thing is after an install is completed a reboot is necessary and then install the needed updates which will require a restart.
Sometimes live testing doesn't always work and the only true test is to install to a hard drive internal or on a usb flash drive with persistence.

PuppyHome said:
Do you install to said USB or internal drive?

I'll be honest and don't want to be rude but in all my years I haven't seen anyone having so much trouble to get any Linux distro started.
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I agree.
 


PuppyHome said:
Do you install to said USB or internal drive?

I'll be honest and don't want to be rude but in all my years I haven't seen anyone having so much trouble to get any Linux distro started.
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As said, only tried Mageia twice, because of being the only one working live for me.

Installed first on an SD-card, second on a USB drive. While the first install lacked in audio, the second was unresponsive and froze always.

The Duck said:
Some of the needed system drivers come down from the Linux repository at the time of installation as not all needed drivers may be on the ISO.
The next thing is after an install is completed a reboot is necessary and then install the needed updates which will require a restart.
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The first install lasted 8 hours with full actualizing of all packages, only for the audio not working afterward. That's why I intentionally left the second install without actualization. Which turned out worse.

The Duck said:
Sometimes live testing doesn't always work and the only true test is to install to a hard drive internal or on a usb flash drive with persistence.
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I agree, was also my conclusion a page ago in this thread. However, considering how time-consuming it would be to test the 50 something distros all installed, I erstwhile just gave up on testing installed.

Meanwhile, see if other live work as Mageia. And then use those working in life mode only, with persistent settings.
 
PuppyHome said:
I'll be honest and don't want to be rude but in all my years I haven't seen anyone having so much trouble to get any Linux distro started.
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Simple reason: most encountering such difficulties would have given up on Linux already long ago.
 
pamojja said:
Simple reason: most encountering such difficulties would have given up on Linux already long ago.
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Maybe it's best I won't engage in this topic.
 
ML_113 said:
That's why I love EasyOS so much
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Thanks for this particular suggestion. Actually till now of all tested, second to Mageia working out of the box only. Almost..

However, with easyOS for the first time I found under Hardware settings a dialog, to test options with dummy sound - and indeed working with at least one...

IMG_0348.jpg


It uses 300MB of RAM idle, 700 with Chromium under my Youtube example loadonly and my setting. Though will have to see how much that will be with Firefox, by now that is half of Mageia's usage.
 
If you don't like Easy, install another distro on a different partition WITHOUT installing the boot loader.
After that run the Limine boot installer , it will recognize the newly added distro and can boot it.
I also add the 32 bit boot together with the 64 EFI boot, and it will boot anything.
 
I tried to install EasyOS in the way which seemed most easy (if it really works that way, what progress compared to the 8 hours Mageia install).

You could manually create a vfat esp partition and a ext4 working-partition, then copy-in the three files 'vmlinuz', 'initrd' and 'easy.sfs' to the latter. And create /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI in the esp partition.
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Since I already have a vfat esp and ext4 partition on a new USB-stick, did so.

However, there is good news; 'limine.cfg' can be automatically generated. In the "Setup" menu, you will find "Limine Installer". Run that, follow the simple GUI windows, and you will get a 'limine.cfg' generated.
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And as you said, it recognizes the existing windows and the first Mageia install on a SD-card to add to the bootloader, but not the copied EasyOS in the ext4 partition.

Now I would have to edit the 'limine.cfg' on the vfat partition. For which I apparently need the 'blkid' utility.
Where do I find it in the EasyOS menus?
 
ML_113 said:
a terminal and type ... blkid.:)
But you don't even need to do that, use the Limine bootloader installer as per following screen.
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Thanks. I tried to copy and paste what's found on the 'how to' page in the terminal, with no results. Will try it with blkid alone now.

The Limine bootloader from within the graphical interface, as already written above, did find windows and mageia, but that is sort of moot. I need it for the EasyOS installed, it failed to find.
 
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pamojja said:
Will try it with blkid alone now.
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That gave an uuid now, and pasted it into the 'limine.cfg. Also mentioned:

Also drag to copy, the 'easyos' folder to the new ext4 partition. This has easyos/vmlinuz, initrd and easy.sfs.
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In my ISO there was no easyos folder with the 3 files in it, just the 3 files themselves. I recreated that now in the ext4 partition.

The graphical Limine bootloader still didn't recognize the easy os. And if I boot it from the bios it still isn't found. This is what is displayed:

IMG_0349.jpg


The vfat is sdb1, the ext4 partition is sdb2. That path is also the same as in the limine.cfg. Do I have to change something about it too?
 
pamojja said:
That gave an uuid now, and pasted it into the 'limine.cfg. Also mentioned:


In my ISO there was no easyos folder with the 3 files in it, just the 3 files themselves. I recreated that now in the ext4 partition.

