Windows 10 boot MX-23 ISO from a partition w/o using a USB (this thread was split from another thread)

[Eadwine Rose]

Were the OPs questions answered? I see some else getting help, someone other than the topic starter whose topic this is.

[Stuart_M]

Right you are. Looks the the OP has gone silent.

His original post (Post #1 this thread: viewtopic.php?p=762612#p762612) asked this single question:

I do not have a flash drive or any external media. What are my options for installation?

My Post 82 (Page 9) Post #1 (this thread) answered that one question in great detail (something the OP was restrained to give), and then some!

My Post 91 Post #10 (this thread) was icing on the cake with a whole lot more information on how to install it on the same or a different drive. All tested and confirmed that it works. Hopefully there will be other readers that benefit from this information.

...and still not a peep....

[fehlix]

viewtopic.php?p=766760#p766760 is Post 82 showing how to boot into a Live MX-23.2 without using a USB, etc. This post is about Windows using Grub2Win which is a boot manager that allows other operating systems to be used. It does not touch the Windows master boot record and is located on the system’s primary partition. It can boot into an ISO file.

That post showed that it is possible to boot into a Live MX-23.2 as well install MX-23 into another drive, such as an internal SSD connected to the motherboard with a SATA cable or an external drive (HDD or SSD, etc.) connected to a motherboard USB port via a USB connector/UASP adapter. But this post did not show how to install using the same drive where Windows and the extracted MX-23 ISO files are located. That is the purpose of this post.
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Thanks @Stuart_M for explanation to boot into an extracted MX-Linux ISO
on a WIndows PC without use of external media.
The identical procedure would also work for antiX Linux.

Maybe you can also try this way.
For UEFI-Boot only:
Quite a lot UEFI/PC BIOS System allow to boot from an selected efi-boot loader.
So in addition to using GRUB2WIN, we can directly select to boot from the efi-boot loader
available on the ISO without using GRUB2WIN.
This way:
The ISO is fully extracted into the top directory of a newly created FAT32/vfat partition.
And the FAT32 partition is labeled e.g. MX-LINUX or similar like MX-FAT32
Before we boot from that extracted ISO,
we do edit the Live Boot parameter within Window this way:
Open the "folder" /boot/grub on the MX-LINUX partition
and edit the file "grubenv.cfg with a normal text editor within Windows.
Maybe you need to rename the file first to add a .txt extension.

Now add to the file /boot/grub/grubenv.cfg
a line

Code: Select all

blab=MX-LINUX

here how /boot/grub/grubenv.cfg may look like

Code: Select all

# GRUB parameter 
#
blab="MX-LINUX"
kbd="de,us"
kbopt="caps:none"
lang="en_IE"
live_swap="off"
splasht=""
toram="toram"
tz="Europe/Amsterdam"

now save the file ( and in case grubenv.cfg.txt was saved rename back to grubenv.cfg)
Note: It doesn't matter that this text file is now saved with WinwDos end-of-line encoding CR/LF.

So reboot into th UEFI/PC BIOS System setup utility
and navigate to the place where you can select EFI file to boot from
or to select efi-file to be trusted to boot from.
Navigate to
MX-LINUX fat-partition to /EFI/BOOT
and select BOOTX64.EFI
When booted from this efi-loader,
you would get a LiveBoot menu similar to booting from USB.

Alternative to edit manually the /boot/grub/grubenv.cfg
and add the blab=MX-LINUX
in the LiveGRUB menu.
And with help of the additional boot parameter grubsave
this parameter would be saved into the grubenv.cfg file, so it will be pre-selected at next boot
In case you have time to try this out on WIndows, please report back here,
if this works.
Thanks

[Stuart_M]

Sure, I'll be testing it the the next few days and report back what I find, regardless of it working or not, or maybe if I hit a stumbling block of some sort. I would like to find a solution that does NOT rely on Grub2Win, something that could also boot into a Live MX Linux with extracted files, but without using Grub2Win.

I'm getting into weak territory here and may be getting in over my head, but you gave good information and see what happens. ciao

[fehlix]

Sure, I'll be testing it the the next few days and report back what I find, regardless of it working or not, or maybe if I hit a stumbling block of some sort. I would like to find a solution that does NOT rely on Grub2Win, something that could also boot into a Live MX Linux with extracted files, but without using Grub2Win.

I'm getting into weak territory here and may be getting in over my head, but you gave good information and see what happens. ciao

Thanks. Note, you can use your existing setup for this test and just try to find boot from efi-file with UEFI-firmware setup and add the blab=MX-LINUX boot parameter, or whatever the vfat partition label/name was. And yes, at least for UEFI-boot this would help user to boot from extracted ISO from a Windows created FAT partitions.

[Eadwine Rose]

Were the OPs questions answered? I see some else getting help, someone other than the topic starter whose topic this is.

@Tarq

[Stuart_M]

I ran into a barrier at the second half of the last test (your post 94 Post #13 [this thread]).

