gmane.linux.distributions.finnix

Overlays

Peder Stray — 2013-05-29T21:22:24

Is it possible to make overlays outside the finnix iso?

Would be nice to make overlays on the usb drive containing the finnix-iso
when loopback-mounting it with findiso=.

Re: USB-device vanishes

Peder Stray — 2013-05-29T18:50:01



Definitly seems it is needed when using grub to loopback-mount an
finnix.iso as I do at least :)



Tested with 108 as I said earlier in the thread.




Ok, no problems when I actually know what works and not with the current
setup, but I'm willing to test if needed later :)

Re: USB-device vanishes

Ryan Finnie — 2013-05-29T15:35:15

Finnix 108 (kernel 3.8, specifically) includes xhci modules, which
should be loaded by udev as needed.  They are not included in the
initrd, but that's because (IIRC from my lab tests) they were not needed
at initrd time to be able to initialize the controller (ehci was
sufficient), then at userland time udev would upgrade it to xhci.  From
your experience, this may not be the case, unless you're using an older
Finnix release?

I'm traveling this week, but will try to dig deeper when I get back,
unless someone else does a better investigation beforehand.

RF

Re: USB-device vanishes

Peder Stray — 2013-05-29T15:09:45


Some told me to look for the xhci kernel module, and it seems it isn't
present in Finnix... Guess a new build is needed that actually supports usb3

Re: USB-device vanishes

Peder Stray — 2013-05-29T14:50:33

Seems it is related to USB 3, the usb-storage-devices power up when not
connected to one of the blue usb-ports on the laptop... found a yellow one,
and suddenly the screen filled with kernel messages from sdb


On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 3:54 PM, Peder Stray <peder.stray-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w< at >public.gmane.org> wrote:

Re: USB-device vanishes

Peder Stray — 2013-05-29T13:54:06


Latest finnix, 108, wich runs 3.8.0-1-amd64-finnix. The computer is a
Lenovo ThinkPad E530.



dmesg doesn't mention the usb-sticks either, it does however mention both
the fingerprint scanner, the integrated camere and a few hubs, but no
usb-storage devices.

lsmod mentions amongst other things that both usbhid, usb_storage, usbcore,
usb_common, ehci_hcd, ehci_pci, and scsi_mod are loaded... which is more
usb-related modules than  my normal desktop loads.

Re: USB-device vanishes

Eduardo Trápani — 2013-05-29T13:35:07

Could you state something about the hardware you're using and the
kernel. I still use finnix but I have not upgraded it, so I don't know.

I can only think of something not kicking in after initramfs, but that
would mean nobody would be able to see usb devices after boot.

I guess a dmesg output would probably have all the information needed.
Do older versions work?

Eduardo.

Re: USB-device vanishes

Peder Stray — 2013-05-29T12:58:36


It's a small 16G usb-drive (Kingston DTSE9), and it does read grub, initrd
and ther kernel from it, so I doubt its related to low power.



Unplugging and plugging doesn't change anything, it doesn't show in lsusb.
Same thing for another usb-stick, it doesn't show up at all.

On the other hand, while plugging this other usb-stick, I noticed that the
powerleds on it didn't light up at all.  Seems like the usb-bus has shut
down or something.

Re: USB-device vanishes

Eduardo Trápani — 2013-05-29T12:45:21

Depending on the hardware, it could be a usb power problem. I've run
into that, even in not-so-old iMacs while running MacOSX.

While you're at the shell, if you unplug it and plug it again, does it
show in lsusb? Do you have another USB device to try?

Eduardo.

USB-device vanishes

Peder Stray — 2013-05-29T07:23:41

Hi,

I'm trying to boot Finnix via grub and loop-mounting the ISO.  Seems to
work fine, grub loads, finds the ISO, loads the kernel and boots it.  But
when Finnix tries to find its file system, it fails and i get dropped to a
shell.

What seems to be the problem, is that the usb device everything is loaded
from doesn't seem to exist anymore, it's not present in /proc/partitions,
lsusb doesn't show the id of the device.  any ideas why this happenes?

Finnix 108 initrd ext4

William Pickering — 2013-05-22T09:03:24

Finnix 107 introduced loopback support and a loopback.cfg, but was missing
an ext4 module for the initrd, so the ISO could not be loop booted from an
ext4 filesystem.

I submitted a bug report about this (
https://bugs.launchpad.net/finnix/+bug/1114788
) which is shown as fixed roughly three weeks before the release of Finnix
108. However, attempts to loop boot Finnix from an ext4-formatted USB fail,
dumping to a debug shell, with a note to mount the Finnix media on
/ramdisk/cdrom.

Following is a short copy of my attempts to mount the USB (ext4)
filesystem. Given the output messages, it appears to me that the ext4
module still isn't included. Can somebody please advise?

Also, is snapshots.finnix.org still working? When I go there I just see a
textbox with a url (
http://snapshots.finnix.org/neale-builds/kif/
)
. Attepting to load that
url 404's.