The graphical Limine bootloader still didn't recognize the easy os. And if I boot it from the bios it still isn't found. This is what is displayed:

View attachment 16561

The vfat is sdb1, the ext4 partition is sdb2. That path is also the same as in the limine.cfg. Do I have to change something about it too?
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EasyOS - Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

forum.puppylinux.com forum.puppylinux.com
 
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pamojja said:
Thanks. These were the instructions I followed. I understand that I probably get faster answers when signing up to a specific Linux distro forum. But before I choose, and such difficulties with so many distros, I would have to sign up with too many forums.

Will read through, maybe someone had the same difficulty already.
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Puppy Linux Forum.
 
If Windows is already installed on the internal hard drive than why not just leave it be and install Easy OS as a frugal to a USB flash drive.
Windows installed on its own drive with its own bootloader and Easy OS installed as a frugal install to a USB flash drive with its own bootloader.
That way you can run Easy OS by itself by booting from the boot menu from a restart.
When you want to use Windows than just boot into Windows from the boot menu.
 
The Duck said:
If Windows is already installed on the internal hard drive than why not just leave it be and install Easy OS as a frugal to a USB flash drive.
Windows installed on its own drive with its own bootloader and Easy OS installed as a frugal install to a USB flash drive with its own bootloader.
That way you can run Easy OS by itself by booting from the boot menu from a restart.
When you want to use Windows than just boot into Windows from the boot menu.
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Actually, that is the way Easy is DESIGNED to run. From a USB drive. One could install it on an internal drive but that is not the way easy is put together as Barry Kauler explains on his blog and the Puppy forum.

I run Easy from a 1TB Seagate as a daily driver No frugal install or anything, just burned it with Balena Etcher. Also NOT the what most Puppy-ans would do or recommend but it works perfectly and done in minutes.

Configure it once and after that? Save your sessions or not and upgrade or not, the choice is yours. Sometimes I'd roll with other distros for a while (mostly VM's) but in the end I always come back to EasyOs. There is nothing like it.
 
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The Duck said:
That way you can run Easy OS by itself by booting from the boot menu from a restart.
When you want to use Windows than just boot into Windows from the boot menu.
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Thanks, but that's what I tried to do after finding EasyOS working as Magaia before. Install it on a USB first to see how it works installed.

pamojja said:
I tried to install EasyOS in the way which seemed most easy (if it really works that way, what progress compared to the 8 hours Mageia install).

Since I already have a vfat esp and ext4 partition on a new USB-stick, did so.

And as you said, it recognizes the existing windows and the first Mageia install on a SD-card to add to the bootloader, but not the copied EasyOS in the ext4 partition.
Click to expand...
 
Install Easy OS as a frugal install onto its own USB flash drive and it will work.
Don't install any other Linux onto the flash drive with Easy OS.
You can boot and run Easy OS all by itself if you install it onto its own flash drive by booting from the system boot menu.
 
The Duck said:
You can boot and run Easy OS all by itself if you install it onto its own flash drive by booting from the system boot menu.
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That's what I did, according to the instructions by Berry:

Or, if your PC has a separate drive, then you won't need to mess around with re-partitioning the Windows drive. That is certainly the simplest and least invasive way to go.


In that ext4 partition, you create a folder, and maybe a subfolder, for example "easyos/dunfell". Then you copy three files extracted from the downloaded EasyOS image file, 'vmlinuz', 'initrd' and 'easy.sfs', to that folder.


That's it, you have installed EasyOS!
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What remains is to configure or install a bootloader. Exactly how you do that depends on whether your computer has BIOS-firmware or UEFI-firmware. The latter is all PCs manufactured after 2012.
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The bootloader is there in the vfat partition, it starts up, but can't find the EasyOS installation in the next ext4 partition.

Bootloader upon booting said:

PANIC: linux: failed loading kernel at path 'boot://2/easyos/vmlinuz'. Is the path correct?

Because I'm not familiar with this syntax, therefore I asked:

pamojja said:
The vfat is sdb1, the ext4 partition is sdb2. That path is also the same as in the limine.cfg. Do I have to change something about it too?
Click to expand...
I suspect it is simply fixed by corrected the wrong path in the 'limine.cfg' file.
 
pamojja said:
That's what I did, according to the instructions by Berry:




The bootloader is there in the vfat partition, it starts up, but can't find the EasyOS installation in the next ext4 partition.

Bootloader upon booting said:

PANIC: linux: failed loading kernel at path 'boot://2/easyos/vmlinuz'. Is the path correct?

Because I'm not familiar with this syntax, therefore I asked:


I suspect it is simply fixed by corrected the wrong path in the 'limine.cfg' file.
Click to expand...
This specific issue is best addressed on the Puppy forum of which I just provided you with a link.
Over there you will find an expert community being able to help you out better than here as your issue with this particular bootloader and configuration requires specialism. Those folks over there are using Pups and derivatives on a daily basis and you will find ALL the Devs there.
 
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