The first half was easy adding the line "blab=MX-LINUX" to the extracted MX-23.2 /boot/grub/grubenv.cfg file (I added the other lines as well, beginning with "kdb..." and ending with "tx..."

But I encountered a problem when I was to enter the BIOS and go to where it would be possible to select an EFI file to boot from (see below quote from Post 94 Post #13 [this thread]):

...
So reboot into th UEFI/PC BIOS System setup utility
and navigate to the place where you can select EFI file to boot from
or to select efi-file to be trusted to boot from.
Navigate to
MX-LINUX fat-partition to /EFI/BOOT
and select BOOTX64.EFI
...

The problem is, in my MSI B450-A PRO MAX motherboard BIOS there is no place where that is possible, and I checked every area of the BIOS. The logical place would be in Settings > Boot but that is essentially to just select the Boot Device Priority sequence from the available UEFI Drives (HDD, SSD, USB, etc.)

And the BIOS option that appears below the 7 boot drive options, called "UEFI Hard Disk Drive BBS Priorities", is only to rearrange the priorities, but nothing having anything to do with adding a file or text. It just rearranges the order.

The below is a screenshot of my motherboard's BIOS at the "Boot" page:

BIOS_Boot_screen.jpg

Thoughts?

[FullScale4Me]

MX Boot Options - "Manage UEFI Boot Options" can add/delete EFI Boot entries. Command line efibootmgr too.

[fehlix]

MX Boot Options - "Manage UEFI Boot Options" can add/delete EFI Boot entries. Command line efibootmgr too.

Hmm, we wanted to boot from efi-boot loader without having yet access to a booted MX Linux.

[fehlix]

I ran into a barrier at the second half of the last test (your post 94).

The first half was easy adding the line "blab=MX-LINUX" to the extracted MX-23.2 /boot/grub/grubenv.cfg file (I added the other lines as well, beginning with "kdb..." and ending with "tx..."

But I encountered a problem when I was to enter the BIOS and go to where it would be possible to select an EFI file to boot from (see below quote from Post 94):

Some UEFI/BIOS firmeware allow to add an efi-bootloader only after having enabled secureboot and perhaps also only after set an adminstator passsword,
so the UEFI/BIOS setup is locked. In case choose a simple one like 1234 or similar and later disable secureboot and reset re-set the pasword to be empty .
Maybe the manual of that board give more hints.
+++EDIT+++
An alternative to boot from a efi-booloader file (and not using GRUB2WIN) would be rEFInd ... but
this would require to get rEFInd installed from within Windows. (b/c the goal is without any external boot media get this done.)
So seems not to be "simple" - easyUEFI kind of tools may help to add efi-loader.
but not as straight forward as compared to an option available within the BIOS/UEFI firmware, e.g like in ASUS or Acer PC.
Maybe @FullScale4Me has an idea how to achieve this from within Windows (without any Linux available or booted from.)
+++EDI2+++
Maybe the rEFInd author can give us a hand to find a way it can be done on Windows:

To install rEFInd under Windows, you must first find a way to access the ESP, which Windows normally hides from view. One way to accomplish this goal, and to proceed forward once the ESP is accessible, is as follows:

1. Locate Command Prompt in the Start menu, right-click it, and select Run as Administrator. This action opens a Command Prompt window with administrative privileges. (Be sure to use the stock Command Prompt program. Some alternatives, such as PowerShell, are known not to work with this procedure, or at least to require changes that I don't document here.)
2. Type mountvol R: /S in the Administrator Command Prompt window. This makes the ESP accessible as drive R: from that window. (You can use a drive identifier other than R: if you like.)
3. Change into the main rEFInd package directory, so that the refind subdirectory is visible when you type dir.

4. Type xcopy /E refind R:\EFI\refind\ to copy the refind directory tree to the ESP's EFI directory. If you omit the trailing backslash from this command, xcopy will ask if you want to create the refind directory. Tell it to do so.
5. Type R: to change to the ESP.
6. Type cd EFI\refind to change into the refind subdirectory
7 .You may want to selectively delete some of the drivers in the drivers_x64, drivers_ia32, or drivers_aa64 directory, depending on your architecture and needs. Unnecessary drivers will slow the rEFInd start process, and can even cause the drivers you need to not work or cause a system crash. See the page on drivers for more on this topic.
8. Type rename refind.conf-sample refind.conf to rename rEFInd's configuration file.
9. Type bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" path \EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi to set rEFInd as the default EFI boot program. Note that "{bootmgr}" is entered as such, including both the quotes and braces ({}). Also, change refind_x64.efi to refind_ia32.efi on systems with 32-bit EFIs. Such computers are rare, and most of them are tablets. Check your Windows bit depth to determine which binary you should use.
10.If you like, type bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" description "rEFInd description" to set a description (change rEFInd description as you see fit).

At this point, when you reboot, rEFInd should appear as your new default boot program. ...

which may now find and display the efiboot loader to boot into the extracted MX Linux iso.
Need to check whether something else is needed to be added to rEFInd to scan and find on the MX-FRUGAL FAT32 partition the MX-Linux efiloader.
...