/ # mount
rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw,realtime)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,realtime)
none on /dev type devtmpfs
(rw,realtime,size=18

Finnix 108 released

Ryan Finnie — 2013-05-09T14:55:25

Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for
system administrators, based on Debian testing. Today I am pleased to
announce the release of Finnix 108, which includes Linux kernel 3.8,
updated Debian upstream software, bug fixes and minor feature enhancements.

    Home page: http://www.finnix.org/
    Download: http://www.finnix.org/Download
    Release notes: http://www.finnix.org/Finnix_108_release_notes
    Free stickers! http://www.finnix.org/Free_stickers

Note that Finnix 108 was frozen shortly before Debian 7.0 wheezy was
released, so the userland is effectively based on Debian stable for this
release.

bootcode finnxdir

netnomad — 2012-12-26T17:02:34

hi ryan,

i've read a bit in the code and found my solution.
with the bootcode finnixdir=/path/to/finnix-folder i've cleaned up my 
dir-structure.
it works fine in my syslinux.cfg

netnomad

Re: Finnix 107 released

2012-12-26T09:47:27

To avoid having to remaster the ISO, why can't finnix search the file path
on sd devices in turn until it finds one and then execute it?
This would make it really easy to maintain a USB drive and easily and
quickly update it with a new iso of Finnix whenever one was released?


On 26 December 2012 05:07, Dan MacDonald <allcoms-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w< at >public.gmane.org> wrote:

Re: Finnix 107 released

Dan MacDonald — 2012-12-26T05:07:41

Hi Ryan and list!

Not only does this latest release finally feature testdisk and chntpw but
easier USB booting  so this is the best release yet and makes for a nice
xmas present. I might not need systemrescuecd anymore now!

Thanks Ryan!

On Tue, Dec 25, 2012 at 8:12 AM, Ryan Finnie <ryan-wy0DCL4o5qEdnm+yROfE0A< at >public.gmane.org> wrote:

Re: Finnix 107 released

Garegin Asatryan — 2012-12-26T02:10:06

you might wanna look into uefi support. forget about secure boot for now.
all new computers use uefi and you don't wanna have a situation where
people can't use finnix because of incompatibility.

On Tue, Dec 25, 2012 at 7:07 PM, Ryan Finnie <ryan-wy0DCL4o5qEdnm+yROfE0A< at >public.gmane.org> wrote:

Re: boot finnix iso from grub4dos

Ryan Finnie — 2012-12-26T00:27:27

Thanks!  FYI, I've also been working on a patch for Super Grub2 Disk
to add Finnix findiso support.  Here's the current patch, which I plan
on submitting to them:
https://github.com/rfinnie/supergrub/commit/a2428b8b01194d1bfad803beb9bac72b1790e74d


Unfortunately, once the first-stage Finnix initrd finds the ISO and
mounts it, it knows nothing of the device which contained it.  So any
rc/overlays must still be within the ISO's mounted namespace (that is,
you still must remaster the ISO).

RF

Re: Finnix 107 released

Ryan Finnie — 2012-12-26T00:07:00

I didn't know it existed, actually.  It was suggested by someone else:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/finnix/+bug/1091174

If you have any suggestions for including packages, filing a bug in
Launchpad is the best way to get it noticed and considered; don't
assume I know about a package and I'm just choosing not to include it.
 For example, for the longest time I used parted for GPT disk
partitioning.  I didn't really like it, but that was all I knew.
Someone suggested gdisk, which turned out to be a lot better (closer
to fdisk).

RF

boot finnix iso from grub4dos

2012-12-25T23:46:27

The following menu works well from a grub4dos bootable UFD drive

title finnix 107
map /finnix-107.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /boot/x86/linux vga=791 quiet findiso=/finnix-107.iso
initrd /boot/x86/initrd.xz


however, if I place a test.sh file on the UFD at
/finnix/arch/indep/rc/test.sh  it does not run.
The UFD can be found at /media/sda1 and the test script at
/media/sda1/finnix/arch/indep/rc/test.sh.
I have also tried placing it at /finnix/arch/indep/rc/test.sh and it also
does not seem to run.

Thanks
Steve

Re: Finnix 107 released

Garegin Asatryan — 2012-12-25T23:39:01

i see that you have finally included testdisk. i'm curious as to why you
held off for so long. was there a technical reason?

On Tue, Dec 25, 2012 at 5:47 PM, netnomad <netnomad-Mmb7MZpHnFY< at >public.gmane.org> wrote:

Re: Finnix 107 released

netnomad — 2012-12-25T22:47:53

hi ryan,

is there a boot code or some configuration way that the finnix-folder 
can be placed in a subfolder?
f.e. something like
/live/finnix-current/boot
/live/finnix-current/config
/live/finnix-current/finnix
in the moment i succeed to boot only if my finnix folder is in the 
root-directory
/finnix
/live/finnix-current/boot
/live/finnix-current/config

every hint and help is welcomed.

netnomad